We grew up together, Kate and I. We lived in the same area but we didn’t find each other until we got to senior high school. At the dining hall one morning, I heard her talking to her classmate. She was talking about where she lives and where she attended school. I heard Dansoman. The school she was talking about was close to where I lived in Dansoman. So I asked her, “You come from Dansoman?” She said, “Yeah, that’s where I live.” I told her, “Then we live close to each other.” We became friends that day. We were not in the same class but we did everything together. When we were on break and she was still in class, I will wait outside for her. She would come from class and I would ask her, “What are we eating this morning?” 

Kate was the life of the party. She still is. We would walk into a room and everyone would notice her. You will ask a question and she would be the first to raise up her hands. She knew a lot of things I didn’t know about. I learned from her. I will ask questions and she will answer. When we were walking together around campus, she would be the one the guys will hiss at. She would stop and talk to whoever hissed at her. Because of her, we were always late to wherever we were going. Guys didn’t stop calling her and because of the respect she had for them, she stopped to talk to anyone who stopped her.

No, I wasn’t jealous. I understood why they called her instead of me. If I were those guys, I wouldn’t call me. I would call Kate. Because Kate was the real deal. The life of the party. The one with all the beauty any guy would admire.  

The next time a guy hissed at her while I was with her was when we were at the university. Later, that guy became her boyfriend. They dated for a year. The guy completed school and the relationship ended. Her next relationship happened right before my eyes. The guy wasn’t good to her but she never stopped loving him. She would come to me crying and I will say something like, “Leave him. He’s not worth your tears. Have you forgotten who you are?  Don’t settle for someone like him. You deserve better than that.” She will laugh at me and say, “You don’t have a boyfriend but you give the best of relationship advice. Get yourself a boyfriend and apply all the things you know and let’s see if it would work.” 

She will go back to her boyfriend and make me feel stupid but I didn’t stop advising her. When she finally left the boy, she told me, “I should have listened to you right from the start. I was such a fool for believing he would change.” So from there, she started taking my advice seriously. The girl who didn’t have a boy can also have a career in the relationship industry. When next a guy proposed to her, she came to ask me, “You think she would be a good guy?” She showed me the photo of the guy and I didn’t like the way he was smiling so I told her, “No, this one wouldn’t be good for you. I can see from his face. Don’t say yes to him.” She went to the guy and said no to him. Actually, I didn’t see anything wrong with the guy. I saw everything wrong with the haste with which she was entering into another relationship. I was happy she listened to me. From there she listened to me a lot.

We completed school and did our national service too in the same region. It was intentional. We even wanted to do it in the same institution but it didn’t happen. They placed us in different institutions but we found a way to stay connected and not lose a day without talking to each other. Again, Kate found love in one of the guys who frequented her office. She said, “He’s an engineer. The cutest engineer I’ve ever seen. I think I will give him a chance. He sounds serious about me.” I didn’t say a lot. Her mind was already made up so I gave wind to her sails. She went all out in love. Just like she had always loved whenever someone came her way.

Two years later she called me. She was whispering on the phone. “Guess what just happened…We are getting married. I and Emmanuel.” I whispered back, “He proposed marriage?” She broke her whispering voice and screamed out, “He only said we should get married. I don’t know if that also qualifies as a proposal. He didn’t go on a knee though.” I respond, “All proposals be proposals. The end results are what matters.”

From there we started talking about weddings whenever we met. We would go online, watch wedding photos, and pick ideas. We even went on youtube to watch white weddings to pick ideas from them. They fixed a date, selected people who were going to play a part in the wedding, and guess who was selected as the maid of honor. Great! You guessed right. I am the maid of honor and also the assistant wedding planner. 

Every weekend we would meet and plan. Each evening after work, we’ll spend hours on the phone talking about the wedding. One Saturday evening, I was expecting her call but the call didn’t come through so I called her. She didn’t pick. Sunday morning when I woke up, I texted her. She read the message and didn’t respond. I called again, she didn’t pick up. I started getting worried. “We are only a month away from the wedding. Why is she behaving like that towards me?” My mind started racing, thinking about all the bad things that could make her act like that towards me. “Or she had changed her mind about me being her maid of honor?”

