It was mid day and the sun was out at the equator, shining in it full glory and radiating smeltering heat at everything under it.
Due to the weather condition, Black wore a white round neck and a grey denim jeans coupled with a white crocs.
A typical simple dressing that warrants no unnecessary attention. And as usual, he picked up his umbrella.
Black stepped out of his house carrying a briefcase and an umbrella. Soon, a taxi stopped in front of him and he boarded it. Black was against buying himself a car because it will cause unwanted attention. Despite the infrastructure and technology, only the top 1% in Jos has a personal car. Mostly, they go for bicycles or motorcycles. Not that they can not buy cars if they wanted, but they just do not, due to personal preferences and culture, and with that, it has become a norm in Jos. Black is among the 1% of the town wealthy folks, but for his best interest, he preferred not to get one.
Twenty minutes after, he alighted from the taxi and paid the driver. The taxi drove off and Black entered a tall building with a big Laven Real Estates and Properties name on it walls.
Black had inspected the houses the day before, so he was here today to pay for it and enjoy a nice lunch treats after.
Getting into the reception, the female receptionist beamed with smile as she welcomed Black with courtesy. Aside that she was just doing her job, she has become very familiar with Black presence because he is one of their most frequent customer and guest. So it was just another day of business with a top client.
"Good morning Sir, The manager is already waiting for you upstairs." The receptionist greeted.
"Thank you very much, I'll go there right now. Uhm, Should I use the third elevator or the fourth one?" Black asked.
"All the elevators are in optimal working conditions today, Sir. So you can use any". She replied.
"I see. Let me start going now." Black responded and left.
The elevator had almost caused a bad day for Laven Real Estates and Properties, when Black and some other top clients got stucked in the third elevator during one of their visits. They had spent forty five minutes in the elevator before it was fixed. It was a terrible day for the Laven enterprise, that they had to overcompensate these clients so as not to lose their top clients due to a malfunction.
Due to the previous experience, Black opted for the fourth elevator just to be safe and to avoid unforeseen circumstances. He got to the office labelled with 'Admin' and entered. In thirty-six minutes, Black was out of the office and seen shaking the Admin officer for a good deal being secured.
The Admin office was facing the fourth elevator directly. And Victoria walked out of the elevator looking for an office of interest. Victoria was on her quest to find details that will link to William Junior. Her team had already relayed some information about someone trying to acquire $60,000 worth of houses at once.
This type of purchase was one of the top three highest in Laven corporation history. So it was normal for it to call the attention of financial institutions. But Laven enterprise had done well to keep the owner's information confidential and anonymous, as it was part of their legal agreement.
So, Victoria had arrived here to catch a glimpse or a possible clue of who it might be. But there were so many people walking to and fro into the building today. Seem today was one of those busy days.
As soon as Victoria walked out of the elevator, she saw a familiar umbrella and recognised the owner immediately. Walking at a steady pace toward him, she waved.
"Hello, Good day. I'm Victoria, we met...I mean, walked into each other yesterday". She said stretching her hand for a shake.
Black had just finished completing his purchase deals and was about to leave, when he saw someone waving at him. After a few milliseconds, he recognised the person and responded with a handshake as the person was already in front of him with her hand stretched out.
"Nice to meet you." Black replied with a calm demeanor.
"Uhmm...I wanted to say I'm sorry for yesterday, and if you don't mind, I love your smell and I would like your perfume recommendations for me..." She said
Black was silent for sometime before responding "Perfume? Oh... I see. Well, I can write it out for you if we meet later. And yeah, apologies accepted".
Then at once, they both asked, "What are you doing here?".
After a moment of awkwardness, Victoria spoke first, "I'm here to look for someone and probably sight seeing.. What about you?"
"I am here to meet someone too, but I am about to leave now. So, do you stay in this town? I mean, Are you new here?" Black questioned.
"Yes, I am staying here for now, and yes, I'm new here". Victoria replied while sizing up and slowly digesting the man in front of her.
She was aware of the way his eyes scanned her from head to toe. She noticed every movement his hand made while he talked or was silent. She noticed how his face muscle twitched whenever he made a straight face or whenever he smiled.
Momentarily lost in thought, she snapped back when Black informed her that he would be leaving now. "Can I get your number? So... I can get the perfume recommendation, you know."
"Okay...." Black reached out into his denim jeans pocket and brought out a card. "Here...my contact is on the card. You can reach out anytime...and take care..."
Black was leaving when Victoria collected the card, but she stopped him again, with curiosity she asked him, "Why is your name Black? Do you have a real name?".
Black looked at her with his onyx eyes for a while. No one has ever tried to know his real name, no one bothered. So that question was something that triggered his awareness.
Victoria unaware of the thoughts racing through Black's mind was indeed enjoying the pause though. To her, it was more opportunity to digest and savour in the handsomeness of the man in front of her. She kept swallowing her saliva for every second he kept staring. His onyx eyes was a world on it own, where she could bask in solace.
"My real name is Black...and if you will excuse me, I have a treat to catch". Black replied. "I would have said you should follow me, but I can see you have a job at hand at the moment..."
"Yes, I do. And thank you Black, enjoy your treat". Victoria replied as he made his way to the elevator. His absence immediately made her self conscious as she touched her cheeks and realised she was feeling warm and fuzzy .
"Focus, focus...The work for the day is to find William Junior. And where can he be? Let me check Finance for a start..."
She made her way to the finance office adjacent to the admin office, and entered.
She met a woman seated as she got into the office, "Good day Ma'am, I'm Victoria Frost, a financial advisor, and I think you might have a client with the name William Junior..."
"Looking up, the woman glanced at her for a moment and replied, "I don't know who that is that you might be looking for, but our corporate terms does not allow for breach of client's confidentiality".