Chapter Five

Ella woke up at exactly two minutes to six. She woke up feeling tired because she slept late the previous night. She and Annie were up till midnight, chatting and editing one of Annie’s videos that was due for upload on YouTube.

From the guest room, Ella made her way to the Kitchen. She made breakfast for two, cleaned the kitchen and went back upstairs to get ready for work.

By the time she was all dressed up, Annie was still sleeping, She ate half of the breakfast she made and left the other half for Annie. She left a note on the fridge and left for work

………………...

Annie stirred when her Alarm buzzed. She turned it off, said her morning prayer, arranged her bed and proceeded to the bathroom for her morning rituals.

By the time she finished dressing up which included applying her makeup, it was almost 8.30 am.

A known smile tugged at Annie's lips when she got to the kitchen and perceived the aroma of her favourite breakfast. She was sure Ella made it before she left for work. She served herself and dug in immediately.

She was about to take a bottle of water from the fridge when she saw the note Ella left for her; informing her she made breakfast and they would see each other over the weekend.

Annie smiled as she tossed the paper in a nearby bin. She was blessed to have a friend like Ella. She took her medications, washed her plate and left for work.

••••••••••••

Eric heaved a sigh when he felt a serious headache building up on the right side of his head. No doubt it was due to his constant thinking and lack of sleep. He even came earlier to work today and buried himself with work but still, the probabilities of what could happen in the future scared the hell out of him.

For almost four minutes Eric has been walking back and forth in his office, waiting patiently for Doctor Myers phone call.

He wanted to be a hundred percent sure his condition had improved. That was why he stopped by Myers office on his way home from the office yesterday to drop a sample of his semen. And Doctor Myers promised he would get the result by this time today.

He wondered why the old man hadn’t given him a call. An impatient Eric was contemplating if he should go to the hospital when his phone rang. The caller ID showed it was Doctor Myers. He didn't think twice before clicking on the answer button.

“Sorry for calling late, my child. I’ve got the result with me. I was right Eric, your sperm count has increased tremendously. Congratulations!” Doctor Myers said with a huge smile on his face. He was so damn happy for Eric.

“Thank God,” Eric replied, feeling so relieved. His lips curved into a smile. There was hope for him to have a child.

“Have you spoken to her?” Eric asked, referring to Annie.

“Not yet. I think it’s still early to tell her because right now, she needs to avoid anything that will make her worry.”

“So what do we do? Or should I approach her myself?” Eric suggested.

“Not yet son, please give me the chance to talk to her first and I think we should wait till she confirms if she’s pregnant or not. I will do a follow up about it and let you know how it goes.”

“Okay. That should take how long?” Eric asked.

“Almost two weeks from now.”

“Can you please tell me her name? I promise not to stalk her or anything.” Eric asked, trying not to sound creepy. He wanted to have an idea of what her name was because she might be carrying his child so he needed to know a few things about her.

“Her name is Annie Davis.” Doctor Myers said over the phone.

“Thanks, Doc. I hope you’ll keep me updated. I have to go back to work now.” Eric announced.

“I will Son. Have a good day.” The old man ended the call

Eric crashed on the sofa in his office. He felt better than he was a couple of minutes ago. He was so damn happy because his treatment over the years finally paid off and now he can have a child to call his own.

••••••••••••••••

LATER AT NIGHT

Eric swiped his keycard and helped himself into his luxurious three-bedroom apartment. He was tired which was why he came home earlier than usual.

He placed his briefcase on a sofa in the living room and walked to the kitchen to get a bottle of water which he gulped down immediately.

After that, he went into his room to take a shower. He dried himself and changed into his grey sweatpants and no shirt on.

He searched the kitchen for something to eat but there was none so he decided to order pizza.

While waiting for the pizza to arrive, Eric decided to call his immediate younger sister. Just to check up on her and see how she was doing.

Elaina picked up the call almost immediately. It was as if she was expecting her brother’s call.

“Hello, brother.”

“How are you doing baby Sister? It’s been a while.”

“I’m fine Eric. How are you too? I miss you.” Elaina said from the other side. She was very happy to hear from her brother.

“I’m fine sweetheart. I miss you too. How’s work?” he asked her.

“Work is stressful but I’m coping.” She said and Eric chuckled.

Elaina is a lawyer. She’s four years younger than Eric. She’s very beautiful, smart and above all respectful, just like her brother. She and Eric are very close.

She was called to the bar last year and she’s presently working in a law firm. Elaina’s dream is to own her law firm but now that she’s fresh at the bar, she wants to get all the experience she can get before setting up hers.

“You okay right? Or are you in need of anything, money, groceries?” Eric being the overly protective brother asked.

“I’m fine Eric. Remember I work now and I have my earnings. I’m no longer in law school.” She groaned, making Eric smile from the other side.

“If you say so. When will you come to visit me or should I come to visit you instead?” He asked.

“You’ve been coming to my place, Eric. It’s only fair that I come to yours this time around. I’ll try to see you over the weekend.”

“Okay muffin. I’ll be expecting you!”

“Thanks for calling. Love you, Bye.” She said before ending the call.

Two minutes later, Eric's doorbell rang so he got up from the couch to answer it and it turned out to be His best friend, Dylan, in his tailored suit, holding three boxes of Pizza.

“You didn’t tell me you were coming,” Eric said, surprised.

“I didn’t think I would be here too,” Dylan helped himself in. Eric closed the door.

“How come you have these?” Eric asked referring to the three boxes of pizza Dylan was holding.

“I saw the delivery guy downstairs so I collected and paid for them,” Dylan answered.

They decided to sit and eat on the balcony so Dylan took the pizza there and settled down on a chair while Eric went to the kitchen to get wine.

