Chapter 3

There had been a liquid fire in Ame's eyes as she had sat up suddenly that day! She had spoken to Ego with a tone never before heard from her. "Don't, Ego! Philip is my life!" she had proclaimed, then retorted, "As for Dapo Adejare, I don't have anything, I repeat, anything, to do with him! And, I have never led him on or toyed with him, okay?!" She began to put on her shoes that was carelessly tossed at the bottom of the bed.

Ego had walked up to her quickly and put a hand on her friend's bent form. "Hey, babe! Don't take it that badly. Please forgive me," she had pleaded.

Ame had stared at her friend in anger. "What do you even take me for, Ego?! I don't lead men on, okay?! It's Philip I love, not Dapo or even anyone else, okay?!" she had stressed for emphasis as she paused in her venture. 

Ego had nodded apologetically and pulled her into an embrace. "I want you to be happy, Ame," her friend had muttered as she rubbed Ame's back. Being the older of the two friends, Ego sometimes took charge of Ame, treating her like the younger sister she never had.

Ame and Philip had had their first row when a popular tabloid had captured Ame and Dapo's picture in a suggestively intimate pose at a recent function they had attended together. 

Philip had barged angrily into Ame's hostel room, not caring whether the girls there were fully dressed or not. He had ignored everyone in the room, except Ame, whom he had held gently but in an iron-like grip and marched outside in controlled fury. He had taken her to where his car was parked in the parking lot of the girls' hostel and thrust the soft-sell magazine at her face, speaking with controlled fury, "It all explains itself now, eh, high and mighty Miss Obasogie!" Coming from him in his furious state, it had had the effect of a whiplash on Ame and she had flinched as Philip closed his eyes and balled his hands into tight fists, drawing out his veins. He had a dark anger that could not be assuaged.

Ame had glanced briefly at the tabloid, 'OBASOGIE HEIRESS IN A HOT ROMANCE WITH DAPO ADEJARE, HEIR TO THE ADEJARE GROUP OF COMPANIES; A ROMANCE MADE IN HEAVEN,' it screamed loudly. She was shocked because if it had not been her picture she was starring at, she could have sworn that the couple in the picture were lovers! There was Dapo, giving her that suggestively sexy smile of his and she, looking at him as if her life depended on him! She threw the paper on the ground and held onto Philip, a sob breaking out from her. "Don't believe this, Phil," she had wailed. "It's all a hogwash! You're the one that I love," she had cried as she held onto him.

Some passers-by had given them a second glance but Ame was past caring. She had held on to Philip, whose anger had abated a bit on seeing the tears on her face. He became weakened in his resolution to end their relationship. He had been so shocked when he saw his own Ame on the front cover of a soft-sell magazine brought in by a client. He had promptly gone out to get a copy of the same magazine, where he had been shocked by the discoveries about the person he had been in a relationship with for the past three months! Obasogie's daughter?! Those were the movers and shakers in the country! People whose friendship even the presidency courted! He had truly bitten more than he could chew! Ame had been evasive about her family, insisting that they get to know each other properly first. He only knew that she was devoted to her family. She being the only daughter among two sons, she was always receiving calls from one member or the other in her family. 

"You never told me about your family. You're an Obasogie!" he accused still.

"And have you reject me?!" Ame had looked up, her tears coursing freely down her cheeks. She sniffed as she wiped her nose and eyes with the handkerchief that Philip had offered her.

"No, my love! I could never reject you," he had protested passionately. He had pulled her into his embrace and smothered her face with his little kisses. He had pulled back as he looked into her face. "The beach?" he had said simply and she had nodded. 

He had promptly opened the passenger's door of his car for her and she had entered and made herself comfortable. She liked the smell of his car. She had watched him as he went round the car and opened the driver's side and got in beside her. He had smiled at her and kissed her briefly before he started the car.

That had been three months ago. Now, her six-month old relationship was beginning to be noticed by her ever observant father, who had teased her to no end to 'bring him home,' despite her mother's obvious disapproval at anyone who was not Dapo Adejare. Ame had had several face-offs with her mother on the latter's meddlesome match-making which Ame found disgusting. Osaro Obasogie, her father, had intervened severally in their mother-daughter contentions, and had always been hemmed in by both sides because of his divided loyalties: he loved his wife with a passion but he could also never bear to see his beloved daughter unhappy.

Rosaline Obasogie, fondly called 'Rosa' by her beloved husband, was a stout, dark-skinned bespectacled domineering woman who was a snob. She was different from her husband in every way. Her elder child, Ame, often wondered at the great disparity between her parents but her father had always jokingly said that 'opposites attract' in answer to his daughter's unending questions on what had endeared him to her mother, especially when she's had a tiff with her mother. Yet, the fact that Rosa loved her husband and children with an unrivaled passion could not be denied. Only at times, she carried her devotion a bit too far. Yet, her husband of over thirty years, dotted on her, and worshipped the very ground on which she trod.

From her room upstairs, Rosa spied Ame, her daughter, beside the swimming pool and resolved to go down to have a talk with her. Ame could be heady most times, just like her father. Rosa shook her head as she made her way out into the sunshine to join her daughter by the poolside. 

"Expecting someone special?" she asked as she lowered her heavy frame into the vacant lounge chair beside her daughter.

Ame was momentarily startled but she settled back in her seat comfortably and smiled warmly, genuinely pleased to see her mother.

"Aw...mom!" she laughed softly.

"I see that you're yet to invite Dapo home," Rosa began. Ame gave her mother a quizzed look and chose to remain mute as her mother continued. "Why don't you like Dapo, eh? He's a ladies' man, you know..." Rosa continued but her daughter cut her short, calmly as she sat up to face her mother.

"Not again, mom! I already told you that I'm not seeing Dapo Adejare! He's nothing but a friend, mom, a MERE friend!" Ame, stressed for the umpteenth time. There was a frown on her face now.

Rosa shrugged as she eyed her daughter coldly. "And now, your father hinted at an 'august' visitor coming to dinner!" she complained bitterly. "I wish that visitor were Dapo!" Rosa retorted spitefully.

Ame shook her head in exasperation. She was saved from her mother's further verbal torture by the arrival of a smartly-dressed maid who came to announce that a certain Mr. Philip Omagbemi wanted 'to see Miss Ame'.

Like a flash of lightening, Ame sprang up from beside the pool and dashed inside the sprawling mansion, much to the amazement of the maid and consternation of her mother. Rosa turned and eyed the open-mouthed maid and scolded, "And what are you gaping at?! Go in and continue with your duties!" 

The girl ran in quickly, sorry at being caught failing in her duties. 

Rosa relaxed her large frame back on the lounge chair, not eager to meet the man who had such a 'negative effect' on her daughter! Imagine a worthless nobody sweeping Ame off her feet, making her behave shamelessly like a love-struck teenager, even before a mere servant! She made a mental note to reprimand her daughter when the opportunity presented itself. She hissed as she closed her eyes to the reflection of the glittering sun on the water.