Chapter sixteen

Days passed and Collins stopped calling or texting, leaving Anne with mixed feelings. She was relieved and at the same time disappointed. Relieved because she didn't have to go through the trauma of losing him again and disappointed because she didn't get to talk to him at all. Why bother at all if he wasn't going to be patient enough, She thought. She was in the sitting room, viewing her home feed absentmindedly. She soon gave up trying to concentrate and in no time, she was deep in thought.

She made up her mind to attend the upcoming dinner party, promising herself to have as much fun as possible.

Her phone rang just then, disrupting her little moment of decision. It was Daniel calling. She found it strange because he had never called her. They only communicated via messages. At first, Anne was skeptical about answering the phone, for all she knew, it could be a mix-up. She watched the phone ring and only answered when he called again. Now that she was sure that it wasn't a mix-up, she answered the phone and his masculine voice filled her ears the next instant.

Daniel was straight to the point, he asked her to the dinner party and she agreed almost immediately, hoping it hurt Collins even though he wasn't present at the moment. Now that she has a partner for the party, she would channel some of her focus towards preparing for the D-Day, and at the same time, tend to her books.

Well, she thought, everyone now has a partner. She couldn't wait to announce it to her friends who had been on her neck all week.

A few days ago, Josephine had succeeded in getting Michael to go with her to the dinner party. Although she wouldn't disclose the details to her friends, Anne could bet it was embarrassing and Naomi wouldn't hear of it. She just wouldn't encourage a woman to ask a man out, no matter how conventional it is becoming.

A few minutes later, Daniel called back. When Anne answered the call, it was with shaky hands. She feared he called to cancel the proposal, placing Collins on the winning side. As it stands, she was in a fierce, unseen battle with Collins. When he expressed how grateful he was that she agreed to go with him, she made a face to an invisible Collins.

The call ended soon and Anne celebrated her victory further by dancing around the corners of her room, stopping at intervals to punch or sometimes kick an invisible Collins.

*****************

After calling and texting Anne for days without success, Collins, rather disappointed, went to a bar that was two streets away from his house, where he sometimes hung out with his friends.

It was a Thursday evening and he had attempted to reach Anne all day without success. Blaming himself for being the initial cause of the whole mishap, he got dressed and left the house.

He got to the bar at about 06:39 p.m. and ordered assorted drinks after locating a seat at a corner of the bar. The waiter, who had seen enough of Collins to know that he is not a heavy drinker double-checked to be sure, and she was surprised when he maintained his stance and added a drink to the collection. Collins surprised himself by consuming every last drop of the liquors and ordered more.

As he drank from one bottle onto the next, he thought of Anne. He had been so hopeful when he saw that she was active after sending her messages for weeks. When the call eventually connected, he was grinning from ear to ear. The disappointment he felt when she refused to answer his calls doubled when she opened his messages and gave no response. He kept sending her messages, hoping she would have a change of heart and reply to him but she didn't.

In no time, he was drunk and he was uttering gibberish rather loudly and this drew the attention of some guys who sat at the far end of the bar. They immediately agreed among themselves to capitalize on Collins' drunken state and patiently waited till he headed home.

By the time Collins settled his bills and headed for home, it was a few minutes past 9 p.m. He was so busy trying to maintain his balance and fight off the cold he felt that he didn't notice the guys walking behind him.

Patiently, they followed him till he got to a sharp corner. Like lions ready to devour, they attacked him and collected all the money he had on him. His phone and wristwatch weren't spared. He was so spent due to the excess alcohol he had consumed earlier and so he was unable to fight them off. They started beating him up but scurried away when some men came along with flashlights.

The men helped Collins up while he staggered towards his house in pain. He got home about an hour later after bumping into things countlessly which resulted in his multiple falls.

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The next morning, Collins woke up to a terrible headache. At first, he couldn't understand why he was sleeping on the floor or the pains he felt all over his body. The sun seeping through his open windows reminded him of his failure to shut his windows the night before.

When he brought his left wrist to his face to look at the time, he realized his watch was missing and slowly the event of last night replayed in his mind. He remembered bumping into parked cars and fences and he immediately knew the reason for the pain he felt. He broke into a cold sweat at the thought of his phone and struggled to get up due to the pain. He felt disgusted at the state of his room and he instantly remembered throwing up the night before, only he thought he had been in the bathroom.

The state of his room sobered him up the next instant.

While he got busy with putting his room in order, he thought of what to do about his stolen phone.

At the end of the cleaning exercise, he decided to do nothing about the stolen phone. The most important person to miss was Anne but she wanted nothing to do with him or so he thought. He instead thought of getting a new phone.

He wasn't sure anymore if chasing after Anne was a good idea. One thing was certain though, he would never drink again, not lightly, not ever.