Groom For The Day

"Chase him! Don't let him get away! Make sure you take him down!"

Tanya sat up as she heard the approaching feet and commotion as a group of men seemed to be chasing someone.

"Oh great! She sniffled and added the mangled tissue paper in her hand to the growing pile on the passenger seat. " Just my luck! A girl can't even wallow in her misery in peace? Is it too much to ask for a moment of solitude?" She shouted to the roof of her car and then quickly shut her mouth when she saw a man dart out of a corner, running full speed towards where her car was parked in the dark away from the streetlights.

Tanya mistakenly flashed her lights while she was fumbling around for her phone on the console and quickly switched it off back but the guy had looked right at her in that fleeting moment.

Tanya was taken aback by the sheer terror on his face.

"Nobody should be that afraid" Then she shook her head when she realized belatedly that he was not just intending to run past her. He was running to her!

"No, no, no, buddy. Keep going! Keep going!" She said fervently to herself as she saw him getting closer to her car with intent. As if, if she recited it enough, it would happen. "Don't stop, please, just keep going!"

She realized belatedly that her windows were rolled down and she was trying to reach for the button in the dark when the guy got to her.

Tanya screamed shortly, hating the girlish sound even as her subconscious registered how hot the guy was.

"Damn, he is so hot!" She thought as she shouted at him. "What the heck? Get...."

"Please, save me" he shouted in a gravelly voice.

"What are you talking about? Save you from what?" She shouted back at him and was answered almost immediately as four burly men with murder in their eyes rounded the corner the guy had come out from. The streetlight shone on their faces as they looked around obviously in search of the guy. The menace in their countenance made Tanya shrank back involuntarily against her seat.

"Those...those men are after you?" She asked in a whisper like they could hear her from three lanes away.

"Please! Please!! Please!!! Just get us out of here! They would kill me if they found me here! And they won't spare you as well" He pulled urgently at the car door as he looked back to check if the men had seen him yet "Just open the damn door!"

"What? I can't just....." She saw the desperation on the guy's face as one of the men spotted him near the car and then shouted to the others "The motherfucker is there!"

Tanya knew that she would certainly regret her next move but she unlocked the car. The guy got in, shouting at her "Please, go, go go!". Tanya gunned the engine and pulled out while he was still getting in.

"Jesus! I am going to kill somebody. Are you okay?"

"Just go! I am fine!" He snapped.

Tanya froze when she saw that the approaching men did not intend to leave the road; instead, they were getting together to block the car's path.

"What are you doing? Get going!" The guy snapped, fear evident in his voice.

"Don't you shout at me, you idiot! What do you mean by " Get going?" I should simply run over them, yeah?"

"Yeah," he said simply.

Tanya looked at him like he had lost his mind then she voiced it "You are crazy!"

"They won't stop coming!"

"No, I am not deliberately hitting anything or anyone a day to my wedding or ever! Not for you or anyone!"

"You are getting married?" He looked at her in surprise then back at the road. One of the men had gotten to the car and was hitting the car with his big fist even while in motion as he tried to stop them.

Tanya saw one of the approaching men bring out a shiny object. "Is that...."

"Yes, a dagger and he wouldn't hesitate to use it on me, well it is us now. You have to run them over or at least attempt to or the one behind us now would probably smash the window in no time at all"

"What do you mean by us? There is no us! Get out of my car now and go sort out whatever it was that you have with them! " Tanya yelled at him.

"I will be dead then and I would rather not. Also, you won't be spared as well, these people don't leave behind witnesses"

"What?" Tanya swallowed hard, involuntarily slamming on the brakes.

"I am sorry," the man said to her, and before Tanya could reply, he put his hands over hers on the steering wheel, taking control. He was bent sideways on the passenger's seat and Tanya quickly pressed the button that depressed her seat back. She scrambled out of his way after removing her seatbelt to get to the back seat. He gave her a brief grateful look and gunned the engine

He hit one of the advancing goons while the other one quickly scrambled out of the way.

Tanya heard a pinging sound behind her as something penetrated her rear window and she looked up in time to see something whizzed by the guy's ear, breaking the front glass in its exit.

"Was that...."

"Yes, a bullet. They are not joking at all!" The guy informed her hurriedly "Please stay down as you are"

"Oh my God! Oh my God! We are going to die! A day to my wedding and I am going to die in my car with a random guy;?! This sure would make a great headline" she panicked.

"No one is dying today if I have anything to say about it so please stop worrying about the fact that you wouldn't look perfect in your morgue shot" Then he looked back as he saw something in the side mirror "Shit, that was what he went back for!"

