How could anyone do things like that where anyone could see them? Sophie sprang immediately into her mind. Sophie probably would. Sophie probably was right now.
“Want to sit down and have a drink?”
The guy was talking to her. His voice was as mellifluous as his eyes were brown. And his face. Masculine, chiselled jaw, low-cut hair. Not exactly handsome, but totally attractive. She could even smell him—slightly sweaty and very masculine—just like he had smelled last time. Not that she minded the sweat. Not on him. Not at all.
And those muscles on his arms. She remembered what he had looked like in shorts and a tight shirt in the gym that day. How could anyone be so perfect? Wunmi found herself wanting to just roll and purr all over him like a kitten. Her nipples.
Oh my god, they were so hard, pushing the thin top out. Visibly. She was so going to kill Sophie.
“Yes please.” God, she sounded so girly and polite. Surely she could say something more intelligent. But her brain seemed to have died. All she wanted to do was look at him and have him hold her hand.
Maybe even hold her the way he did when she was bumped. Could she pretend to fall in love with him so that he would hold her again?
“Hey, what’s your name?”
“Wunmi.”
“I’m Jide, and I wanted to ask you that in the gym last night. But I was too shy.” He grinned.
Wunmi giggled. “I wanted to ask you the same thing. And I was too shy too.”
They smiled at each other. That smile made her feel as if she had suddenly come alive, as if she had been plugged into something that made her more alive, more … more her. She realized neither of them had said anything for ages. They had just been looking at each other. They both seemed to realize it at the same instant in time. They both laughed, a laugh that shared that knowledge without words.
“Hang on a minute, Wunmi; stay right here; don’t go anywhere; okay, I’ll be back in two minutes with a drink, I promise.”
Before she could say, “Don’t go,” he was gone, jumping down the stairs and threading past people. Wunmi watched him until he disappeared. She waited, watching for him to reappear. Instead, she saw Ike climbing the stairs, looking around dopily. Oh God, was he looking for her?
Wunmi searched desperately for an escape. No way was she going into those rooms where she could see all that making out going on. She glanced again. Not just making out either. Yuck! That was just so disgusting that people did stuff like that in public, where anyone could see them.
Ike was getting closer. He was on the landing below; any second, he would glance up and see her. Wunmi stepped back hurriedly. If she couldn’t see him, he couldn’t see her. Maybe he wouldn’t come up that last flight of stairs.
She saw the top of his head. She so did not want him to find her.
Wunmi panicked.
Backing up, she was stopped by the wall. Turning, she saw a closed door, opened it, and bolted through, hurriedly closing it behind her, her heart pounding. What she thought might be another room was instead a stairwell.
Narrow carpeted stairs that led upwards. To the roof? Through the door, she heard Ike’s voice—not what he said but the tone. Wunmi bolted up the stairs, almost running. At the top, she found herself with two choices – two doors, one on either side under the V-shaped roof. The door below opened, and light shone in, illuminating the stairs below. The top of Ike’s head appeared.
Wunmi opened the nearest door, and slipped through, closing it gently behind her. The room she found herself in was dark, lit only by the streetlight coming in through the small window at the room’s other end. There were people already in the room though.
A large bed under the window on which two guys and a girl lay, making out.
Wunmi didn’t care. Disgusting or not, it was better than Ike finding her. To one side was a couch with someone at one end. Some couple, Wunmi quickly corrected herself as she eased herself down onto the end furthest from them. The end is where she would be almost hidden by the door if someone opened it.
Seated at the darkest end of the room, right beside the door, she couldn’t help noticing that the couple on the sofa next to her were locked in a passionate kiss – and the guy’s hand was under the girl’s skirt.
Neither of them had even noticed her. Opposite her was another old couch, with yet another couple on it. Nobody even looked at her; nobody said a thing. She could have been invisible for all the attention they gave her and for all they cared.
God, was everyone at this party except her making out? She tried to look away, wondering what to do. Whatever direction she looked in, she saw the same thing. Looking away from the couple opposite her wasn’t such a great idea – the first thing Wunmi saw was the girl on the bed between two guys with her top pushed up to her armpits, exposing both her breasts.
One of the guys was busy kissing and sucking one of those breasts. The other was kissing the girl, their mouths locked together, his hand inside her panties while her jeans were halfway down her thighs.
