Akwesi lay in the soft, light blue eucalyptus sheets, feeling the fabric from under. “Damn, these sheets are luxurious,” he muttered to himself.

Clementine came back from the bathroom in her short, red, silk kimono robe, just in time to hear his like for her bedspread. She loved that he liked it, but she wasn’t about to let him know that easily. “I see your village ass is finally accepting just how bush you were living before.”

“Chess, when the hell did you even get out of the shower? I didn’t hear you come in.”

“You know I like to make an entrance. Also, my bathroom slippers barely make a sound. Welcome to the life of luxury. Now, are you going to keep fondling my sheets? Or are you going to open up so I can lie next to you like I know you want me to?”

Akwesi kept feeling the sheets as he examined them. “I knew you lived well, but I didn’t know you were this bougie.”

He looked up and saw that she had undone her belt, and she was inching the robe apart, bit by bit. He looked back at the sheets, pretending not to notice what she was doing although he was mentally preparing for her. “Its not enough that you have a queen canopy bed with blue lights and white drapes, like a damn princess. You just had to get some fancy cloth that damn near massages you as you lie in it. And your bed is a tempur pedic? You are extra bougie!”

Silence greeted his statement, so he looked up again only to see the robe parted enough to show her cleavage.

Clementine clearly had one thing and one thing only on her mind, and his quips were not going to stop her. With each bit she pulled the robe apart, Clementine took one step towards him. “If you don’t open up the sheets and invite me, there will be hell to pay.”

He unconsciously started to pull the sheet off himself, and by the time she got to him, the sheet was fully off him, and her robe was sliding down her hips.

“Goddamn, woman. You’re going to be the death of me.”

He put his hand out and started to rub it up her leg, but she threw it off of her. Clementine knew he had dominated her in their first couple of romps that night, and now, she was going to run the show. “You made me have to come over here. Now, I’m going to make you pay for your disobedience.”

She leaned over him and pushed his face into her chest.

******

 “What are you up to, babe?”

Clementine had woken up to find Akwesi absent from her side. She’d initially thought that he’d done the walk of shame out of her house, but then she walked into her hall with a bottle of juice and found him lying in her couch in his boxers. “You couldn’t wait for a girl to wake up before you left her side? Don’t you know its bad for the ego?”

Akwesi smiled at her and reached out his hand. “I’m sorry, babe. I got a call and I didn’t want to wake you. Come here let me give you a proper good morning.”

She shook her head in amusement and did as she was told. Then she sat in the other couch which was next to him.

“So, now that we’re six months in, when am I getting my key?”

Akwesi barely moved, focused on his phone as he absentmindedly asked, “What key?”

Clementine snapped her fingers in his face. “My key to your place.”

Akwesi sat up, mildly confused but also understanding the need to play this one well. “You have a spot, Chessy. A spot I’ve only just been in for the first time in the six months we’ve been together.”

“A fact which is only true because I never let anyone in here until they have my unwavering trust. And you only just earned it at the six month mark.”

“You also have access to my place anytime you want.”

“Not without a key, my love.”

Clementine got up and went behind Akwesi to work the patented weapon of every woman: a head rub. “Look, I’m not being clingy or anything. I just want to be able to share everything with you, and that can’t happen if I don’t have anytime access to your place.”

The head rub was absolutely doing its job, but Akwesi was still conscious enough to look extremely hesitant. Clementine leaned into his ear from behind. “What’s mine is yours, and what’s yours is mine, remember?”

Akwesi turned and gave her the most perplexed look, which only seemed to firm her resolve. She stood and looked right back at him with every ounce of conviction in her.

Akwesi knew the look very well, and understood that the only way out of this corner was to give in. Or, at least, give the appearance of giving in. “Chessy, I would love for you to have a key, but I still have to consider the idea. So, tell you what: let me think about it.”

Clementine put up the puppy dog protest face, but Akwesi was ready. “Let me think about it, give me about a week. You’ve gone six months so far. Let me have a week to decide.”

Clementine held the face up a little longer, just for effect, but then she agreed. “Fine. But you get a business week, not an actual week.”

Akwesi leaned up and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Fair enough.”

*******

“Guy, I’m telling you, you’re going to have to jump bandwagons at some point. Cos you guys just took seven, man. Seven!”

“Ekraa you still can’t beat Madrid and we just handled our business with Betis. See how we just kicked their asses? That’s mental fortitude, boy! You boys were just catching L’s and draws left and right before you got one big win sekof we slacked.”

“Is that your argument? When was the last time you lost that big to us?”

“When was the last time your team played well, besides our game?”

The back and forth between Akwesi and Franklin at the office was a tale as old as time. The two men hit it off on the very first day they met as new hires, and there was never a day when their Liverpool-Manchester United rivalry did not make an appearance. They’d been ten minutes early to a meeting, and had spent eight of those minutes battling for dominance in this rivalry yet again.

“Look, when you boys get a striker who isn’t always injured or even has a clue as to the concept of goalscoring, call me. Until then, I will forever serve you Darwin and Firmino.”

“I’ll ignore the very obvious error of mentioning Firmino and goalscoring in the same sentence for now. Call me when you finally get Luis Diaz to be Sadio Mane. Boom!”

Akwesi badly wanted to hit back after that dig, but then his phone rang. Franklin saw the name of the caller and couldn’t resist. “She call me Mr. Boombastic, tell me fantastic, touch me in the back, she say I’m Mr. Ro!”

Akwesi gave him the ‘I dare you to finish that’ look, and Franklin went quiet. But as soon as he picked up the call, Franklin went, “Mantic!” and immediately saw himself out expeditiously. Akwesi couldn’t help but laugh.

