Lt. Clottey lay quiet in the darkness by the most powerful woman in the country. Her perfume hung in the room seductively. He wondered why she was making things so difficult for him.
He had found himself falling in love with her hours ago, a feeling he immediately began to resist because as far as he was concerned, there was no way he could date the Vice-President of the country. Monkeys play by sizes and he, Lt. Clottey, was nowhere in the Vice-President’s class. So, he had done everything possible to suppress his desire for her soon after he successfully thwarted Cpl. Attinka’s two attempts to assassinate her. And just when he felt he was getting over her, she had decided to come so close to him.
“Victor, do not be stupid to think she has fallen in love with you. She is way beyond your league. If you try something stupid now because she says you should sleep by her, you would end up being court-martialled and jailed” he said quietly to himself.
“Victor”, he heard her suddenly call him.
“Yes Madam” he responded, noticing that for the first time, she called him by his first name. He was about to get up thinking she wanted something when she held his hand and pressed it, indicating she was not requiring him to get up.
Lt. Clottey lay back quietly on the bed. He wished he could get up and go spend the night with his colleague, Lt. Badoo.
The Vice-President did not know how to go about what she had planned, fearing the soldier would reject her advances or think her a woman of low morals. If there was one thing she wished most at that material time, it was for him to take hold of her, draw her closer to himself and wrap his arms around him.
“Gertrude, mustered courage and did what you set out to do. Remember, a faint heart never won a fair man. Just tell him how you feel about him. Go ahead. Do it”, the inner voice in her urged. But anytime she came close to speaking up, the prospects of being rejected stopped her in her tracks. After a while, she decided to throw caution to the wind.
“Victor, I have fallen in love ... .love with you” she said. She felt as if her world had come to an end when she made the statement.
Lt. Clottey was startled by what the Vice-President said. He decided he had not heard well.
“Pardon, Madam. I did not hear you”. Gertrude Mensah repeated what she said. This time, however, she spoke with much more confidence.
Lt. Clottey smiled, concluding that the Vice-President was joking.
“She is joking, Victor. Don’t make a fool out of yourself. There is no way a woman of her class would fall in love with you”, he quietly and quickly told himself. But when the Vice-President drew herself closer to him, turned over and kissed him on the cheek, he realized what he had heard was what she said. This rattled him.
“Thank you Madam” he said, feebly. Then he felt her take his right hand and sneak it under her so that she was now lying in his arms. She was careful not to do anything that would bruise the injury to his right shoulder. At this point, Lt Clottey decided he could not hold back his feelings for her any longer. He had done so for the past several hours but with her in his arms, his will-power crumbled.
“I have also fallen in love with you, Madam but….”
“Sssshhhhhh”, she said, placing a hand on his lips to stop him from talking. Then she pressed herself further to his body.
“You want to say we cannot pursue our feelings for each other because of what people would say; you fear people would think little of me for falling in love with a soldier who is not a General. You are thinking the relationship cannot be because as Vice-President, I am way up your league. You are afraid people would talk ill about our relationship; that we would end up on the front pages of many newspapers, some of whom would publish stupid things about us. Am I right?” she asked him.
“Yes”, he said.
“Victor, I may be the Vice-President of this country. I am most likely to be the next President of this country. However, I am first and foremost a human being and a woman. I have needs too that being Vice-President cannot fulfil. I also want to be loved. I also want to love. Love is a feeling God created in all of us regardless of our sex, creed, ethnicity, political leanings, social or economic status and race. Ever since I lost my husband, I have not been fortunate to love again. Then you walked into my life and everything changed. That spark which died in me when my husband died has been lighted again. I am able to love again” she said. He noticed she was crying.
He drew her closer to himself and started stroking her hair with the left hand. Just then, his phone, which was by the side of the bed, rang. He reached for it. It was Brigadier Addy. He said he wanted to see him at his office in the next twenty minutes and that it had to do with Rex and Kruger.
“Yes sir!” he responded.