Alfred stretched out his hand to shake Ms. Lynch.
“Hello, Ms. Lynch.”
She was still in shock as to how Alfred was able to locate her all the way in Miami, Florida. His tracking devise surely needed a thumbs up.
“Stop,” she said. “You can call me Emma now.”
She opened her arms, and Alfred flew right into them.
“I know you do not like people intruding into your space, and I am sorry about this. However, I am going to make it as brief as possible, since I gotta go back. The taximan is waiting for me.”
“No, tell the taximan to leave. Let’s pay him off. We have a lot of catching up to do.”
At Shula Steak House - The Original, the catching up did not end; all the way to the day Alfred came in and tidied up her place.
Emma blurted, “Do you know till today; I do not know how I got home from The Grills that night?”
“You were a mess that night when I saw you.”
“What do you mean?” Emma quizzed further.
“Well, Hayward worked at the club attached to The Grill, in the basement of the building, and my mother needed to see him urgently. I accompanied her to the club and wandered into The Grill to use the restroom, and there you were, passed out, and some jerk was trying to toss your head up. I approached him and asked him to get off you. My mother and I took you home that night.”
“If that is not providence, I don’t know what else to call it,” Emma said in a hushed tone. “Where were you when I called your phone?”
“I was on my way to Equatorial Guinea. I needed to see my kinsmen. My father sent me to them.”
“How is he, Andy?”
“He is well and back in Malabo. He alternates between GNQ and UK.”
“Oh, that’s nice.”
“He was finally acquitted with the fresh evidence we submitted after a few lengthy court hearing sessions. Hayward is now in jail. My mother was also found as an accomplice to the crime. She did eighteen months.”
“What about your sister?”
“Which of them, you know I have plenty?”
“That’s true. The one by Hayward, I have forgotten her name, but I know it begins with an M.”
“Martha. She is well. She is ten years old now going on eleven.”
“Now, you tell me what has been happening to you. Any man or children yet? Any new projects? Where do you work now?
“Excuse me, ma’am and sir, we are about to close,” the waiter told them. It then dawned on them that they were the only ones left in the restaurant.
Alfred opened his rucksack and brought out a piece of paper that had his university degree certificate, and underneath the certificate were the words: ‘Dedicated to the woman who means the world to me, Ms. Emma Lynch.’
Emma clutched the certificate to her bosom and cried. In between sobs, she declared again, “I cannot lie to myself, you mean the world to me.”