“Hello, are you still there?” Femi asked, he was confused as to why she was delaying her response.
“Yes I am and I’m sorry but I’ll pass, something important came up.”

“Hmmm, ok then. But maybe next time.”
“Yeah, maybe,” she replied and made sure she stressed the maybe.

Fola was the man for her, the last thing she needed was complications. She packed up her stuffs into her bag and took the elevator downstairs.

Femi walked towards his window, maybe he should have just told Halima to order lunch. There was no point stressing the poor girl, he looked outside the window, the streets were busy as usual, from his window he could see the company’s parking lot. He saw Sandra coming out of the company whilst heading towards the cars parked, he comforted himself with the fact that she probably had an important appointment.

Sandra got to the park and saw Fola standing by the car, she walked up to him , gave him a tight hug before kissing him softly on the lips.

She entered the car and he drove off, Sandra was totally oblivious to the eyes that had watched their public display of affection.

A pair of the eyes was crying already after watching the entire drama while the other pair that had watched from a window was downcast.

Omoye paid the okada driver and walked into her friend’s compound, she greeted an old woman sitting in the corridor.

“Mama, good afternoon.”
“Omo, bawo ni?” (My child, how are you?). Omoye understood yoruba but she was not in the mood for pleasantries.

“Fine mama, eku ijoko,” (well done) she said and walked towards Rosie’s door, she knocked and tried opening the door only to discover it was locked.

“Sebi iwo ni ore sisi Rosie,” (You’re Rosie’s friend, right?) the old woman called out to her.
“Be ni Ma” (Yes Ma)
“Wa” (Come)

Omoye walked up to the woman who gave her a key.
“Eseun Ma,” Omoye replied. (Thank you Ma)
“Ah, kini mo se?, ko tope, sisi Rosie no loni ki fun eh to ba ti de.”(what did I do, don’t mention, Rosie asked me to give you the key when you get back).

Omoye thanked the woman again while heading to the door, she inserted the key and unlocked the door. As soon as she entered the room, she started crying, images of what she had witnessed in the past one hour kept replaying in her head.

As much as she tried ignoring them, she just couldn’t stop them from torturing her. She wondered why Osagie was treating her in such a manner, after all she had gone through with him.

When Rosie had called to inform her that Osagie was dating a classy girl in Lagos, she had felt Rosie was jumping into conclusions, but she had caught him red-handed, how could she have been so naive?

Osagie had gotten her pregnant when she was in SS3, she had then had less than a month to face her SSCE exams, as soon as she had finished her final exams her father had sent her out and she had no choice but to move in with Osagie.

They had both been struggling to meet ends meet till a year and three months ago Osagie had left Benin for Lagos. He had promised to make money by hook or crook, though she never liked the dirty sound, she did not apreciate their meagre earnings either.

He called frequently and sent money to cater for her and their son Victor. Last week when he had called, he had made a promise to come home finally within the next three months. Who would have thought that her Osagie was seeing another woman the whole time?

———————

Femi sat in the eatery contemplating on what to eat, he had suddenly lost his appetite. Just when he had decided to give love a chance again, why on earth wasn’t Sandra single?

He stood up and headed back to his office, lunch was out of the picture.

——————-

Rosie wore a confused look while staring at her friend who was asleep on the arm chair. Why wouls she choose to sleep there rather than the bed?

She walked towards her and tapped her gently.
“Rose,” Omoye whimpered. Rosie held her friend who was shivering, she was scared for her friend, the girl hardly called her Rose which meant something wa sup. Her locality was known for riots, thugs, and other crimes, had the thugs living in her ‘face me I face you’ apartment attacked Omoye?

“Omo, wetin happen?” She asked.
“Oo…Ooo…Ooosagieee”
Rosie let out a sigh of relief, at least it wasn’t a problem relating to the bandits. She had been anticipating this moment ever since she called Omoye to inform her of Osagie’s game three weeks ago.

-Flashback-

“Hello, Rosie how na?”
“I dey jaweee, Omo how your matter?”
“We thank the Lord, this one way you call person today, I safe?” Omoye asked.

Rosie laughed, Omoye had hit the nail on the head, she hardly called people except it was necessary, she preferred texting.
“I be wan ask something,” she replied.

“Ehen, oya now.”
“You still dey marry Osas?”
“Yes now,” Omoye replied with a tone of confidence, “wetin happen?”

“Nothing,” Rosie was confused, how would she tell her friend that her boyfriend was cheating on her.

