“What are you doing here?” He stammered, “I think the question should be, what are you doing here?” I retorted, folding my arms across my chest while I waited for him to come up with a brilliant response; he just sat frozen in his chair, staring at me in disbelief. I guess he was still praying to wake up from his nightmare. “So you chose to spend your time and money at a 5-star hotel with a total stranger when I was practically begging you to see just an ordinary movie with me?” I began. “You even went ahead to deny me all because you wanted to sleep with her—” I continued and was going to keep ranting, but he interrupted me.
“I’m very disappointed in you,” he said, finally finding his tongue, “I can’t believe you went this far… it means you don’t trust me.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. The least he could do was apologise; instead, he was trying to blame me. His words were like a slap on the face. The memories of him sleeping with his ex from the video I’d watched flooded back. So filled with rage, tears began forming in my eyes; I didn’t even realise I had started talking, “You know what? I’m sick and tired of this relationship. I’m tired of you constantly cheating on me with other girls, sleeping with your ex, and recording sex tapes while I sit back and watch you make me a fool. If I wasn’t good enough for you, you should have just said so.”
“You went snooping through my phone too?” He asked, rising from his chair. “Yes, I did. Can you blame me?” I said defensively, “What else was I supposed to do when you kept lying to me?” “I’ve warned you never to touch my phone without my permission,” he said, getting angrier. He was about to raise his hands to hit me when two waiters rushed towards us, holding him back.“You know what, you can do what you want with Kinga and the rest of your girls,” I shouted before walking out. “I’m done with this relationship.”
I knew I had caused a scene at the restaurant, but I didn’t care. I was just so mad that he was trying to play on my intelligence instead of saying he was sorry—but then again, what was the point of him saying sorry if he didn’t mean it? He’d probably keep repeating it, and even if he was genuinely sorry,
I wasn’t willing to take him back. I was still furious when I got home, so I deleted all his photos from my phone. It was the first step to deleting him from my memory. I was so depressed that I didn’t even feel like going to work the next day. I needed to clear my head, so, as usual, I called Seun and asked if he was free to hang out. Luckily he was, so I asked him to meet me at a bar on the island.He was running late. I ordered a Bloody Mary and sat at a table on the balcony, trying to clear my head while waiting for him to arrive. I liked to take a little alcohol when I was depressed; it always made me feel better. I’m not an alcoholic and only drink when I’m depressed. I avoid drinking alcohol excessively because too many dangers are associated with it.
One of them is alcoholic fatty liver disease—liver damage caused by excess alcohol intake and usually doesn’t show symptoms until the liver is severely damaged. Then the person begins to experience symptoms like jaundice which is yellowing of the eyes and skin, swelling in the tummy or ankles, weight loss, vomiting blood, or passing blood in stools.
In severe cases, a liver transplant may be needed, so let’s try to show love to our livers by not taking excess alcohol, so we don’t end up needing a transplant.Thirty minutes later, Seun still hadn’t arrived. I was starting to get worried. Then he called to say he wouldn’t be able to make it anymore. Halfway through his journey to meet me, Jennifer had called to say that she was at his door, so he headed back home so as not to keep her waiting.
I was so mad when he told me, but I couldn’t complain, he was such a ‘pant’ when it came to Jennifer, and I hated it. It wasn’t every day I summoned him out of his house at night, so he must’ve guessed something was wrong. He could have told her to join us or offered to come by after letting her in, but I guess he was too much of a sucker for love to stand up to her. If only Nonso loved me half as much, maybe I wouldn’t be sitting alone at the bar.
I angrily settled my bill, picked up my bag, and stormed down the stairs to the car park when I bumped into Teni, an old classmate. She used to be a “runs” girl back in school, “runs” is slang for dating much older people for money. Rumour had it that she was still very much in the “runs” business. I was going to avoid her because I wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries, but she seemed to be in the mood for chitchat.
Hey babe, long time! It’s so good to see you,” she said, hugging me like we were good friends in school— for the record, we were not; we were course mates and nothing more. “Good to see you too,” I said, faking a smile, “you look good.”
“Thanks for the compliment,” she replied with a twirl, “looking good is my middle name.”I tried my best not to roll my eyes after that cheeky statement. “What are you doing here? Didn’t know you were regular here,” she said, “I’m not,” I replied with an awkward grin. “Was supposed to be having drinks with my friend, but he couldn’t make it, so I’m heading home.”
“Awh! Don’t worry, you can hang out with my Maga and I, I’m sure he’ll be here any moment, he’s just parking the car,” she offered. “Maga” was slang for “wealthy fool”.
You haven’t changed,” I said with a giggle. “I’d have loved to, but I need to get ready for work tomorrow,” I politely declined, giving her a goodbye hug. She saw me off to the door when a huge, dark pot bellied man dressed in a t-shirt and jeans walked into the bar.”Here comes my honourable maga,” Teni said, winking at me as he came closer. I almost fainted when I saw who it was— “Dad!” I screamed, “what are you doing here?”
Find out what happens next in Episode 6
