The Black Sheep IV.

Some people start out to life relatively early. And so, some other factor influence their quick and steady rise in their career.

Ada isn't very old. Actually she's young. And indeed when I got to know she's 30-something, I couldn't help but wonder how a lady in her 30s had risen to head a department, not even a mushroom company but in a company that's doing so well.
As it turns out, Ada was born in the UK. And her parents being well educated themselves had her started out very early. She too must have been exceptionally bright. She finished secondary education and proceeded to university there in the UK, occasionally coming on holidays to Nigeria. She had finished and had come home to serve. After completing the mandatory one year programme with the National Youth Service Corps, she had started work almost immediately. So, at 24, she had began her life. And over the next ten years, Ada had risen steadily in her career to head where she is now.

Such story of a young hard-working and relatively successful lady would not go unnoticed by many. Yet, while many would love her more for it, a few would think differently. And perhaps, fewer still are those prone to Jealousy and Envy.
Among these small, Mercy pledge her allegiance.
When women work together, a thing as petty as a new shoe can cause envy to go a very distasteful level.
And in matters of positions in the workplace, Mercy seemed to loathe the idea that Ada should be her boss.
Like an ember smouldering underneath, Mercy nursed her hatred for Ada, waiting like a viper to strike.

And Ada and I had been walking into a net, unknown to us.

Over the months that followed since my start of work here, I had tried to conceal my affection for Ada.
But there's no how one can perfectly mask such love. Platonic friendship isn't always a perfect cover. A careful watching eye will see beneath. Williams has seen beneath the 'platonic friendship' and even though he never asked, he always tried to caution me by some stories he told. But the thing with love is this, the more risky it is, the more it pulls all your senses on. Same as lust.

One day after work at the office, Efe called me aside. He desperately needed a favour. A new company policy had restricted the sites staff could visit because a particular system was always plagued with trojans, worms and viruses. Yes, you guessed right: Efe's system!
Even when they had to change his system, the computer pests would return. And his addiction to pornographic contents would not let him be.
Now, he wants me to help him work around the policy. If there was anything Efe knew, he argued, was that there were always ways to get around things with computers. And even when I told him I didn't know how to do it, he would have none of that. He continued to pester me.
Yes, there were things I could try. Like changing the proxy, or checking with 'Exceptions' or 'Restricted Sites'. Generally, the restrictions might be browser based. But if I did help him, it could backfire when any IT guy notices the new policy had been bypassed. If he mentioned me, there could be sanctions.
This I mentioned to him. Then Efe in his desperate attempt to get porn sites to open on his system, told me he had something to tell me!
Huh?!
And as he claims, could save me my job!!! I was shocked at such claim. What could that be, I instantly became curious. Efe said I had to help him first.
"Efe, if you try to blackmail me in the slightest possible way, I'd show you the kind of a beast I am"
"Stag, you be my guy na. Which kain talk be that nau. Na as you dey take help me, I suppose get your back nau"
"So what is it?"
"Shhhhhh. Bring your ear"
I moved closer to him, Efe went on to tell me how Mercy had been snooping around trying to get information on me and Ada.
She had come to secretly ask him what was going on between me and Ada.
"But why was she comfortable talking about it with you?" I asked
At that point a broad smile spread out evenly on his face.
He stared at me blankly, smiling like there was something I didn't know...
Then gradually I begin to reason Efe out. What other thing would draw Efe closer to any woman asides beer? Hmmmm
Oh sh*t!
"No no Efe, its not true..." I was saying as I shook my head in disbelief.
Efe was screwing Mercy?! The holier than thou married woman?!
Most of the staff in the company were young and mostly unmarried. Mercy is one of the very few married ones and she wouldn't hesitate to push her fourth finger in your face if you didn't notice the ring there.
And so in characteristic Efe's style, he had laid her to give her intel.
But. Efe wasn't telling me because of me. But because of Ada. Ada had been good to him. She had been among the panel that asked him questions on the day of his interview and although he had flopped several times with answers, Ada was like Frank Edoho in 'who wants to be a millionaire'. If Frank naturally likes a person, he would give signs and try to shield you and even give you 'expo' on a question so you would not lose.
Ever since he saw the text that informed him that he had been successful at the interview, he simply knew that woman had been the Angel God had used to get him the job. He'd never said anything about it but he'd always be grateful to her.
On the other hand, Efe said
"Whoever wants to damage her boss just to get same seat? Eh? Who does that? Stag these hoes aint loyal..." He shook his head in disappointment.

