The Impossible Love Story (Chapter 2)

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Dear Reader, If you would like to read the first chapter of this story, please click here.

March 16, 2016. 2.45pm: Sola

Sola checks his watch, notes that the time is 2.45pm and frowns in slight irritation at himself as he realizes what he’s been doing all day. He had been checking his watch almost every 30 minutes, impatiently anticipating the close of business so he could drive over to Tetra Inverters to see her again. He had expected her to call or send an SMS but hadn’t heard even a ‘pip’ from her all day. He hated not being in total control and wondered if his sense of judgement was beginning to fail him. She had looked very sincere. He remembered her beautiful eyes looking at him so honestly when she promised to call him today to give him feedback about his inverter issue which she had escalated. Apart from the honesty in her eyes, her smiling responses, and the way he had caught her staring after him as he left, had led him to believe that the undeniable attraction he felt for her was mutual. The final crowning glory had been her response to his SMS. Despite all that, he was now beginning to actively doubt if he had read the situation correctly.

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He checked his watch again and saw it was 3.30pm. “Damn it” he muttered irritably under his breath, wondering why the time was crawling at a snail’s pace. After a few seconds of grumbling, he shook his head at his own impatience and his lips curled into a reluctant little smile of self mockery. “Get yourself together man, stop doing this”, he thought, chastising himself for acting so childishly. She was probably just really busy at work. A little delayed gratification never killed anyone, he thought and decided to focus squarely on work. He took a sip of coffee from his mug and lost himself in the never ending flow of ledgers and figures. His mobile phone rang, interrupting his work flow and as he picked up his phone he realized it was 5.15pm. At last, time to go home, he thought to himself and began to save his work and shut down. It was an unknown number calling but somehow he was sure it would be Bukky. “Hello and good evening” he said into the phone’s receiver. “Good evening Mr. Sola” replied a very friendly sounding but unfamiliar female voice. “This is Titi from Tetra Inverters calling to give you feedback about the issue you complained about sir”.

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Sola was slightly taken aback. Titi? Who was Titi and why was she calling instead of Bukky? Frowning deeply, he asked “Madam Titi, why you are the one calling me? I was attended to yesterday by Bukky at the Ring Road branch and she promised to get back to me today unfailingly”. The lady on the other side of the call was silent for a few seconds and the brief silence weighed heavy. Sola berated himself for speaking without thinking first. He must have offended her with his impertinent question. As he thought of a way to rephrase the statement, she spoke up in a very cold tone, all traces of friendliness gone. “You visited the outlet to complain about a problem with your inverter. The issue has been resolved and I’m calling to tell you that you need to pick up a new power cable from the Bodija office whenever you can go with your original receipt. They will be expecting you and you’ll be given the cable free of charge. Once you have the cable, please connect and charge your inverter for a minimum of 8 hours and it will be back in perfect working condition”. Sola felt like heel and tried to apologize. “I apologize for my initial reaction ma’am. It was uncalled for. Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it” said Sola. “It’s no problem. Thanks for using Tetra Inverters and have a nice day” she said very formally and ended the call.

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Sola dropped the phone on his desk and slouched on his table, suddenly feeling rather cheated. Bukky had seemed like a really nice girl but it seemed like she was not so nice after all. He concluded angrily that she was obviously playing games with him, purposefully choosing not to call him in a bid to make come after her. “Forget it!” he thought. “I am no dandy to be strung along by some flimsy girl, I’m sure she’ll be expecting me to call or send an SMS asking why she didn’t follow through on her promise to call me. He stared at his blank screen which had hibernated while he was on the call. He felt so mixed and upset about it all but he had had his fair share of manipulative women and was not going to give in to the urge to call this one. “No point rushing home now”, he thought and powered his laptop back on, deciding to finish his pending tasks before he left the office. If he could stay here late enough, he’ll simply drive home, take a shower and go straight to bed. As he began to type, his mind drifted to a pair of beautiful, luminous brown eyes, a perfectly calm well-modulated voice and an impeccable head of hair. He forced his mind off her and went to work, diving in head first and forgetting for the moment, his attraction to the young woman named Bukky.

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March 16, 2016. 5.15pm: Titi

Titi was tired and frustrated, it had been a long tiring day for her at work. Her colleague, Bukky, had called in sick in the morning and she had been forced to work with the new intern all day. The intern, Bimpe, did not seem very bright as she kept asking the same questions over and over again. Every time she had to attend to a customer, she paused intermittently to whisper questions to Titi about even the tiniest details of things she had previously been briefed comprehensively about. After the first few hours of work, Titi had decided to attend to every other customer herself as Bimpe was only slowing down the entire workflow with her obvious ineptitude. Titi was usually inclined to laze a bit and dump most of the work on Bukky because Bukky was always ready to work and never complained. She missed Bukky sorely and prayed she’ll get well quickly and come back to work as soon as possible before all of her hairs turned grey from Bimpe’s lack of wit and experience.

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As the day wound to a close, she checked to ensure there were no loose ends and remembered Bukky’s early morning request to provide feedback to the angry customer from yesterday. She switched “users” on her system to access Bukky’s console and spooled the details for Mr. Sola’s inverter issue resolution. As she read the history, her visage changed from tired and frustrated to alert and calculating. This was the kind of call she liked to make. Everything was already sorted and the customer would be happy. He would probably even give her the kudos for getting the job done, not realizing she hadn’t done a thing, she thought gleefully. Smiling as she dialed his number, she imagined how glad he would be to hear that his problem had been solved and imagined his handsome face smiling instead of frowning like he did yesterday. Maybe, they could even strike up an unofficial conversation and since it was almost closing time, maybe he could stop by. He was a really handsome man and was obviously very comfortable since Tetra Inverters didn’t come cheap. “I wouldn’t mind getting to know him more intimately” she thought. The fact that she was married and thinking manipulative thoughts didn’t bother her. She had been having serious marital issues and was thinking of leaving her husband. She thought it would be nice to have a backup guy to take care of her and her kids in the aftermath of a separation.

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The calls connected and she heard his smooth baritone voice say “Hello and good evening”. Still smiling, she replied “Good evening Mr. Sola. This is Titi from Tetra Inverters calling to give you feedback about the issue you complained about sir”. The baritone voice seemed to undergo a swift change and it became rather harsh as he asked, “Madam Titi, why you are the one calling me? I was attended to yesterday by Bukky at the Ring Road branch and she promised to get back to me today unfailingly”. Titi was tongue tied in anger and jealousy for a few seconds. “That slip of a Bukky girl has captured his interest already! What transpired between them while I was away from the work station yesterday evening?” she thought. She informed him of her reason for calling, reeling out the information in a voice as cold as the Antarctica. He apologized for his rude initial response but she was too consumed with the unreasonable jealousy to accept it and let go. She greeted him very curtly in the same cold voice and ended the call. "I really dislike Bukky right now", she thought.

To be continued...........................