Chapter 9

Mr. Matthew stood up and walked further into the party, nodding stiff greetings here and there. He scanned around till he saw who his mother and Mrs. Lupita had told him to try and woo. He said a quick short prayer and sat in front of the lady. The third seat was empty and he was grateful for that. He didn’t think he would be able to try and woo her in the presence of another person. If he had made the wrong move, he would have been greatly embarrassed.

He smiled and looked at her. She had yellow braided hair which reached her shoulders. She wore a blue armless gown which was embodied in gold patterns and held in her hand a silver clutch purse.

“That’s a nice purse you’ve got there,” Mr. Matthew said, starting the conversation. She looked at him and smiled.

“Thank you, it’s one of Vou LeFou’s best model,” she said and raised the purse for his perusal, showing him the brand marked on its side. Mr. Matthew nodded as he smiled at her politely, although he didn’t know who or what Vou LeFou was.

“I’m Matthew,” he said as he offered his hand to her, trying to sound charming this time.

“Ivie.” She smiled and nodded, ignoring his outstretched hand. She took a sip from her champagne which was in a wine glass in front of her.

Mr. Matthew smiled lamely and withdrew his hand. “So, what’s a lovely face like yours doing here?” he asked, trying desperately to get a conversation going.

“Well, it is my nephew’s birthday party, and I have to make sure everything goes perfectly according to how I planned it, you know, I spent lots of money on this party; close to a million,” she said and smiled smugly.

Mr. Matthew nodded as he took a drink from a nearby waiter. “So when you’re not organizing birthday parties, what do you do?” he asked and then slowly sipped the drink.

She smiled and adjusted her chin; how she liked talking about herself. “First of all, I don’t go around organizing children’s parties, I’m just doing this one because my sister begged me to. I own various jewelry establishments in this country andin other countries overseas, so I have to travel around always to meet up with other business owners who want to partner with my company. I was the one that provided the silver casing that Vou LeFou used to make this handbag and many more of his products you see. I also own Ivie’s Chops, which I know is one of the biggest restaurant outlets here and worldwide, so you could just say I’m like a superwoman,” she said and laughed with much pleasure.

Mr. Matthew chuckled as he looked at her. He couldn’t believe he was sitting face to face with the owner of Ivie’s Chops. He had heard a lot about her from rumors that she was some hot chic with a lotta money. He smiled satisfactorily as he hailed himself silently. His mother and Mrs. Lupita really got him a big fish. He looked back to where they were sitting and winked at them.

Mrs. Lupita and Mrs. Grace looked at themselves dumbfounded.

“Does he know that is NOT who we told him to go and meet?” Mrs. Grace asked her friend, Mrs. Lupita anxiously. The woman they had told Mr. Matthew to go and meet sat three seats in front of where Mr. Matthew was seated. Although, she too wore a blue gown and was blonde, her gown was quite different from that of the lady whom Mr. Matthew was talking to.

Mrs. Lupita shook her head, “It doesn’t seem so, but if he can get this one, it’ll still be a great catch,” she told her friend, although deep down, she knew that Mr. Matthew could never pull this one off. She knew Ivie Patson very well; a spoilt, over-pampered, proud and saucy lady. This was the type of person Mr. Matthew would very much like to avoid at all cost.

“Oh! And before I forget, a beautiful flower for a beautiful lady,” Mr. Matthew said and smiled as he handed Miss Ivie the rose flower which he had gotten from Mrs. Lupita.

She smiled and collected the flower. “Oh, this looks like the ones I donated to the park, but I’ll manage it, thank you anyway,” she said scathingly turning the flower over like one would an irritated piece of garbage.

Mr. Matthew looked at her stupidly as he sat in silence. “Why couldn’t Mrs. Lupita have gotten flowers from anywhere else?! Why did she have to get it from the park?!” he thought silently to himself.

“And you? What do you do?” Miss Ivie asked as she kept the rose in her bag whilst smiling indulgently as one would to an errant child.

“Well, I'm a teacher,” Mr. Matthew said and raised his chin up a little bit. It felt good hearing himself say that. He was proud to be one of the people shaping the community into being the best it could be.

