Chapter 99 - ...national treasure

They stepped into the cool breeze of the night at the top floor of the presidential.

"This way please." Temi led them to the left side of the rooftop where the view of the city was most beautiful. A beautiful setting was already setup for them close enough to the railings but not so close it scared her.

"This looks amazing. How did you even get this hook up?" Precious was curious. While Tale made really decent money and was big on savings, she knew this was going to cost a pretty sum

"The waiters will be out with the starters soon enough." Temi announced before leaving.

"Thank you Temi," Tale removed her jacket exposing her figure even more. Su Yan helped her with her seat just to be closer to her for a second more before taking the seat opposite her.

"Now, tell us what is going on," Woo Jin spoke first.

"Seconded," Precious added.

"You both need to go with the flow and stop acting like an old couple." Tale pointed out.

"Ignore them," Su Yan supplied.

The starters arrived and the smell of freshly made spring rolls and locally boiled groundnuts filled the air.

"Wow, what is this?" Woo Jin pointed the plate of groundnuts. Because they came in their shell, he didn't recognize them.

Tale picked up one and broke the shell revealing three groundnuts inside. "It's same groundnuts you eat, but boiled and comes with all the fun of getting to it." she explained.

Precious took one herself and broke the shell revealing two nuts inside. "Some come with two, one, three nuts inside."

"Yes, so whichever one you like, dig in to it—" she was still talking when they did. She watched their reactions to the taste. They liked it.

"Does Mr. Nonso know you are here?" Su Yan asked. He was a bad friend to the poor guy and he knew it.

"No he doesn't and he is out of town."

The chef for the night came up then to meet them. Precious didn't hide her shock and excitement at the sight of him.

The man in his mid-fifty's was all smiles. He was Chef Ayo, he cooked for celebrities, politicians and top people in the society. Working for The Presidential was his idea of a retirement, he had announced a year back that he wanted to leave the business to focus on family. But to stay in touch with what he loved doing he chose to work on his own time for the presidential putting the hotel on the map.

"Chef Ayo, thank you so much for doing this. I am forever humbled and thankful." Tale stood to greet him giving him a quick hug. "These are my friends and my boyfriend Su Yan. Guys, this is Chef Ayo, a national treasure."

The man greeted them. "I had no idea your friends were foreigners. Thank you for being my guest tonight." He addressed them. "How did you like the starters?"

Precious was the first to speak, "I loved it. I am a huge fan of your craft sir."

"We love the nuts and wouldn't mind more." Su Yan blurted out without preamble.

"I will see to that." He smiled as he spoke. "The main course will be out soon."

"Thank you so much again Chef Ayo."

"No, not at all," He took her hand in his and gave her a friendly pat "Thank you, from the depth of my heart, thank you." He finally took his leave.

"Tale, please tell me Chef Ayo is a lost family you didn't know about but now do." Precious said still looking at the direction the man had entered.

"Yes, please say that." Su Yan who wasn't comfortable with how chummy Chef Ayo was with Tale added.

Tale smiled proudly. "I wish," she then proceeded to telling them how her yesterday went.

"I had come here after work yesterday to see if I could book this for tonight and while the space was available, I ran into a challenge and was leaving with my head down a bit sad. I saw a car about to run over a little kid who was lost in the parking lot, I saved him I guess and it turned out that was his son."

"No way!" Precious was hooked.

"Oh look, my girlfriend is a hero." Su Yan held out his hand to take hers.

"He had strayed from his mother's side and wondered into the parking lot somehow. I did get a bit injured." Tale showed them her shoulder then, she had suffered a scr.a.p.e on her shoulder trying to protect the child from hitting the floor. "Chef Ayo decided to repay me by helping me with my little problem and that's why we are here."

"I can't believe you kept this from me. "

"It was going to be a Surprise."

"I'm going to be eating a meal tonight prepared by Chef Ayo, I'm ready to get this night started. And he smells like heaven." The three of them looked at her at once. "What? We were all thinking it, I was the only one polite enough to say it."

"Calm down cougar" Tale answered.

"You saved a little kid, we finally have one thing in common," Woo Jin finally commented. "I've been saving your boyfriends ass since he was a baby"

"We first met when we were four mind, this is a little kid,"

"Not just a little kid, that's his only kid. He and his wife had tried for the longest to have a child and failed. This was a miracle child." Precious explained keeping her voice low. "That's why he's thankful.

"Yeah." Tale agreed. She had been drenched in tears yesterday as the wife of Chef Ayo gave her a hug while sobbing tears of joy.

She had almost joined in the crying fest herself.