The Engagement Party

Belinda's POV

IT was a really sunny afternoon at the Lagos Bar Beach, Lagos. I sighed deeply and flopped down on the long bench under the coconut trees, then adjusted the big brown hat on my head. At the instant I sat down, two of my servant girls approached me, each carrying big brown baskets.

"Ahh! What a stressful game", I exclaimed, picking up my phone which laid beside me.

I had left the rest of the people; my boyfriend and his friends at the horse park, where we had been playing horse racing for the past two hours since we arrived the beach, and now, I am damn tired, I had to leave them.

The two girls dropped the baskets with them on a mat already spread on the sharp brown sand, still under the tree, very close to where I was sitting.

Then they began offloading one of the bags, bringing out the contents; white flat ceramic plates, cutleries… infact, mostly food items. It was time for lunch.

I made a face.

"Hey, you both know we aren't gonna eat on that mat, go serve that meal on the roundtable", I snapped at them and turned back to my phone.

"Yes ma'am, we do", one of the girls said and I crumpled my face all the more.

I immediately breezed online and busied myself with my phone when suddenly it struck, I remembered something.

I gasped instantly cupping my left hand over my mouth, with my eyes widened in shock.

"Jeez!", I exclaimed and the girls snapped their heads at me.

"Is everything okay ma'am?", one of them asked.

"Oh my! I just remembered I haven't updated my fans, they must have been waiting for me, jeez. I actually told them my boyfriend and I would be visiting the beach today, and I promised to go live, my gee! Ella get the makeover, I need to go live now", I enthused, rushing my words.

"Straightaway ma'am", Ella said and immediately got up, grabbed the other basket and walked up to me.

"You continue setting the table, I will be needing that too. Be fast!", I shouted at the other girl who seemed to appear rather too tardy, and she hastened up.

Ella took out the makeup kits and got down to work.

I sighed deeply as she handed over a mirror to me, and I began staring at my reflection in it.

Well, there was no doubts, I'm very sure I am the most beautiful woman on earth, endowed with every good qualities a woman needs.

I am Belinda Nzeike, an actress, a fast rising actress in Nollywood. I joined the industry three years ago and over these years, I have featured in more than five hundred award winning movies, of which I am always the protagonist.

Whether good or bad protagonist, hero or villain, whatever role I play, I always deliver so well. I am very good and talented, most beautiful, most sophisticated.

Hahaha, most of my fans call me babydoll, and I think I am Nollywood's sweetheart, they love me so much.

And oh! The most sweetest of all, I happen to be the hearthrob, the chosen lady of Kelly Gregg, a colleague at work. Not just a colleague, a sophisticated one at that.

Like for real, ordinarily I never would ever believe that someone as Kelly Gregg would ever ask me to be his lady, like, jeez, it's so unbelievable.

First, he is one of the hottest and most handsome actor in the industry, he is more popular than I am, has so many fans, so many crushers, both known and unknown.

He has been in the industry for eight to seven years now, famous for acting romantic lead roles, and heroes in most blockbuster movies. He is a definition of every woman's dream. Yeah, every woman badly wanted him, but he chose me, hahaha, Kelly chose me over them all.

I could vividly remember that night when we had our very first serious conversation. It was on the night I had received my second award, in the AMMA at Abuja, where I bagged Most Promising Actress.

I would call it 'serious conversation' because, we had never sat down and conversed as we did that night since I came into the industry.

We had only met at movie locations on set and nothing more than "hi, how are you doing?".

Although we had played lovers on most movies but, the romance and emotions only started and ended on set, nothing more.

I most times thought of him as arrogant, not the caring guy, and kind of rude, like, despite everything I do think I have, fame, beauty, riches and all, this guy never gave me as much as a glance, until that fateful night.

Although I had bagged just one award that night, but it was though I had bagged more than one, why not? Kelly Gregg talked to me.

Before then, a lot of older ladies who had been in the industry long before I came always do felt I was trying to come up to their levels, even when I know my boundaries and still accord them their due respects, I still have that premonition that I was being hated on by them.

But unlike me, they conversed and talked with Kelly freely, I wouldn't lie, I envy them for that.

I also even heard from certain sources that most of them give their bodies to him all in a bid to get him to date them, but he knows what he wants, he never falls for that.

So Kelly getting in touch with me that night had escalated the whole issue, these women hated on me all the more now. Hahaha, but I do not care, I am that boss lady, Belinda Nzeike, I know what I want and I go for it.