“Rosie, talk now” Omoye was getting impatient, why would the girl call to ask her that? She concluded that something had to be wrong.

“I serious, no quanta, I go follow you yarn later.”
“Ok oooh, bye bye.”
“Greet your pikin for me.”

Rosie stared at her phone in disbelief, so Osas was still dating Omo but was enjoying himself with another lady in Lagos. She felt bad for not informing her friend.

She had hurriedly typed a text which she had sent to Omoye after deliberating on it for 2hours. Omoye had called her two days after to confirm what she had texted.

Rosie had suggested coming to Lagos for confirmations. Omoye had accepted in order to prove to Rosie that her Osagie was faithful, she would use the journey as a break from the stress she had to deal with in Benin as well.

Rosie could not find the right words to comfort her friend who was sobbing and shivering all over.

“Omo, he don do,” she finally said.
“Wetin I go do now? ehn? Wetin?” Omo asked while struggling to dry her tears.
“Maybe you should confront him” Rosie shrugged.

Omoye looked at her friend and hissed.
“Confront? He can deny it easily now, I never imagined this day will come.”

“He is a man Omo, they tend to misbehave.” Rosie embraced her friend. “You need to think on how to handle the situation.”

Omoye nodded, she would travel back to Benin and think things through, Lagos was suffocating her already.

——————–

Fola stole a glance at Sandra who was talking with her sister, he was tired of this pretend love already. He had gotten the money he planned to get initially, all he wanted was to return to Benin and be with his beautiful Omo and his son Victor.

Sandra was beautiful no doubt but she could never match up to his Omo.

“A penny for your thoughts,” Sandra spoke while waving her hands in front of him.
“How long have you been standing in front of me?” he did not realise he had been thinking with his eyes closed all the while.

“Not long,” she sat on his lap, “about the money you asked for, my dad is out of town and he says I should wait till he gets back.” she continued while stroking his hair.

Fola inwardly felt like hitting Sandra’s father, the man was a rich politician but yet he couldn’t send money because he was out of town in this modern age. Weren’t there banks wherever he was?

Fola had lied to Sandra that his mother was sick and money was needed for her surgery. Since her dad was a politician, her uncle owned the publishing house where she worked, the girl automatically had money. He had planned to help her spend little out of it while pretending to be her lover.

“Don’t you have any cash at hand?” He asked.
“I do but you know the project I’ve been working on has cut deep into my account, I have about ₦350,000 whereas you need ₦500,000.”
“Ok” Fola replied with a fake smile.

“But I’ll get the complete money soon, ok.” she kissed him firmly on the lips while trying to unbutton his shirt.
Fola held her hands, he had not even responded to the kiss. Sandra looked at Fola askance.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, “Is it because of the money?”
“No babe, I’m just tired, I have to go.” He buttoned up his shirt and planted a quick kiss on her lips. He stood and walked towards the door before adding “I’ll call you.”

Fola stood outside Sandra’s gate while impatiently waiting for a bike. He decided to walk till he found one. He had returned her car, the guilt was killing him already, he knew she loved him and that was one of the reasons he had to return to Benin.

The number one reason however was that his heart was in Benin, he took out his phone and dialed Omoye’s number.

“Hello, sweety”
“Osagie, hello”
Her tone stooped Osagie in his tracks, something had to be wrong.

“Whats wrong, Omo?”
“Its nothing, how are you?”
“I’m fine, something isn’t just right with your voice, whats going on. Does it have to do with Victor?”

“I said everything is fine,” she snapped, “Osagie, I’m not feeling too well, Ok, thats the problem and I’m getting better.”

Osagie was confused, if she was s
ick she would have informed him, why was she lieing to him?
“Omo, you know you can tell me anything right?”

——————

“Omo, you know you can tell me anything right?”
Omoye did not realise she had cut the phone but the words kept ringing in her head.

Her phone had been ringing continously for the past three minutes, she had not expected his call earlier and had planned to handle the situation with courage but his last statement had broken her resolve.

The pillow she clung unto was already soaked as a result of the tears that had refused to stop, she tried to think of an explanation to give him for ending the call.

She dried her tears, tried to clear her voice by coughing and speaking some incoherent words. She sighed, there was no point calling him back, it was darn obvious that she had been crying and was still crying.

She would just head back to Benin tomorrow, she couldn’t let her parents know about this, they would not show her any sympathy, love or advice.

Her tears kept flowing incessantly till she slept off. All she could dream of was her Osagie smooching a classy Lady on the streets of Lagos.

Perhaps coming to Lagos was a bad idea. To be continued…………..

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