Since Kunle, I chose to remain to myself. After falling in love with three men in three years and ended up heartbroken all three times, I came to the conclusion that a successful love-filled relationship was not for people like me. Celibacy was totally out of the picture for me, so whenever I needed to be with a man, an interested male who didn’t mind the limitation and freedom of being friends with benefits always comes in handy. This is probably what differentiated us from men; we, females have sex with who we want to, but for men? They sleep with who they can.
Don’t get me wrong, I have met men who were in love with me, but all three men I’d fallen prey to all started the same way, so…
My life was flashing before me as I parked my car and headed indoors and it was obvious I wasn’t getting any younger. I got into the living room to meet my brother doing his usual: smoking with his friends and discussing women. Chidi, the most regular and most annoying of the group caught a glimpse of me, but before I could dodge him, he’d come for me as was his custom.
“Madam ‘all men are dogs’, would you mind joining these dogs?”
“Thank you, I’m too tired for your wahala today,” I responded. Fumbling with my room keys as he followed me down the hallway.
He puffed a swirling circular smoke from his mouth and I tried to mumble something in annoyance, but I couldn’t, I only noticed I was falling and all I could hear was Chidi’s shout as he rushed to catch me before I fell.
I opened my eyes and found myself on my bed with my brother standing over me. He looked at me and smiled, “welcome back.”
I stared at him and was about asking what happened when Chidi stepped in and said: “you need to rest.” It’s okay if you don’t say anything now. You’ll be okay in no time.”
I kept shut after Chidi’s order. Did I forget to mention that Chidi is a medical doctor? Well, he is and also one of the best at it.
Long story short, Chidi stayed the night and the next morning, I was well rested and ready to conquer the day when Chidi walked in and sarcastically advised me to follow him to his clinic.
“Hauwa, you’ll need to follow this dog to his kennel because we don’t want a repeat of this incident again.”
Angrily I muttered, “Ok.” If only I had not fainted before this nuisance of a man.
At Chidi’s office, I got the shock of my lifetime.
Chidi asked me why I chose to abort my pregnancy.
Me? Pregnant? Abortion? How?
He continued, “you don’t need to lie to me. I am a Gynaecologist who knows what he’s saying. Why didn’t you use protection, when you knew you didn’t want a baby?”
Before I could answer him, he added,
“Even if you do not love yourself, there are people who will be devastated if any wrong happens to you?”
At this point, I was furious.
“What’s all these nonsense, Chidi?” I screamed at him.
He smiled, looked at me in such a way I’d never seen him do and just kept staring at me.
My head began replaying the events of the past 24 hours… I’d gone to my immediate boss’ hotel room a day after telling him I had been feeling tired in recent times and yes, he was one of the men I turned to for sex, even when I knew he was married.
“My God! He gave me a chilled glass of cola drink during the visit.”
“Was I drugged?”
“But, if I didn’t know I was pregnant, how did my boss know?”
Then, it all started coming back to me… I’d seen the office assistant try to hide a Pregnancy Test Strip as she hurried into the office bathroom after me… “Holy crap!? Did she test my urine in the WC?”
“My God! The flush wasn’t working when I used it… was everybody, but me, in on the conspiracy?”
My head kept replaying the well-planned conspiracy; when I felt my flow returned… it happened this morning, but I’d thought my cycle had readjusted… I stormed out of the hospital and drove straight to my office… I ran into the office assistant, gave her a dirty slap before storming into my boss’s office. He was about saying something before I descended on him. I was attacking him viciously when hands held me back and I heard Chidi’s voice. He pleaded with me to leave with him, but not without lodging a complaint at the nearest police station. I wasn’t going to let this lie.
My brother who is a lawyer got me an out-of-court settlement with my boss with enough money in my pocket. But this story isn’t about the money or the betrayal, not even about my wayward life, but about Chidi.
Chidi?
Yes, Chidi.
I’d expected him to use all these against me, but that experience brought us closer and believe me, he has been my loving husband for the past five years and we are blessed with a beautiful set of twins, Alexander and Alexandria.
How did it happen?
Well, that is a story for another day.