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Unhatched

October 9, 2024

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She told him as soon as they met that she was not comfortable with the idea of presenting him to her father. Her mother died in a ghastly motor accident three years before they met by the time he met with her she was working with a fashion outlet and doing very well for herself, she was a fashion designer and her fashion ideas were unique that was how they met. He was a tailor and he specialised in men’s attire she dreamt of the concept and was looking for someone who could deliver it as she imagined and drew it, someone told her about him and she reached out to him that was how they connected she never imagined that a Yoruba guy would be interested in her design He never imagined that he would ever do any business with an Igbo lady, she was from Anambra State and he was from Oyo state, a very sharp contrast! She would call him any time during the day or night and he would respond, they made quite a ton of money together.

One day she told him she was coming to Lagos, he was overly excited they met on a Tuesday morning, he was groggy from so much work and she was groggy from the overnight journey her older sister who lived in  Lagos had delivered a baby girl and she had been named the godmother, she invited him to the occasion and he attended. When he got there he discovered she was a Christian but of the Catholic persuasion she belonged to the Legion of Mary she wore a neck chain, armband, and ring declaring her belief system. He was of Pentecostal persuasion and neither of them felt any sort of bias about it. After the christening of the child which she was named the godmother, they took time out to have lunch and discuss business, their previous point of connection had been through WhatsApp and Twitter. She was told about him by a friend who saw his work on Instagram, she tried to reach him on Instagram to no avail then she discovered he was very active on Twitter and sent him a DM that was how they connected at the beginning. He was single and aged 32, She was 28 and she was also single she felt at home with him the way he discussed the technical details of his work and how he had always struggled with coming up with bold fashion concepts until he met her, he felt at home with her the way she came up with audacious design ideas that he had delivered to her clients. She told him all about herself so freely her past, the fact that priests have been hitting on her since she was in JSS 3, and her values. He told her about himself, the struggle he had with formal education, how he went into tailoring and later had to learn the business side of fashion through mentorship and his training in a school in France She told him she studied Mass communication but had to go into fashion designing when they had a practical in school under the tutelage of her Community Communication lecturer in 300 level and how she came up with different concepts of communication designs for the class project all by herself. She said it felt as if her true self suddenly emerged out of the shadows and since then she had not stopped designing outfits for special effects and once in a while for the normal fashion buff. She was everything he was not and he was everything she was not she was creative, imaginative, and unique in her conceptual ideas. He was practical, and technical, had a devotion to perfectionism, and delivered her dream to a T.

They complement each other, after a week of meeting each other daily for lunch, she teased him that he ought to be big enough to take her to dinner on her last night in Lagos. He teased her back that dinner was more intimate than lunch and he would not take any random lady to dinner for just the fun of it. When he got home that day, he called her and told her they would do dinner but there would be no talk of work or business, she agreed, he shopped for a restaurant and they agreed on a time he would pick her up he got there on time and she was ready for him. They had a good night out on a yacht where intercontinental dinner was served with good music, it was while on that yacht listening to the famous “Bibanke” music from Asa that he kissed her for the first time the next song was “So Beautiful” also by Asa and it was the last straw, she sunk into him as she cried as she recollected the memory of her mother how she died on Christmas day when she was in her twenties and all her attributes. He held her close and the night was bliss after the dinner he wanted to drive her home but she insisted she wanted to spend more time with him she just was not ready to let go of the night that early he made no provisions for that change and drove straight to another hotel he knew in Lagos where they could sit and have a night full of activities, it was not a club and he had learned from a friend that the hotel had a lounge that opens till 3 AM they went to the lounge and listened to music, they danced and time flew.

By 3 AM when the bar was closing, she said she could no longer go home because it was so late she was staying at her sister’s house, and returning there at such an ungodly time would not be deemed appropriate by her sister and her sister’s husband. Luckily the hotel had an available room and he booked it for her, he saw her off to the room at about 4 AM and drove back to his house.

The next morning she called to say thank you and asked him if he would like to do dinner again that night, she had cancelled her flight and paid for another week in the same hotel, she did a video call with him for the first time and showed him all the trappings of luxury the hotel had to offer. He accepted the invite and they spent the night telling each other everything they could remember about their past Relationships, family, friends, jobs, religion, churches they had both attended and the leadership issues, business, money, savings, investments, future goals and ideas, friends and not-so-friendly acquaintances, habits, favourite colours, books they had read, places they had been to, heartbreaks, why they were both still single and so on. It was the best night of his life to that day the night closed around 2 AM with him kissing her all over and guiding him into the place where she felt he would fit into like a lock to a key.

They woke up almost at the same time, the next morning they had broken the first rule of business and he was concerned about that. In his experience, sexual entanglements almost always mess up business, he was determined not to have any sexual relations with her but it had happened she was afraid he would have regrets and flee her bed, that had been her previous experiences It was all she was concerned about as she lay on the bed considering what had transpired hours before on her bed It was her best night ever but would he stay? He did. He was there when she woke up he ordered breakfast and while they were waiting for it to be delivered he did something no one else had ever done to her before as an adult he drew her close, kissed her with her face and body the way it was after waking up in the morning and made love to her again, she was purring like a cat. By the time the breakfast arrived he had also ordered flowers and chocolates specially for her, she was her man and she was his woman she knew it and so did he.

