16| Love of his life.

Ruby.

"Wait, are you trying to tell me that you have no idea about your husband's graduation party?" She asked, perplexed.

"I had no idea, he tells me nothing! I guess that means he doesn't want me there."

"What! You had better be joking! This could result in a scandal like, IS THERE SOMETHING WE DON'T KNOW, TOBY DANIELS THROWS A GRADUATION PARTY AND HIS WIFE REFUSED TO ATTEND, SHOULD WE EXPECT A DIVORCE? Do you know the amount of rumors that could arise from it?" Sapphire blabbed on dramatically.

"Why didn't he deem it fit to let me know then? I'm not going anywhere and that's it. I don't care about the stupid scandals, it doesn't affect me anyways." I replied nonchalantly.

"Oh please, We both know that it does so stop deceiving yourself." She replied calmly.

"Okay, let's say I decide to go, what if it angers him? What if he doesn't like me coming without his permission? I don't want that man's trouble, please." I said trying to mask my fear but I failed.

"Uhm... is it just me or are you scared of Toby? Why would you be scared of your husband? Wait, did he do something to you? Don't tell me that the He-goat threatened you!" She exclaimed balling her fists.

"Oh no! I'm just saying that I don't want to make him angry. He's still mad at me for everything, you know." I rephrased.
"Oh please! He should stop acting like a dick! When life throws you lemons, you make lemonades." I laughed, Sapphire knows just how to lighten up a tense atmosphere.

After two hours, Sapphire succeeded in getting me into one of the beautiful classy clothes in my large closet. It was a low back black body hugging gown that stopped at my mid thigh, it made my skin pop and honestly, I loved it.
She helped in coiling my hair beautifully and then I wore a classy white heel to match the small white bag I was to carry. I didn't allow her to paint my face though and she thought I looked beautiful even without it.

We arrived at the venue in my Black Lexus and I was surprised to see that there were absolutely no reporter around, just the huge bodied securities. Proof that Toby wanted to be free to do whatever he wanted, I suddenly wanted to just go inside my car and zoom off but Sapphire was already practically dragging me towards the door.

I sighed.

I tried as much as I could to match Sapphire's cat walking pace as I tried to look sexy while doing it too, Sapphire was a natural at things like this so she didn't even break a sweat at it. The same couldn't be said for me.

We walked gracefully into the venue and I was surprised to see that heads actually did turn to look at us, but the low self esteem in me kept saying it was not me but Sapphire that they were staring at.

"Of course, it's Sapphire! Who are you to be stared at, Beyonce?" My inner voice taunted.

Some of Sapphire's friends rushed towards us, few greeted me, most did not even acknowledge my presence. And do you know who else didn't acknowledge my presence? It was Toby. As soon as I entered, our eyes met and we held each other's gaze for seconds before he went back to laughing with his friends and Yasmin in his arms.

Yasmin was dressed in a blue cleavage revealing gown that only covered her butt and she looked hot in it. Her heels were way higher than mine and she still walked gracefully in them compared to me who didn't stop wobbling in mine.

I found a seat beside Sapphire and her friends and while they chattered on and on, all I did was sneak glances at Toby in the midst of his friends. He was dressed in a simple jean and T-shirt yet he still looked cool and handsome in it, what doesn't fit that man, just what?
I was snapped out of my sneaky stare when I felt someone tapping me, "What are you thinking about? Let's go and greet the latest graduate, come on." Sapphire said dragging me towards Toby's group.

"This is where you should be anyways." She whispered into my ears just before we reached them.

"Hey Toby! Hy guys and......" Sapphire greeted and stopped to glare at Yasmin who wouldn't stop clinging to Toby and so she decided not to greet her and she made it quite obvious.

"Hey, sweetie." Toby disentangled himself from Yasmin to hug my sister while I stood awkwardly watching them.
"Oh, hy Ruby!" A guy greeted while I waved shyly at him.

"Come, sit beside me." The same guy said as he pulled me towards the empty space beside him directly opposite Toby and Yasmin.

"Uhm, I can't sit with you though. My friends are over there, I only came to say hy and congratulate the graduate. So congrats once again, Toby." Sapphire said and then she left ignoring my pleading eyes for her to stay and not leave me with these people.

It was silent for a while before the only guy who was nice to me spoke up again, "Uhm, what's with the silence? We were talking about our secondary school days before you joined us. Care to chip in something?"
I shook my head.

I also noticed that Toby's circle of friends had changed, the only secondary school company he had left was Yasmin and Yele. I felt relieved. Those former clique of his were big bullies.

"Goody-two-shoes doesn't have anything to reminisce about, all she did was reading and writing!" Yasmin mocked and surprisingly no one laughed.
Thank God.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with that, in-fact I find her kind of unique." The same guy said defended.

I was starting to like this guy for liking me. Oh thank you lord, not everybody hates me.

"I'm sorry for not introducing myself, I'm Aiden. Let me introduce others too since this man doesn't have the initiative to do that for his wife. That's Yele, your husband's closest buddy, the best man, you remember? And that other guy that's just looking like a dummy is Joseph, we call him the dreamer!"  Aiden introduced with humor as the Joseph slapped his head in a playful manner.

"Hey guys, nice to meet you all." I said.

After some minutes, we were deep into the game and Toby and most of them were drunk. "Uhm... I feel so sorry for you" Aiden started when we both got to the bar, I offered to help him with getting more drinks since he was the only one who cared to make conversations with me.

"Uhm.. why?"

"I know that this marriage is arranged, babe, and that Toby hates you so much. He thinks we don't know though, does he think we are stupid or something? I mean how wouldn't we know, he's with Yasmin all the time and not the 'love of his life' as he sugarcoats to the public. It's so obvious, he may be fooling the public but definitely not us." Aiden said placing emphasis on the 'love of his life' while I laughed.

"Oh, so you guys all know then but just decided to play along?" I asked.
"Of course, it's fun to fool the fool who thinks he's fooling us." Aiden joked while I laughed again, I was getting so comfortable with him.

"Let's get going before he starts thinking I'm doing something with the 'love of his life.'" Aiden said while I just laughed yet again.

We got to the seat only to see Toby and Yasmin making out with no care in the world. It was then that I decided that it was time to go home.