"So why you come dey waylay am?" I asked.
"Free womanliness my guy, if na you nko? She who seeks another's fall can't have my heart. Instead, I go dey flog am. And she sabi do am like Lisa Ann" he winked and laughed out loud.
I wondered who that was.
"Stag, abeg na. Help me with that thing. Jenna Haze get new pictures wey I wan view, abeg"
"Okay, but after two days, I'd turn it off"
"Make am three nah" he said in a carefree manner. Funny guy.
"Okay. Three days max"
"My correct guy! Nothing fit do you for this office, I swear!"

But the revelation jolted me down to my bones. I was shaken. Could I trust Efe? For porn, he told me a secret, can he not tell another. But somehow, deep inside I knew I could trust Efe. Efe had ears everywhere, he knew things around and behind walls. Efe, however, always said something that always impressed me
'There is honour even among thieves'.
Like he made it clear, I'm not top on priority as to why he told me, neither am I top priority target of Mercy.
Ironically, he was protecting the very person whom his office fvckmate sought to harm. By proxy. So I could do something about it yet, not tell Ada. Like men, we had reasoned together. And I could sense something solid in this guy. A confirmed guy. To get access to porn wasn't really why he told me of it. Something deeper than that was.


His undeclared loyalty to the ever lovable Ada was.


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 I pondered long and hard on the implications I just heard. How many more people would have noticed my closeness to Ada.
When I got home, Ada and I spoke very briefly and didn't talk again that night.

The next day at work turned out a little dramatic. Sometime in the afternoon, I had sent a BBM chat message to ask how the day fared. No response.
An hour later had gotten me wondering a bit. I was to later hear Ada was in a meeting with the MD and in a short while, heads of departments were in for a meeting. There had been an unusual case of in-subordination. Not very heard of in the relatively compact company.
Mercy had deliberately disobeyed an instruction from her boss.

I didn't get to read nor hear from Ada the whole day, so I stopped dialling. A few minutes to close of day, a message came in. It was from Ada, asking
"Are you busy this evening?"
"Not if you tell me why you went all AWOL on me"
"When we see"
"Where?"
"African Buka. 6."

I got there a bit earlier and got a drink. She would arrive minutes later, after 6. She looked stressed and a bit emotional. So I decided not to push because I know at some point we will get around to talking about it. Neither did I pretend not to have heard the whispers in the office.
We off to a slow chat. She wasn't much fun and looked like there was really much on her mind.
"We could talk about it when you're readym" I said
She looked at me a few seconds and looked away. Then nodded.
"I feel like a drink. Do you mind?"
"No" I replied
I thought she really needed it bad.

We left for the place around Afariogun street in her estate. It hadn't been much fun neither. So I suggested she went home and refreshed and could join me in about an hour. I would wait for her.
She agreed but when she got up to go, like a second thought, she asked a sarcastic humour
"Are you sending me off to meet with one of your numerous chicks?" She joked
I laughed
"Are you jealous?"
"I would expect a more civil way of telling me you want to meet with someone than attempting to trick me away"
Some humour she got.
"Then by all means, you are welcomed to stay"
"If I went, what would you be doing?"
"Waiting for you"
"I don't want you waiting for me"
Hmmm. So she wanted me to come along. To her house? Wow. Okay.

