It was a Friday once again and my best day out of the whole week but this particular Friday was very special. I have this dream look on my face throughout the week and have trouble concentrating on my work. It got so bad that my best friend and colleague, Ruth actually noticed the look and dragged me to the office restroom during our lunch break.

“Whatzup with you, jummy? You have been behaving like a newly –wedded bride since the beginning of the week.”Ruth demanded with her hand on her hips. Ruth was a delta girl that was born and bred in the north and came to Lagos after her service year in the eastern part of Nigeria. She was a short, plumpy girl in her early thirties with an open and straightforward nature that attracted me to her the very first time I met her which was two months after I joined my company. “Tunde invited me to spend this coming weekend with him.”I confided in a loud stage whisper with a big smile on my face and watched her pretty face clouded in confusion. Tunde was my two-year old boyfriend who worked in the bank on the island and almost everybody in the company knew about our relationship. “What is the big deal about that? Is it the first time you are spending the weekend at his place?”She asked in sacasm, almost glaring at me. “Oh! You don’t understand? I think he is going to pop the big question. I’m so happy. He has been kind of mysterious in the past few weeks and has been surprising me in little million ways. Don’t you get it?”I took her hand eagerly and shook it with impatience. “Be real, jummy. You can’t be so sure of men. “she began in that sermon-voice of hers that always got on my nerves because she was always almost right but the ringing of my phone cut her off and I glanced down to see Tunde’s face flashing at me before Beyounce’s “single lady” filled the restroom. “I flashed her a triumphant smile before turning to answer my call and she waited for the ten minutes it took me to talk to my boyfriend. “He is taking me out for lunch today. Can you beat that? it is so unusual of him.”I laughed out loud in excitement and practically jumped up in joy. Ruth rolled her eyes in exasperation and opened her mouth to start talking but the door to the restroom opened and my immediate manager came in. “Hi Christy.”I nodded to her and slipped out of the room, closely followed by Ruth.

I freshened up during my lunch break and slipped out of office to meet Tunde downstairs where he was waiting for me in his company’s car. “You are always looking good.”He said with open appreciation as I approached him and greeted me with a quick kiss on the lips. I knew I looked great and sporty in a pair of sky-blue jeans and white t-shirt completed with a blue tennis shoe and I was happy he noted that. “I will take you shopping first before we go for lunch but we have to make everything snappy as we have to return to the office in the next one hour.”He told me conversationally as he moved smoothly into the moving traffic on Awolowo road in ikoyi and I was speechless once again. It wasn’t as if Tunde had not been a good man in the two years we have been together but everything was happening so fast that  it had my head spinning. We‘ve had our own share of arguments like any other average couple and we ve had our share of joyful and interesting memories as well but when it comes to getting me things, I always seems to have to dragged him bodily to the shop or market and that was if he didn’t succeed in persuading me to collect the money after he had split it neatly into two .

We went for shopping and for lunch in the same shopping mall before he dropped me off in front of my office an hour and ten minutes later after promising to pick me up at the close of work. I slipped back to my desk without my manager catching me but Ruth’s gaze followed me and I knew she was dying to hear the full gist from me.Unfortunately,it was Friday and the pressure at work was much, so we didn’t have time to gist before the day slipped away and we were ready to leave for home. Tunde called again as I was clearing my desk, so I put away everything in haste and bid everybody a general “Goodnight” before walking out of my office. “Take it easy this weekend, jummy because your haste to get home is very touching.”I almost collided with my manager again on my way down and I cursed the old bitch in my mind. “Oh! I’m sorry, Christy.Good night and have a nice weekend.”I said with a smile as I side –stepped and bounced down the staircase. “Goodnight. My regards to him. “She answered with obvious amusement as she went up the staircase.

I and Tunde spent sometimes on the island at his favorite joint before heading for the mainland when we were sure the traffic would have lessened considerably.Normally, he would have spent sometime with his pals that worked on the mainland, no matter how late it was when we get to the mainland but I was surprised when he drove towards his house. “Won’t you see wale and the rest tonight?”I asked, hiding a yawn behind my palm and he reached out to squeeze my knee. “They have gone for one of our friend’s bachelor’s eve to tonight.”He said as he drove into his street. “Really? Which of them is getting married over the weekend?”I asked in surprise. Wale was his childhood friend and I knew virtually everything about their group of friends or so I thought. “You don’t know him.”He dismissed my enquiry with a flick of his hand and I was a bit hurt but I let it drop.

Two hours later, we stepped out of his bathroom after a quickie against the bathroom wall followed by a cold bath and flopped unto his bed with a satisfied sigh. “I have something to tell you.”He said after a moment as he rolled unto his side, facing me and supported his head on his elbow. “Is that another surprise?”I teased good-naturedly as I turned and mirrored his posture too. “Maybe.”He shrugged as he trailed a finger down my throat and tugged gently at my towel. “Stop that. Tell me what you have in mind first.”I slapped at his hand with a reproving look. To my surprise, he got out of bed and went to open his wardrobe. This is it! I thought with a silly grin on my face as I watched him pulled out boxers shorts and I closed my eyes as I day –dreamed. I could almost see him on his knees, asking me to marry him but I was shaken out of my reverie when he tapped me on my cheek and sat in front of me on the rug. “Are you okay?”He asked with a frown and I nodded. “Spill it. Why are you sitting there and not lying beside me?”I asked in my bid to lighten up the tension that had suddenly filled up the room. “There was this woman I met two months before I met you, she was a friend to my closest cousin and her name is Julian.”He began uneasily and I sat up in bed. “I remember. I think you told me about her and how she walked out of your life before the relationship took root. Have you seen her again? What is wrong with her?”I asked in concern. “Well, I met her again six months ago and ……………….”He paused for a while and held my gaze. “We are getting engaged in her family house in two weeks time!”He dropped the bombshell and I stared dumbfounded!

 

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Maybe you will find DIARY OF OLAJUMOKE DAVIES: THE REBOUND! quite fascinating.