She told me she had a boyfriend so it was a no to my proposal. I didn’t leave her side. Boyfriends have a way of disappointing you. I stayed around in the name of friendship while waiting for the day she would run to me because her boyfriend disappointed her. Unfortunately for me, her boyfriend had a lot of money to spend on her and take her to places. Today, she’d be in a big hotel with him and chilling. Another day, she’d be seated in her boyfriend’s car doing snaps. She posted everything. I told myself, “I don’t stand a chance.”

I started leaving the stage of the friendship we built. I stopped watching her status to get jealous. I didn’t text and I didn’t call. It went on for a month before she called one morning asking why I had not been calling her. “You’ve also not been calling me,” I defended myself. She said, “I know. I’ll do better.”

She was calling and texting and giving me the girlfriend vibes. When she called one night and it was a call waiting, she asked me, “Was that my rival you were talking to?” I picked on the lead and told her, “You run with big boys so I’m also in my lane.” We got talking all night and for the first time she told me, “It’s not like I don’t like you ooo, I do but…”

I asked if everything was alright between her and her boyfriend. She screamed, “What boyfriend? Please I’m single.” I didn’t believe her but she insisted she had been single for one month. Our friendship got intense until one day in my room, it all went down. I asked who we were and she said she loved me and it was the reason she had sex with me. I was elated. I thought it was a dream but it turned out to be a dream come true. That very day, we started planning how the relationship was going to be run and also the future of it.

I didn’t want to lose her so I was ready to do everything to make her happy, happier than her ex ever made her. She told me, “You’re the man. Just lead and I’ll follow.” I thawed while watching the words come out of her lips. I saw my future in her eyes. I saw my kids playing while she was shouting, “Junior stop running before you hurt your knees.” It was a beautiful dream and she was at the center of everything.

Two months later, she became a shadow in the relationship, appearing only when the light was on and disappearing once the darkness came. She wouldn’t say anything apart from, “I’m fine. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Later I got to know her ex was back in the picture and they were fixing what was broken. I asked questions. I pleaded with her to be honest about her feelings. She said, “We didn’t really break up. I was angry about something. He didn’t care to fix it so I left. Now it’s fixed but there is you. I don’t know what to do. I’m confused. Can you give me some time to think through things?”

When I gave her the time, she used it to return to her ex without saying goodbye to me. I had to find out the hard way. The only excuse she gave me was, “I didn’t want to hurt your feelings” but it wasn’t only my feelings that were hurt, my heart, my trust, my future, everything was hurt, including the places I didn’t know existed until I started feeling the pain there. I’d come to love her so it was difficult to let her go. Gradually I accepted my position in her life as a second boyfriend.

She ran to me whenever she had issues with her main boyfriend. I pampered her, putting a balm on her sore heart, hoping once it was healed, she would stick with the healer. She never settled. She found a warped reason to always return to where she was broken. One day when I pushed her to choose between me and the guy, she chose the guy. I wished her well and told her never to come to me again.

She came back. We dated in the shadow for over a year until one day she told me she was getting married. Out of hurt and tragedy at the moment, I told her, “You’re making a big mistake if you marry that boy. See how he’s treating you as a girlfriend. It will be worse when you become his wife.” She responded assuredly, “I know. That’s why I’m not marrying him. This one is different. You don’t even know him.”

I was stunned!” Who is this one too? Where does he come from and why didn’t I hear about him? Didn’t he come to meet me in the queue?”

This guy was in abroad. Her once-upon-a-time ex who came back into the picture while she was having troubles with her main guy. The only reason she would take him back was marriage. The guy agreed and they planned marriage while I was here thinking of winning her from the main guy.

READ ALSO: Never Marry A Forty-Something-Year-Old Man Who Is Afraid Of His Mother

Her mind was made up so I decided to take the back bench once and for all. I stopped talking to her. At a point, I even blocked her line. She called me bitter and a sore loser. Somewhere around the clock, we talked when she called with another line. I unblocked her main line but we didn’t talk often again until she married the abroad guy eight months later.

After their wedding, the guy went back. According to her, the guy is making arrangements to come for her. I’ve always wished her well. When she calls to tell me what’s going on in her life, I tell her, “I hope it works out just fine. I wish you well.” One day she responded, “It is already well since you’re here with me. Don’t you miss me? I mean everything we once had means nothing to you?”

He Woke Me Up At 2 am And Asked Me To Go To My Mother’s House

We talked. She wants us to get back together again while she’s waiting for her husband to come for her. “Eiii Abena, is that all I’m good for in your eyes? The second choice. The stop gap man. The placeholder. Nothing else right? I’m not the man you marry but the one you keep in the shadows for rainy days, right?”

She’s married and to me, that’s the only line I will never cross for her. She calls me at night and dawn asking me to just talk dirty with her. “Why are you being wicked to me?” She’ll ask.

“I’m not the one being wicked. You’re the one who decided I’m not good enough. Stay where you are while I stay here thinking about my future.”

—Blocked

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