Her place was a bit cozy. She lived in a two bedroom. The furnishings were really warm and showed some taste. Expectedly.
She had a huge collection of movies. She asked what I'd take and went into what must be her kitchen. I went to the CDs and realised there were audio too.
She returned.
"Is the player okay?"
"Yes"
I push the 'Open' button and inserted Anita Baker's 'Rythm Of Love' album and the first song started. She handed me a canned Guiness and was drinking Smirnoff herself. We talked and laughed a bit. Clearly, she wasn't much of herself today. She didn't talk much. Nor laughed much. But she seemed relaxed. She had taken off her jacket.
But when the third song began, Ada seemed to be in rythm with it. Maybe the song meant something to her and out of nowhere when I wasn't expecting her to start
"Mercy is becoming a real menace. She getting too crude."
I didn't say a thing. I just allowed her pour her mind out.
She told me of how she had, up to a point, had to put up with Mercy's approach to doing things. She's either trying to cut corners or doing something outright silly. She told me of an issue when she had been on leave the previous year, Mercy had connived with someone in Accounts to defraud the company. When she returned and noticed it, she had asked but no satisfactory answer had been given. The MD had asked her for explanation as to the money and she had just said things that made her sound silly.

Mercy is ambitious. Over ambitious, actually. Very noticeable. But challenging one's boss isn't always a very wise thing to do because even if you were right and your boss goes away, your next boss will be suspicious of you and infact, your subordinates will make you a victim of your own standard.

On this issue, two people had wanted the premiums they pay for life coverage be deducted from their salary before it is being taxed. The Accounts section had forwarded it to HR to acknowledge. Ada had asked her to wait a bit and see if they could confirm details of the insurance policy and how if relates to the firm's employment and insurance policies. Instead, Mercy signed it on. She hadn't even known until the Head of Accounts had met her on the staircase and had noted that he had expected to see her own signature.
That was a silly move by Mercy, if you ask me.

Well, by the time she finished the story, I saw something in Ada that might hold true for most women in demanding positions of authority. They may act strong outside, really, inside they are still the emotional beings they are. A mixed feeling of anger and something else I couldn't place poured from Ada, and maybe she hadn't even noticed I had moved close to her by now. Because when I put my hands around her, she swallowed.
All I could whisper was
"Its alright... Its alright..."
And maybe that added to her emotions as Anita Baker rendered her music with so much soul.

I would hold her like that for the next five minutes. Just there, doing but else but holding her. After a while, the emotions seemed to have waned off, she gently and very calmly broke free.
"That was soothing, thanks" as she sat.
"I think you should have a shower, eat something and rest a little. We'd talk when I get home"
We chatted a little more and I got up to go. She led the way to open the door for me while I came behind her.
Mehnn!!! Oh boy!

Ada asss needs to be commended. Viewing it from the back, it was round and thick. She had taken off her jacket so I could see the type of asss she had. You know, those types that start at the lower back. And I could sense it would even be bigger when seen in a tighter skirt than the loose fitting one Ada always wore.
Still, her hips shares some of those flesh, protruding. Sideways in a very sexy curve down her thighs. Full laps. This was not fat. No. This was pure raw meat. My Johnny-T began to rise at the sight. The analysis of the vision in my head was making my rod harden faster.
And she walked to the door, things got harder under my trousers. Her huge asss was rolling up and down in a very seductive manner. There was this urge to hold her from the back and feel the inspiration emanating from the rolling of the calabash.
Mehn! One needs to kabash not to fall into the temptations of the calabash.

Back home, my mind and the whole of my body was fixated on the visions I had seen on Ada. Ada had a very huge ikebe. No wonder she always wore loose fitting dresses. Even on friday, she'd not wear what will make eyes see.
I was turning and turning on my bed, restless. I thought to call her like I had said earlier but if I called Ada in this mood I am, I go just dey jabo. I go just dey mis-yarn. And I didn't want to fuck up and spoil my chances of hitting the core. But that heavy nyansh I saw was what an IT person might call 'Dual Core'. And yes, it was making my rod hardcore.

I didn't know when I drifted off to sleep. For all I know sef, by the time I was having all these thoughts, I was dreaming sef...