"My God! Will you for once listen?. You're making this project tough for me," Femi lashed out, tossing his pen on the conference table and pushing his chair back. He let out a big frustrated sigh.
"It's you who should listen because all I'm trying to do is give an idea that can help us" Ijeoma looked up, her voice piercing and her eyes with anger.
Immediately, the room went silent as they realized that they were not the only ones in the room. They turned to meet the confused and embarrassing stares from their colleagues. Their tension that morning must have been alarming that even the CEO, Mrs. Ayodele had her jaw dropped in disbelief.
Her two finest employees, Ijeoma, her best marketing executive and Femi, her smartest tech whiz, are making a scene at a crucial meeting. She had noticed the tension between them earlier and warned but they had promised to put it in check. But from what she was seeing, they hadn't sorted out their differences.
Mrs. Ayodele cleared her throat, putting an end to the awkward silence in the room. "This meeting has been adjourned till tomorrow. Everyone leave the room except you two", she said, pointing at Ijeoma and Femi.
With the dragging of feet and clacking of heels, the other employees vacated the room, leaving only Ijeoma and Femi in the room with Mrs. Ayodele.
"Look here you two. I don't know what's going on with you people that have you behaving like kids. But you two need to work together this minute!" She said in a firm voice. "Our investors demand the best and that's what they're going to get. So it's best you two put whatever issues you have and give me results by tomorrow. Understood?" This time her anger was evident in her voice.
"Yes, ma'am", they replied in one accord.
Mrs. Ayodele stood up in anger and packed her stuff. "Spread your dirty linens in the conference room like teenagers. Exactly why I'm against office romance, but no, everyone wants to fall in love in the office", she muttered as she walked out of the room leaving the two to themselves.
Then the awkward silence came again. The weight of Mrs Ayodeles words hangs heavily in the room. How was she able to know that they had her dating? Then they felt sorry for themselves.
Ijeoma pushed her laptop aside and buried her face in her hands, embarrassed at what just happened. Her heart pounding in her chest. She had sworn to keep it professional with Femi and not let what happened between them get under her skin, but whenever she saw him, the sting of his betrayal became unbearable for her.
Femi, on the other hand, sat across the table, rubbing his forehead with his hands. Severally, he had tried making peace with Ijeoma, but she just wasn't going to listen to him speak. He didn't want to lose this project and was sure Ijeoma didn't want that either.
He looked over at her. "You know, if we're going to handle this like professionals, we have to deal with what's biting us up", Femi spoke in a calm and reserved tone.
"I'm not doing that with you here" Ijeoma replied without raising her face to look at him.
"Why? Because you want to keep avoiding that, we need to talk," Femi said, leaning forward.
"No, because I'm not spreading my dirty linens in the conference room", Ijeoma replied, looking up now to stare into Femi's face.
"Who cares?" Femi raised a shoulder. "There's no one here with us. Besides, if Mrs Ayodele can know about our relationship, do you think the others don't know?" his voice high-pitched out of frustration, but at the same time too low that no one but only them could hear him.
Ijeoma just sat there looking at him without uttering a word. Her eyes were still declining.
"Fine. If you don't want to talk here, can I at least take you to lunch to explain myself?" He pleaded
"No," Ijeoma replied, relaxing on her chair and crossing her arms.
"Why?"
"Because there's nothing to explain. I know what I saw at your house yesterday when I thought I had plans with my boyfriend to work on the project. But clearly, he had better plans for himself," she lashed out, quoting the air with her fingers.
"What you saw was my sister, Ijeoma," Femi said.
Immediately, Ijeoma went dumb with words; her jaws dropped. "That was Teni?" She asked in a softer tone.
"Yes. That was Teni"
Still trying not to believe "But why was she naked on the couch?" She leaned forward.
"Because.." Femi nearly yelled but caught himself and lowered his voice. He felt embarrassed for the next words that would come out of his mouth; leaning forward too, he continued, "Because I already told you about her addiction to hard drugs. She must have overdosed herself and dozed off on the couch naked. I never knew she was there because I was working on the project in my room waiting for you that was taking forever to show up" he pulled back his gaze on the table with shame "Then you showed up and all you did was lash out on me without even letting me explain"
"My God! How did I not even recognise her" Ijeoma said with regret in her voice.
"For starters, you've always always thought I was cheating on you. And I was so embarrassed that the first time you're meeting my sister was that way but you should have given me a chance to explain"
"I'm so sorry " Ijeoma stretched out her hands to hold him, but Femi retreated.
"Can we just work on the project together, please? We can deal with our emotions later" he said, pushing his laptop closer. At least he had explained himself.
Ijeoma heaved a sigh of relief. Relieved that Femi wasn't cheating and sorry that she took decisions too quickly. She pushed her laptop closer "Sure we can". Not satisfied, she stood up and walked over to him, pulled a seat closer and sat beside him.
They stole glances at each other and smiled. Then they worked on the project till late in the night. Brainstorming ideas and laughing at jokes.
By tomorrow, they were ready for the presentation, and they delivered so well that Mrs. Ayodele gave them a standing ovation.