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*****

I enter Adisa’s room-—clothes strewn everywhere and books dotted every inch of her large wooden table-—with an air of trepidation.

My tote bag in hand, lost in thoughts, I walk straight to her bed—-the only un-messy furniture in the room.
It is early evening on a Wednesday.

Adisa, garbed in a satin night gown—-even though it’s not 6’0 clock yet, sitting on a bean bag in the corner of her room, clacking away on her phone, turns to stare at me.

“You know I’m here for you,” she ratifies, faltering after her abrupt standup from the bean bag.

“I know Adisa,” I fare, “Which is why I need you to do my makeup for this date of mine,” I add, emptying the content of my tote bag—-a lavender bandage gown, black sandal heels-—on her bed.

“Of course Jade,” she bellows happily with a large grin on her dimpled cheeks.

“You know I’m the best for that job.”

Adisa has a talent of blending makeup; making people look fanciful and stunning. I’m certainly sure that my face is in the right hands since this won’t be the first time she’ll be making me up.

“So you win the dirtiest room for the week,” I observe as she leads me to her large mirror besides her bed, her vanity table is scattered with tubes and bottles of foundations, and body cream. Looking closely, even her mirror is smudged with brown substances. Probably concealer.

“I know babe, had a busy week,” she mumbles, “I swear, I need a cleaner or something,” she adds, and pulls a stool from her kitchen for me to sit on.

“Maybe you do, whatever, you owe me,” I allege, and plop down on the yellow plastic stool making my short beige gown pull higher on my thighs.

Checking out my face in the mirror, I anticipate the huge transformation of Ady’s makeup—-my eyes becoming impossibly bigger, my nose pointier and my lips pout-ier, and my Afro augmenting the whole look.

“Oh mama, pray tell, how do I owe you?” she asks in a fake British accent.

I choke out a laugh at this.

“The dirtiest room for the week takes the other counterpart on a date at least once in the coming week,” I amble on proudly.

“Oh please if not for Maama, I’m sure your room will be in a state worse than mine,” she tosses back, bonding my hair in a satin bonnet.

“She’s finally leaving on Friday morning,” I disclose, sadness leaking into my voice.

“I’ll miss her. Your Maama is so chill,” Adisa says in astonishment, “Unlike mine.”

I direct a solemn gaze at Adisa, her confession is indeed true.

Her parents are really harsh and neurotic, it is a wonder Adisa turned out as amazing as she is. She also has an elder brother that is an upgraded version of their parent. He is proud, impolite, and uncouth. You name it all. It is fair to say that there is bad blood between Adisa and the rest of her family.

“We are having an outing tomorrow, you should join us.”

“No I don’t want to intrude,” she emphasizes.

“Besides, I’ll be having a guest tomorrow. You know who already,” she adds with a shrewd smile while applying primer on my oily face.

“Jamal?”

“You are so smart!”

“Of course, I’m smarter than you are!” I assert with a big smile on my face.

“Keep your face still!” she shouts as I feel the soft thistles of her brush swiping at my cheeks.

I listen as Adisa rambles on about her various shades of foundation and eye shadow and how she loves certain products than the other. And how she’s attending a certain makeup class in the high end of the city.

It isn’t long before she is done with my makeup.

“Oh my god! I love your skin work!” I exclaim, admiring my smooth, glowing brown face in the large mirror. My face is exactly how I’d anticipated it to be.

“When it comes to makeup, babe, you know I’ve got your back,” she assures, bringing my gown for me to wear.

“Now I’m dying to see that sexy arse and hips of yours in that gown.”

I ignore Adisa and step into my gown before pulling it all the way up.

I turn left and right before the mirror equally checking myself out.

“Holy smoke!” Adisa hoots, “Jade ma pa mi now!”

“If you want some all you need to do is ask,” I respond with a gleam in my eyes.

“Unfortunately I’m not into girls, sorry not sorry,” she screeches, “dicks do it for me,” she adds wickedly.

“I really don’t want that last piece of info,” I chide, slipping on my sandals.

“Hey babe, whatever the outcome is, I’m here.”

“Thanks Adisa, now, don’t make it sound like you’re sending me off to war.”

Taking a last glance at my reflection, I hum in satisfaction and pick up my clutch purse and car keys.

“I wonder when you’ll change that dinky car of yours.”

“I wonder when you’ll stop being sassy.”

“Get out of my room young lady.”

“Of course your highness.”

There is silence.

“Call me if you need me!!!”

Of course she just had to burst it.

*

My rickety black car jostle unto the asphalt road that leads to the diner where I had my first date with Timi. That seems like such a long time ago, I murmur, holding firm unto my brown steering wheel.

My whole body is buzzing in eagerness and pure edginess at what I’m about to do today.

Or to-evening as it seems.

Pushing all thoughts into the back of my mind, I hold on, pushing my favorite car—though I have no other—towards my destination.

Auspiciously, there is no traffic and it takes me five minutes approximately to get to the diner.

