Pelumi's Memoirs - 5

Dear Readers,

I appreciate your kind words, the comments, the questions..... @Ms O, when I got your WhatsApp chat today, I thought oh boy, I'm in trouble for not posting early this week.

Here we go with Chapter 5......... :-)


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Pelumi walked into the lobby area at Ferguson and Fletcher. She didn't see the plump woman from the day of the interview who had been looking at her like she was less than.

"I'm Pelumi Iruka Jacobs. I am a new employee and today is my first day here." The receptionist looked at her briefly. "May I please have your ID?" ID kwa? Pelumi reached into her hand bag and handed her ID. She had gotten an email with the list of documents required for her first day. She was dressed to impress in a Cece and Barnes green dress that stopped at her knees. Her aunt Kema had given her a pair of patent black Marc Fisher heels some time ago. She was wearing the hell out of it at the moment.  Itoro had insisted she bought 2 handbags for work. One was black and the other brown. She loved bags. Wait until her paychecks started hitting her account. She would buy a pink, a red bag, green, nude, navy....

She fiddled with the silver wrist watch on her right wrist. She had been told wrist watches belonged to the left wrist but she didn't care. She was a lefty and wearing a wrist watch on her left hand just seemed odd.

The receptionist checked her in and proceeded with making a phone call. She looked at her name badge. It read Jemima Omige. Nice!

"Dale, there's a lady here with me. Her name is Pelumi Jacobs. Today is her start date here." Jemima explained.

"Oh yes, please have her come to the third floor. The orientation is being held at the Mozambique room."

Dropping the phone, Jemima proceeded with directions. "Go straight ahead, first corner on your left, there are elevators to the upper floors. Once you are on the third floor, go straight ahead and turn right."

She had felt like break dancing listening to the receptionist give her instructions.

"Hi, I'm Dale Omondi."

"Pelumi Jacobs." She held out her hand to shake him. "Welcome to the Finance and Strategy team. We are the life of the party here at Ferguson and Fletcher. We make things happen."

Sweet mouth! This one was on a wrong team o. Probably should have been on the marketing team.

Pelumi took a closer look at him. Ah, he was one of the fine guys who had interviewed her.

"Your start partner will be Remi Kuku. You met him at the interview the other day. You'll be on my team. I'm the Director of Finance and Strategy. You'll report to me directly. Shirley Wright heads the Finance Division here at Ferguson and Fletcher. I report to her." Dale explained. Shirley Wright...The name sounded non- Nigerian to her. This company had money sha! They had invested a lot of money on aesthetics for sure. The colors were rich. She looked at the marbled floor she was treading on.

As soon as she got the good news about her employment, she'd called her mum who sounded very delighted for her. "I'm proud of you", her mother had said and she had been over the moon. Even now, she still had butterflies dancing in her stomach. In a country with a large unemployment rate, she had gotten a job like this one. Eh, God I thank you oh. She muttered on the inside of her.

"We go by a first name basis in this company. Toss 'Sir' and 'Ma' out of the window." Dale's voice filtered into her thoughts. Hmm, that would be difficult, Pelumi thought. This was Nigeria where respect was the order of the day. "Uhm, okay, I'll make a mental note of that."

"Great!" Dale said. "You can grab breakfast here. You have forty minutes to the start of your orientation."

"Here comes the man!" Pelumi turned to look at who it was Dale was referring to. She locked eyes that moment with eyes that looked like hazel nuts. She recognized him to be the other guy who had been on her first round of interview panel. She looked away. She had already been caught staring. Dale made the introductions.

"Nice seeing you again." Remi Kuku said. "Why don't you quickly grab something to eat. Orientation starts in another 35 minutes or so." His voice sounded very british and had a nice lazy drawl to it. Light skinned with an afro, the guy was dressed in a navy blue shirt on grey trousers. He had on a pair of brown shoes. Pelumi smiled and walked into the Mozambique room where her orientation was taking place.

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Ebitare Omatsola Akenzua groaned when the alarm woke her at 5am. She had a flight to catch at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport for 8am. She had logdged into Corazon Hotel on Isaac John, GRA, Ikeja in order to be able to make it to the airport without any issues. Leaving from Ikoyi would have been a hassle.

