One

It was raining the first time she saw him. Aria was running out of her apartment lobby to meet up with her shift at work and he had been running in, away from from the dreary weather.

Their eyes had met, or so she thought. She had come to a sudden halt and it had taken Pete honking loudly to get her moving again, but her eyes had remained on him. His short hair and full beard was wet and the drops of water running down his face made her feel strangely jealous. She wanted to be the water. She wanted to run down his body and feel the texture of his skin.

His white t-shirt clung to him, showing off a well muscled torso, at least it looked well muscled from the few seconds that Aria stared at him. He stared at her as he ran past, and that look did terrible things to her insides.

She turned back to watch him run inside, and kept staring as he waved to Mitch; their security man, who was also hurrying out of the lobby.

"Bitch, if you don't get in this instant, I'll drive off without you!" Pete screamed at her. The young man always had a bit of a temper and Aria sometimes wondered if he had a few nuts loose in his head.

She ran to the car and pulled open the passenger door. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help it," she apologized, her grin stretching her damp face.

"You're such a whore, Aria. Shut my door, you're ruining my seats!" He shot her a glare.

Aria did as instructed, then pulled her best friend in for a loud kiss against his dark, smooth cheek.

"I think he's a new tenant. I've never seen him before," she said as Pete pulled away.

"How would you know?" he frowned in concentration. Pete was such a meticulous driver it made her want to scream at him sometimes. He also hated talking when driving and she made a mental note to keep this particular conversation short.

"He wasn't at the last meeting we had two weeks back. Did you get a look at him? The man is hot." Aria craned her neck to look in the mirror for a glance at the man who had already entered inside the building.

"I saw. I couldn't really blame you for staring. I have really high standards, but I'd do him," he grinned.

"I know right. I didn't get a good look at his face, but his body? God!"

"Aria, he's hot and all that. But have you forgotten you vowed not to date anyone again? According to you, you need time to find yourself after your last messy break up."

"Darling! You know I don't mourn past relationships. I spent three days crying over Ife and that's the end of it. Besides I can find myself while I'm under him." She laughed.

"Baby, I wish I was that strong." He gave her a small smile before focusing his gaze on the road. "Now let me drive! This Lagos people behave like they have extra lives at home," he groaned.

She let out a small laugh but stopped talking, preferring to listen to the radio as he drove. The cool bass of Burna boy pumped through the speakers.

"Turn that shit up! You know that's my jam," he said, nodding his head.

A car sped past them, splashing muddy water through the opened window of the car. "Bastard!" Pete yelled, speeding up. Aria wanted to tell him to let it go, but she knew her best friend was past reasoning. She'd long stopped questioning why Pete was the way he was and had just accepted him like that. You either loved him or learnt to tolerate the man.

"Your father nyash! Waka!" he spread his fingers, stretching and pointing it towards the man as he caught up with him. The man who had sped past us was now beside our car, the traffic jam putting everyone at a standstill.

"No vex o. My wife just gave birth, twins I hear. I'm rushing to the hospital," he apologized.

"Oh! Congratulations man," Pete smiled, immediately switching to the sweet, lovable personality Aria adored.

"Bros, congrats," she smiled. He waved at them then spend off once the road cleared. "Babe, maybe you should close the windows. Before another aboki splash us dirty water," she advised. He nodded, pressing the button and the windows slid back up.

When the duo got to Infinite, Pete parked for her to get out and promised to come back in a few hours. She waved at him before hurrying inside, ready to start her shift. Odogwu, her boss and the owner of the nightclub she worked at was waiting for her, his trademark frown already on his face.

"You're late madam!"

"Sorry. Traffic you know."

Odogwu followed her, complaining about how the club was packed without servers. "even one of the dancers didn't come in tonight," he grumbled.

"I know you're not asking me to go dance on that pole, Odogwu." Aria tied her braided hair up with an elastic as she looked around. They had a decent crowd and if it kept up, she could rake in a lot of tips.

"Just for tonight, eh? I'll forgive the lateness and you'd even get a bonus."

Her ears perked up at the thought of the extra money. It would help since she was saving up for the year's rent that was due in a few weeks, plus she didn't want to go back to living with her mother. But she didn't give in immediately. If Odogwu knew she was interested, he'd be stingy. She made her way to the backroom and he followed, coming to a stop outside as she shut the door in his face.

After she'd changed into the club's uniform of lace bralette and really short shorts, she touched up her lipstick and eye makeup then made her way out.

"Five thousand naira. We'll also split the money you get, sixty fourty."

"I make more than that in tips only, you know it. When you remove my share after giving the other dancers, it won't amount to anything tangible enough."

"Ten thousand, Aria. And that's the highest."

"Fifteen and we split the money fifty fifty, like you do with the other dancers."

He looked back towards the club, probably imagining the money he was loosing by the minute if he didn't get another dancer. He gritted his teeth and scowled at her. "Fine. Go get changed."

***

Translations:

*nyash: ass. When someone says your father's nyash, its basically your father's ass they're cursing out.

*Waka: Its a curse or an insult

*No vex o: Don't be angry