Got awaken from nap by the loud and horrible alarm which my roommate bought and I was feeling so relieved, happy, and anxious considering the fact it is the world’s renonwed day for lovers, something somewhat a parody. I took a gaze at the mirror while I make scrupulous thoughts. It is just my fourteenth day of work at the luxurious Pepperoni Eatery, hopefully the Manager will quest for absolute orderliness from all staffs. He is a fierce bull dog; The metaphor I used for him is even an understatement. I barely see him laugh eversince I started working in his establishment. However, I don’t give a hoot as far as I am surreptitiously discharging my duties and as well having fun when possible regardless of his extreme hostility which has lately turned majority of my colleagues into cowards. Their hearts get off whenever the man is around. Possibly, today is not an exception, they will eventually have to become perfect attendants else they will have to accept their day being ruined by the dramatic outburst which the Manager will show up. However, myself on the otherhand, I try as much as possible to keep boundaries just to save myself from being publicly casted by the Manager.
I zoomed up, getting myself dressed, and countlessly asking my neighbors of my look as I stepped out to lock my apartment. You know, I couldn’t be too confident, so I just had to ask the people to affirm that my Manager would not frown at me for my appearance. I got to the eatery in just some minutes; It was a nineteen minutes drive down from my bus stop. Everywhere looked so glamouring as quests were already making their way in. My colleagues and I got notified that a staff should join the others at the VIP hall to ensure prompt attendance to guests. Fears gripped my colleague as they murmured bitterly and it really showed on their downcasted sad-look faces which seemed like people who are more or less about to be sacked. They thought as much who will go to the VIP hall; Everyone is not fascinated by the idea of serving at the VIP hall because the Manager monitors explicitly just to detect mistakes from staffs. From this laskadiscal behavior my colleagues showed up in regards to the call to the VIP hall, I had to pick it up on myself to join the staffs at the hall.
It was the peak moments of the evening. The hall was filled with outstanding personalities just as it should be in an eatery of that sort. We were busy serving guests as nothing brought an hiatus to that. One could hardly detect any blemish on the skins of the guests as they were extremely glowing coupled with the shades of the dimed florescent lights which made me imagined taking a seat as well but that was realistically impossible for a waiter. It just flipped through my memory as a wish if I could have a date there because the place was stunning. I was not expecting any miracle of sitting on the VIP hall as a guest to eat on that evening but I really wanted to if it would not cause me a sack letter. I turned back from the table I finished serving and overheard my Manager receiving a call from his daughter who just came in from the United States unannounced just to surprise the parents. She exclaimed from the phone that she wanted to give the parents the most adoring valentine gift by bringing herself for a visit. While still on the call, the young adorable daughter walked in surprisingly. The manager and his wife were exceedingly glad to meet their daughter after two years of leaving for studies.
After a lot of hugs and a kind of reunion gestures to the daughter, the manager had to return to the table where his politicians friends were. The wife was quite exaggerated by the feeling of having her only daughter around. She felt so special and was ordering me around. As a quest to be snappy and satisfying to her, I mistakenly flipped of her daughter’s phone from the table as I was taking off the serving tray. That moment, I felt like disappearing but I was a little bit relaxed to handle the situation because the wife is quite approachable unlike the manager. “Christian, can you afford this phone which you tampered to destroy by your stupidity. How many of your family members can afford an apple iPhone 7 brand, not even the precious iPhone 12 pro max and here you are falling one.” Those were the aggressive words of my manager’s wife to me as I stood speechlessly waiting for her to drop so that I will apologise. She was deriving pleasure in insulting and describing the poor state of my family. But, definitely, it was preferable to me, that little mistake would have warranted multiple hot slaps if it was the manager. I was feeling lucky inwardly but on my facial gesture, I was really embarrassed. The furried sanguine temperament woman was satisfied of shouting at me. It was now my turn to show morals by fixing the mess with my hurried shameful face as I quickly apologized to her and the daughter. I offered to pick the phone for the daughter and as she was about taking the phone from me, I saw a childhood dark scar on her fingers. She stared at me for long as I did same. She saw the deary cut I had on my neck while I bent to pick the phone. We could not stop the long glance and her mother was looking so confused but she barely recognized what happened. The guests on the other table close-by all turned to our little drama. The short moment sparked our memories so far that we retrospect on our high school days, how we were seatmates, and still very fresh in our mind.
She bursted out and screamed my name and I hugged her so tight. Lo and behold, the daughter of my boss who just came back form the United States of America is my high school classmate. At that moment, I felt so thrilled, excited, and fabulous for meeting her once again. She saved me from the troubles of my boss. The mother already started shedding tears as she was having multiple feelings of the whole thing. She thought as much that a few moments ago, she was humiliating me and now, I happen to be the daughter’s high school friend and lover; In other words, his future son in-law. That feeling of bliss took over my whole body that I couldn’t even reply as she was hugging, kissing, and calling me romantic names. Indeed, she calling me romantic names as she does in high school takes the cake. It strucked me very sensitively that we began to kiss like people with hormonal overdrive. I was taken unawares by my boss who stood a bit behind us watching I and the daughter hugging tightly as love birds. For the singular fact that he has not run into scolding me ever since I started working there and he does everything possible to please and keep the daughter happy, he never hesitated to hug us. That feeling of fatherly approval sets in and I rushed down to the mother who was still marvelled at us. I brought her closer to myself, hugged her, and I told her “I have forgiven you Ma”. We all smiled deeply and we made a toast. Automatically, I became a guest that evening and not just that, I dined with my manager and his family.
At the dinner table, the parents could not really get off their eyes from us in amazement of everything. My boss’ daughter really missed me so much that it seemed she could just have her way with me there. I loved and cherished her back then in high school but she left for the US without telling me the exact date, only for my peers to tell me. Coupled up with how I missed the opportunity of joining her to the United States due to my parents financial situation, I loosed interest in believing that she would come back for me. We both took the SAT examination and we were awarded International Flagship Scholarships to the University of Texas but her parents were financially buoyant enough to pay her SEVIS, Visa issuance fee, and make her way there. I was left out in pains, sadness, and bitterness and tears always roll down my cheeks whenever I read the acceptance letter with the scholarship offer even at two years down the line. But God made us meet again and she is very successful. The most applauding part of it is that we got our reunion on a valentine’s day making it as perfect for us.
Christian Sunday is a teenager from Akwa Ibom State currently resident in Port Harcourt He is an Alumni Ambassador of the Yale Young African Scholars Program of Yale University and wrote in via christian.sunday@maine.edu
