All For What!

23

"...Since the girls want to sleep here, I will drive you back to Abuja," Mukthar offered, smiling mischievously. What he had in mind was a wonderful idea. He was failsafe it'd work in his favor.

Contemplating on whether or not to take his offer, Sam resolved in accepting his offer for the only thing she could think of, was getting back to Abuja as soon as possible for she feared being fired from her job. She wasn't even thinking straight when she agreed. She didn't think of what the consequence of her action would be... Nothing! "Really? Thank you very much."

Mukthar chuckled, monstrously and replied. "It's no big deal."

Do not judge a book by its cover - indeed this saying was true for Nafisa. At first sight, she took him to be a bad, haggard and perverted rascal and he ended up being the only one who offered to help her in her dilemma. Maybe, just maybe he was not as bad as she thought. She smiled at him. He smiled back and led the way to where his car was packed. He opened the car door like a gentleman would and that action of his, impressed Nafisa more than she thought it would. She muttered 'thank you' to him before getting in. He also got into the car and gave life to the engine and they began their journey back to Abuja . . .

Twenty minutes into the drive, Mukthar decided to break the deafening silence in the atmosphere. He didn't know what to say, but he wanted to start a conversation. Something to make him gain her trust... "Uhm -" he cleared his throat then continued. "- where exactly do you live in Abuja?"

"Maitama," Nafisa answered, curtly. She didn't see any point in being verbose with him. She just wanted and needed to get home as soon as possible.

"You have a beautiful name, you know that right?" He asked, flatteringly.

Nafisa rolled her eyes at his words. She knew exactly what he was trying to do and she wasn't going to give in.

Mukthar cleared his throat, solicitously then silence followed for virtually ten minutes before speaking again. "If I may ask, how old are you?"

Nafisa felt like sealing his mouth with a tape for the peace of them both. He was asking superfluous questions and it irked her to the point of no return. What was with this dude?! "Old enough to take care of myself," she replied, irritatedly.

"Wow! I didn't know you are sarcastic," he said, jocularly.

"Well I'm not," She said, rolling her eyes.

"Hmm," he hummed. She was not as easy and soft as he thought. "- I'm sorry if I ask too much questions."

Nafisa realised she was being too hard on him and he had not even done anything wrong to her, rather he was the one giving her a helping hand. "Please excuse my malevolence towards you, I just have too much on my mind right now."

"I understand," Mukthar smiled.

Nafisa smiled back and averted her gaze from him to the road ahead. Thoughts on how Maryam and Saeed would react when they see her overflowed her mind. Still engrossed in her thoughts, Mukthar spoke, startling her a bit. He told her they were already at Maitama and asked her where her house was located. She gave him the address, but told him to stop few blocks from her house. He wanted to know why she didn't want him to drop her in front of her house, but she spurned the question and alighted from the car. Before she could start walking away, Mukthar also got down from the car and trailed behind her. Nafisa sensed someone behind her. She turned around and to her surprise, she saw Mukthar. "What do you want?" She asked, agitatedly.

"Chill," he chuckled, facetiously. "I just wanted to give you this." He said and handed an envelope to her.

"What does it contain?" She asked, with a raised brow. She just wanted to get this over and done with and hopefully, this would be the last encounter with him.

"See for yourself," he replied, cockily.

Nafisa heaved a sigh and tore open the envelope. To her greatest surprise, what she saw inside the small envelope was a bunch of one thousand naira notes. Involuntarily, she let out a gasp and quickly covered her mouth with the palms of her hands. "Who is this for?" She asked, unsure. It couldn't be her! Why would he give such a big amount of money to her in spite of how rude she was to him and what had she done to deserve it? It had to be for someone else.

"What type of a question is that?" He chuckled. "- I gave the money to you, so it means, it's all yours."

"Mine?" Nafisa asked, widening her eyes. She couldn't believe her ears. She wanted to jump up and down for joy. She was ecstatic! She didn't imagine she would be able to hold such money someday. "But why?"

"You don't want it?" Mukthar asked, teasingly. He could read the expression on her face perfectly well.

"I do. Of course I do... I mean since you're insisting, I will take the money," she finished and tried to wipe the happiness off her face. She didn't want him to see just how desperate she.

Mukthar chuckled. "Of course, it would be rude to decline."

"Yeah," Nafisa agreed. "- how much is this?" She asked.

"100k," he replied.

Hundred thousand naira! It took all of Nafisa's willpower to suppress her squeal. "Oh!" She said, reserved. "- I will manage. Thanks anyways, I have to go now."

"It's just the beginning," Mukthar smiled. Only he knew what was going on in his mind - the nefarious thoughts.

"What is?" Nafisa asked, hoping he was talking about spending his cash on her.

"You will soon know," he smiled, villainously to which Nafisa was oblivious to. "- before you leave, can I have your contac-"

Before he could complete his statement, Nafisa cut him off by replying; "of course, let me have your cellphone." Nafisa said quickly for she didn't want him to see the kind of phone she was using. Immediately her hand touched the phone, she knew it must be very expensive and classy. She believed it was the latest. Whilst busy admiring the phone, she forgot to do what she was expected to do. She broke out of her reverie. She wanted to save her number in his phone, but had no idea on how to operate a screen touch cellphone. She couldn't be blamed though, she had never owned such type of cellphone in the whole of her existence. Not to seem barbarous, she swiftly handed the phone back to him and called the digits out to him. "Goodnight." She said, afterwards and hurried towards the house. On arrival to the gate, she hid the envelop of money in the band of her skirt and tucked out to cover it properly.

She sighed and knocked on the door once...

She knocked again and waited for someone to open up...

She was not ready to face the consequence of her action, but she had lies cooking up in her mind. Vile ones.

~~~

Who thought Mukthar would not do anything to her?

What do you think Maryam should do to her?

What do you think about the new character, Mukthar?