Waiting On Bolaji - Part 2
The first time I realized how pretty I was was when I came home one afternoon from school after Bolaji smiled at me during our lunch break. That was eight years ago. Since then, he’s practically watched me grow into the woman I am today, and I watched him become the man I was afraid he would become.
“Did you?” she’d asked.
“Did I what?” he'd answered as if he had no clue.
“Did you sleep with her?” she’d choked on her words.
“Yes but—” but before he could finish his word, she’d slapped him. He was quiet for a minute, checking if anything on his pretty face was broken.
“Baby, listen to me, we can beat this, we can handle this in a much better way.”
“But then you brought me to a freaking restaurant so you can disgrace me abi?”
“That’s not the reason babe. I thought you would handle this much better since it’s a public place; I guess I was wrong.” He said snappishly. He didn’t understand just how serious the issue was, she was going to lay it out for him––his dirty laundries, she was going to hang them up in the sun for the world to see.
“You know what to do right? Then let’s go.” she picked up her purse ready to leave, but he held her back with his next question.
“What are you talking about? What do you mean?” he stuttered.
“Babe, we don’t need to worry much about this,” she stated, sitting back comfortably in her chair. “You know what to do with the baby or do you need me to spell it out for you? If you don’t know, I hope she does.” Her state of dried sarcasm was slowly killing him. Wait a minute she hesitated, Bolaji didn’t think he could come here and throw something like that out and expect I would nod my head to it right?
She chuckled and shook her head in pity. “Bolaji,” she called, “we’re wasting time, the quicker the better. Take that girl to the clinic or better still, don’t escort her there just give her the money, and she will get rid of the thing so we can all go back to our lives; end of story. You should know better.” But that was when he slowly sighed in defeat.
“No, don’t give me that look, don’t even dare! You will do as I just told you, as you’ve always told me; no questions asked.”
“But I can’t, we can’t! Her parents are already on my neck! She has told them already.”
“Her who?” she laughed with tears gathering up in her eyes. Another minute and they would come running down her face. “Come again? You said her who?”
“Her parent’s Uwa, her parents!” he said frustrated with the mess he’d unintentionally created. “She said she has already told them about the baby, and what comes next now is that I must marry their daughter. You know how Nigerian parent are now.”
Ha! A waiter came forward just as Uwa was about to speak.
“Ma’am, sir,” he looked at both of them, “Would you lovely couple like to order now?” Before Bolaji could speak, the bitter woman in front of him took the mic from him.
“Yes please.” She said to the waiter. She picked up the menu and began placing her orders. “We will like a little bit of sanity here, one glass for him will be just fine, accompanied with some of your finest abortion pills, eight years of my life back, and, or maybe a wedding ring afterwards wouldn’t be such a bad idea now would it?” she asked, facing Bolaji. The waiter’s mouth dropped into thin air. He fixed his accusatory look on Bolaji.
“Ma’am,” the waiter started but he was quickly interrupted.
“Wait I’m not done, and while you’re at it, please fix this man a plate of his own betrayal.” she slammed the menu on the table. The waiter took it as his cue to leave.
“I’m sorry but this is driving me insane too. I’m not ready for what’s coming. I wanted it to be us, you, not her. This is my mistake. We can get past this if you’ll just listen to me and do as I say—”
She shook her head. “I am done listening to you. I am done following whatever you got to say, hell, that’s how I found myself in this city! I left my life, and my family all for you to come to this hide out city with no question asked, and this is how you repay me?”
“Babe I thought you wanted to come here, I—”
“You never ask me about what I want! It’s always been about what you and only you wanted. How did you even meet her?” she was out of breath.
“It was at a club back in Atlanta. I went out with Femi and them. It just happened babe. One thing led to the other; I didn’t know she was even twenty-three.”
“What about the other time you guys met up?”
“Babe there was no other time. I swear it.” He came to kneel in front of her.
“Did you or did you not go back to see her after that first night?” his silence confirmed it.
“I… I…baby I can explain.”
“So you moved me to another city so you could have time to mess with another woman abi? You disgust me!” she tried to leave for the second time that night but he held her down.
“See I have it, I have all you’ve ever wanted.” He reached into his pocket and brought out a ring box.
“This,” he pushed the box forward, and opened it. “This will solve everything,” a beautiful glittering diamond ring was staring right at Uwa. “Just say yes. I was going to give this to you before the incident with the baby. I don’t know what got into me. I promise I’ll never ever do anything to hurt you again. You know I love you.” But she knew forgiving Bolaji would be the biggest sin to her. She might as well be digging her own grave.
“I even bought a dress Bola…” she sobbed, remembering how beautiful she’d looked in the mirror some hours ago with dreams of walking down the aisle with this man.
“And you will get to wear it, just say yes…” As persuasive as he was, he knew he wasn’t winning this fight. “Baby say something.” he urged, knowing he was running out of time.
And he did. “I will not be any body’s second best. I will not.” She declared and walked out on him.
“Uwa! Uwa! Come back here. I said stop!” He called madly after her.
“We have nothing, nothing to talk about.” she said back to him and as she walked to where her car was parked, she held her head high, smiling to the world but on the inside; I am dying.
The End.
Sorry it's a short story
Just to notify you that I'm back fully
