by Oluwatosin Fatoyinbo
We had a bright future ahead of us. All of a sudden, it started: the incessantly irritating demand for sex. I was no angel but I strongly believed in sex after marriage.
– Read Episode 1 of the compelling story HERE.
– Read Episode 2 of the compelling story HERE.
– Read Episode 3 of the compelling story HERE.
– Read Episode 4 of the compelling story HERE.
EPISODE 5
The ways of love can sometimes be confusing. Some say love just happens, others say love is a choice. I wanted very much to love David. I knew with all knowledge that he will go around the world to seek my love if it ever became needful. Common sense dictated that I stick with him and respond to his love. However, you know that feeling you have when you like someone, that tingling at your spine? The tingling is actually common sense leaving your body. Love and common sense seem to be mutual enemies. I picked love and abandoned common sense. I told David I couldn’t love him the way he loved me, I found it extremely difficult to feel the same way he felt about me and it was unfair on him if I said yes. He gaped at me as one from never land. It’s amusing really. How I could have waited this long only to say no. Maybe I should have given it time but I knew? I simply knew I was deeply in love with the strange stranger who I had only spent four hours with.
I don’t want to recall David’s pain but he told me recently what it feels like to be loved and rejected. He said unreturned love is akin to a death sentence. You feel guilty for asking because at least if you hadn’t asked, the occasion for being turned down would have arisen; the death sentence wouldn’t have been pronounced. ‘It was difficult but I survived’, he concluded. He told all these smiling and I faking it so as not to show him how much I regretted my decision. He was in Europe when my ordeal was birthed and matured but I’m sure some busy bodies must have whispered to him. So he knew I was faking it. Everything would have gone fine if Gboye hadn’t been bitten by a devilish snake from Hell. David and his wife are happy, Gboye and I could have been happy too. We could have.
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I signed the last draft for the day and handed it over to my over burdened secretary who never complain. I took a long look at my expansively furnished office with a soothing sense of satisfaction overwhelming me. If there was one thing Gboye did and did well, it was to encourage and even push me. I hated it but he insisted, he drove work ethics into me and the reward is evident. That our paths would cross again in the manner it just did is what I didn’t envisage. His motto was ‘if you cannot complete it, don’t ever start it’. It stuck and I’m grateful. I didn’t bother to check of he and the others were through with their work at the Library. I left the office and headed for the parking lot. I waved at some members of staff who greeted me. I do wonder what they think about my unmarried status. There aren’t many women of my economic stature who are unmarried and society regards such women as being proud. To them, pride is the major reason such woman won’t be wooed by any man. I unlocked my Toyota Avalon 2013 Saloon car, ignited the engine and drove into the breezy evening. My mind drifted back into the past.
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Gboye came to my department the next day, I wasn’t expecting it but I sure was happy. He told me he had a sleepless night because of me. He was so crude with expressing his love. No formality. No refined language. Purely crude. He simply blurted it out. I asked how he could love in just one day and he said he fell in love with me three years earlier. He saw me but had never had the courage to approach me until fate brought us near each other in library the day before. He said he walked up to me intentionally, he couldn’t help it. If only I knew falling flat on my face for him would be frustratingly fruitless, I would have fastened my seat belt and taken the farthest flight available but we don’t have the picture of the future at our fingertip. The image in my head was edited by Gboye and disrupted. I envisage love, marriage, family, and then old age love.
Gboye was from an average family unlike me. His parents were retired mid-level government workers with six children. His childhood was not as smooth as mine and he always said he was an ‘aje pako’ unlike the ‘aje butter’ that I am. I cannot deny it, he was right; I was pampered and fought several times with my dad about it all through my university days. He had it rough but he was brilliant and smart and that created a good career path for him. After our youth service, Dad bought him a car. I vehemently opposed this but Gboye was so happy and I couldn’t afford to take away his joy just to satisfy my ego. So I let it be. He had always dreamed of working in the best accounting firm in the city. Fortunately, the senior partner of the firm was Dad’s friend. He was taken after a simple phone call from Dad.
We had a bright future ahead of us. All of a sudden, it started: the incessantly irritating demand for sex. I was no angel but I strongly believed in sex after marriage.
I refused.
The demand persisted.
My resolve was compromised.
We had sex.
I got pregnant.
Dad insisted we married…
To be continued….
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Oluwatosin Fatoyinbo is a Christ-follower..simple.. friendly.. music lover..writer..arsenal fan..Lawyer in equity..curator at http://paarapo.com. He Tweets from @tosinfat
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