Wunmi frowned. That girl? How could she? With people watching? With two guys? It was shocking, it was embarrassing, and somehow it was also exciting. All at the same time. She thought Sophie was shocked.
This was worse. It was also impossible to tear her eyes away. Wunmi’s breath came faster as she continued to watch, aware that she could even hear the girl, hear her moaning softly as the guy’s hand moved inside her panties. She wondered when it would be safe to leave. How long would it take for Ike to disappear? When could she go back down? Jide would think she had run out on him. She hoped not. She did. She had screwed up in the gym. She so did not want to blow it again. But she probably had.
The door beside her opened slowly. There was a moment of suspense, that sank in her stomach, the dread that Ike had somehow followed her up here.
The head that peered around was him.
Her brown-eyed guy.
Her saviour.
Jide.
Wunmi smiled as their eyes met. Jide slipped into the room, easing the door shut behind him, seating himself on the end of the large old chair, and squeezing Wunmi closer to the couple making out. He handed her a drink, a bottle of something.
She drank gratefully without even looking to see what it was. Then spluttered a little at the unaccustomed alcohol. He grinned.
“I lost you in the crowd.” His voice was a whisper. Up here you could barely hear the music. On the other hand, it meant she could hear that girl on the bed. She was almost as noisy as Sophie. Jide’s arm slipped around her shoulders, so huge and strong, so gentle. Wunmi nestled into him happily. She felt as if she belonged in his arms.
“That’s okay,” Wunmi whispered back, relieved. “I was hiding from my date.”
She took another drink. The mango coconut flavour was lovely, cold, and slightly sweet. She drank thirstily. It was much quieter up here, for which she was grateful. Jide looked at her and even in the dimness of the room, she read his expression.
“Blind date,” she whispered, “my housemate set it up; he was awful. I was going to book a taxi home when you rescued me. Then I saw him coming upstairs so I came in here to hide.” She tilted her head to smile up at him. “I was worried you might not find me.”
“I would have searched the whole house from top to bottom before I gave up.” His smile lit his face up, and made her heart beat faster. “Then I would have hung out in the gym waiting for you.” His eyes swallowed her, holding her enthralled. She could look into those eyes for hours.
Wunmi giggled. “I went to the gym this morning to hang out and wait for you.”
His body shook with silent laughter. “I guess we missed each other, and so did I. I was really hoping I would see you again.”
“Well, you found me.” His arm felt so good holding her.
He glanced around at the couple on the couch beside Wunmi, chuckling silently before whispering in her ear. “You found a great place to hide.”
Wunmi looked. The girl’s top was unbuttoned, and the guy’s hand was inside that top, moving. The girl’s eyes met hers. She smiled. Wunmi frowned, looking away from them, looking across the room instead, only to see the girl and the guy there entwined in a tangle of moving limbs and dishevelled clothing.
The bed by the window held an even more disconcerting sight. The girl there now had her jeans and panties down around her ankles, her t-shirt still pushed up around her armpits, making it all too obvious what the two guys with her were doing. From the noises she was making, she was enjoying herself.
Jide leaned in towards her, his arm drawing her closer. He wasn’t. Was he? Her heart did its little flutter-thing again. The next second, he kissed her softly on the cheek. Wunmi felt almost grateful for the distraction. He settled deeper into the couch, his arm urging Wunmi a little closer to him.
“Your hair smells nice.” His voice was a soft murmur in her ear.
“Uh-huh,” Wunmi was non-committal but she liked that he liked the smell of her hair. She liked the way he smelled too. She raised the bottle to her mouth. Whatever Mango Coconut was made from, it tasted great, and it certainly made her glow.
She giggled at the thought that Jide couldn’t try to kiss her if she was drinking. Thinking about it, she decided she wanted him to kiss her. He seemed to be a nice guy as well as looking good. Good. He looked great, and those eyes. But she didn’t even know him.
Apart from the last time in the gym, where they had both been surreptitiously looking at each other for an hour, she had only met him fifteen minutes ago. She found herself thinking about kissing him anyhow as she took another sip. That was ridiculous. Besides, her last experience with kissing hadn’t been great, and it had been last year, back in high school.
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