Let’s start with after the night you had that first chat with him. When he texted you those words your mind was empty of, but wanted to hear.

You were alone in your room, on your bed. The lights were off and the darkness was boring and cold. You were completely covered under your blanket and the rhythmic sound of the rain falling on the roof was quite satisfying. But still, the night was boring. You wanted something more, something to Ignite life into the night.

So, still under your blanket, you took to your phone. You browse through every app in it to rid the worsening boredom, but even the apps in your phone couldn’t help —Facebook , the prime of them, seemed to have lost its life —More than once a notification would pop up and on checking it, it would be a comment from some uninteresting posts you had been tagged in. You’d hiss. Even your inbox was now more silent than the local cemetery.

Then, when you were fed up with the night, when you were about logging off and finally sealing your eyes to sleep…..
He texted

‘Hi’

You saw the notification of a new message and you click with a rush.
He had been on your list for as long as your page had been existing but you’d never had a conversation with him.

On a regular day you’d have delayed texting back, but you had wanted this, a text, any text. so you replied relatively fast.

‘Sup’

And the usual pleasantries followed.……

A couple of days had gone by. You’re now finding him interesting, in fact, probably more than interesting..
He had this lady’s-guy charisma that effortlessly pulled you toward him. He seemed to be wholly into you, always wanting to text you just as you were always wanting to text him, perhaps you were exerting a pull on him too. Every moment you log in the first thing you do is to check if whether he’s online or not, and when he’s not, you check his ‘last seen’. Texting him had now become an addiction. Every beep your phone made you hoped it’s from him before you reach your phone.

A factual thought entered your mind but you dismissed it. You thought it’s too early to think of that. But not denying, there was a romantic chemistry blooming, and a week later, you admit it to yourself.
You undeniably like him. Or maybe, maybe even love.
Every text you sent him had a subtle layer of affection buried within it which you hoped he caught.
Even though, you were not fully certain about his feelings towards you. But you did hope it was reciprocal.

He did text you grin emojis a lot, and every time he did you could picture him smiling in front of you. You wanted to behold that smile in reality. You wanted to stand before him, looking into his eyes, being flushed by his beards while he smiles.
You wanted to meet him in person.

On this certain day, in the middle of an entirely different conversation, you couldn’t contain it no more, you blurted out…
“When am I meeting you”
His reply took long that you momentarily feared you’ve done it wrong, but the reply awoke the butterflies nesting inside of you.

“Actually, I’ll be travelling to somewhere close to where you live in a week’s time
” Was about telling you”

The WOWs in your heart were unending….
Though you masked your emotions with an…
‘Okay, I’ll be expecting you then’

Finally, you’d be meeting him, and a week later, you did meet him at this restaurant.
The moment you saw him walking down to meet you, you were awed by his gait, floored by his physique. Every facet of his appearance seemed seductively masculine, perfect. You fell twice more than you had fallen for him before. You imagined being wrapped around by those mighty arms.

The meals were eaten, the grins were admired, the eyes were stared at and the banters were talked…
When it all ended and dusk had fallen, you showed him to your apartment, where you hoped something more could blossom, something more lovely, something more memorable, because he won’t be around town for long and you want this visit to be special, memorable. You want a memory you can cling to when he’s far from you.

In the living room of your apartment, with just the two of you, sitting very close together, bodies touching and talks exhausted…. You edged a little closer. His skin was warm. You looked at him, not shy, not afraid, he looked back and something ticked.
Instinctively your heads drew nearer, very much nearer, your lips were only centimetres apart, you could feel the warmth of his breath falling slowly on your lips, you could smell the fragrance of his cologne more strongly than ever… You closed you eyes, expecting his lips to fall on yours.
A few more seconds had passed and nothing had happened. You opened up your eyes, he had pulled away.
Your forehead creased in disappointment and your brows furrowed, silently questioning why he had pulled away.

He shook his head a couple of times, placed a hand on your shoulder and said
“I think I should be leaving now”

You blurted as soon as his words reached your ears
“But why”
“Have to meet up with something”

You were left in confusion, not understanding what’s up with him.

Later that night, when he had arrived home, he called you and you threw the many question at him…

“Why hon,
“I don’t understand,
“what happened,
“did I do anything wrong?”

He replied
“See, babe, I was inches away from cheating”

You didn’t fully comprehend, but few seconds later after the silence from both ends of the phone… It hit you..

“You mean.. Cheated?”
“Yes”
“Like… You have a girl?”
“Yes”
“Yet all these while I never knew ? You never told me!”
“It had no importance”
“Now it does!” you shouted, “I’m in love with you Ken!… Ken I love you!”
“Jeezz”
“Ken don’t tell me you don’t feel the same way I feel about you”
“Honestly hon, you’re a dear friend to me… I don’t see us beyond that”

His last words silenced you.
‘Did he just friendzoned me?’ you wondered inwardly.
“Goodnight hon” he said lastly, not waiting for you to return it and he hung up…

“Goodnight love” you muttered, even after the call had ended.
You trudged to your bed and collapsed on it.
How could it be, how could ken not be for you but for someone else. Maybe if you had defined your relationship with him earlier you would have fallen this deep into him.
You picked up your phone, you would be calling Ada to seek her candid advice…….

***********************

Tonight makes it three weeks. You’re sitting on your crouch, fully dressed, contemplating whether or not to heed Ada’s advice.…
Ken hasn’t been hitting you up as much as he used to, his presence in your life has been fading away… Like the setting of the sun. Sometimes he doesn’t even return your calls….
And it’s killing you.
You love him and nothing seems to be able to change that, you’ve applied every move-on technique there is in the book but it’s all useless. He has stolen your heart too much too far. And now he’s leaving you like a vehicle gassing it’s exhaust fumes on your face while you’re suffocating in the fatality of it.

A tear dropped from your eye. You stand up, you have no choice, you’re heeding Ada’s advice. It’s your only hope.
You’re heading to Baba’s shrine
Ada said he concocts some of the most potent love potions.

*********

 Luqman Morrison is that little kid from warri has an uncontrollable obsession with  writing.