Hours later, while he was still serenading her and basking in the experience of the night before she told him not to talk to her about marriage because she cannot imagine going home to present a Yoruba man to her father as a husband “I can do this with you but you must know I can never marry you, this must end one day and you must prepare your heart for that, I do not want anyone crying about heartbreak or writing on social media that “Ladies are scum” when this finally ends, I want you to admit and accept that now. I like you, I even think it is love but you are taking things too far with all this talk of love. I can never marry you, not because I don’t like you or love you but because my father will never understand and I am determined not to disappoint him” He was hurt by her words but he accepted it. They were together in that hotel until she returned to Enugu at the end of the week, as soon as she landed at her destination, she reverted to business-only mode and quelled all talks of love and personal relationships with him. The week after that was the annual carnival in Calabar and she was one of the contracted designers. She had designed quite a lot of attires and he had supplied as expected, she called and he delivered.

Two weeks after the carnival he saw her on the pages of newspapers with a guy, out of curiosity he googled the guy and discovered the man was married he relaxed, she did not seem to him like someone who would get involved with a married man he was certain she would soften her stance on getting married to him. It sometimes takes a bit of time for some people to realize what is best for them he was so sure she would come to her senses after a bit of time. He had a lot to do and he was not in a hurry to get married to anyone so he waited.

A year later she returned to Lagos for another family event he picked her up at the airport and dropped her off at the hotel, after the event she told him she had been with a man, the married man he had googled about the previous year and it had ended badly, the man’s wife found out and it led to a lot of bad blood, what did the man have that was so special? He asked she told him he was from her tribe she had never dated anyone from her tribe before and she decided to date him because she felt it was the right thing to do, especially after being with him the way she was with him the last time they met, he was shocked she chose tribal sentiment over his love and she didn’t even choose an available man she chose someone she could not be with maritally just to experience what it feels like to sleep with someone from her tribe.

After dropping her off at the hotel, he went back home and made up his mind not to bother about her anymore.He had realised she was not as into him as he was into her, he had waited in vain.
The next day she called him in the evening and asked him what was wrong with him, he told her he was busy with work she asked him out to dinner against his better instinct he went to dine with her and since her skirt was short enough to accommodate his trousers he slept over,
he didn’t see it as a big deal anymore.

The next morning she woke up feeling sore she asked him why he acted so disinterested in her even when making love to her she felt he was too perfunctory and their engagement didn’t feel the way it used to be. He told her he was preoccupied with many things, she told him she was unhappy with his disposition, he told her he was sorry but he did not want to lead her on or give her an impression that he desired to be with her when she had made it clear she does not want to be with him.

She told him he was sulking “Are you telling me you have not been with another girl since I was away?” He said he had not, she smiled and said “Is that what this is? You are sulking because I have been with another guy?” He shook his head and smiled he realised that she had changed Or perhaps he didn’t really know her and she was just revealing her true self. She was not the person he fell in love with he was with her throughout that weekend It was fun but it was impersonal, she was quite warm and open, he noticed that but he had logged out. What he thought he saw and was pinning for was no longer there he got the message and he moved on with dignity.

Three days after she left, a lady came to deliver fabrics to him from one of the local suppliers he did business with. She was slim, dark, and beautiful, a sharp contrast from the one he had hoped would reconsider her stance and choose to be with him.

They got talking, she was a graduate and was currently understudying her mother in the fabrics business. He was impressed by her intelligence and obvious openness, he just liked her so he asked her to dinner and she accepted. On their first date, he asked her to marry him, just like that! She accepted, right there, without a second thought.
It was crazy after the dinner, he took her home by 10 PM and she invited him in, her parents were waiting and she introduced him as the man she was going to get married to, her mother could not disguise her joy her mother had been doing business with him for over ten years and she respected him a great deal, she never imagined that her daughter would one day be the one he would desire to get married to.

They had a brief meeting that night he told her parents his parents would come and do the needful soon. They had another date the following weekend and the weekend after that. On their fourth date, he took her to a jewelry store and bought their engagement ring, they announced the wedding and engagement on a Thursday by Saturday, he got a call from the other lady, he didn’t know if she was an ex or just a business partner, she was in tears and asked him if it was true, he told her it was she asked him why he chose the lady above her he said they were never in a relationship and he desired to get married. She said “I bought a ticket and flew over to see you, I paid for the hotel and the food we ate together, I made it clear that I was still interested in you and you acted all normal, were you already sleeping with this girl at that time? Did you cheat on her by being with me? How can you announce your engagement so soon after I left, I never considered you to be that kind of man he apologized to her and told her the lady he was getting married to was never in the picture until after she left the second time she asked him if he chose the lady just to spite her. He said he had to move on and it was obvious she didn’t want to be with him she asked him how he came to that conclusion, he told her she made it clear she could never take a man from another tribe home to her father she told him she had changed her mind on that, her father really wouldn’t have minded It was her assumption! He wished her luck and ended the call politely.

She blocked him after the call across all social media platforms. He took it on the chin and moved on, he got married to the love of his life a month later!
PS: She is heartbroken and wondering what she did wrong that he didn’t marry her, I told her to read this page and see what wisdom she could glean from my readers. Please remember that we are all believers, insults won’t heal a crushed soul The truth spoken in love does, whatever you can chip in as counsel will help.
-GSW-

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