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Chapter 8

  • “It must be the best.”
  • That was Ugo’s determination about the piece she planned to write about Silver City Resort in comparison to her home town. The conference has ended though but Ugo was still in silver city. She had booked herself in the cheapest hotel she could find in silver city to save money. Though it was far from where the conference was held, she hadn’t minded. It only meant she has to get up early to start her journey to the conference, instead of complaining about the distance, Ugo saw it as an opportunity to see more of the City. That was who she was at eighteen, an optimistic, cup-half filled kind of a girl.
  • This very day, she was back at the resort. Though the conference has ended, her pass was for seven days and since Loren had arranged for her to have enough time to explore not just the resort but the city to be able to get the information she needed for her piece. Ugo had every intention of writing an award winning piece. She planned to use the opportunity not just to attract attention to her people put to launch her career as a nature-writer. She knew that if her article would win an award, people will know her and they would equally know where she came from.
  • She was enjoying her stay and write up. She will snap pictures with her small camera, then quickly write in her paper. She was engrossed in her work yet, she felt the eyes watching her. She didn’t feel apprehensive or threatened so she turned, all smiles. It was one feature of Ugo at eighteen. Then she believed she had the world at her feet. She was going to go the university and come out with flying colors and then she will win Pulitzerl she was saving for her university and came to Tinapa an ideal place to have a business and Lesu for her nature writing and the world would know her. She would make many positive changes in peoples’ lives especially people from her home town.
  • Yes, she was that secured in the world that when she turned and looked into the darkest eyes she had ever seen, and the handsomest face she had encountered; all she felt was fascination. The stranger didn’t smile back at her, he just stood there regarding her. Then he hesitated before walking forward to meet her
  • “I’ve never seen a journalist so excited about her work” he said, stopping few feet away from her, as if he wasn’t sure he would be welcomed.
  • That uncertainty made him more approachable and probably what made her think he was safe. Ugo didn’t do well with men who took her acceptance for granted and she had met a few in the three days that the conference lasted. She was beautiful, a rare beauty actually and men she had learned always want to acquire beautiful things for their pleasure. In the last three days, she had encountered many, and some had been pissed off by her refusal to even consider their demands.
  • After some of the bodyguards of some powerful men glowered at her she had become afraid that some unscrupulous rich man might got it into his head to kidnap her and force her to his will. She had tried to reassure herself that the people who attended the conference must have been vetted by the Silver Cit government security people, however, she knew that she was a nobody. if she disappeared, no one would border looking for her except for her people. Thus when Loren appeared on the second day of the conference, Ugo had made sure to be seen with her. In fact, she had cringed to Loren like a second skin.
  • Loren hadn’t minded, she had regarded her with a funny look as she followed her about. In fact, immediately Loren noticed how men were glaring at her as if they would wolf her down in one huge bite, she had taken Ugo under her wing after instructing her to hide her name tag. From that moment, Loren introduced her as her apprentice and didn’t even bother to give out her name. After that, the men gave her a wild berth. No rich man would want to mess with Loren Ibrahim no matter how wealthy the person was. She has the power, connection and the audience to drag anyone down in matter of minutes. People feared her and after spending two days with her, Ugo learnt that Loren enjoyed the fear she instilled in people.
  • Ugo has been her fan since covered a piece against the Former Silver City corrupt governor. It was a dangerous thing to do and almost cost her her life. But that piece was what brought Loren to the limelight and got her avid fans that will die for her. Ugo was one of them, she would defend Loren as if her life depended on it.
  • Loren only took notice of Ugo because of an online debate some of her fans had about her two years ago. Loren had made a comment about a politician and had gotten backlash from the public because of it. Most her fans defended Lore fanatically but Ugo had defended her with facts and even went as far as criticizing some of Loren’s comments. That had gotten her millions of reactions, mostly negative ones, with some fans calling Loren to block her.
  • Even some had tried to bully her online but Ugo clamped down on her haters, given them as much backlash as they were bringing to her. She knew she was in the right so she didn’t let anyone cyber bully her. Because of how much attention her comments received, Loren had reviewed the comments and then DM her.
  • Ugo couldn’t believe it when she saw that Loren Ibrahim chatted her up and commended her for her boldness and standing firm to her truth. Loren even followed her and that had put the attack to a stop. Once Loren’s fans saw that she followed her instead of blocking her, they stopped attacking her. Some even questioned it, however, Loren explained she would rather take constructive criticism any day to a fanatical praise. Thus their master-apprentice kind of friendship commenced.
  • Ugo wasn’t opportune to meet the stranger standing before her right now during the conference so she had no idea who he was. But the fact that he didn’t take her acceptance of him for granted, made her feel more relaxed with him, the way she had never felt with any man she’d met in Silver City. With a smile, she replied to his comment.
  • “I’m not a journalist. Just a …”she hesitated on how to qualify herself.
  • “I’m just a girl writing up an article and enjoying it”
  • She finished and noticed that she was staring. She wasn’t gawking at him, as to his features, she was staring into his eyes as if she wanted to see his very soul. She looked away embarrassed. With one glance, she had seen that he was not just tall and handsome, but gorgeous. Romance novel writers would probably say he was as handsome as a Greek god. But since Ugo had never seen a greek good before except what was portrayed in the movies and books, she tried to refrain from describing him so. To her, he looked like every definition of whatever a handsome man was supposed to look like. She blushed as she realized that she was dissecting his features with her mind. She quickly looked up and saw that he was watching her intently. He was probably doing to her features exactly what she was doing to his.
  • He was not just gorgeous, a magazine cover page model handsome, he was dark skinned and Ugo was partial to dark skin men. Blame it on all the Hollywood movies she had watched since she was a kid with actors staring actors like Michael B. Jordan on lead. Will Smith was her mother’s number one crush and she gre up watching every of his movie. No wonder she was partial to men who look like them. However, all those celebrities had nothing on the stranger standing before her. He was way more gorgeous than any of them. No wonder she was behaving like a little girl.
  • He was probably an actor or something. Ugo stared at him hard trying to remember if he was an actor. If he was not, then he should be, or maybe a model. But there was something about him, he has the aura of a royalty, a man used to given orders and expect everyone to oby. She smiled at the thought, he won’t do well as an actor or a model. No one will dare give him orders.