“We can do this,” I say to my empty car after taking off my seatbelt.

I reapply my lip gloss in the compact mirror of my car and adjust my shoulder length Afro.

Finally, I push myself off the worn blue-colored seat of my car. With my clutch purse in hand, I lock my car, throw the key in the clutch purse, take a deep breath and march towards the sliding door of the diner.

It’s now or never.

*

Even under the dim lights, Timi’s brown orbs still twinkle boyishly when he sits back in his seat after bringing out my chair for me.

He terms himself a gentleman and he wouldn’t want any stain on that.

“I am really glad you called to meet up here,” he says a while after checking me out with an impervious gaze.

“It’s okay,” I reassure, glancing around the room. It is exactly the same as the last time I was there.
The menu list can testify to this.

“Honestly, I was beginning to think you never wanted to see me again till now,” he confirms, his biceps bunching up as he rests his elbow on the white table, “I’m truly happy I’m here with you.”

“Same here too,” I beam.

“So did you like those surprises?” he asks with worry flickering over his handsome face.

“Of course I do,” I exclaim as the server brings our food.

“Tell me which did you like best?” he asks playfully, swallowing down a spoonful of rice.

“I loved everything but I loved the tickets you got for me and my family even more,” I confirm, looking everywhere but his face.

His eyes are fixated on my face and I am too cowardly to return the looks.

“Jade,” he says, reaching out to hold my left hand, “I really would love to be your family someday.”

“I really appreciate your surprises. They were the best of my life,” I say looking into his eyes, observing his facial expressions—his jaw is clenched tight and his eyes hold a bit of sadness.

He doesn’t say anything but goes back to his food and starts eating voluptuously. His jaw chomping and crushing rapidly as I watch him devour his chicken with wide eyes. It is almost like he has never seen food his whole life.

Replicating his gesture, I dig into my food, enjoying every scrap of it. In truth, I am just trying to avoid the main conversation.

It isn’t long before we are both done with food. The diner is really bustling at this moment. It is a life on its own.

“I need you to give me space,” I bust out before I can tell my brain not to.

“What?” he asks, pulling at his blue-black tie, his long shirt stretching against his expansive chest.

“I have thought things through. I need to see a psychologist and I need to sort out the hate I have for the male counterpart. Most importantly, I need to do all of this alone. I don’t want to start dating you then carry all that hatred and bitterness into that relationship. It wouldn’t be fair to you. I’ve talked to my Maama and Adisa about this and they support it. I’m really sorry Timi but I have to do this.”

I feel immediately worn and tired after letting all of that out.

Surprisingly, I also feel loads lighter. It is like a weight has been taken off my mind, my chest and all of that.

To be true, a big part—if not all—of my heart hurts so bad. But I know that it is the best choice if I want to heal emotionally from all the childhood trauma father caused me and from all the illogical theories that I have embedded inside of me.

I need time.

I need it to heal.

Alone.

“Wow,” he murmurs, blinking quite rapidly before looking away from me.

“I’ve always known you would be different,” he whispers with a proud smile, “I want to wait for you,” he guarantees with a nature of decisiveness.

“Geez! No Timi, I don’t want you to do that,” I rush out, pleading with him.

I am partly guilty and partly joyful.

Mostly joyful actually.

“This is my decision Jade. You are the one for me. And I am totally sure of it,” he gushes out.

“I will wait for you,” he reiterates his expressive lips set straight.

Looking from his left eye to his right eye, the sincerity and seriousness takes me by surprise and I burst into tears there and then.

“Not again!” he exclaims, producing a handkerchief from his breast pocket and pull his chair close to mine.

“You know I hate to see you cry,” he says as he dabs my cheeks with his silk handkerchief.

I snigger out loud and it makes him look on at me with concern in his eyes.

“You still use silk handkerchief?!! You’re so old!”

We laugh at this.

“I can be young, if you want me to be,” he counters with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

The heat there turns my insides into jelly making me scan quickly through his body.

He looks fit under the dress shirt, his hands wrap around my shoulders, and I want nothing more than to see him butt-naked.
He must have catch my line of thought because his eyes gets infinitely darker.

And sexier.

And my heart gets racier.

“God! Let’s get out of here,” he drawls out, his hand palming my thigh, sending degrees of heat through my cotton material, seeping into my skin and warming me up.

“I can’t have sex with you,” I remind with a crestfallen look.

“Who said I want to?” he bit back with a frisky smile. “You know I’m irresistibly attracted to you. But, no, I just want to take you somewhere personal to me. Say you’ll come Jade,” he slurs twirling my curls in his hand.

Looking around the diner, people are starting to give us a weird look. And we are doing nothing—at least in my own books, though I seem pretty glued to Timi with my head resting on his shoulder.

“Lead the way Timi.”

We are close to the end of this book, I mean I have just the epilogue which I will post today. Tell me what you guys think about my story in the comment section.

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