“…in this drink? ”
He shrugs. “ There are always more ingredients than you’d ever guess.”
I stared hard into the depth of the glass cup- seeing nothing but a monochrome of orange juice.
“ You can’t see the ingredients”, he said in a confident voice “they’ve dissolved to become one.”
I stared harder still my eyes couldn’t spot any disparity in the drink. I understood what he was insinuating but I still wanted to prove him wrong.
***
It had become unhabitual of me to accept an invite to date but something mystifying about the way he had asked had implored me to say yes. . Three days ago, he had texted, having gotten my number from Teju. Normally, I would have called him and hurled insults and curses into his ears before finally blocking his number but the way he had ignited a conversation felt so harmless that I was incited to envision him as a gentleman, different from the previous men in my life. An oddball, I’d say.
He requested we became friends, something I consider rather unusual for the men I had met always start with a hackneyed expression -‘ I really love you and would like us to be dating ”- these men had told me they “ loved” me right from the instant they had set their eyes on me.
Once, a man named Jacob had approached me at the salon where I worked and requested my personal service in cutting his hair. I had only cut an half section of his hair when he blurted out blatantly that he loved me and wanted to take care of me.
He said he would take me out of my suffering, away from the cheap job I was doing and furnish my life with his stinking wealth.
Although, I tried not my best not to respond but as he iterated his advances, my anger snapped like a rickshaw off its wheels and I almost severed his scalp. I spat on his face and hurled at him that I wasn’t suffering.
My boss would have instantly sacked me for my rudeness but instead she warned me and asked that l learned to ignore the customer’s remarks. That day, I was so humiliated by my female colleagues who claimed I should have said yes to the man’s advances without even overthinking it. They called me a pompous brat and though their words sank into my heart like needles, I endured the pain and went about my tasks.
***
I wasn’t always like this, neither was it that I hated men but the way they heralded a conversation usually infuriates me. All they could think of as a means to talk to a girl was to start a woo, which for me was utterly pathetic.
I remembered my first and only boyfriend so far, though estranged now, James. We had met a few years ago at my sister’s birthday bash and I had fallen head over heels for his eloquence the instant he had talked to me. The instant he said, he didn’t ask for a platonic conversation instead he went right into the job of wooing me and success did he attain. I do not know if I said yes to his soft American voice or yes to the man in front of me but a relationship had built its foundation.
Now when I think of it, that foundation was dust. Six months later, not he but I had dumped him. There was just no synchronized chemistry between us and no matter how we tried to maintain a peaceful relationship, we always end up fighting and arguing against one another’s personal beliefs.
***
I would never have thought of going on a date with any man again but Harvey’s charming personality had bewitched me. His witty texts had nerved me with curiosity to unsheathe the different folds of his personality. I couldn’t love him even if I try, for love remained a myth to me but as he had unclad our unfolding relationship on a platonic lead, I couldn’t help but risk orchestrating another experiment at my hypothesis that love was indeed a myth; probably existent before but dead now.
Tonight, as we dine in one of the finest restaurants in Lagos, he overawes me with his words, incredibly flummoxing my forethoughts with his eclectic ideologies. I tell him I do not believe in love and he says he doesn’t either for he doesn’t believe in two people sharing perfect amity and affection right from their first meeting; because this is what the gospel of love seeks to teach. A fatal fallacy.
“ Love is made to seem like a covenant between two people to render solely affectionate concern for one another when instead it is a promise. A promise between two persons to try their best to be good for one another. Just like this juice, they learn to dissolve their differences. They needn’t be the same or compatible instead they should be two people slowly dissolving like salt and sugar in a glass of water to become one”, Harvey said sagaciously in a strict tone, smacking his lips as he pouted the last syllable.
***
I stared harder into the glass and it was then I saw it, a tiny speck of sugar undissolved. I wanted to show Harvey and tell him how wrong he was but instead, I shook my glass thus dissolving the sugar and took a sip
“ Well Harvey, do you actually know what salt and sugar taste like when mixed together?”
Written by Adesiyan Oluwapelumi