“Hey love. What’s up?”

“Someone just tried to rob my house. The police caught him before I got here.”

“What!”

“Apparently my neighbour saw him trying to jump the wall and stopped him, and there was something about guns. Babe, it’s a long story.”

“Man. I am so sorry, babe. I’m leaving work now, I’ll be at yours soon.”

“Oh, there’s no need to, AK. I’ll be fine until you’ve closed.”

“Nah, Chess. I’m coming over. I’ll see you in a bit.”

Franklin came back in and saw Akwesi packing up to leave. “Bro, its 1pm. 4pm’s really not that far away, you know.”

“My girl just got robbed, chale.”

“Ah! But didn’t you tell me her hood was one of them rich, upscale ones with police patrol and stuff?”

“Didn’t stop robbers from trying her, man. The way this country come turn eh. Areas that we all knew you could walk at night and be okay are now areas where you could get knifed and robbed, chale. And the nonsense politicians no get any other sense that to tell everyone to become entrepreneurs. Mmoasem sei!”

“Chale, I know what you dey talk paa.”

“Funny enough, she was trying to talk me into giving her a key to my spot, but I wasn’t really feeling the idea. Now she gets robbed.”

“Chale, I dey give you. Go do what you have to do.”

“Thanks bro. I go see you morrow.”

*****

“So the guy was halfway up the wall when the patrol guys saw him. Thankfully, he hadn’t fully gotten his whole body on top, so one grabbed his leg and was pulling him down. There nooor nigga pulled a gun and was about to shoot the policeman. His partner shot the guy in the arm though, so that crisis was averted. He never actually got in, but it could’ve been bad.”

Clementine lay in Akwesi’s arms as she ate the mint chip ice cream he’d brought to comfort her. She took a bite of the Lindt chocolate that came with the ice cream and held his arm.

“Sorry I ruined your day, babe. I must’ve sounded super dramatic on the phone. I was so stressed out when I got home and they told me.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. I’m just glad you’re safe. Thank goodness you were not home cos that would’ve been a whole different story.”

“I know, AK. I’m just surprised because this is the safest area. I have never heard of anything like this happening since I moved here. Big men live in this area. Like, big politicians with their security detail and everything. I’m very surprised that this could happen here. These boys are getting much braver these days.”

“With the way things are in this city, I am not surprised. But, rather than get frustrated at stuff I can’t control, what do you say I run you a warm bath, put your favorite candles in there, and get some good music going? Just to soothe you a little bit.”

Clementine’s face lit up. “This is why I love you, babe. You always know what to do.”

Akwesi smiled and gave her a kiss. “I’ll be right back, love.”

*****

As the extremely pleasing jazz version of Aint No Sunshine filled the bathroom, Akwesi ran the bath in Clementine’s rather luxurious faux marble bath tub. With the way the coos and cries of that saxophone moved him, he knew this music would melt Clementine.

She would smell the scent from the candles while this music sent her as close to heaven as possible, and she would be so relaxed that she’d sleep like a baby. By the time this bath was over, she would not even remember the near-danger from earlier.

Akwesi was just about done filling the tub, so he started looking in the cabinets to see if she’d had any bath bombs. His excitement for how she was going to feel had consumed him, and he was totally engrossed in curating the most calming experience for her when suddenly, the most blood-curdling shriek following right on the heels of a loud crash like shattering glass.

Akwesi immediately ran out of the bathroom, and almost body slammed a fleeing Clementine into the bedroom door she’d just slammed shut and locked.

“Are you alright?”

Clementine’s response consisted of nothing more than whimpers and a vice-grip on Akwesi’s arm.

“Let me go take a look.” Akwesi attempted to move, but Clementine went from gripping his arm to a full-body embrace. “Chessy, if there’s someone in this house, I have to go get them out of here.”

Clementine vigorously shook her head in pure fear and held on to him like he was her lifeline at that moment. “I heard a gunshot before the window broke. You’ll be in no man’s land if you go out there. Your life is mine, and it is too precious to me. Let them try to come up here.”

Akwesi held her for a second, and then looked her in the eye. “Chessy, listen to me. No one’s dying tonight. I need you to call the patrol-“

Clementine protested vehemently, but Akwesi held her down. “I need you to call the patrol. I’ll go downstairs and see if there’s more than one. I promise you, everything’s going to be fine.” With that, he kissed her, and then went downstairs.

When Akwesi got downstairs, it looked surprisingly normal. There was the broken glass on the floor which used to be part of the front door, some more broken glass from the window right beside the door, and a couch moved very far out of place. He figured Clementine had jolted out of it before she escaped the room.

He slowly walked into the kitchen, and it was normal. So he tiptoed to the guest room, and once he was at the door, he quietly pulled the handle and burst in.

Nothing. No movement, no sound, nothing.

He went to the closet, nothing.

At that moment, he was sure that whoever it was that broke the window was no longer in the house.

*****

Akwesi brought the last of the bags into his house while Clementine opened the door for him. “Babe, I know I wanted a key to your place, but I didn’t quite plan to move in all the way.”

Akwesi put the bags down and locked the door. “Babe, its alright. It’s circumstance. Besides, it’d be nice to be warm at night for a change.”

Clementine chuckled, which Akwesi appreciated. “See, feeling better already.”

She gave him a long hug. “Its only until they fix my door and window, babe. I promise. Only for a couple of days.”

Akwesi playfully squeezed her a little tighter, which almost shocked her out of his arms. He laughed as she smacked him on the head and said, “For that, make it a couple of weeks.”

I dunno about you, but there’s something very fishy about this. This girl knows what she’s doing…