The struggle to keep my eyes open was grueling. But each time I managed that feat, I noticed another personality looking worried but feigning a smile when I glanced at them. I was breathing heavily through the gas mask and I could hear the sound of beeps either from the bed or the ventilator alarm. Sharp pains were taking turns all over my body. My vision was hazy. My ever dependable mother was at my right side accompanied by my sister. She wrapped her hands firmly around my wrist, looking all worried as usual. My sister was quite the opposite, upbeat as always, just like me. We share the same personality. She managed a cheeky smile, ignoring the antics of her witty son beside her. My nephew was holding a floating balloon with a message reading “get well soon”. On my left, gathered my friends who had to step back as soon as the nurse walked in to observe my condition. It wasn’t all a dream and I could not believe she wasn’t here to see me.
It was last year, the first week in December, seventh day of the month to be precise. I and my friends just finished playing our routine Wednesday night football after work when they called my attention to this strikingly gorgeous woman. She was on the other side of the boulevard walking gracefully as she placed every step so immaculately on the tarmac. She wore sexy sports apparel that did justice to that “Beyonce” type of frame. My friends went berserk like in Tom and Jerry when tom the cat sights a drop dead gorgeous pussy cat. They deployed all sorts of unruly behavior from whistling, to sign language. Our Beyonce just smiled and blushed at their boisterous deeds. Quite remarkably, I was quiet the whole time. It was very uncharacteristic of my persona. After all, my friends bestowed upon me the moniker “King David” for obvious reasons. I guess I just wasn’t in the mood this evening.
I left for my car to head home, leaving the dogs to keep acting the fool. I looked up to have a quick glance at her one last time. Damn! She was worth every anti-social behavior I thought. After flying open the roof of my coupe, I drove off saluting my associates. On making the u-turn to head out of the estate, I saw Beyonce yet again; this time, I caught a full glimpse of her face upclose. She looked all too familiar. As I drove past her, I could tell from her body language she thought I looked familiar too. I looked at my rare view, and I caught her looking back trying to recollect something. On impulse I pushed the stick to “R”. I noticed she was waiting on me already.
“Look I’m sorry if this sounds cliché but I’m afraid you look really familiar”. I was anticipating a rude response the way she was sizing me up and while trying to recollect if she knew this irresponsible man trying to chat a lady up on the road. “Muyiwa”! She exclaimed. I nodded. She screamed and ran across the driver’s side to embrace me. I was right. I knew this woman; She was Remi, my high school crush whom I refused to date back then because we happened to be in the same class from JSS 1 to SSS 3. “Oh my days, this isn’t a coincidence” she muttered, as she squeezed the life out of me. After we exchanged pleasantries I insisted I’d take her home. From that point on, we went down memory lane. Nothing was left out as we quipped, laughed and reminded ourselves of our juvenile years.
After several hours, I declared I was leaving for the umpteenth time. This was deliberate, but she ignored my announcement accordingly. It was just the perfect sign I was hoping for. The chemistry never left us. Her company was priceless. While flipping through photo albums and sipping petillant french wine, suddenly the laughing ceased and all we could do was stare at each other. As King David, I didn’t require a divine sign to take the initiative to rub her lips against mine. The foreplay was a marathon yet so thrilling till we finally reached the final destination; the king sized bed obviously. Both parties must have bagged a series of multiple orgasms during the coital sessions. That night/morning was electric!
We didn’t look back after that night. We fell in love. We couldn’t manage a couple of hours without speaking to each other slash when we were both asleep. We also made it a point of duty to see each other at least every other day. All of a sudden, the traffic on the island meant nothing to me. Weekends were a must. It was either we passed the night at my place or at her place. I had never been so happy in a relationship before. She made me smile to myself at work. Waking up being a moody cow was now in the days of yore. She brought out the soft side of me. My joy knew no bounds. She was the girlfriend I had been waiting for all my life. My disgust for public display of affection didn’t apply to her. I was happy to embrace her in the public eye whether it was her smooching or she clinging so tightly to my arm like my arm was her Brolin handbag. I didn’t care so long as it made her happy. Christmas and the New Year celebrations came and it was the best I ever had as far as I can remember. We exchanged gifts, caught a late night movie and had yet another electric night/morning in as many days. This must be El Dorado I tell you.
