She didn’t reply but her breathing got louder and more rhythmic. She flung her arm around his neck when she came and held on to it.
‘What are you talking about?’ She was still catching her breath.
Karl held her with both arms.
‘What are we going to do?’
His hand was playing with her breasts. He kissed the space between them.
‘The time is already running out.’
There had been possibilities before she arrived. Now the days were speeding by. This would be over before he knew it.
She rolled on to her back next to him. Her knees up, she pulled her feet close to her bum. ‘I think this is when you have the cigarette in the movies.’
He pinched her.
‘What?’
‘I’m trying to talk to you!’
‘And I’m trying to have a moment.’ Her head was turned up and he could see her smiling. He stretched out beside her, blowing through pursed lips.
‘I hate cigarette butts inside the house.’
She nodded.
‘Karl.’
‘What?’
‘Come to Lagos.’
She was leaning on her arm now. Her face. It was as exciting as the first time he had seen her in front of her auntie’s fabric shop. Her eyes made his insides ache. The way she smiled with them. At him. She started playing with his shirt. Opened it and pulled his T-shirt up a bit. Kissed the skin underneath.
‘Uncle T has offered me a job once I finish my diploma. Very small, but I could add some of my designs, he says. If it works, then more. If not I can still work for him on his imported lines.’
He turned to her. ‘That’s fucking brilliant! Why didn’t you say anything?’ He grabbed her and pulled her on top of him, rolling from side to side.
‘Because. I want you to come too.’