Well, that was all two years ago, now, Kelly Gregg and I are lovers, I am his girlfriend, his one and only girlfriend, and he is my boyfriend. I feel I have it all now, what else would I ask for?

"Hahaha", I laughed out, still staring at my reflection in the mirror.

"I'm all done ma'am, you are good to go", Ella said as she began packing up the kits back into the basket.

I handed over the mirror to her and then went on live on my Instagram page.

"Hi lovelies, well, yeah, here I am at the beach having a wonderful time with my boyfriend", I enthused smiling into the camera and reading through the comments my fans had dropped.

*** I love you so much babydoll, I love your hat.

*** Woah! Your bikini is so beautiful, can you please give it to me?

*** Where is Kelly? I can't find him.

*** Ma'am, you look so beautiful, I love you Nollywood's sweetheart.

On and on the comments went. I laughed and smiled deeply reading through them all.

"Kelly is having a swell time with his friends at the horse park, do not worry guys, I'm gonna upload pics. Okay, I would like you guys to have lunch with me…", I trailed off as I got up and began walking up to the table where the girls were still working on, still filming as I went

I got there and Ella shoved back a seat and I sat down, then began filming the wonderful meal set for lunch.

"Lunch is being served and I'm really starving, can't wait to devour this wonderful things on the table, hahaha", then I turned the camera back to me.

"Alright lovelies, I should get going, catch you guys later", I said, blew a kiss to the camera and went off.

I sighed deeply then turned to Dera, the other of my servant girl.

"Hey, go tell my boyfriend that lunch is ready, and ask the photo crew to come along as well, I need to take some pictures as I eat", I said smoothening down my hair with my left hand.

"Alright ma'am", she said and ran off, towards the horse park.

They all turned up for lunch few minutes later, all six of them. My ever charming boyfriend, his best friend who happened to be our manager, a friend of Kelly, and the photo crew.

"Welcome baby", I enthused at Kelly, smiling and revealing my thirty-two as I stretched out my left arm to him.

"Woah! Thanks baby", he said as he took my arm and pecked on the back of my palm. I smiled so deeply.

"You ran off", he said as Ella shoved back a seat close to me, and he sat.

Before I could open my mouth to say a word, Felix, our manager, chipped in.

"Don't mind her, lazy bones", he said laughing. I rolled my eyes and tucked my hair behind my right ear.

"Well, that was only a means to get off, I needed to run some errands", I said looking down on the table and deliberately avoiding their eyes.

Kelly scoffed.

"Errands like what?", he asked picking up a seafood and throwing it into his mouth.

I removed my hat and turned to him, smiling.

"Well baby, I really needed to attend to my fans, I needed to. I had to go on live", I said and he sighed and looked away.

Well, I don't care, he has to learn to live with it. Kelly is one kind of a guy who is appalled by my decision to always keep all my affairs online, I love updating my fans on anything I do. Kelly doesn't seem to like it, or be okay with it, but he has to learn to live with it, I am his girlfriend, right?

"Can we eat guys? I'm starving", he said as a bowl of clean water was handed over to him by Dera, he washed his hands and picked up his cutleries.

Everyone was now set and ready to eat, Felix made a short prayer, and we began eating.

"Hey you, can you come over here and take my boyfriend and I some pictures?", I called to the man with the camera and Kelly instantly turned to me.

"Aren't you okay dear? We already taken pics while we were horse racing remember?", he asked and I pouted my lips.

"Come on baby you talk like you do not know I am a public figure. I need to update my facebook page, my Instagram page, my twitter, tiktok…".

"Holy shit!", he exclaimed cutting me short, and I pouted all the more.

"Bro leave the lady, let her have her way please", Felix chipped in, "it's just a picture", he said in a bid to end the question and answer session.

I smiled at him in a way to say 'thank you', then turned to the camera man who had already begun snapping.

Kelly shrugged his shoulders and continued with the food.

As soon as we finished eating, Kelly took my left hand in his and got up. Then he picked up my hat and wore it on me. I was befuddled.

"What's going on babe?", I asked, shaking my head.

"We need to go somewhere, somewhere far from here to cool off, just you and I", he replied, smiling.

My eyes widened in astonishment.

"Oh really? Where is this camera guy?", I asked and began looking around for him.

