For me, red wine is symbolic of pleasant memories.

It was a windy Sunday afternoon in late December. I did not go to church that day. My habit whenever I didn’t have money for offertory. Or felt guilty of a secret sin.

Feeling bored, I lay in my room on my little mattress spread on the floor, palms forming a little nest in which the back of my head rested, staring at an empty ceiling. My talkative neighbors usually sat under trees outside chitchatting over beer at such hours, boring music drowning the silence of the neighborhood. Their ears too drunk to notice.

Then I had a call. My boss. I hesitated. Must be something regarding work at the office she must have forgotten to mention earlier.

“Are you free?“ she asked.

That was weired. Why was she asking?

“Yes.” I responded, breathing and swallowing hard.

“We are going to Pablo’s pub. Would you like to join us for a drink?“

“Ok.”

I hurried to find something nice to wear. Truth was, there wasn’t. Had to cobble something and look presentable. And I did. With plenty of efforts. I was feeling too lazy to wash that weekend. The story of my pile of dirty, smelly clothes and dusty shoes.

As I hurried to dress up, something bothered me. My boss mentioned that she was coming to pick me up. That was odd. It was the first invitation of that sort, the first time she was coming to my hood.

Perhaps, I was worried about something I needn’t be.

A second call. She was here. My God! I rushed out, spotting the car from a distance.

“I’ve seen you. Just wait there, I’m coming.” I politely instructed.

Upon entering the car, I wondered where the “We” were. Or, had she acquired it as her new nicky?

As if she were reading my mind, she clarified, “I already dropped Duke and Tiffany at Pablo’s.”

Made sense now. As she slowly backed the car before turning to her former route, I avoided staring at her. Her dressing. It was meant to kill. And I wasn’t ready for any odd eye contact. Her tighs were bare and exposed, and the rest of her sensitive parts neatly curved out like a sketch to be completed  in the mind.

There was less talk. And in the silence, I could sniff her motives. Why she dropped the others and came alone. Loose lips sink big ships. She liked her moves in the dark.

We finally got there. Her husband had traveled. But her husband’s friends were all at the bar. So was a co-worker, her nanny and her child. It took a while for my naive mind to do the maths.

If we went elsewhere, the whole game would have smelt fishy. She’s brought her cards to play in the open. Where else can one hide something, if not in a place one wouldn’t suspect the need to hide anything?

She was mostly with her husband’s friends. I with the children and my colleague. But neither my colleague nor the children could sit at one place. I was occasionally left alone. That was when she passed by. Amidst loud, wild music, no one heard the discussions. They were normal conversations. Nothing dirty. But the real messages were in her looks and pose.

When everyone returned, she took pictures. My instincts told me the others were not meant to come into her pictures. But they had to be there for the camouflage.

She had guessed I would say I preferred red wine. She had two bottles in her booth. Even if I wanted to drink the invisible, she would have ordered it. At Pablo’s, everything is for sale. Including happiness.

I felt tipsy after a bottle of red wine went down. Another bottle was brought in. But I learnt a trick: If one drank some carbonated drink, the tipsiness waned. And that was how I survived the second bottle over grilled fish with fried yam.

It was a beautiful evening. Tempting as it was, nothing happened except eating and drinking. And the prompt that the young girls at my workplace were not the only ones noticing what new shirt or perfume I wore.

Many people say my boss is a horrible boss. They rumored that she liked me. Same people would pay anything to hear me swear and admit all that I knew.

I reserve my comments. But I shall forever remember her for coming to my rescue one day I came to work and sat in a corner, head bowed and she saw through me what I couldn’t tell anyone, secretly handing me money that changed my week.