Fiifi understood my financial situation so whenever he got any opportunity, he called to talk about it with me. We talked about farming, we talked about going into the ushering business, he brought up an idea about operating a chop bar. Anything at all that promised money. One evening he called. He said, “This is different. It’s about a woman who needs a boyfriend.”

“Is she going to pay me to be her boyfriend?” I asked. He answered, “Yeah she would pay you but the catch here is that she’s married.”

That was the part that got me worried, the fact that she was married.

I took the number and called her. Francine. She was soft-spoken and sounded like someone who knew what she wanted. She asked my name and asked me to send her photos. A day later, she picked me up in her car and drove around town while we talked. She didn’t like the fact that I was jobless but she loved everything about me. “First, you’ll get a job. We’ll take it from there afterwards.”

We met every afternoon at different locations. At one point, I got confused about what was going on. I had come to be her boyfriend but she didn’t say anything about love or sex or hiding out. It was always about normal conversations and rules such as; “You don’t have to text me after 7pm. If you see my phone texting you at ungodly hours, ask about the last time we met. If I’m not able to answer then I’m not the one texting you. We have to be careful.”

The many rules got me scared but she was a beautiful woman who had it all so I was ready to go all out for her, especially when she had promised me a job. It took her two months to get me a job. Through those months, we were just talking about nothing but everything.

She shopped for me so I would look the kind of man she wanted to date. I’m not a suit and tie person but she ensured I wore mostly suits anytime we had to meet. “When we meet, you’re my business partner,” she said.”

Five months later, we were travelling around the country and making love at weird places. I didn’t care about the money again but she paid me every month. I was invested in her and she knew it. She did everything to show that she was happy about what I was giving her.

She didn’t want sex when I wanted it. She wanted sex when she wanted it and there were few days in a month that she wanted it. She told me the companionship I was giving her was more important to her than anything. “I want you to be there because the man I have in the house isn’t there. Even when he’s there, he isn’t there.”

“Is that the reason why you don’t have a child together? Or it’s just a personal decision?” I asked.

Francine was thirty-nine years old and had been married for nine years without a child. From the stories she told me, they had tried for nine years and had had two failed IVFs so they had given up. The problem really had to do with both of them and their chances of getting pregnant. She told me she had very little chance but her husband was very ok. I should have read between the lines that day but I had been blinded by love and everything that was happening between us.   

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We had nine months where everything was beautiful between us. We went on trips because she didn’t want us to be seen. We made love at places that made her feel like a girl. I was always happy when she was until she started withdrawing from me. She won’t answer my call and won’t text back. She would text me at dawn when she knew I was sleeping and couldn’t respond. She would say something like, “I’m sorry, I’ve been busy.”

I couldn’t look for her because that was part of the rules. When it went on for more than a month I called Fiifi to intervene. “Fii, your girl. I don’t know what is wrong but she doesn’t talk to me again.”

The thing is, Fiifi actually didn’t know her. It was a friend of his friend who told him about the move and he connected me to it so he couldn’t do anything about it.

One morning, I woke up to a text from her that said, “My husband has been very apprehensive these days so I have to spend some time with him. We are on a holiday. I will see you when I return.”

We were texting intermittently for a month until she dropped the bombshell, “I got pregnant while away with him. I don’t know but it will be hard for us to continue our hide-and-seek game.”

“Pregnant? Was she not the same woman who told me her chances of getting pregnant were slim?” She wouldn’t answer my questions so I put one and one together and concluded she got IVF while away with her husband. It was likely the reason they travelled because everything happened so fast.

And then she gave birth. I did my maths. It was only seven months ago when she told men she was pregnant but the baby she gave birth to wasn’t premature. Something didn’t add up.

At the time, she wasn’t talking to me much so I went back to the beginning of our relationship to find answers. I went to the friend of Fiifi’s friend who did the matching and he told me, “Bro, you’re the father because that was what she wanted right from the start.” That guy’s elder sister was Francine’s mate in school. That was how he also got to be involved.

I came back and wrote her a long message detailing how I felt used and how she didn’t tell me the truth and how I was ready to go all out to claim my child if she didn’t tell the truth. I got a response immediately. “What is wrong with you? How can you say such a thing? This baby is through IVF, sorry I didn’t tell you about that.”

I told her, “Just be honest with me. Do you think it’s easy for me to show up and claim your child as mine? Tell me the truth and I will back out forever. I’ve done the maths, I’ve assessed our relationship especially why we had sex on your terms. You knew the game you were playing. I get it but tell me the truth. Put my mind at ease and it ends there.”

It took her days to confess. She told me she would continue paying me if I wanted that. I thanked her for everything she had done for me. “I have a job because of you. I’m grateful. That’s enough payment. Enjoy your marriage.”

It Will Be Difficult For Me To Commit To One Person

I wanted to move on so I blocked her but she kept finding new ways to contact me. She was scared I might be planning something evil. I wasn’t. When I forgave her, I did it wholeheartedly. She’s a kind woman and doesn’t deserve to be paid with evil. So I’m in my corner, observing life in silence. I pray I’m able to maintain this silence until the end of my days.

—Xavier

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