Warning:- This book is meant for a mature and open minded audience. It contains mature, triggering and tense themes. I don't appreciate bashing of my characters or leaving me mean and offensive comments-I will block you. While I understand that the book may break your heart maybe... But be careful with how you leave comments expressing your hurt or heartbreak if you value reading the book, otherwise I will block you.
Three things make the world go round- money, power and sex.
"Honourable De melo, would you like to add your input to the mandate?" the governor asks briefly running his eyes over her before continuing with reading the notes infront of him.
She merely shakes her head.
"As if she ever has something to say," honorable Ramos snidely comments in a low tone, but enough to have the members around him chuckling and enough for her ears to pick up on what he has just said.
She lifts up her eyes and stares straight at honourable Ramos. Her stare on him has the chuckles diminishing instantly and honorable Ramos fakes a cough, uncomfortable with her eyes on him.
"What would you rather I say honorable Ramos?" She asks, her eyebrows raised at the 56 year old man.
He does not dare to answer, perceiving that it's a rhetorical question she's asking him.
The silence in the large boardroom gets uncomfortable. The members of the national assembly shocked at hearing her respond to honorable Ramos. Shocked at hearing her raspy voice. She almost never talked during these meetings. Nearly all the members could swear they had never heard her voice before.
"What does article 16 of the constitution state?" She asks again, this time looking at her fingers and twisting the silver rings around her middle finger, ring finger and index finger on her left hand.
"The government is to prioritize the needs and welfare of it's people. Choosing their safety before harm. Their wellbeing being considered in all decisions taken which largely affect The Republic of Cabo Verde." The governor responds reciting the article by heart, refreshing the minds of over half the members who had forgotten what the article says.
She raises her eyes, the corner of her lips briefly twitching into somewhat a smile, but not quite.
"How is the mandate about to be passed in line with what article 16 states? How will it help improve the situation faced by the people? How will it help alleviate the large numbers of unemployment, uneducated and starving citizens? 30% of the citizens are below the poverty line, 14% living in extreme poverty." She speaks, hardly fazed by the eyes of all 70 members of the national assembly on her.
The governor's secretary is unaware, but she has stopped writing down the notes of the meeting, honorable De melo having captured all of her attention. Her pushed back slick hair and the black shirt buttoned up to her neck with the navy blue blazer she has on enough to confuse the straight women and piss off the straight men in this room.
"We are supposed to be for the people. We are the people. But really what are we doing to help the people? The people out there don't want you to tell them big words, "the legislative" "mandates" and what nots. They hardly understand that. They want solutions to their problems. They want to feed their starving families and they want to wake up every morning and go out to their jobs along with their children going to school."
"What happened to the youth programme that was supposed to be up and running at the beginning of the year?" She runs her eyes over all of the members. They fidget in their seats and some members internally smile enjoying this, there is hardly anything exciting that happens during these meetings, this is a rare instance.
Some who still have a flickering conscience reflect in what she is saying. Realising how right she is, and how much they have changed from when they first entered the national assembly wanting to serve the interest of the people to now being so selfish and only concerned about where to buy their next vacation homes or what car to buy their new mistresses.
The governor is not suprised at her response. He has seen her university record and knows she has always been one of the exceptionally gifted minds. However, what he is not aware of is her temper and the next words that come out of her mouth shock him along with everyone else.
"And how do we expect the people of the Republic of Cabo Verde to progress when we still have misogynistic cunts like Ramos in the system and racists fucks like Frank!" She raises her voice, as she stares at honourable Hale Frank.
The room is filled with audible gasps of shock and mumbling.
She goes quiet. Finished talking.
Nearly all the men are furious. Honourable Frank's face has gone red with anger. Honourable Ramos boils with anger. And yet there is a part of the assembly that is celebrating and some can hardly contain their smiles.
"Please calm down members of the national assembly..." the chairperson says and the mumbling dies down.
"Thank you for your input honourable De melo." The governor states, nodding his head at her before closing the open files infront of him,
before saying, "This marks the end of our meeting."
"May all members rise for the closing prayer" the deputy speaker announces.
All the members of the assembly rise and a prayer is rendered by the prime minister before the members start moving out.
Honorable De melo Elica is amongst the first to come out and the moment she steps outside, she puts on her black sunglasses to shield her eyes from the sun that would add on her already horrible migrane. She unlocks her blacked out Lamborghini Aventador SVJ before driving out of the parliamental house.