"What? What who went back for what?" Tanya asked anxiously with her heart in her mouth and the thought that she might end up dead after all.

"There were five of them! Been wondering where the fifth one was!" He shouted.

"What did he.....oh!" She said as she saw headlights flashing at them from behind "He went to get the car! Great! What would my mother say?! She would be so heartbroken! Oh my God, I am not even twenty-four yet. I can't die before I clock thirty. That just makes no sense" she rambled on in panic as she tried to envision her parents face when they told them that she was no more.

"Damn! They are gaining on us! Stay down!" He shouted as he bent down close to the steering wheel barely seeing where he was going. Another bullet whizzed by where his head had just been.

Then another struck the fender.

Then another.

And another.

The men seemed intent on riddling the car with bullets till it stopped.

Tanya flinched with each striking sound as she tried not to scream out loud.

"The irony of it was that no sound could even be heard from the shots. So if one should penetrate my body now, I would simply die without a sound. Always thought I would go out with a bang"

"Are you okay back there?" The man asked just as he swerved the car in a way that Tanya got thrown from her spot to the opposite side.

"Not dead yet if that's what you mean by okay!" She shouted back at him.

"Good. I would hate to have to explain things to your fiance. Can you run in your shoes?

" I can run on anything but this is a special occasion so I don't mind taking it off if....".

"Now!"

"Wha....." She squealed as he stopped the car and got out, opening her door and grabbing her.

Tanya was blinded for a moment by car lights.

She had no idea how she had tuned out the sounds in her terror but they were in the middle of a traffic jam surrounded by what seemed like a hundred cars, all stretched out and moving slowly.

She chanced a look back and saw that the car that was chasing them was about six cars behind them.

They swerved between honking cars, running at high speed. The clattering sound of her heels sounded deafening to her ears but there was no time for them to stop. They almost got knocked down by a car but the driver stopped on time, cursing at them.

"I am so sorry" Tanya shouted but the guy turned to the irate driver while running backwards.

"I was coming to inform you that I caught your wife in bed with that man running after us " he pointed at one of the men who had gotten down from the car to chase after them. "That is why he is chasing me, he wants to stop me! To silence me!"

The angry driver got out of his car and lay in wait for the approaching goon. Then as if he just remembered something, he turned to shout at their departing backs.

"I am fucking single, you asshole! She left me for a man who was better in bed! That was my damn wife's excuse!"

Tanya giggled hysterically as they kept running then she looked back when she heard shouts. The driver had punched the goon anyway!

****************************

Tanya couldn't stop laughing as they continued running and even though he told her to keep it down, she saw that he was amused as well but he didn't want to admit it. They left the main road behind and entered another neighbourhood, one different from the one they were coming from - a slum area.

The contrast was typical of how most areas are on Lagos streets. One of the places Tanya wouldn't have been caught dead in unless she was out on a cause.

She could remember the first time she had taken up her cause of reaching out to the junkie and addicts and she had been captured going to a place like this.

Her mother had had one of her perpetual migraines for days, the characteristic migraine had not stopped her from lecturing Tanya though.

The internet had been abuzz for a month and some netizens had asked her if she was meeting up with her secret lover there.

Some had said she had gone there to give birth to a child and some were even saying she had the child earlier but gave him up for adoption and now she had to go check on him.

The whole scenario had been so annoying and she had ended up giving in to the persistent request of her publicist for her to release a statement.

That was how what she had intended to do personally had turned public and in no time her foundation had been borne.

"What a sensation this would cause online now if someone should see me right now and post it online" She was so lost in thought that she missed what he said to her. She was startled when he nudged her and repeated what he had just said, asking if she had any money on her.

"No, I don't go about with cash but I am with my phone" she replied, uncertain of why he was asking. She was about to ask him when he said.

"Great, they accept transfer," he said as they approached a softly lit motel.

"What, who accepts transfer?"

"The people here, I know some people here that wouldn't rat us out even if those pursuing us could discover this place. We just had to get there first without being gunned down in the street" he explained to her in a rush as he looked sideways carefully for anyone lurking in the shadows before crossing over to enter the motel.

A man hailed him from the counter.

"Sanmi, please I need a room!" The man said urgently to the guy at the counter after scanning the faces of the people who were inside. The guy tossed him a key urgently with a raised brow.

"I will explain later, Let's go," he said to Tanya then turned back to the guy who was looking at her curiously "I am not here, Sanmi," he said to the guy meaningfully.

The guy nodded without a sound, giving Tanya a respectful nod.