I spent all Sunday calling her but she didn’t respond to my calls. 

Early Monday morning she called me. “Olivia, can you put your keys somewhere I would see when I come around? I need a place to hide.” I know Kate. I know her too well she could put up the best pretense in the world and I would still figure out there’s something wrong with her. “Kate, is everything alright? I’ve been calling you.” She answered, “Leave the keys for me. When you return from work, we’ll talk.” 

She was choking on her own tears. Her voice sounded cranky. Like she had been crying all night. I kept asking what the issue was and she kept telling me we could talk after I had returned from work. I called the office and put up a performance on the phone. As if I was dying. As if I had been sick for years. I told my supervisor lies about being sick all dawn. She bought it and gave me the day off. I waited in the house until Kate arrived. Immediately she saw me she burst out crying. Her first sentence cut through my heart like a knife;

“He’s cheating. Emma is cheating. The girls are SHS students. They are even friends. He’s secretly sleeping with each of them. One of them has found out and they were fighting it out on WhatsApp. I listened to the voice messages. Those girls hardly write text. They record voice notes. I listened to each one of the voice notes. I was breaking down but I didn’t stop. He was sleeping. I was in the hall watching a movie when a call got my attention. It was a WhatsApp call from one of the girls. Olivia, you should have heard their voices. I don’t think they are even 16 years. They would be less than that but Emma finds them old enough to date them both behind each other’s back.” 

I was stunned. For the first time, I didn’t know what to say. I sat still in the chair while watching the world of my childhood friend come down. I asked her, “So what are we going to do?” 

“Olivia, I don’t know. You’re the only person I’ve opened up to apart from him. We had a fight about it. He denied the voice notes were meant for him but I listened carefully. The girl was so angry she mentioned his name in every statement but Emma thinks I’m a fool. He doesn’t want to accept it. He doesn’t want to take the blame. He still thinks I’m getting it all wrong.” 

She asked me what we should do and I went straight to the point; “Don’t go ahead with the wedding. A man like him would do worse. If I were you, this would be the end of the road for us. He’s still lying. It means he has no regret.  Leave him. Stop the wedding. It may be embarrassing to call off the wedding but be embarrassed today so you can live the rest of your life without regrets.” 

She kept running her fingers through her hair, messing them up just like her life was messed up. She cried and cried until I found myself crying too. Every now and then Emma would call her phone. She would look at it and not pick. It was like he was calling every second. Kate said, “I will talk to my parents and listen to them too. If they accept my point of view, the marriage won’t come on.”

Both families had a meeting where Emma accepted his fault and promised not to do it again. Kate’s parents pressed her to accept the apology so they can go ahead with the wedding. Her parents want the wedding to happen so they can resolve whatever the issue is after the wedding. Kate wants out of the wedding and I’m behind supporting her to stay strong until everything comes to an end. 

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Emma called me. He was on the phone talking like he had cried for days. He said, “I know Kate lives with you so you know everything that’s going on. I want you to put in a word for me. I’ve accepted my mistakes. It’s devilish. It’s way below me but I stooped so low and picked it up. Just tell her how I’ve regretted my actions and how I want us to settle everything so it doesn’t affect our wedding. Maybe she’ll listen to you when you talk to her on my behalf. 

The way he spoke got to me but isn’t it how they all act when they are finally caught? They smile through their sins and only cry when it caught up with them. 

The wedding is a few weeks away. Kate says she wants out but sometimes she wants to succumb to the pressure and go ahead with the wedding. It’s the only reason why they haven’t called off the wedding. Kate is white today and tomorrow she’s black. Left to me alone, she won’t go ahead with the marriage but Emma’s demeanor looks like he’s dying. It makes me feel like he may not repeat his mistake when they marry. In the midst of the confusion, I told Kate we should share the story here and listen to what others may also say. We have only a few weeks before the wedding but we have a few days to decide. Kate is reading. I will be reading too. Which way should she go? Give second chance? Walk away? What’s the best option now for her? 

—Olivia

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