Chapter 7 #2
My heart skipped a beat. Give me a handsome, suave, organised man any day of the week and I’m yours.
As much as I was trying to see this whole interaction for what it was – a paid service he was used to carrying out with different women – I couldn’t help but be taken in by the camaraderie of it all.
He mentioned a ‘chill’ date, so I switched back to my laptop to browse the clothing pieces that were on offer.
As the date would be taking place in the afternoon, I didn’t want to go in with anything too sexy, but I didn’t want a business/casual situation either.
I needed something that cried ‘confident-and-fun-yet-elegant’.
I didn’t want to show all the goods off there and then, but equally I didn’t want him to think I was boring in any way.
After a few moments of searching through pieces, I eventually landed on a baby-blue bow-tie knitted crop top from Aligne, which would show off just the right amount of cleavage and torso, alongside a pair of dark-red barrel leg jeans I found from Lucy I was ready for some tea to be spilled.
‘What’s the gist?’ Sade was lying on her bed in her onesie, sipping on a mug of something hot.
She had a sense of coyness about her as she looked knowingly into the camera.
‘I’m so mad at you right now, man,’ she responded in mock anger as she kissed her teeth. ‘I can’t believe you’ve been hiding from me this whole time.’
I blinked twice in confusion. What was she on about?
‘Huh? Come again?’ I replied.
At that, Sade’s face cracked into a wide smile, which then cracked into fits of giggles. She began to roll around on her bed while kicking her feet like a toddler who’d just been given her first Polly Pocket toy.
‘I’m talking about your little friend Kofi at work, innit?’ she replied giddily. Clearly there had been an update that I was unaware of. Excellent.
‘Naturally, I followed him after you showed me his Instagram page … what? He’s cute – I just wanted to have a gander!
’ she said after she noticed my raised eyebrow.
‘I dunno why you’re looking at me like that – you’re the one that’s trying to set us up.
Anyway, he slid into my DMs and we’ve just been chatting and yeah … he’s um … I like the cut of his jib.’
That was music to my ears. A part of me was a little surprised at how seamlessly this had all gone, but I didn’t want to put too much thought into that, lest something go wrong at the last moment. Cuffing season was in full effect.
‘Well, this is what I love to see! I’m only giving you this look because I went on IG earlier and saw that you two had followed each other. You guys moved quickly, and to be honest I’m not surprised, you have to move quickly in this dating climate, to be honest.’
At that, we both laughed and I spent the next twenty minutes with Sade filling me in on their Instagram conversation. Apparently, Kofi had nothing but nice things to say about me (bless him), and they had begun to connect over their shared love of live music.
‘I haven’t spoken to someone for hours at a time like that for such a long time, you know,’ Sade said, sighing. ‘He’s a cutie, and a bit of a nerd; I like that. We’ll probably try and link up at some point soon – I’ll text him and see what his calendar’s looking like over the next few days.’
‘Text? As in proper iPhone text messaging instead of the DMs? Already? Blimey; you guys aren’t wasting time!’
Sade smiled; if she were capable of blushing, she would have been bright red by now.
‘Time waits for no one, my friend! Also it’s just a bit more convenient to text instead of going into the app so he sent me his number. Thank you again, sis, I’ll let you know when we meet up but, in the meantime, lemme know what’s going on with you! What’s the update?’
I told Sade all about the drama with my dad coming over to mine this morning (‘I’ve never seen simping like it, to be honest. Your dad is so whipped – it’s cute!
’) as well as the arrival of Jeff, the new consultant at work.
I then took a short pause for dramatic effect before I launched into the news with Jericho.
‘Umm … so I’m gonna be seeing Jericho on Saturday for our first date, by the way,’ I said, attempting to sound as nonchalant as possible. Sade, however, saw right through me.
‘Not you trying to sound relaxed?!’ she immediately twigged.
God, I couldn’t hide anything from this woman.
‘First of all, this is great news and I need you to send me your location when you’re out so I can check throughout the day if you’re still alive.
Secondly, I know you’re absolutely shitting yourself inside, it’s OK to be excited! How are you feeling?’
‘I’m all right, to be honest. Ordered an outfit tonight and I think because I know in my head it’s all transactional, there isn’t really a lot of pressure there.
I’m expecting to just show up and be treated to the best date ever, to be honest. I don’t have to go out of my way to impress him or anything so I feel all right! ’
It was going to be a great day; I just knew it.
‘I love this for you, it’s what you deserve, sis!
Not that you deserve to be paying for escorts—’ she quickly added in, noting my scoff ‘—but like … taking control of your dating destiny is something I wanna see more and more women do. I’m gonna see what this Kofi guy is saying but if it doesn’t work out, I’ll be joining you on that OuiMeet site for sure! ’
After we said our goodbyes, I made my way to my bedroom to lay out my outfit for tomorrow night.
I didn’t plan on changing completely after work – stepping into a sparkly number in the middle of the week just felt wrong – so instead I packed in a separate bag a green satin blouse I’d recently bought from Simply Be – that would go well with the black A-Line midi skirt I’d already be wearing – alongside a tube of red lipstick and some setting powder.
I didn’t want to seem too enthusiastic and give the team the wrong idea – if they thought I was really into it, they might start inviting me to even more after-work events and that’s not a habit I wanted to create any time soon.
As my head hit the pillow, I received a message notification – this time from my mum – who had written the following:
Cassie. Your dad’s been drop-calling me every hour for most of today. What’s his problem? He really needs to back off before I pass this onto Femi. Am I a dickhead??
I squinted, rubbed my eyes and reread the message.
When did my mum turn into a 17-year-old college girl from South London? I typed back:
Who taught you the word dickhead?? Mum pls. I’ll chat to you later. Goodnight!
Parents. Nobody warns you that after you grow up, the roles switch, with you being the one having to raise them.
I was in the middle of grabbing myself a cappuccino at the coffee machine at noon the next day when I bumped into Mr Jeff Paulson, our new consultant.
Somehow he’d managed to look even more dapper than yesterday: he was in yet another three-piece suit but today’s one was a dark-beige tweed situation, which had quite a slim fit against his physique. Focus, Cassie.