The One Who Holds Me (Sovereign Love #4)

17. Alex

17

ALEX

NOW

W ho says God doesn’t answer prayers? Definitely not me, because my God is too good. After sending my petitions up to Him this morning, begging Him to provide an opportunity to speak to Olanna without it seeming like I’m harassing her at work, He showed up for me.

Here’s the moment where I find someone to do my happy dance with, which includes some fists pumps and chest bumps. But Kwame isn’t here, so I’ll respect myself and not let this opportunity go to waste.

“Olanna,” I call out and she stops in her tracks before turning her head slowly to look at me. Instead of the irritated and stony look she has been giving me so far, Olanna’s eyes soften when our eyes meet and, dare I say, there’s even a faint sparkle in them.

Lord, please, don’t let her walk away.

I wait a few seconds and when she doesn’t move, I take that as my cue and inch toward her, getting close enough to inhale her hypnotizing tropical scent. I’m close enough to notice she has re-twisted her locs and looks refreshed and relaxed. I’m close enough to notice the smile forming on her lips accompanied by a slight shake of her head, which I recognize as a gesture she makes when she’s feeling amused.

Is that…is that really a smile? Or am I now imagining things?

“What are you doing here?” she asks, and if I hadn’t already convinced myself that this was really happening, I would’ve pinched my arm to wake me up from my dream. She’s actually talking to me and attempting to make a conversation? Hallelujah.

“I ran out of food at my apartment, so I thought I’d make a quick trip to the grocery store.” I nod toward my car.

“Okay, then. I won’t keep you.” She takes retreating steps onto the road as a car approaches her from the right.

“Olanna, wait…” In one swift motion, I run toward her and wrap my arms around her before lifting her off the ground and turning her away from the car.

The driver swears at us before honking multiple times and driving off, but time stands still as we both stare into each other’s eyes, her hands planted firmly against my chest and her warm breath mingling with mine.

She adjusts her feet on the ground to gain her balance and that’s when I realize I’m still holding her really tight. “I’m sorry.” I let go of her and take a step back as she smoothes out the creases on her jacket.

“Thank you,” she says under her breath. “I didn’t see the car coming and?—”

“Olanna, please, can we talk?” I cut her off because if God has started out my day by throwing blessings my way like this, I’ll go straight to the point and not waste any more time.

When she shakes her head, I step even closer. “Please, I need to explain.” I lift her chin up with my finger, so her eyes meet mine because I know she can also feel the electricity that courses through our veins when we look at each other.

“I can’t,” she whispers.

“You can’t or you won’t?” I press in, holding her hand, and just when I start getting used to her warmth, she pulls away.

“No, don’t do that.” She raises her voice, letting me know I’ve overstepped my boundary.

“I’m sorry.” I raise both hands in the air and step back again. “But Olanna, please…”

“Why are you begging me, Alex?” She looks at me again and the sparkles in her eyes are long gone, replaced by hurt threatening to consume them. “You remember what I told you the day I came to your apartment?”

“Of course I remember, and I beat myself every day for letting you walk away.”

“You had a choice.” Her voice breaks as another car drives past us. “But you let me walk out of your life without thinking of the consequences.” She turns around and starts walking across the road.

Desperate to make her stay, I blurt out, “I had health problems.” And it works.

On the other side of the road, Olanna stops and turns to look at me. “What?” Her forehead creases up in confusion as I walk across to meet her. “Are you…are you dying?”

I shake my head vigorously to relieve her worries. “No, I’m not, but there’s so much I need to tell you. Please have lunch with me. I’ll explain everything.” I extend my hand to her and after holding back for a few seconds, she finally lets me hold her hand.

I never found another branch of Chicken Nugget Palace apart from the one close to the NYU campus, so you can imagine my excitement when Olanna and I find one inside the mall. Her silent gasp followed by a wide grin tells me she’s as excited as I am, so with our shared and unspoken consent, we make our way toward the fast-food restaurant which—if we say so ourselves—makes the best chicken in the whole wide world.

This one is smaller than the one we frequented in college, but it doesn’t matter because the menu is still the same. With Olanna’s hand still in mine, I guide her to a window seat because she always loved sitting on the high chairs and letting her feet dangle from them as she challenged me to our milkshake drinking race.

