‘I’m enjoying your company. Let’s hang out here for another 30 minutes, and then I will go and wind things down at the office, and take you home. I will take you home on condition that you will spend the whole day with me tomorrow. Deal or no deal?’                                          ‘Deal, your honour’ they both collapsed with laughter.After winding down at the office, he drove to her home, and they sat in his car and chatted till dark. Then he asked to leave.               ‘You ordered me to spend the day with you tomorrow. What’s the plan, Boss?’                           ‘I can pick you up at eight and do my usual rounds at my work sites in town. That will take about an hour and a half. Then I will spend some 30 minutes at the office with my staff. After that we can either go to my place for the rest of the day, or go to an entertainment spot’.  ‘I would like to spend the afternoon at your house. But where are the work sites?’                             ‘As I already mentioned, I look around for old or abandoned houses with good structure, then I spend time to locate the families that own them. Then I buy them, redevelop and sell them. It’s quite a long process but it is very rewarding for both sides’.                                                        ‘You know, I was planning to spend some time with some of my old friends. But I will wait for a couple of days. I’m enjoying your company’.                                                                                  ‘Many thanks. But you said you would be here for two weeks. Isn’t that too short?’                      ‘Well boss, if you want to spend more time with me, just buy a ticket and come to Baltimore     ‘Hey, I might do exactly that. I will look for my passport when I get home’.

Stella introduced Bright to her parents when he called to pick her up, and after a brief chat they drove off. They stopped at several building sites where workers had started work, and Bright interacted with the foremen and workers. Then they went to his office, where Stella spent some time on the internet whilst Bright got some work done. Then, after buying some waakye from Bright’s favourite spot, they drove to his home, and had lunch.                                                                            ‘This is a comfortable house’, Stella said. ‘You didn’t build it yourself, did you?’                                             ‘No. It had been lying uncompleted for several years. The owner, a former timber merchant, had lost interest after moving home to Nkawkaw. I chased him up there and, fortunately, he accepted my offer. The rooms are spacious, and I did the outdoor arrangement’.                                           ‘I like it, very much’. They sat at the patio and chatted till it was getting dark, and Stella got up. ‘You want to leave?’ Bright asked.                                                                                                      ‘Of course not’. I’m going to cook supper. I saw a couple of interesting things in the fridge’.       As they ate supper, she stopped suddenly and took a good look at him.                                             ‘I’ve enjoyed meeting you, and I really like this place. Now, what do I do?’                                      ‘Very simple. You postpone your return to the US for at least a month, and give me the chance to get to know you. How about that?                                                                                                         ‘No risk involved?’                                                                                                                              ‘I have nothing to hide. You already know how I earn my living. Soon you will meet my family’. ‘Tell me about the relationship with the lady’.                                                                                      ‘You mean the last relationship. She is very pretty, comes from a very good home. I was comfortable with everything about her, except her friends. She was part of a group of girls who believe that they are beautiful and among the best dressed girls around, so they were entitled to be wined and dined by the hottest guys around. I complained about her friends but she was not about to change them at all. Her friends thought I was too ordinary, one thing about which I am very proud. So they introduced her to a guy who was apparently wealthy, well dressed and loud, and we had to go our separate ways. And you know, my work has kept me very busy, so apart from my family and my small circle of friends I haven’t done much socialising. But I like to enjoy myself. I like to have fun. But basically I’m a serious person’. ‘Okay. I have invited myself into this house from today. I’m going to leave my handbag in your room, and then you can take me home.

As he was taking her home, she saw the notification for the WhatsApp message from Sylvia.        ‘Sylvia, I hope you are doing well back at home. Danny called, and asked me to convey his sincerest apologies to you for what happened the other day. He swears that it will never happen again, and that he is committed to being a better person, especially in his relationship with you’. Stella smiled and shot a brief one back. ‘Thanks Sylvia. Yes, all is fine at home. I’m so glad I took the sudden decision to come home. I am so grateful to Danny for the apology. Please tell him that I have forgotten all about the incident, and I don’t hold anything against him. However, I am a completely different person now, and I have no intention of being in any relationship with him’.  Sylvia shot back a quick reply. ‘Ei Stella. What has happened in two days to make you ‘a completely different person’? And Stella replied ‘Sylvia, let me keep you in suspense for only two days’, then I will tell you about it. Let’s talk soon. Love to Nii Laryea’.

The two weeks flew past like two days, during which Stella only slept in her bed at her parents’ home, but spent the rest of the time at Bright’s house. Bright took three weeks leave from work, and travelled with Stella to Baltimore. Stella’s colleagues called it the honeymoon before the wedding. Bright accompanied her to work, and spent the hours working online whilst Stella was busy in the clinic. She joined him for a 15 minute snack at 11:30 and they walked to the restaurant at 16^th and K Street for a late lunch, after which they spent a quiet evening together. Before Bright returned to Ghana, Stella invited her friends and colleagues to lunch to announce that they were getting married. They never looked back, and Stella settled with Bright in Ghana. That’s Stella’s story.