The room was a simple one according to Tanya's standards. It was a far fetch from what her management team would have ever thought of getting for her. It consists of a bed, a table, a chair and a cable TV set up facing the bed. The toilet/slash bathroom door was open and Tanya could see how small it looked.

"Two people would need to stand or walk sideways in there for them to fit or crawl in fact," she thought in amusement as she envisioned someone crawling on the probably grimy floor just so.

Tanya sat heavily on the chair as she thought of what had just happened.

Something she wouldn't have thought would happen to her when she woke up that morning.

"Today had been the day for the unexpected, from Martinez's betrayal to this," she thought to herself as she remembered what had made her be at the spot where he had met her earlier.

"I can't believe I almost got killed" she muttered to herself then she looked up at the guy, who was looking down at the street from the window, standing sideways so as not to be visible from the street in case someone was monitoring him as well.

"I almost got killed because of a stranger today, someone I do not even know. My God!" She rubbed her hands over her face. "Do you think they are still after us? Could they have given up and gone back to...." She flung her hands. "To whatever it was that criminals do when they are not terrorizing people and making living a hell?"

"I am sure they wouldn't stop for a while but let's just hope they didn't discover this place.″ the guy said matter-of-factly without looking back at her.

Her panic kicked in again "You me...you mean they can still discover us here? Do you mean we can still be dead by morning? That I can still be dead by this time tomorrow? ″ she struggled for breath as her panic increased.

"Well.... let's just..." he looked back as he heard a thump behind him and he rushed to her as he saw that her eyes had rolled back in her head and she was struggling to breathe.

"Hey, hey," he said, taking her face in his hands. He looked deeply into her widened eyes.

"Hey, breathe, breathe, there you go. Slow does it" he crooned to her.

"I..I..ca...I can't die now, I can't." she started hyperventilating.

He had no experience with hysterics in females and he thought of what he could do to distract her mind from the impending danger as the only other thing he tried to avoid more than he avoided female hysterics was having a female faint at his feet.

And she very much seemed like she would do that if he didn't think fast about a way to diffuse the situation.

As hard as he thought, only one thing came to mind that he felt he could use to distract her.

He kissed her!

Tanya's eyes flew open as she felt electricity go through her from the fusion of their lips to her tingling toes. Her heart rate decreased and then increased again for a different reason.

She trailed her hands up his arms, to his neck, and then to his shoulder, and then she held his face as she moved back from the kiss. Her eyes trained on his bobbing Adam's apple.

He looked shaken by the kiss as well as he looked away from her "Listen, I know I shouldn't have done that. I am..."

"What is your name?" Tanya whispered.

"What?"

"I should at least know the name of the man I would probably die with, don't you think? I am Tanya. I would shake your hand but mine is not so steady right now, my whole system isn't."

"Tanya. That is a beautiful name" he said after giving her a long look. "I am Ayo, Ayodele"

"Hi, Ayodele, be sincere with me, okay? Who were those men chasing you tonight? Chasing us, I should say. Are you a criminal that I should beware of or an unsavoury character?"

He smiled cynically "Would you believe me if I said I am not?"

Ayodele felt like her look was penetrating his soul, so direct and full of meaning as it was when she muttered "I would believe you because I know that you wouldn't lie to me right now."

Ayodele sobered up and his eyes glistened as he remembered what he had seen that night. "No, I am not a criminal. I just witnessed my friend being murdered tonight, that happened to be my crime," he stated, humbled by the compassion and grief in her eyes for someone she didn't even know. He shrugged like it didn't matter so she would stop looking so sad but he was unaware that the tears in his eyes were increasing.

"Men," she thought "When will they learn that tears are not demeaning?"

Ayodele wanted to hide his face from her as he felt a tear plop on his face then another, then another but she wouldn't allow him.

"Don't hide from me, Ayo. You love him, what is there to be ashamed of in that?" Tanya said as she proceeded to do something her family, her friends, her fiance, and her teams would never have believed that she could do in a million years.

She dragged his face back to hers, kissing him soundly. Pushing her tongue into his mouth as she tore at his shirt.

"Whoa! Whoa! Hold on a sec" Ayodele protested and moved back a bit to clear his head as he looked at her eyes and saw a frenzied look in her eyes.

She didn't let him go.

She seemed like someone who needed a kind of validation.

"Are you sure about this?" He asked.

"Why not, we'd probably be dead soon anyway" Tanya tried to reply flippantly but her voice caught on the last statement.

She looked into his eyes determinedly "Have sex with me. Make me forget about it all. Make me feel alive this moment"