She always won—or shall I say, I always let her win—because she was the queen of my heart and it was my duty to give her what she wanted. Two years have passed, and a lot has happened between us, but she’s still the queen of my heart and I need her to believe that.

“The usual?” I ask when she takes a seat and places her bag on the table.

“Yeah, medium, please.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” I make my way to the counter, ordering us both spicy chicken nuggets, fries and large peanut butter and banana milkshakes. I pay for our order and five minutes later, I’m walking back to our seat with our food.

Olanna’s face lights up when I place the food in front of her and the milkshake is the first thing she tries. “Hmm, it still tastes so good.” She closes her eyes and tips her head back.

“You can say that again.” I chuckle and she follows suit.

“Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I had Chicken Nugget Palace food.”

I place a nugget in my mouth. “I don’t remember the last time either, but I remember I was with you.”

Her gaze moves from her burger and she locks eyes with me for the first time since we’ve been here. She holds the gaze for a long time and I wait patiently, hoping that if not for anything, at least for the sake of the good times we shared, that she’d engage with me.

“Yeah, so much has changed since then, hasn’t it?” She clears her throat and picks up some fries from her plate before putting it in her mouth.

“Yeah, but you still look as beautiful as ever,” I respond, choosing not to play it subtle.

She looks at me again before a smile breaks on the corners of her lips. “Thank you. You don’t look too bad yourself.”

Thank You, Lord. She’s finally engaging. Now I just need to make sure I don’t say or do something stupid that’ll ruin this beautiful moment.

“So, CEO, huh? How did that happen?” I lean back in my seat and rest my hand on my jaw.

She shrugs as she takes another sip of her milkshake. “Well, I guess you could say we can make our plans, but eventually, God’s plans always prevail.” She picks up a nugget and continues. “Manny never wanted to take over Madu Health. My dad wasn’t happy about it at first, but he realized Manny was called to do something different. He and Heather are doing great running their own charity marketing agency called Charis Charity Marketing. They’ve made a huge impact across the globe over the last two years, especially in Nigeria and other African countries.”

“Wow. That’s amazing. So I’m guessing Emmanuel and Heather got married then?”

She pulls her brows together. “Yeah, how did you know?”

I lean back and scratch my head. I can’t let her know that I’ve been going around asking about her. “Erm…Melissa might have slipped something out after our last meeting. You know how excited she can get, right?” I let out a nervous chuckle, but Olanna seems to be buying it.

“Yeah, they got married and they have a beautiful daughter—Ayannah. I can’t believe I’m an aunt. I’m so blessed.”

“Indeed, you are.” I smile at her as she dabs the corner of her mouth with a napkin.

“What about you? How did you get this position and how did they come to trust you so quickly?”

I slurp the last of my milkshake. “Well, in senior year, I became really interested in the SEO world. So after college graduation, I built a website and did some work on my own to build my portfolio. Then I pitched my ideas to a few companies and a year ago, HearCare hired me. When it comes to them sending me to you, though, that’s all on God. I had nothing to do with that.”

Her eyebrows furrow. “What do you mean?”

I pause as my gaze drops to her hand on the table. I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t help myself. Being this close to her does things to me I can’t explain. One of them is finding it difficult to keep my hands away from her, like I’m trying really hard to do right now.

“I mean that for two years, I prayed for God to give me an opportunity to sit down with you again.” I give in to my urge and reach for her hand. When she doesn’t pull away, I cover her hand with mine.

“So you got an answered prayer. Now what?” Her tone is neutral, yet her expression is as serious as I’ve ever known it to be.

Now is not the time to beat around the bush. I prayed and God came through for me. He did what He promised and brought me back to Olanna. Here is the part where I obey and tell her everything that happened, even at the risk of her thinking the worst of me.

“Alex?” The sound of my name in her mouth is like a balm that soothes my heart. But it pulls me out of the black hole of my thoughts, reminding me about the important task at hand. I can’t mess this up.

“Yes, baby.” Her body stiffens at my use of the term of endearment, but I’m not even sorry. I’ve hidden so many things from her before, but one thing I never intend to do is hide the way I still feel about her.

“What happened?” she asks. “What health problems did you have?”

Okay, here we go. Lord, please take control. I let out a huge breath and start talking.