BURNT ( EPISODE 20)

Mila knew she was defenseless against Lily because Lily was taller, older and more vicious. She had the look that said that this wasn't the first time she was doing this and for her, it was a good sport. As Lily lunged at her, she had picked up the first object she laid her hands on; a small perfume bottle and when She threw it at Lily, it hit her on her forehead. The impact of the hit was heavy on Lily as it made her stagger, she had to hold the edge of the bed to regain her composure. That gave Mila the opportunity to rush to the door, swipe her key card and run out.

She ran down the stairs, grabbed her phone from the couch and remembering that she was half naked, dragged the small duvet she had used earlier to watch movies around her. She was about rushing to the door when she felt a sudden yank on her hair that pulled her back and she gave a pained scream. Lily, seeing that she was having the upper hand tugged more on her hair and Mila fell to the floor. She sat astride Mila and hit her face hard with a punch that got Mila weak as she cursed hotly under her breath,

"Bitch!"

Lily tried to pin both of her hands down but Mila who had regained a bit of her strength twitched frantically both with anger and fear. Lily was enjoying Mila's struggle and thus played along laughing excitedly. When she spoke, she sounded exhilarated.

"Is this how you play hard to get with Tunji when he wants to have you Mila?" she giggled

"Get off me!" Mila shouted, trying to push her off

At that point, the door opened and Tunji walked in looking exhausted but the exhaustion on his face was replaced by shock, irritation and anger. He flung his attache case aside and rushed up on Lily shouting.

"Jesus Christ Lily! What the hell are you doing?!" he dragged her off Mila and pushed her away then he tried helping Mila up but Mila was too weak to stand. He carried her up and gently went to place her on the couch before turning his full attention on Lily.

Tunji was enraged and he took long swift strides to Lily where she stood against the white walls. He punched his fist into the wall and shouted angrily,

"What was that all about? How did you get in here? I thought I warned you never to step foot in this house?!" he was glaring at her, trying to control his thoughts of inflicting pain on her

Lily looked shaken but composed herself like she wasn't bothered about his rage. She moved up to him seductively and said coyly, with her right hand on his face.

"I was only playing with her but she took offence baby"

Tunji was so mad at this that he pushed off her hand and shouted in her face "Does Mila look like a toy to you?! Does everyone look like a toy to you?! What makes you think you can just go around "playing" with people, huh?!"

Lily was scared now cos she had never seen Tunji lose his temper over anything. She went mute and couldn't talk but Tunji wasn't done yet. He shouted at her again.

"Answer me Lily!"

Lily was flustered and gabbled when she spoke, "Look Tunji, I..I..I just wanted us..."

Tunji moved a step away from her and with his left hand, he pointed to the doorway and said,

"Now take your horny self and leave this minute. There's no us anymore Lily. The divorce's been finalized and I've got the papers here. You'll get yours in the US. It's over Lily. No more games"

Lily looked defeated and made another attempt to touch Tunji but he stepped back and said calmly this time,

"Leave Lily. And listen, you'll never ever try this again with Mila, with us. Is that understood?"

She nodded and turned to leave but Tunji called her back and stretched out his hand.

"The keys"

Lily handed over the cards and like a zombie, she walked out. Tunji walking behind, locked the door and checked his security box to ensure that all other doors were locked. Then, with realization dawning on him of what had happened and what could have happened to Mila, he took unfaltering steps towards her, bent down and carried her in his arms. As he climbed the stairs, he murmured to her words of assurance that she was safe with him. Mila was mute and still in shock at the events of the evening. She held on tight to Tunji and closed her eyes, trying to blank out thoughts of possibilities or eventualities.

BURNT (EPISODE 19)

The night Tunji bared it all out to Mila was a night she would always remember with a smile on her face. She had as well apologized for giving him a hard time and when he had asked about Bode, she had laughed really hard but assured him that Bode was just a nice person who had taken care of her mental health in London. They had made up and for Mila, the best part of the night had been the intimacy they had shared. Not through sex but, they had laid on bed, wrapped in each other's cloak of love, comfort, and silence that sealed it all. And when sleep came, it needed no preamble to settle on their lids.

......................

Resumption at work started on a good note for Mila and as usual, there were new projects to handle, new pitches to prepare for new contracts and two new interns to supervise. It was going to be a hectic start to the new year but Mila was glad about it. For her, it meant more responsibilities as well as more experience in directing people. Tunji was also deeply immersed in work. He kept on having series of meeting that required him to go on several trips to Abuja and the US but they were in touch almost everyday as he ensured he called her most nights.

