I was so happy and for the first time in my life, I knew what it was like to fall in love. I wanted the whole world to know, I had her framed picture on my desk at the office…I even told my younger sister, who was her childhood friend, but she wasn’t very pleased.
She said she had seen it happen again and again and as usual, I was going to break her friend’s heart and ruin the good memories they made together growing up. I tried to convince my sister that this was different and that I was a changed person…I told her I had not been with any girl since I met Irene at the church. She paused for a while and almost couldn’t believe it.
“If that’s true, I guess there is hope for you then” she said and begged me not to mess it up. I told her I was ready to prove to all of them that there’s no one beyond redemption and “all it takes for a player to change is the perfect girl”.
I remember singing the popular Joe song “don’t wanna be a player no more” and my sister couldn’t help but laugh.
Irene had set ground rules before she agreed to go out with me. She said there wasn’t going to be sex until she got married…I didn’t really care about that, I just wanted her to be mine. It was going good although I was a complete stranger to this kind of relationship.
I saw it as a little sacrifice to get what I wanted. Besides, it was beginning to help my relationship with God. The first time I kissed Irene, I felt like I had won the lottery…it was short but memorable. We were in my apartment talking and I was telling her how much she meant to me. I had written a beautiful poem that I read to her. She said she had a response but would rather show me, since she was not a wordsmith like me so she gave me a kiss…it was like 5 seconds of heaven. I wanted more but she stood her ground and told me not to be in a hurry and I would later see that it’s worth the wait.
I was seriously looking forward to the day Irene would be all mine...no holds barred, no inhibitions.
Some weeks after that, I was in my office and my boss walked in with a new Corp member that was just assigned to our unit.
Guess who it was? Dammy…my friend’s sister...back in my University days.
How could I forget that face? She was even prettier than when I first met her. She also remembered me and to my surprise, gave me a big hug and said she was really glad to see me. My boss left since he saw that there was no need for any formal introduction.
Dammy said her brother had won the US Diversity Visa lottery right after graduation and had travelled to the United States for his Master’s degree.
We had lunch and I showed her around the area…she kept saying she was really glad to see me. She said she was staying with a relative and it was on my way so I dropped her off. I saw Irene later that evening and wanted to tell her about Dammy and how surprised I was at how she was happy to see me. But she said she wasn’t interested in people from my past and didn’t want to know any details. As far as she was concerned, life started the day she decided to go out with me and whatever happened before then didn’t matter to her as long as it stayed in the past where it belonged. I could sense that she didn’t want to hear about it so I stopped talking about it.
I continued to see Dammy at work and decided to keep it platonic…I wasn’t going to be stupid to let my past destroy the good thing I had going with Irene...
PART 5 PART 7
Picture Credit (c) madamenoire.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
© 2015 Lanre Olagbaju All Rights Reserved
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