I met Bibi at the poolside where she had come to meet a friend. I’m not the kind of guy who will walk to a lady and ask for her contact but that day I wanted to. Her chair was right next to mine. She was sitting there alone, sipping from a glass and trying to take photos of herself. I said, “If you need a hand, I can help. I take good photos.” She laughed and handed her phone to me. After taking a couple of photos, I gave her the phone to see what I’d done. She said, “Oh you are good. Thank you.”
That started a conversation. That’s where I got to know her name and that’s when I got to know that she was waiting for a friend. She said, “I come here often with that my friend to chill out. You’ll see her when she comes.” Her friend came and she introduced me to her friend as a new friend she had met. I said to myself, “Oh, she called me a friend.” My head swelled. I was ready to hang out with them till they can’t hang out any longer.
When they wanted to swim, I opted to teach them. I’m not a good swimmer but it was a risk I could take for a fine girl like her. When her phone went off and needed a phone to take more photos, I surrendered mine to her. After everything she said, “Could you send the photos to me through WhatsApp?” That was when I got her number. When they were leaving, she thanked me profusely and said, “I hope we meet again someday soon.” I said, “I have your number. I can call you some time if you don’t mind.” She said, “Why not? You can always call me.”
I called that evening. I didn’t want to waste time at all. After the call, we texted each other until late in the night. They say, “If a woman doesn’t like you, she will never entertain your conversation.” Bibi entertained a conversation with me till it was late. She called me funny. She called me kind because of what I did for her at the pool. She called me a “cool guy.” I was on cloud nine listening to her call me all the good names. The next morning when I woke up, I sent her a text, and the next second a reply came. “I’m grateful for last night,” She said. “You gave me great company and I loved it.” I said, “You were more welcoming to me and I’m grateful.”
The following weekend we met at the same place again but this time without her friend. We went through the same activities again until I saw her off in the evening. When she had gotten home I told her, “I think I’m developing something for you, I hope it’s alright?” She said, “I can’t complain. We don’t have control over things of such nature.” I said, “It’s intense.” She said, “It’s normal.” I asked, “Do you have a boyfriend?” She answered, “If I say I do, would it calm that intense feeling?” I said, “I don’t know but do you have a boyfriend?” She said, “Currently, I don’t.”
I said, “If I asked you to be my girlfriend, would you say yes? Or you don’t like a guy like me?” She said, “What’s wrong with a guy like you? I wouldn’t mind dating you but we just met. We should know each other first before anything else.”
It took her over three weeks of constant conversation spiced with some sort of outings before she finally said yes to me. “Yes, to your request but I still want to take things slowly. I would be glad if you don’t push it. Let’s allow things to flow naturally.” I didn’t fully understand what she meant but I said, “No problem. As far as you’ve accepted me, I’m good.” She didn’t want to visit my place because she thought I would do something to her. I had to promise, cross my heart, and hope to die before she finally agreed to come and visit me. When she finally came and nothing happened, she came again the following day and the next day until she could come without being asked.
One day I specifically asked for it. She said, “It takes some time for me to get to that stage with whoever I’m dating so please be patient. When we finally cross that line, you’ll be the one running away from me, I swear. But let’s take it slowly.”
One day she came to visit me with that friend I met the first day. Later when her friend asked permission to leave, she didn’t leave. She stayed behind and for the first time, she slept at my place. It was tempting but I didn’t want to spoil anything between us. All night she was on her phone chatting. A call would come through and she’ll cut the call. At dawn when we were sleeping, her phone kept calling until she put it on silent. I asked, “Who is that worrying you?” She said, “Never mind. It’s a guy I gave my number to but I don’t want to talk to him.”
Days later she told me she was traveling. When she left, she hardly spoke to me. She never picked my calls until she herself called me. She said she was busy attending to some things in the house. In the night her phone will go off. She said, “I sleep with a cousin and I don’t want to disturb her that’s why I turned off my phone.”
When she returned, she spent the night at my place. Late at night when she was sleeping, I saw her phone’s light flashing. Someone was calling. The person called until I woke her up to pick up the phone. She looked at the number and turned the phone off. Early the next morning, I asked her, “Is there something you’re not telling me?” She said, “There’s nothing I’m hiding. If it’s about that call last night, then you have nothing to worry about. He took my number and had been calling since. I don’t pick because he had proposed and I’d said no.”
I wasn’t convinced but I let it slipped. One evening I was walking her to her house when I saw four guys approaching coming at us. They had mean faces as though they were coming to fight. I asked, “Do you know them?” She said, “Please run.” I asked, “Run to where?” She said, “Just go.” Then she started talking to the guys. “No don’t do this. He’s just a friend. Don’t touch him.” That was when I realized it was a dangerous situation so I started running. It was too late. One of the guys held my neck and started squeezing. The middle guy, apparently the leader said, “Open his zip and grab his b***s.”
I started begging them in the name of God. I started shouting, ”Please I’m just a friend and nothing else. She saw me and said I should walk her home. Please don’t hurt me.” I could barely speak but I tried. The guy asked, “Are you not James?” I said, “No my name is Ben, you can ask her. She’s just a friend.” The guy picked his phone and said, “Wait I’m calling Jame’s number, if your phone rings, you’re dead.” All this while Bibi was screaming for help and pleading with them to leave me.”
He called my phone and it rang. The beatings I received that evening, only God knows. When I was finally released, nobody asked me to run. The guy said, “Next time you’ll be in your lane.”
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So Bibi had a boyfriend. According to her friend, they had a misunderstanding and Bibi called it quit. The guy wasn’t ready and was doing everything to get her back until he realized I was the one preventing Bibi to get back together with him. I reported to the police that same night. The policeman I met on duty made a stupid statement that made me stopped pursuing the case. He said, “You’re not strong but you won’t look for your own girlfriend. Now that they’ve beaten you, you’re coming to call us. Did you call us when you were ‘coming?’ If you know where they live, pick a dropping for us, we’ll go and arrest them.”
I said, “I don’t know where they live. He said, “Then go and search for where they live and come back later. Would you like to write your statement?” I looked at him and his dirty uniform and walked away.
Bibi sent a long message of apology, and ended it with, “It’s better for us not to see each other again, I’m sorry.” That relationship lasted for only three months. No sex. No kisses. Some little touches here and there but I walked out with swollen lips and pain all over my body. Bibi, wherever you are, may God deal with you the same way you dealt with me.
–James
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