“So if she’s pregnant with your baby what will you do?” Dylan, Eric’s best friend asked him. He just told him about the crazy situation.

“I will have no choice but to accept her and the baby. They’ll be my number one priority.” Eric said after which he took a sip of his wine.

Dylan smiled at his best friend’s reply. He knew Eric wanted a child so much and he was happy that his dream was almost coming true.

“Please let this stay between us. I don’t want my parents or sisters to find out yet. I don’t want to keep anybody’s hope up.”

“If Annie gets pregnant with my child, I’ll still have to talk to her and her opinion matters too so let’s keep this to ourselves.” He said. Dylan smirked.

“I think you love this girl already. From the way you talk, you’re already protective of her. Are you sure you've not met her before?” He asked, suspicious.

Eric chuckled. “Trust me I’ve not. I don’t even know what she looks like but one thing is for sure. I respect her already.”

“So how is your Miss Charming?” Eric smiled, referring to Dylan’s Crush. Ella Macaulay.

“She’s Fine.” He replied with a smile. “I dropped her at her place before coming here. Fortunately, she lives in the estate next to yours.”

“So you two are good now, right?”

“Something like that,” Dylan whispered, nervously scratching the back of his head. "We just became friends so we’re taking it slow,"

The two best friends talked more about business after which Dylan left for his apartment.

………….

Eric couldn’t sleep; Series of thoughts were going to and fro in his head. He knew he promised Doctor Myers not to stalk Annie Davis but he couldn’t help but want to know more about her since she might be carrying his child. He wanted to know what she looked like, what she does for a living. He wanted to know if she has had dinner already. Damn, he was so curious. He wished he had her phone number or her home address.

Eric didn’t know what came over him when he took his laptop and searched for the name ANNIE DAVIS. He groaned when he saw thousands of people bearing that name. Of course, what did he expect?

“What do I do?” He murmured as he kept on scrolling through. He clicked on a link which directed him to all the Annie Davis on Facebook.

Fortunately, most of the Annie Davis he saw were either younger or older and the Annie Davis he was searching for was someone close to his age according to the description Doctor Myers gave him.

Eric was almost giving up when a picture caught his attention. He clicked on the profile to get more information.

As he scrolled through, he saw that this particular lady was a mutual friend to Doctor Myers and his wife. Eric smiled as if he just won a jackpot. This might be the lady he was looking for.

He clicked on her pictures and to say Eric was blown away would be an understatement. In the whole 30 years of his existence, he had never seen a lady as beautiful as she was. After admiring all her pictures, Eric went to her post and her last post was a picture of Dr Myers celebrating him for his birthday which Dr Myers replied, thanking her.

This was when he knew he had found His Annie.

Eric decided to check out her info and saw her bio which stated that she was the owner of Ann’s Home and a YouTuber.

He was impressed to know she was an independent woman.

Eric clicked on the link in her bio and it directed him to Annie’s YouTube page. He was impressed she had a huge fan base, 436 thousand subscribers. He subscribed too and started watching her videos.

The first video he watched was one where she did a tour of her beauty parlour and the services they offered. The place looked familiar to him and that was when he remembered that he had once dropped Elaina there for a spa treatment.

The next video he watched was when she did a question and answer session. Towards the end of the video, Annie read out a question which Eric was surprisingly interested in.

The question was “What type of qualities do you want in a man you would like to spend the rest of your life with and mention five celebrity guys you would like to hang out with.”

He chuckled as Annie groaned after reading the question. She looked so adorable.

And her answer went as follows. “First and foremost I want y’all to know I’m not dating anyone for now." Eric didn't know why but hearing this was such a relief to him. The video was uploaded not too long ago so there was a very high probability that she was still single.

"But talking about the qualities I would like in a man I want to spend the rest of my life with, Firstly, He must be a lover of God. He must be respectful, hardworking, good-looking and obviously, must like me for who I am.”

“So the top five celebrity guys I would love to hang out with. Hmm, let’s see.” She said, pretending to think for a while. Then she started mentioning their names and the reasons she would love to hang out with them. Then she said something that shocked Eric. He thought he heard the wrong thing so he clicked the rewind button and he heard the statement again which made him grin like crazy.

“The final celebrity guy I would love to hang out with is Eric Ivan-James. Honestly, I would love to meet him one on one and ask him how he does his things. You all can testify that I’m not exaggerating because we all know he’s hardworking and very successful. There was a time I almost made him my role model.” She said with a chuckle.

“Another thing about Eric is that....” He smiled hearing the way his name rolled off her tongue.

“I’m a very sincere person and y’all will agree with me that Eric is sexy as hell. There was a time Ella and I used to buy Times Magazine just to admire his sexy body.” Eric laughed out loud. That was when he used to model for Times Magazine. His contract with them was over that’s why he stopped modelling for them. Although they pleaded for him to renew and other modelling contracts came but he lost interest in the Job because they were bringing unnecessary attention as he wanted to focus on his businesses.

“Besides, another thing I greatly admire about Eric is that he adores his family and I find that so adorable. I mean he’s a very busy person but he still makes time for his family. It reminds me of high school. I used to be in the same class as his sister and he was always there for her. Even after he graduated, he came for all her shows and plays. I know all these because I’m kind of an Ivan-James fan so I’m up to date with every talk and gossip. But honestly, I love and respect their bond as a family.”

“So if I get the opportunity to hang out with him, I honestly don’t know what I’ll say to him. I mean, I don’t even think I’ll ever get to meet him and If I do which I know is almost impossible, I guess I’ll tell him how much I’ve always adored him.

“So that’s all for today. Thanks for watching. I will see you guys in my next video. Bye.” The video ended with a priceless smile plastered on Eric’s face.