She wants to drive straight to her home, but she remembers she hasn't bought anything for Nadina and she decides to make a quick stop in town.
She parks her car and steps into the pizza cafe ordering a meal with burger and fries. She sits on the furthest table to minimize the noise of the customers and quietly sips her water knowing it won't do much for her migrane.
Luckily her order comes back fast and she pays leaving a generous tip for the waiter before getting out of the cafe.
She's driving out of down when she spots brown locks in a small coffee shop. She blinks twice and when she sees the side of her face, she knows her eyes are not deceiving her.
Her heart beats erratically out of her chest and she quickly swerves back the car and parks it front of the small cafe. As she walks into the small cafe, she is fuming with anger and disappointment tugs her heart. Her worst fears have come true.
The young woman and man are startled when they see someone who has grabbed a chair sitting right at their table.
Nadina freezes. She smells her before she even sees her face. There's only one person with the kind of cologne she knows. There is no way to quite describe it. It smells like sweet earth...
Elica stares at her with a blank look, ignoring the person with her. and Nadina tries to smile, but her cheeks freeze.
"Elica! What are you doing here! I thought you were at your meeting!" Nadina says trying to sound cheerful but her voice coming out like a cat being strangled.
"I could ask you the same. What are you doing in a small coffee shop? I thought you were taking a break from caffeine?" She asks her face showing confusion with intent.
Nadina squirms uncomfortably in her seat. "Erm. Umm. Cole, this is my.. my. My best friend Elica. Elica, meet Cole. He's a surgeon at the hospital." Nadina introduces them.
"Lovely to meet you Elica..." the man says in a friendly voice, his hand out to shake Elica's.
Elica has the urge to slap his mouth shut.
She gives him a brief once over look and the poor man retreats his hand and opts to hold the coffee mug instead.
Nadina's cheeks go beet red with embarrassment and she wishes that in this moment the earth would open up and swallow her whole.
Elica looks at Nadina the wholetime. She can hardly hear what she is saying. She is thinking that wow... the moment is finally here. Her worst fears have come true. Nadina is on a date with some fucken perfect surgeon. Her imagination runs wild. She sees them dating. Holding hands at the park. They are getting married. Nadina has his children. The mental images disturb her and she shudders. She wants to knock over the table and fuck up whatever stupid date this is.
"When can you wrap this up, we need to go home" she states in a calm tone. Everyone can tell that she is anything but calm in this moment.
Nadina takes a deep breath trying to calm herself. "I'm sorry Cole, but i have to cut this short... Thank you so much for the coffee..." she stutters angry and takes out some notes from her purse, wanting to pay the bill.
"Oh no it's okay, i will pay. After all I'm the one who asked you to come for coffee." Cole says in a friendly voice.
Elica is getting more irritated with each passing moment and wishes she could slam her own money and pay for Nadina's bill. Elica is already up and waiting on Nadina so they can leave.
Nadina sends Cole an apologetic smile before standing up and leaving with Elica.
"What the hell!" Nadina shouts once they are outside.
"Where did you park?" Elica asks.
Nadina can't believe her but she does, knowing Elica. She briefly closes her eyes before pointing to her Audi RS7.
"I will drive behind you." Elica states before walking to her own car and getting inside waiting for Nadina to start driving so she can follow behind her.
The young woman stays inside her car fuming and retaliating. But after 5 minutes she knows it's no use and so she drives out and sees Elica following behind her.
She drives slowly on the road on purpose to annoy Elica knowing just how much she can't stand slow driving. Elica is beyond irritated but she ends up smiling realising that Nadina is doing this on purpose.
Instead of the one hour drive to their Boa Vista home, their drive ends up being nearly two hours.
Nadina slams her car door and rushes inside the house with a few plastics. Elica follows after her.
"You are so unbelievable!" Is the first thing she says when Elica enters the door.
"No hello? no how was your day Elica...? No would you like some juice...? two minutes of being with your surgeon friend and you are already mannerless" Elica spats.
The shorter woman balls and unballs her fists. Wishing she could slap her friend, but knowing that she could never.
"You are absolutely mad. Crazy. Deranged. What the fuck was that!? You absolutely embarrassed me. I can never look at Cole in the eyes ever again!" She says her words mixing up and hardly being able to talk with the anger.
Elica takes off her blazer and throws it on the couch, unbuttoning the first four buttons of her shirt from up her neck. "I embarass you? I embarass you? Really now? Since when?"
