I knew I love her the very first time I set my eyes on her. I couldn’t approach her. She had this I-mean-business look that scared me. But then, one day I realized she was a very good friend to another friend of mine so I decided to get to know her through that friend of mine.

I told my friend, “That girl I saw you walking with yesterday, can I have her number?” She asked, “Yvonne?” I said, “Yeah, I want to get to know her.” She laughed. She asked, “What do you mean when you say you want to know her? Tell me you want to ‘eat’ her and I will help you. What’s this pretense for?” I laughed but I insisted I wanted her as a friend. She didn’t give me the number. She said, “I’ll tell her about you and later introduce you two but you’ll pay.”

Two days later she called me; “I spoke to Yvonne. She doesn’t have a problem with being friends with you. She said I can give you her number. Now, the ball is in your court. Drop the Momo and I’ll drop the number.” You may think she was joking but I had to send her Momo before she gave me the number. That very day I called her. She was very receptive and laughed to whatever I said. It’s not easy to make a woman laugh the first time so when you succeed, it means only one thing, she likes you too.

I called her every day and when we had the time, we chatted until deep in the night. One day I proposed to her. She played hard to get but, in the end, she said yes. Two days after she had said yes to me, my father officially handed over his old Opel Astra to me. He said, “You can afford fuel now so use this one.” My father never allowed us to drive his car so handing over that car to me meant a lot to me. I named the car Yvonne because she came just when Yvonne came into my life.

I called her after work one day. “Hey, wait for me at work, I’m coming around.” I went there with my brand-new-old Opel Astra and asked her to get inside. She asked, “Is that your car?” I said, “Yeah. It used to be my old boy’s car but now, it’s officially mine.” We drove to a corner bar and got ourselves ice cream and later drove her home. From that day on, anytime she was about to close from work, she’ll call and ask, “Aren’t you coming for me today?” The man I was loved her so much so I always responded, “Why not? I’ll come for you.”

I’ll drive from Adabraka to Lapaz, pick her from her office and take her to Ablekuma, where she lived. This happened every day without complaints. When you love a girl, you do things like this out of love. You disregard the inconvenience. You close your eyes on the risk. You pretend it doesn’t hurt. You do it because you’re in love. True love makes sacrifices.

So it became an everyday thing. She didn’t need to call to ask if I would be coming to pick her up. When she closed, she would stand at the entrance of their office and wait for me. Some days, I will get there and she would still be working. I could wait for over an hour before she comes out. I didn’t complain. Things we do for love. I had come to love being with her so much that anytime we got to her gate, we would park and talk for several hours more before I finally drove away.

One day, immediately we got to her house, it started raining heavily. So we had to roll the windows up and put the fan in the car on so we don’t get cooked. We stayed for hours. We didn’t care about the rain and didn’t care about the floods that ran under the car. The world could have come to an end and we wouldn’t notice. When the rain finally stopped, my engine couldn’t start. It was around 11pm. Passersby were few because of the rain. While I looked around looking for solutions, she sat in the car laughing at me.

It was getting late. Where the car was parked wasn’t a good place. I told her, “From here to your house isn’t far. Let’s push the car inside your house so I bring mechanics to fix it tomorrow morning,” She said, “This car? In my house? No. My dad won’t be happy. My mom would be asking questions.” The way she said it sounded like the car was some despicable thing. I pleaded, “We can’t leave it here. Anything can happen. The battery can be stolen and some part can get stolen.” She laughed. She said, “Someone will steal something from this car? Please no one wants it so you can leave it here and go.”

Before I could say anything, she started walking home. I asked, “You’re leaving me here?” She didn’t even look back. She said, “What do you want me to do? It’s late. I have to go to work tomorrow.” I watched as she walked slowly to her gate, opened it, and went inside.” It was like a dream. ‘I’m stuck here because of you and all you could do is walk away and leave me here?”

I stood there for a while. Minutes later, I saw a taxi driver approaching. He didn’t want to stop but I begged him. I told him my problem and he said, “It could be from the battery.” We removed my battery and used his battery to start the engine. A few minutes later, I was on my way going home. I couldn’t wrap my head around what just happened. I was very angry and kept talking to myself as I drove home.

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The next morning, I was expecting her call. She never called. The afternoon came but she never called. Around 5:20pm she called me; “Babe are you coming for me?” If I said the first word that came into my mouth, there would have been casualties. I simply said, “No, I’m not coming.” She said, “And you didn’t call to tell me that you won’t be coming? Now it’s late, how do I get a car home?” I said, “You can get home just the way you used to get home without me.” She got angry and hang up the call. Around 5:30pm she called again, “So you’re serious about not coming for me?” I said, “I’m done. I’m never coming for you again.” All this while, she didn’t even ask how I managed to get home the other night. All she was interested in was me going to pick her up.

For days, we didn’t talk. She was angry that I didn’t go for her, little did she know that I’d moved on the night she left me there. Two weeks later, that my friend who linked us up called. She asked, “What’s happening between you and Yvonne? She called to complain that you changed the very day the two of you slept together. I knew it. You only wanted to eat her. Just eight months and you’re trying to dawg her?” I took my time to explain everything to her. She said, “She did that to you? Please forgive me. Even if you want to take the Momo you sent for her number, I’m ready to refund.”

We both laughed and made jokes about the whole thing. She said, “Yvonne didn’t do well at all. I’m even embarrassed. She owes you an apology. Don’t forgive her until she apologizes.”

I don’t know if the apology would be coming tomorrow or next week, she never called. But I’m thankful for the gift of moving on. I moved on as though nothing ever happened between us.

–Ali

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