THREE

(Flashback)

"Daddy!"

"Yes princess,"

"I want you to have this," a blonde little girl hands a gold necklace to a younger Solano.

"¿No ex este it collar favorite in amor? ¿Por qué me lo das? Ni siquiera sabres dónde ponerlo,"

(Isn't this your favorite necklace my love? Why are you giving it to me? I wouldn't even know where to put it,)

"Lo pones en tu cuello papi, o si es demasiado pequeño, tu muñeca," she chuckled,

(You put it on your neck daddy, or if it's too small, your wrist,)

"But it's so girly and daddy is a macho man," he takes the necklace from her little hands, "where am I going to put it?"

"Just put it in your wallet daddy. Te traerá buena suerte cuando ha no este aquí,"

(It’ll bring you luck when I'm no longer here,)

"Now why would say that? You're my good luck charm and nothing in the world could change that. Nothing could ever separate you from me my love! Te quiero mucho Lauretta!"

(I love you so much Lauretta.

"I love you too daddy," tears role from her eyes to her ears, "I don't want to leave you yet! I don't want to die daddy," Lauretta cried,

"Shush my angel! Don't even think about that. You are here with daddy and always will be. I will not let anything happen to you."

...three days later:

Solano's head is lying on Lauretta's bed while he is seated on a chair. He has the necklace in his hand. The little girl lays awake, with tubes from every corner connected to her almost skeletal skin. She feels a sharp pain shot through her, she wants to scream but is too weak. Ropes after ropes of tears streamed down her face. She struggles to reach her father with her hands,

"Daddy! Daddy!" Solano sleepily takes his head up but is quickly alerted by the running tears on his daughter's face,

"Que pasa Donde duele mi amor?" He keeps asking but she doesn't say anything, she just cries intensely. Solano screams

"Jeffrey! Jeffrey!" Not long after a doctor runs in accompanied by a two nurses, "what's happening to her? Do something,"

Solano steps back, watching Dr Jeffrey Mongoski, the best his money could buy; and his money was a lot, the best the world had to offer, struggle to help his dying daughter. His eyes never once left hers as hers didn't leave his. She was dying! He could see it; the light of life leaving her blue eyes. He clutched the necklace hard and meditated: "God please save my daughter! She's all I have! I give my life for hers just please..."

Lauretta lifted a hand towards her father, but before Solano could reach to take it into his, it slumped onto the bed. The last light of life left her, her eyes open and lifeless.

(Flashforward to present)

Inside his extremely cold room, Solano held the necklace to his chest and wept. Lauretta, his only daughter died of leukemia when she was just ten, just like her mother, his wife did when she gave birth to Lauretta. Solano's daughter had everything every child could ever dream of in this world; but something she cherished more than any of her material things was her necklace for reasons he could never understand. He had given it to her the same way he had given her many others, some even more expensive than that one; but she had held on to that particular in ways he could not explain. She'd worn it day in, day out from the time she was six.

Solano had gone crazy when he couldn't find his wallet. He couldn't care less about the money inside, but for his daughter's necklace, that he would've turned Nigeria and Africa as a whole upside down, inside out to find it.

As he continued thinking about the necklace in his wallet, his mind slowly drifted to a certain dark skin queen. He turned to one of his phones, the one he'd given her a card to call. She still hadn't.

What the hell is wrong with this girl?

He was actually glad he didn't have her number; he would have been tempted to call her instead. He shoved the necklace back into his wallet and decided to freshen up.

After a thirty-minute shower, he came and first went to check on his phone. Still no calls from her. 

Just as he turned to go dressed up, his ringtone went up, an unknown number. If that wasn't who he was expecting, he'd smash that phone against the wall. He picked it up, put on speaker then dropped it on the bed while he took on his dermatology routine,

"Hello! Is this Mr. Vicenze?"

"Little lady! I thought you were going to keep me hanging,"

"You were waiting for my call?"

"I do still need your services," 

"What kind if my ask?" Shola's voice sounded nervous as she spoke. Solano grin, a naughty thought had run through his mind. He pulled out a pair Calvin Klein boxers from a drawer, and slipped them on,

"Now now little lady, that's not something we should be discussing over the phone. I have a lunch meeting tomorrow at the D'lux hotel. Meet me there?"