"You know that is not how i mean it. You were so rude to Cole. I introduce you to a colleague and you are downright rude to them. And then you order me to leave the coffee shop like you are my spouse or something. That was absolutely uncalled for!"
"I don't give a fuck about what your stupid colleague thinks of me. Matter of fact, I'm fucking sick of hearing his name it makes my head want to split in two! What the fuck were you even doing there with him in the first place?" Elica booms
"I was at the petrol filling station when I saw him. He waved at me and i waved back. He then came over and said hi. We talked for a bit and he asked if i wanted to grab some coffee and i said sure. We then went to that coffee shop and it had been hardly five minutes and you come traumatizing the poor guy..." she explains.
"And what could you possibly be talking about with him? Patients? Does that not go against doctor-patient confidentiality?" She mocks her.
"You are unbelievable! He was just being nice and trying to make friends"
"No he wasn't just being nice. He was interested in you. He wants you because no guy would simply just stop you for coffee "just to be friends".
"And what's wrong with that? What if he's interested in me? Is that so wrong? Do i not deserve people being interested in me?" Nadina asks in a resigned voice.
Elica is quiet because she knows she is right. But how does she tell her that it's wrong because she (Elica) is a selfish fuck and wants her all to herself?
Nadina turns around and leaves her standing by herself in the living room as she climbs up the stairs to her bedroom.
Isn't it ironic how most times, it's the people we love the most that we end up hurting?
They have been friends for six years now and this is one of the rare occurrences that they fight.
Elica flings the bottle of water she's carrying across the room and it hits the wall before bouncing and landing on the floor.
An hour later and all of Cole's banking details are on her computer screen. He has a million and ten thousand in his savings account. And over a hundred thousand in his debit account.
She steals twenty thousand transferring it to one of her account. That should stop him from wanting to take out women he meets at the filling station for coffee.
She is still angry. She presses a few buttons on her keyboard and Frank Hales' banking details come up. She does not even think about it and she steals a million transferring it to the same account she transferred Cole's money to. Next on the screen is Ramos. She takes five million CVEs from him, transferring the money to her account in France. When she is done. She feels her migrane dying down and she goes to shower.
She comes down stairs and it is clear that Nadina is still in her room. The food she bought being untouched. She sighs and goes up to her room.
Nadina is cuddling her suffed bunny, her eyes red from crying. She hates fighting with Elica with everything in her. And one would think she is still angry with her, but no. She is angry at herself. For making Elica angry. For disappointing her... Her only friend. The only companion that she has had for the past six years of her life. The only person who has been with her and never left her side. Never judging her but accepting her as she is.
The same song that has been playing for the past hour still sounds on her sound system.
"And if you are down on happiness, you better get used to the taste of sadness..."
Gladys Knights' love hurts plays. She holds her breath when she hears a knock on her bedroom door.
"You can't lock yourself in here forever you know?" She hears Elica's raspy voice on the other side.
"Come and eat. I bought your favorite meal."
Silence.
"I even added some burger and fries."
She fights the smile threatening to betray her and she still keeps quiet.
It is quiet for some time and she almost thinks she has went away when she hears her voice again.
"I'm sorry. You are right. I shouldn't have behaved like that. That was very disrespectful of me. And I'm sorry i embarassed you like that..."
"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings... i was just. I was just trying to look out for you..."
Nadina has already forgiven her, but she still keeps quiet and doesn't respond to her.
"Nadi?"
"Nadi... I'm really sorry. I don't want us to fight. I hate it when we fight...'
"Nadi..."
"Nadi, are you sleeping?
"Nadi?"
Elica thinks that maybe she is sleeping and she is about to walk away when her bedroom door opens and she is met with a sight of Nadina in her light blue warm pyjamas, she wearing a headscarf and her face is red as are her eyes. Elica hates herself knowing she's the cause.
Nadina walks back in and gets in bed. Elica follows her.
"I'm really sorry." She says softly as she sits on the chair next to her bed.
Nadina nods her head, not trusting her voice. Instead a fresh set of tears make their way down her face. Emotional from the past hours.
Elica panics. She can handle a boardroom full of governors and delegates, but not seeing Nadina crying.
She wipes her tears and Nadina closes her eyes upon her touch.
"I'm sorry mami. Don't cry. What do you want? Ice cream? I will watch those corny bollywood movies with you... don't cry mami... I'm sorry."
"Fine, you can go to the coffee shop with the coleslaw again and i won't disturb you." She says with difficulty.
Nadina laughs. "I don't want to have coffee with him again." She finally speaks.
"Good. I mean okay. No... why..."
