I knew I couldn’t tell Salewa anything that had happened that day because she was going to gloat so much and I wouldn’t have peace in the coming days. At the same time, I knew I couldn’t avoid it. Salewa would know if I was lying about the meeting and if I didn’t tell her what happened, what was I going to say?
I thought about it on the drive back home till I got to my estate gate, then I remembered. I had another one waiting for me at home. I knew Bena would be sitting in the living room waiting for me to give her all the gist.
Oh God!
I spent at least 10 minutes in my car after I parked in front of the house thinking of what to say to Benazir. I was in no mood for any teases or sarcasm. I was thinking about it so much that I didn’t notice that the lights in the living room were off. If Benazir was up waiting for me in the living room, the lights would have been on. But then again, she could have been waiting in the dark so I wouldn’t realise till I got in or better still, maybe she was waiting in my room.
Urrghhhh!
Why was I so bothered about what they thought anyway? Mscheww. Abegi, the worst she could do was tease me. I’ll smile sheepishly, chest it and keep it moving. Finish!
As I got out of the car, I tried to compose myself and look as normal as possible. I adjusted my dress and took my keys out of my purse. I hesitated a little before opening the door, praying that I wouldn’t have to explain myself. I unconsciously tip toed into the house and looked around the living room. Benazir was not sitting there. I heaved a sigh of relief, one space down, one to go. I tiptoed into my bedroom and turned on the lights praying that she wasn’t lying in my bed. Luckily for me, she wasn’t there. One heavy sigh took all the tension away from my body.
“Thank God.” I muttered.
I threw my purse on the bed and proceeded to take a shower. As water ran down my body, I shut my eyes and the memories of the man I had spent the evening with came flooding. I started to imagine my life with him in it. The love, the romance, the sex, gosh! I felt a familiar wetness between my legs and I opened my eyes immediately. I turned of the shower with the speed of light and came back to my senses. What was I thinking for goodness sake? What was wrong with me? Just a small meal and one short conversation and I was building castles in the air.
Urghhh!!! Fuck my life!
I grumbled to myself as I wore my pyjamas and got in bed. The only thing else I remember was falling asleep while making conscious effort to think about other things like the stock market and the export rate of Nigeria and coco farms in Venezuela.
“Uno! Unoaku!! Wake up!!!”
I opened my eyes to the sound of Benazir’s voice and her vigorous shaking. She was sitting beside me and staring into my face. I looked at my phone screen, 5:30am. Why was this babe waking me up so early for goodness sake?
“What?” I asked, partly annoyed with her.
“Wake up and tell me all about last night.” She was too excited for my liking.
I hissed and turned to the other side hoping that she would leave me alone but of course she didn’t. She kept shaking me till I had no other choice but to sit up.
“Urghhh. It’s too early for this nonsense.” I was irritated.
“Stop being dramatic jare! How was your date?”
“IT WAS NOT A DATE.” I half-shouted, trying to also convince myself that I was telling the truth.
Bena was taken aback.
“Chill. Jeez! Why are you getting all hot and bothered? I just want to know if you finally broke his head.” She asked.
I was confused at this point.
“No I did not. Why would I do that?”
“I don’t know. You seemed like you were mad at him and that date…”
I gave her a stink eye.
“Sorry, meeting.” She chuckled. “You were acting like that meeting was the last straw and he had it coming.”
“I’m almost sure I didn’t sound like that.”
“Well whatever. Tell me what happened jare.”
I sighed. There was no escape from this so I started to narrate and with the way Bena paid attention, you’d think she was writing a dissertation on it.
“It’s nice to know that you guys are finally getting along, after all your strong head.” She said at the end of my story.
“Which strong head?” I asked. “It’s not my fault that he was disrespectful initially.”
“Yea yea, we know. You were not going to let him walk all over you.” Benazir said in a singsong voice.
“Exactly.” I nodded and smiled before it dawned on me that Bena’s voice was laced with heavy sarcasm.
“Wait are you being sarcastic?” I frowned.
“Sarcastic? No o.” She stood up and walked to the door. “I’m going for a run.” She was out before I could say another word.
Mscheww!!!
I lay back in bed and tried to sleep for 15 more minutes but sleep was far from me. I kicked my legs vigorously in annoyance before dragging myself to the bathroom. As I brushed my teeth, I imagined the expression on Salewa’s face when she heard everything. If I thought Bena was a problem, then I wasn’t ready for Salewa. I knew Salewa was going to talk about it for at least a week. She would yab me for even smiling with him not to talk of having a friendly conversation with him. I smiled as I thought of the kind of friends she had, one seemingly calm one and another crazy one.
I always wondered how the crazy Salewa was the first person to settle down amongst three of us. In a sane world, Benazir should have gotten married first, I would have followed two or three years later and Salewa would start considering marriage when my first child was off to secondary school.
I laughed at the kind of thoughts that filled my head as I took a bath. Then from nowhere, an unusual thought came to me. What was I going to wear to work? This was when I knew there was a problem because I never plan what to wear. Normally, I’d just stand in front of my wardrobe and pick whatever the spirit inspired me to wear. But today was different, I was actually thinking of what to wear to work. I wanted to look my best and even if I denied it, I knew it was all to impress Fola.
What is wrong with me????
It worried me that I probably liked him a bit too much, too much for my own good. My head was telling me that I was taking it a little too far but my body was having none of that. I rushed out of the bathroom and went straight to my wardrobe. I scanned the entire wardrobe but nothing seemed to be good enough. My clothes felt too old to wear all of a sudden. So I took a stool and climbed it so I could reach the suitcase on top my wardrobe. The suitcase was full of clothes I had bought but never worn.
“Today might be a good day to wear a new dress.” I said to myself as I pulled out a magenta dress.
I had bought it on a trip to the UK and it did a good job of hugging every curve on my body. I threw the dress on the bed and returned the suitcase to its original position.
After doing my skincare routine, I went ahead to wear make up. Today, I was doing my make up with extra care and even contouring my face. Something I never did on work days. Then I wore red lipstick, a huge contrast to my regular nude lips. By the time I was done dressing up, it was almost 7:30am. I had about 30 minutes to get to work if I didn’t want to be late. So I quickly sprayed some perfume, threw on a wig and took one last look at the mirror before dashing out of the house.
Unluckily for me, traffic was heavy that morning. Some truck had broken down by the tollgate so it took me an extra 20 minutes to get to work. I was so pissed because my mind had told me to pass the alternative route but I went through the express. I cursed under my breath as I pulled into the office at 8:20am. Today was supposed to be a good day but my enemies were not going to let me have it my way. I hoped traffic was also choking Demola because if he was already at work, I’d not have it easy with him. As I prayed silently for my chi to come through for me, I hurried into the office. Little did I know that I had worse coming my way.