#TeaserTuesday: Bittersweet Beginnings

Hey there!

This will be our last excerpt for the Suitors & Sweethearts box set. I hope you’ve already purchased your copy. Today we are reading a little something from Nkem Akin.

Enjoy!

EXCERPT FROM BITTERSWEET BEGINNING BY NKEM AKIN

Benin City. July 31, 1999. 11pm
Efe looked around the Hall Two common room and wondered if it was time she packed up her books. The people in the room were much less than when she arrived, and like most others, Nneka had left earlier. Efe stayed because a month to exams, she still lagged in the recommended reading. She was bored by their courses and daydreamed about America.
A frisson shook her, and she sneaked a glance over her shoulder. It felt like someone staring, and she guessed the guy she just started seeing was at it again. He did all he could to get her attention, following wherever she went. If she left and came back, he also left and returned, and then spent half that time just looking at her as if he had never seen a girl. Well, he’d succeeded in his devices, and she’d noticed him.
Many times, she had to force herself to stop dreaming about his handsome looks and concentrate on her books. Once, he almost caught her studying him, but she turned away just in time. Brushing him out of her mind, she decided to study further.
An hour later, as people continued to leave; the chair beside hers became vacant. Debating whether to pack up, she felt someone take the vacant seat. Goose bumps prickled over her skin when she looked at the newcomer. Golden brown eyes gazed back at her, and her heart began to cartwheel inside her chest.
“Hello,” her new neighbor said. “Are you done?”
“No.” Efe replied, surprised at the normalcy of her voice. Her breath had hitched as his rich baritone stroked her senses. Up close, he passed for beautiful. His skin glistened and the mark in the middle of his brows set off the flaring, well-sized nostrils and thin upper lip. She turned away from the temptingly full lower lip, biting her own lips. Pulling her bag into her lap, she dug through it, not searching for anything in particular. She wanted to avoid the eyes which felt as if they could see her thoughts.
Efe went back to her books but couldn’t bear sitting beside him for long. Her heart pounded in her ears each time he turned towards her. After thirty minutes, she packed up, stacking the library books in the table corner.
“Oh, leaving?” he asked.
“Yes, it’s getting late.” Efe got to her feet and picked her tote.
“It is late,” he corrected. “Let me walk you back to the hostel.”