"Because you don't want me to and i wasn't planning on doing it again or anything like that..."
"Oh..."
"Do you forgive me then?"
"Will you really watch a bollywood movie with me?"
"Yeah"
"And cuddle with me?"
"Yeah..." she says as if accepting another punishment when in reality cuddling with Nadina is a reward to her.
"Okay, i forgive you." The cardiologist says before sitting up and hugging her best friend.
Elica holds her tighter. Wanting to absorb her sweet scent and revelling in how soft she is.
"Lets go downstairs and eat before i turn pink with all the pink colours in this room."
"Behave. You are still on probation." Nadina smiles.
They stand up and go to the living room. Nadina opens the contents of the food and puts it in one plate so they eat together. This way way maybe her friend will eat more.
They start eating while the movie infront of them begins playing. Elica barely manages three spoons into her stomach.
"Eat more?"
"No. I'm fine now. Not much hungry." Elica responds before slouching on the couch and closing her eyes. The young woman always having had a very limited appetite.
Nadina feels her forehead with the back of her hand and the woman is burning up. There's not much to help her with because they have tried every single pain medication they know of. Nadina even asking for some extreme painkillers from the anesthesiologist at the hospital and none of them helping Elica. She stands up and goes to wet a cloth with cold water before coming back and putting it on her friend's forehead. Elica doesn't open her eyes and merely smiles when she feels Nadina putting the cold cloth on her forehead.
"We can watch some other day. Go and get some rest." She tells her companion.
The light from the television makes the migranes worse and she doesn't want her to be in any more pain than she is in already.
Elica stands up, her sweatpants hang loosely around her hips revealing the red plaid boxers she has underneath. Nadina's cheeks tint with a bit of red before she looks away.
"Night ugly."
"Night potato, and thanks for dinner."
Elica walks up to her room and brushes her teeth before getting in bed and hoping sleep comes quickly to spare her the pain of dealing with her migrane.
The two met back in university. Elica was doing her third year in electrical engineering and Nadi, her final year as a medical students.
Elica was sipping tea in the cafeteria and Nadina carrying a tray of food trying to find a place to sit. Elica's table was the only one with an empty chair and she braced herself and went to sit next to the dark androgynous beauty.
"Hi" she squeaked out as she sat down. Elica didn't even look at her, continuing to read whatever was on her laptop screen.
Nadina got the message and silently ate her food. She quickly stood up after finishing her food eager to get away from the unfriendly student infront of her and rushing to class. Alas leaving her laptop behind! It was only when she was in her dorm later in the evening when she realised that her laptop was missing. She immediately went into a panic attack.
While Elica on the other hand had seen that she had left her laptop immediately she left. She took it and pressed a few buttons making it unlock and she got what she needed to know.
Nadina Paris. Final year medical student.
She checked out her timetable and saw that she had a class at 7 am the following day.
A knock disturbed the final year medical students during their first class the following morning.
Nadina almost couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the girl from the cafeteria walking in with her laptop bag. How had she known?
She quietly spoke to her professor before leaving quietly about 2 minutes later.
"Miss Paris, your lady friend brought your laptop for you." The professor announced holding the laptop bag out for her. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment as she went up to collect her laptop.
She looked for the girl for days after that trying to find her and thank her. It was only a week later when she was walking from a late class that she saw her coming from a nearby building and walking away. She ran towards her and by the time she reached her, her chest was heaving trying to catch her breath.
Elica turned her head and saw her running behind her. The sight was almost comical, the girl barely being able to run. She stopped and allowed her to reach her.
"Sorry.. I. I.. I. I've been looking for you." She heaved.
Elica looked at her red face.
"I. I wanted to say thank you. Thank you so much. You literally saved my life. Thank you..."
"No problem."
Nadina smiled hearing her voice for the first time. She was almost certain she would just walk away and not respond. And just then, the young woman began walking away.
"Hey! Maybe i can buy you a drink to say thank you?" She offered.
"No need." Elica stated before walking away.
Nadina was disappointed. When she entered the cafeteria the following Monday and saw her sitting by herself, she knew that was her chance. She bought herself her lunch and bought a cocacola drink for the young woman.
Again. The woman did not even look up when she sat next to her.
"Hello" she greeted her and Elica did not respond.
She pushed the drink she had bought for her next to her.
"I prefer apple juice." Elica spoke surprising her.
"Noted." Nadina grinned.
She tried to make a conversation but all her attempts were futile.