"At the hotel? Can it not be somewhere else? I'm not so sure I feel great about going back to my former job side to apply for a new job with someone else!"

"But that's the only way lady, unless you don't want to work for the jerk." Solano picked up the phone, turned down the speaker before bringing it to his ear, "Because I really do wish to work with you," the line fell silent for a couple of seconds, "little lady?"

"I'm still here and my name is Omashola; and yes! I would love to work with you so tomorrow, I'll be there."

"Let's keep the names knowing formality for official businesses. Don't keep me waiting." He hung up. He got up from the bed and into his living room where a table had been beautiful set for him,

"Elizabeth," he called. A plumpy woman dressed in a maid's outfit, with an apron and chef hat came from a corner,

"Sar!"

"What's for dinner today?"

"Ah! Oga white, extremely deli-cious Italian salad with bread. But I also make small cold slot for corner just in case you no dey mood for salad,"

"I only understood salad, bread and cold slot in everything you said. Serve me that in my room, with a bottle of champagne: Moët & Chandon."

"Oga that moto and cha don finish."

"What?" Solano fought the urge to explode into laughter. He really liked Elizabeth. Even though she was uneducated, she had a gift for learning fast and humoring him. He had barely been in Nigerian for two weeks, but she had already mastered his eating routines, though she still had trouble with the names of his luxuries,

"The moto and cha," he laughed lightly. There was a possibility that he could be older than her, but he had deep respect for her,

"It's Moët and Chandon. It's French so it's OK if you still want to call it whatever you just said."

"Moto and cha," she said it again,

"Alright, alright! I'll write it down so you can get more tomorrow and not something called moto. But for now, bring the food to my room,"

"And the drink sar,"

"Muscador please. The white one."

"OK sar," Solano went back to his room while Elizabeth served his food.

In the meantime, Shola's suitcase was upside down, her cloths were flying all around the place. Wumi was standing by the door, typing away on her phone, while Simi sat in a corner, throwing dirty glances at the former.

"My life is officially over!" Shola appeared from another room dressed in a tight knee length skirt under a lemon green shirt.

"I won't argue! That is just the ugliest skirt I have ever seen, and that shirt just makes me want to scratch out my eyes!"

"Wumi see eh, if you don't have anything to say then don't say anything. You won't die!"

"Don't mind her Simi! See eh Wumi, this thing na lottery! If I get this job; things will change for us oh."

"I hear you! If na me eh? All this casual things you dey do, just were a bikini and turn this guy's world upside down. That money you are going to work on, he'll give it to you free." Simi's glare on Wumi intensifies,

"You're just too raw you this this hoe," she told Wumi,

"Bitch please! Hoe ship is a privilege. You wish you could be me."

"Ode!"

"See eh Shola! Na because I like you oh," she strolls towards her own wardrobe and takes out a black dress, "You said you want formal. I think you should go formally sexy. It’s black and not loud, a little below the knee, and see this," she turn the dress to its front, "a little cleavage no go kill you or your oyibo,"

"Aah! This is perfect Wumi!" Shola seized the dress from Wumi, examining it on her body, "it's truly elegant!"

"Hmm," Simi made a sound in her throat, "so where did you get it,"

"Your mama e backyard, ewu!"

"See, you two can argue later, let's talk shoes."

"Aunty, na handshake I give. Not embrace." Wumi told Shola, picking up a pair of her shoes and turning away,

"Simi," Shola turned to her friend,

"Shola we don't share the same size nah! And you know you're the only person I know who still wears the same size of shoes as when we were all fifteen."

Shola fell onto their squeaky bed. She couldn't just shake this feeling she's been having about meeting Solano; or working with him. She had well suitable clothes she could use for job interviews but felt like they were all going to look like rags on her body if she was to face him on them. Usually a glow up for her was a thing for dates and all the sort but for this, she felt she had to pull off the biggest glow up of her life, because somewhere inside her heart and mind, a little piece of her entire being was praying that this guy would be even just a little but interested her; and not just as an employee! After all, she was great sugar baby material, and oga sexy oyibo with grey hair looked like a potential zaddy.