"Mm mm, no, nope", Kelly said shaking his head in disagreement and waving his right index finger as well.

"Okay?", I got up.

"Just you and I remember? A secluded place. Secrecy", he said.

"Okay baby I know, but it's just a harmless picture", I continued arguing.

"Linda!", he fumed and I shook, seeing how aggressive he was becoming.

"Okay okay, fine. Can we go now?", I asked, reluctantly giving up.

He sighed deeply, then took my left hand in his.

"Come with me", he said and we began walking away, towards the seaside.

"Going away guys?", Felix asked.

"Yeah, wanna go have fun with my sweetheart", I replied.

"Have fun guys", the other friend of Kelly spoke and I nodded, smiling.

Kelly didn't even give as much as a glance at them, let alone reply them. He just kept on walking, towards the seaside.

We walk passed a lot of fans who played at the seaside as we went, they were all screaming and waving at us. I was really enjoying this as I kept on blowing kisses at them. Kelly scoffed.

"Okay, so where we going babe?", I asked.

"Don't worry, you gonna see the place. It's a nice place", he replied, then turned to stare at me.

I noticed him staring and ignored, but when I couldn't take it any longer, I turned to him too, and our eyes met.

"You are staring", I said in a whisper.

He chuckled.

"Don't I have the right to stare at my babydoll huh?", he rhetorically asked and brushed his lips on mine.

I laughed.

"Of course you do", I said.

"Well, here we are", he said as we got to a particular spot, secluded as he had said, there was nobody around.

I was somewhat shocked as I turned to him with my arms opened.

"What we doing here? I see… I…", I immediately trailed off as soon as I noticed some drawings made on the sand.

It was a very big heart and in it was written the biggest question I had ever been asked.

"Huh!", I gasped and glanced at Kelly, he was standing with his arms behind him.

The drawing of the heart on the sand was very enormous that I had to run to the other end, and began reading the question as I walked back to the other end.

At the instant I turned back, Kelly was already down on one knee, looking at me.

"Ahh!", I gasped again as I cupped my hands over my mouth.

"Belinda Nzeike, my babydoll, would you carry my last name?", he popped up the question.

I was shocked, so shocked like, I wasn't expecting it at all, I wasn't. Even though I really wanted us to end up together but, jeez, this was so unbelievable.

I was still standing and contemplating on what next to say when I heard some sounds behind me, and I immediately turned, only to see the movie crew, Felix's movie crew, already gathered.

They were all there, taking videos with their phones and smiling at us, I was more than shocked now. I turned to Kelly.

"Hey, is this some kind of joke or what? Is this a prank, or a movie shoot?", I demanded.

He smiled.

"I'm serious Linda, very serious", he said, in the most softest voice I have ever heard him say.

I gave out a short laugh and stood arms akimbo.

"Okay, where is the ring?", I asked.

He looked up towards the crew and began calling on Felix who seemed to be so engrossed with the video they were taking as he directed the camera man.

"Felix… Felix", Kelly called almost in a whisper and two people standing beside him, tapped on him to gain his attention.

"Ugh…", he looked up at him.

"The ring… the ring", Kelly said in a muffle.

"Oh!", Felix exclaimed and ran up to him, dipping his right hand into his pocket as he ran.

He ran into the heart drawing and took out a dark pink and black ring box, then handed it over to Kelly, then ran back to where he was standing.

Jeez! I almost fainted, I almost passed out. This was real.

Kelly opened the box and the 24 karat gold ring glittered, shimmering under the sun. I cupped my hands over my mouth again to avoid myself from screaming out.

"This is real baby, no prank, no jokes. Will you marry me?", he asked.

A low gasp escaped my lips as I turned to the people behind me, they were all nodding and urging me to say yes.

I turned back to Kelly and started with nodding my head, and then the reply followed.

"Yes… yes Kelly, oh my gosh! Yes", I said stretching out my left hand to him, and he smiled and got up, walked up to me and wore the ring on my ring finger.

I began admiring the glittering ring and then out of the blues, I let out the scream welling up in me for a long while now and jumped on him, wrapping my arms around his neck.

Kelly chuckled and held me in a hug, his arms wrapped around me, it was the most passionate hug ever.

The cheers and squeals that followed was so defeaning, the people behind all clapped and cheered.

"Yo! Now, that's what I'm talking about. The power couple, Nollywood's power couple", Felix screamed out, clapping his hands.