He had also given Mila a spare key to his house and a key to  a Toyota car that looked too sleek to even leave his garage that was concealed beside the house. She had learnt how to drive during her service year but had never really put to practice what she had learnt. She kept the keys anyways as she wasn't ready yet to go to the house. She would go that weekend to rest as it was already the middle of February and work had been mighty intense. She would go and unwind there.

........................

It was Saturday evening and Mila was alone in the huge house because Tunji still wasn't back from his trip to the US. She had tried calling him the previous night but his line wasn't reachable so she had invited his Chef, Mark earlier in the day to come and teach her to prepare some of Tunji's favorite delicacies and it had been fun. She had urged him to stay a bit more but he had declined for Tunji did not like too much hovering around of his domestic staff. He usually paid them to come do their job and then leave him to his space. So Mila decided to watch some movies before calling it a night.

She was deeply engrossed in "Breaking Dawn", a movie she had seen several times when she heard the door open gently and someone walked in. The sound of the steps didn't sound familiar but Mila who was surprised that Tunji must have returned unexpectedly hurried to the door to see who had come into the house. She was so shocked she almost tripped when she saw the familiar white skin, long legs, blonde hair, sparkling dark eyes and nude lipstick on perfectly shaped lips that had a mischievous smile on, all held together in a plain green tank top and bum shorts. It was Lily, Tunji's ex wife.

Lily stood at the door looking around like she didn't notice Mila's presence then, as if satisfied that she was in the same old house she used to know, she walked past Mila into the living room. Mila turned around, following her with her eyes and her mind doing a million calculations about what to do or say. Lily had gone straight to the shelves on the wall and had brought out the same photo album Mila had almost looked through last year. She opened it and giggled at the first photo before raising up her head to look at Mila for the first time. Her deep dark eyes smoldered Mila making her feel small and Mila cringed at what she saw on Lily's face. She saw pure hatred.

Lily moved a step towards her and said calmly but icily;

"Hello Mila"

Mila, all short of words could only manage,

"Lily, you shouldn't be here"

Lily smiled, revealing a perfect dentition as she said "Oh! he told you my name. I want to presume he told you everything as well right?" she raised one of her perfectly arched brow in question.

Mila tried to release a shaky breath "Yes, Tunji did"

Lily moved closer to Mila and as if under her spell, Mila didn't move. Lily stood in front of her talking;

"I see. Let me guess, he told you that I'm Lesbian, that I cheated on him, that I refused to sign our divorce papers, that I moved to America even when we were newly wedded...and all that crap?" she raised her other brow dramatically in question again

Mila was sweating on her forehead now despite the coolness of the room. She was shocked that Lily knew all what Tunji had told her and she asked carefully picking her words with her eyes narrowed.

"How would you know if he said all of that?"

Lily raised her long slender fingers to Mila's face and trailed the outline of her jawline to the nape of her neck, sending shock waves of fear down Mila's spine and resting her palm there before responding.

"Let's say I know because, I am truly gay and fragile ones like you turn me on" she paused searching Mila's face for any reaction but Mila looked calm then she continued; "And, on the other hand, I'm pretty much possessive. Even if I'm not really a fan of the masculine phallus, I love to have them for keeps. Tunji is a rare breed. He loves hard just like he works hard and it used to give me the utmost pleasure to have him drool at my feet until you came along" Her hand tightened around Mila's neck and her sharp nails pierced deeply into Mila's skin. Taken unawares by this move of violence form Lily, Mila screamed in pain and struggled to be free.

Lily shouted at her,

"Why did you come into our life Mila? You spoilt everything! I had him where I wanted until you came along! Why are you here?!"

Mila ckoked on her words as she replied,

"Oh please...stop...you're hurting...me...Lily... please..."