Taking a quick shower, she wore a red and white horizontally stripped shirt on red corduroy pants. Her blue Nike sneakers were super comfortable on her feet. 

She flipped on the TV while she did a quick makeup. Her stomach rumbled. Ordering a quick breakfast of  scrambled eggs and grilled potatoes and a cup of coffee, she went through the calendar on her work phone.

She was going to Sweden for a 3 day conference in organizational behavior and change management. From there she'd proceed to their London branch for meetings the rest of the week. She planned on taking Friday off so she could go shopping around Central London. Marble Arch, Oxford Street and Victoria were top on her list. At night, she and her friends had plans on catching up at Le Monde Club around Paddington. 

People said she was tough. Others called her snobby. She really didn't care. She was a strong choleric who was results driven. She knew some of her subordinates at work and friends talked behind her back. But hey, she didn't give a hoot. She remembered the days when all she sought was approval. She had been a people pleaser who was out to please everyone. She had hated being called snobbish all her life and feeling like the odd one out.  She simply didn't care now. She had learnt her lessons over the years. Now all she had time for was being true to herself. If some people didn't like her because of that, oh well, what could she do?

At twenty-nine, she was quite accomplished. She had her first degree in Marketing and a Masters degree in human resource management all at the University of Dundee. 

Unlike Ivan and Liyel who had both schooled in Boston, Massachusetts, she had opted to go to Europe. She loved it there. Words couldn't describe how she felt whenever she was in Europe. Maybe she'd move there one day. Just maybe..

She frequently toyed with the idea of going to Law school to major in Corporate and business law. She had a feeling she'd excel in that field. But she was looking forward to settling down in the near future. She had no idea how the pieces of the puzzle would fit. 

"Ekong, I'll be out in fifteen minutes. Are you ready?"

"Yes, madam." Ekong replied. 

"Okay cool." Tare said, cutting the call. He and Mr Osaro had been their drivers for a long time. They were hardworking and honest men and her family had grown comfortable around them. While she usually drove herself around, sometimes she needed a driver especially on days when she felt burned out. 

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Pelumi got off the bus and headed towards her house. It was a three minute walk from the bus stop to her house. The smell of plantain danced in the air when she walked into her flat. "Itoro ooo, what are you cooking? Seems like you are cooking up a storm everywhere. The entire house smells delicious".

Itoro laughed. "Well, it's grilled tilapia in spicy sauce and fried plantains for dinner. You interested?"

Pelumi smirked. "Before nko?"

"So how was your first day. Tell me about it." "It was good. I got introduced to the team I'll be working on." She gave Itoro the run down on orientation and how her day went. "They assigned one guy to help me get settled in. His name is Remi Kuku. I also met my manager, Dale Omondi. It's weird how he and Remi look alike. Dale is half Nigerian. His dad is Kenyan and his mum is from Delta State."

"Oh, that's nice! You guys have something in common." Itoro added.

"Yeah, true." Pelumi responded. Itoro dished her food, placed it on a tray and handed it to her. They both headed to the living room while chatting away.

"So, I was introduced to this guy. He took me out to lunch today." Itoro said after gulping water from the bottle on the table. "Oya, tell me about it. Is he tall, dark and handsome"? "You this Pelumi sef, must every man be tall, dark and handsome?"

"Nopes, you know I was kidding right?" Pelumi said while scanning the room for the TV's remote control.

"He's not a show stopper by the way, but he does have a way with words. He's brilliant and very well put together."

Pelumi listened to her friend rattle on about the new guy. Thing was, these guys kept coming Itoro's way. They started out interested but somehow managed to walk away and leave her in the dust. That didn't stop Itoro from getting excited about the next guy who came her way. She felt like Itoro needed a lesson on relationships or maybe she simply needed to stop putting these men on a pedestal and let them work to earn her love and affection.

Itoro flipped the channel showing on TV. "Ah, they are showing Sebastian's Hacienda!" She got up from where she was sitting and did a tap dance. Laughing, Pelumi ate the rest of her delicious dinner and focused her attention on the TV.