After high school, she had relocated to the states to join her family. That was how we lost contact because back then even landlines were a luxury. She concluded her education to the MBA level and took up a employment with a major financial management consortium. After acquiring enough experience she decided she would come back home and establish something for herself. This was her account of the story and that was how I managed to stumble across my first crush after so many years. Like Kanu Nwankwo, I was “detameaned” to make this count for good. And that is how we got here.
One day, it must have been mid-way into January 2012, when we were at a restaurant having dinner. Her phone rang, and from the look of things, I could tell she was reluctant to pick it. She finally did and some of the words in the conversation I remember vividly. “Really, but I thought you said by Christmas? Why the sudden change of heart?” After she hung up, I asked who that was; her response was so calm and collected it left no room for suspicion. Driving her back home, she was uncharacteristically quiet and looked worried. She had assured me everything was fine earlier so I didn’t lose sleep over that.
After that phone call, some things changed that I should have noticed, but once a playboy falls in love, all logic I tell you flies out of the window. Ask any one you know, they’d probably tell you the same under oath. She declined any request involving me coming over to her residence insisting she would come over instead, and more often than not, while we were talking on the phone, she’ll place me on hold. The countless hasty trips to MM Airport didn’t make me ask questions either. I guess I had become the full blown MAGA under “kontrol” being used like a SURE Roll-on deodorant.
Suddenly she barely had time to visit, and politely asked me not to come over because she had extended family at her place. She still managed to call albeit a few times with so much noise emanating from kids at the background. Still, I never asked questions. Then came the second week in February where she stopped calling and more worryingly stopped picking. I’m sure I must have run down her phone battery twice a day, because I kept calling. Thoughts running through my mind varied from kidnapping to breakup. I wasn’t built for this emotional rollercoaster. That’s why I’ve been single for over three years tearing hearts into shreds.
It’s been over a week and I haven’t heard from Remi. I had planned to buy her an ipad2 for Valentine ’s Day which was tomorrow but that is the least of my priorities as I can’t think straight right now. I couldn’t get anything done no matter how hard I tried. I wasn’t only trying her number; I also tried Remi’s only friend I could link her with. After such display of hopelessly being in love with her friend, she hands me Remi’s new number only on one condition, that she’d be anonymous. Although, she warned I should brace myself for events about to unravel, I didn’t care. I wanted my baby back. I called the number immediately. While it rang, I could feel my heart beating twice as fast. Then I heard her charming voice, “hello?” I felt a sigh of relief. The moment she heard mine however, she hung up! That moment I realized something was wrong. I grabbed my car keys and leaped down the stairs. I had to investigate what was going on.
Rasheed wasn’t the security guard anymore when I got to Remi’s place. Moreover, I think I heard him say, “oga and madam don comot”. This new aboki dude must have had one too many “3,3,” lager beer in his system I thought. I decided to wait in the car till she finally arrived hours after in a black Infinti jeep, which I saw regularly in her compound. There I saw a man hooting the horn for the guard to open the gate. Then I saw my beloved Remi seated beside him with a boy on her laps and another in the backseat. The driver of the jeep appeared oblivious of my presence, but my eyes and Remi’s met. She couldn’t look me in the eye for another second as the man drove in and the guard shut the gate behind them.
I was distraught. I tried all her numbers a minute after but they were all switched off. A part of me was still in denial and the other snapped back into reality. I drove off. Now my heart-beat was sounding like Sasquatch’s feet thundering shaking the asphalt my car was threading on. I was driving aimlessly and very fast too. Despite the A/C at the lowest temperature, I was sweating profusely and my hands shaking like I had Parkinsons disease. Then a message came in. I first hesitated, but my intuition told me it was Remi, so I checked it. It read, “baby, I’m so sorry to do this to you. I was going to tell you that I’m unhappily married with two kids but I just couldn’t find a way to say it because I’ve grown to love you so much and didn’t want to lose you, I hope you find a place in your heart to forgive me”. By the time I looked up, it was too late. That was all I could remember. It was the eve of Valentine’s Day.
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