The next time she saw her at the cafeteria she bought an apple juice and carried it to her table. She pushed it infront of her amd for the first time, Elica looked up at her and gave her a small smile before opening the juice and taking a sip.
Nadina felt victorious. From then onwards, she would always sit next to her whenever she saw her at the cafeteria and despite the lack of conversation between them, she found that she liked sitting next to her for those few minutes. One time she was the one who came first and the woman, came and sat next to her. She smiled, rejoicing silly inside.
She was jogging around the campus late in the evening, exercising when she felt the presence of a figure behind her. She saw a figure walking fast behind her and she knew she had to run faster. She tried, but the man caught up to her and clamped his hand around her mouth.
"Keep quiet or else i will shoot. You are going to turn around and follow me to that car over there." The man ordered.
Nadina shivered. Tears streaming down her face. They had just began walking when a motorbike passed them by.
Elica saw the girl and immediately knew that something was up. She parked her bike a few metres after passing them. She pretended to casually walk on the sidewalk.
Nadina heaved seeing her approaching them and she swore in that moment that she was her guardian angel. She felt the gun touching her back, a reminder for her to keep quiet and act normal.
Elica walked passed them and a river of tears streamed down Nadina's face. Elica had not even glanced their way or read what was happening. And knowing the nonchalant person Elica seemed to be, she doubted, she had even seen it was her.
Hardly a moment later and she Nadina heard a fist colliding with a solid object. The man behind her fell and a hard kick was delivered to his ribcage. The gun he was carrying scattered away. A few people came over and saw what was happening. After gathering bits of information from a sobbing Nadina, they did not hesitate to join Elica and delivered blow after blow of kicks, punches and spits from the students.
"You stalk students and try to kidnap them yeah? Take this you sick fucker!" One student said before kicking him hard and undoubtedly breaking his bones.
A police van saved the man from the furious students. All their anger from being broke students, the frustration of assignments, an oppressive system being taken out on him.
He had messed with the wrong student.
You don't fuck around with an orphan because there is someone always watching over them.
A police van came and took the man to the hospital as he was almost dying, but Elica would make sure that he never would never make it out of the hospital. The man never lived to tell the tale.
From then onwards, Nadina and Elica were inseparable. The students made a statement and a few testified to having seen the man lurking around for weeks. He was targeting female students.
From then onwards, Nadina never went back to jogging. She only used the university gym, and even then, Elica would always be with her. She felt protective of the young woman ever since then.
Years later and both of them never stopped thinking about how much of a miracle it was for Elica to have passed by in her motorbike and immediately sensed that there was something amiss. They shuddered to think of what could have happened if Elica had not seen them.
Elica De melo. Her Heroine. Seemingly ordained to be her heroine from day one.
It was a strange and uncommon thing to do, but the two moved in together after finishing university. Elica started working and Nadina was still completing her residency. Two years of Nadina working and they bought their first house. A large mansion in Boa Vista. Living together. Faithful companions.
After eating half her meal and finishing the mouth watering burger, Nadi went to the kitchen. She put some water to boil and started making the greentea, peppermint and ginger concoction for her Eli.
About 15 minutes later and she was done. She poured the contents in a large mug and she switched off the lights before going upstairs. She knocked softly on Eli's bedroom door before opening the door. The room was dark, but she could see from the small light coming from the windows. She found Elica lying on her belly, her eyes opened.
"You haven't been able to sleep?"
Elica nods her head.
"I made you the concoction, sit up so you can drink," Nadi instructed.
Elica made a sour face thinking about drinking it. The concoction tasted horrible! But it somewhat helped and so she sat up.
She took one sip amd put the mug down. "No. Thats enough. Im done." She said as her face twisted in all sorts of frowns.
"Stop being a baby and finish it," Nadi said laughing at her.
"You also take a sip. This thing is horrible! You always speak like that because you are not the one who takes it!" Eli whined.
Like always, Nadi took a sip and kept a straight face despite tasting the horrible mixture for the hundred time.
Elica laughed at her.
"Fine, it's horrible. But it helps."
"It does," Eli agreed before drinking half the mug and frowning with all her might.
"Good girl," Nadi told her.
"You are annoying." Eli responded before lying down again. "I'm going to finish the rest later."
"Okay. Get some rest then. Night." Nadi said as she stood up preparing to go to sleep.
"Night ugly, and thank you. " Eli responded as her eyes followed Nadi as she left her room.
"You are welcome." Nadi said before softly shutting her door as she went to her own bedroom.