Miss Ivie burst out in derisive laughter. “A for apple, B for ball,” she said as she laughed some more. “I’m so sorry, I just can’t believe I’ve been flirting with a teacher all along,” she said and covered her face with her palm, all the while still laughing. “I thought you were like a business man or something, but a teacher?” she said and looked at Mr. Matthew, trying to stifle another laugh which she felt was about to burst out. She merely shook her head.

Mr. Matthew frowned greatly incensed. “Who did she think he was?” he thought.

“What’s wrong with teachers?” he asked as he blurted out in annoyance.

“Everything, Matthew, everything! All they ever do is just teach; now that’s a boring job, like I mean, couldn’t you find a better job? And besides most of 'em don’t earn much; know what I mean? Teachers cannot really attain the level that people like me have reached,” she snorted as she raised her chin arrogantly and looked at him in disdain.

Mr. Matthew looked at her in disgust. “Well, if it weren’t for teachers like me, you’d probably be illiterate by now; illiterate and poor, very poor,” he said and chuckled slightly.

Her smile faded. “The nerves of this man to insult me like that,” she thought.

“Get out!” she said loudly and pointed to the entrance of the party.

Mr. Matthew hesitated. “You can’t just push me out,” he said and made himself more comfortable on the chair.

She snapped her fingers and two security guards came up immediately. She then pointed at Mr. Matthew and pointed to the entrance of the party. “Out,” she said, still frowning.

On seeing the men, Mr. Matthew stood up and started walking away from her, towards the direction of the party entrance. Eyes were already beginning to turn towards his direction. One of the hefty men put his hands on Mr. Matthew’s back and pushed him forward gently.

Mr. Matthew yanked his hand off and faced him, “I can walk on my own,” he said and started walking again. 

He had not gone a few steps forward when a woman with short brown hair bumped into him, spilling juice on his white inner vest. She quickly held the juice box well so that the remaining contents wouldn’t pour out. Mr. Matthew gritted his teeth and looked at her, rather horrified. The woman looked back at him and then slapped him in the face.

“Next time, watch where you are going dufus,” she said and hissed at him. Mr. Matthew fumed. This was the same lady he had bumped into in the library. Yes, he knew he had bumped into her intentionally in the library, but this time, she was the one that had bumped into him. He gritted his teeth as he turned to her.

“You were the one that bumped into me woman!” he said angrily. She shook her head.

“Oh, like the way I bumped into you in the library?” she asked scornfully. By this time, everyone’s attention was on them, and the party had halted.

“Well, I might have bumped into you in the library, but here, you were the one who bumped into me and you’re the one who’s supposed to be apologizing,” Mr. Matthew said, frowning. He rubbed his face still from the sting of her slap.

She shook her head again. “I'm not apologizing for anything,” she said and folded her arms. One of the security guards wanted to tell Mr. Matthew to ignore her and continue walking but Mr. Matthew, ignoring the man, snatched the juice box from the woman and poured it all on her dress.

“There, now you get what you deserve,” he said and walked past her. She gasped and looked at her dress. It was dripping with juice. She turned to him and before he could move a few steps forward, launched at him. 

She jumped on the unsuspecting Mr. Matthew and wrapped her arms around his neck tightly, squeezing it firmly. The security guards rushed to separate them as Mr. Matthew gasped for air. The people at the party all stood up and were watching with their mouths agape, both old and young.

Mrs. Grace and Mrs. Lupita stood up from their seats and began to walk quickly to where Mr. Matthew was in order to free him from the clutches of the brown haired lady as the two security men found it hard to separate the two. Mrs. Lupita wondered why none of her plans ever worked with Mr. Matthew.

Mr. Matthew flung his arms in the air in a fruitless effort to push the woman off his back. He didn’t see where he was going and slipped, causing both of them to fall into the nearby swimming pool. Most people put their hands on their mouth as they gasped in horror. Miss Ivie frowned and screamed at more security men to maintain order. She was annoyed that Mr. Matthew was causing a fuss at the party she had spent a lot of money to organize.

The birthday boy stood in a corner crying loudly and his parents stood beside him, trying to calm him down. Mr. Matthew and the lady he had been struggling with both came out of the swimming pool some moments later, soaked from head to toe.