"Really? You think this is enough hurt? Well, maybe, just maybe if Tunji had allowed me have you that night, I probably would have played nice"

She used her other hand to tear the pink cotton top Mila was wearing and as she tried using both hands to drag Mila's white pantie, Mila pushed her off and ran up the stairs to Tunji's room. She locked the door and removed the key when she heard Lily's footsteps coming after her then she started looking for her phone but she realized that she had left it on the couch in the living room. She crumpled to the floor and started crying. Lily didn't look like a psycho but she certainly was one. She heard Lily at the door laughing crazily and then she froze when she heard a key swipe against the lock and the door opened. Lily entered the room and Mila scrambled to her feet, bringing her hands together in front of her as if in supplication but Lily shook her head and said,

"The exciting thing here is your ignorance Mila. You forget I lived here too. I have the keys to every room in this house and Tunji's heart of course" she walked seductively to Mila and Mila went around the bed away from her but she followed cooing like a mother hen to her chic.

"Come on Mila, I just want to feel you. I want to have a taste of what you give to Tunji. Atleast, you owe me that much for stealing my man" she said sweetly

Mila was so irritated about the whole scenario that she shouted at Lily.

"I owe you nothing bitch! Tunji was done with you a long time ago!And I don't do women so leave me the fuck alone!"

This enraged Lily and she lunged at Mila like a wild cat in hot pursuit of a scared rat.

BURNT (EPISODE 18)

Mila rested her head on Tunji's chest and listened to his heartbeat. It beat evenly and she felt secure as he held her, running his fingers through her hair. She listened patiently as he talked;

"I've been married for the past seven years to Lily. Our parents of course arranged the union and since we liked each other, we went with the flow. I thought we had a lot of things in common but I was wrong cos Lily had insisted on staying in the US one year after our wedding and so, I had to shuttle between Nigeria and America for business and my wife. In the fourth year of our marriage, We still didn't have a child and when I visited our family doctor who is also a good friend of mine, he told me that Lily was on another pill asides the one we agreed on for the first two years of our marriage. When I confronted her, she wasn't ashamed to tell me that she was in love with someone else and had continued the pills to prevent any pregnancy.

If her lover had been a man, I would have stood a chance but, her lover was female. I never knew of that other side of Lily and she bluntly told me that she was fine staying married to me as long as she could continue being with her lover. I couldn't stand her decision; she didn't even want babies. She just wanted to be happy with her lover and still stay married to me as she put it.

I filed for divorce two years ago and Lily didn't make it easy for me. She kept on delaying the signing of the documents and the entire process which was the reason I traveled for three months. It took that long to get her to finally sign after the one year waiting period according to the court's orders.

It was during that period I met you Mila. I know we haven't known each other for up to a year but if there's anything I've come to understand with you; it's the fact that, it's not how long you've known a person but how well you complement each other. I thought I had that with Lily but, Lily had and still has her own definition of love. She's happy with her lover and I'm glad she found her happiness elsewhere but I've found my happiness in you and I don't want to lose you Mila."

Mila sighed as she tried absorbing the whole information. Then she asked;

"But you lied to me about travelling abroad for a meeting and then I see you both looking so happy and in love together at COVA. She certainly didn't look gay to me"

Tunji moved her away from him a bit to look at her fully in the face before he answered her.

"Mila, I was gonna travel yes but then, Lily came into Nigeria without telling me. That night you saw us at COVA, she had just gotten in and I didn't want her to stay at the house. I wanted her to go to her parents' but she begged me to take her out for a drink which I did. Trust me, I and Lily aren't enemies even though we have our differences and she's a very skilled flirt. What you saw that night wasn't anything but just her being in her elements"

"But you kissed!" Mila protested

"It was a peck Mila, on her cheek. And funny enough, she fancied you and was checking you out and asking me to help her strike a deal with you to spend the night with her. I never knew that it was you until I looked closely but it was too late"

Mila suddenly felt irritated and frowned her face at Tunji. She couldn't help but ask him,

"Honestly, how did you get to that point Tunji? You mean you were married for seven years and had no clue that she was gay?"

Tunji sighed and shook his head.

"Why didn't you tell me about the divorce?" Mila asked with a pained look on her face

He took Mila's hands in his and said,

"I didn't think it was necessary Sunshine. I didn't want to involve you in my mess. That's all there is to tell. I'm so sorry about everything. No more secrets, never again" he drew her to him and held her again.

Mila had one more question and she felt that if she didn't ask, she might not be able to ask anymore.

"Is the divorce process over?"

"Almost Sunshine. Soon, it will and we'll be fine''

They held each other that way, drawing strength in their new found bond. The air had been cleared and a burdened soul had been bared. What's next? Mila asked herself as she sensed that this peace wouldn't last.