During one of his visits to my place, he asked me, “Who’s this man who won’t love you right but won’t also leave so I can have a chance? Tell me about him.”

FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP CHANNEL TO RECEIVE ALL STORIES IN YOUR INBOX

Before this question came from Aboagye, he had proposed to me long ago and I’d said no. He’s the kind of man who hears “no” from a woman and interprets it as “try harder,” so he didn’t stop coming. He called. He texted. He visited. He had an aura, and I liked it when he was close. He would make me laugh. He would tell me stories where something funny happened to him. I needed to hear them, to use them as distraction from the bad side of my relationship with Tony.

I was selfish. He came with clean energy and loved me visibly, but I was using him as a distraction because he had an aura. When he asked me to tell him about my boyfriend, I presumed he wanted to know it all, so I didn’t hold back.

I told him about where Tony worked, where we met, where he proposed, and even where we had our first kiss. “He’s in my church, and he always wore a white kaftan or something that had white in it to church,” I concluded. He asked, “Oh, he’s a Christian? And he can’t love his woman just as Christ loved the church?”

I lowered my head and said, “He loves me, I can feel it, but he doesn’t know how to let it show. He’s being a man, and men feel showing love makes them weak, so they hide their love behind strictness like the sore hides behind the scab.”

Tony and I had dated for three years, and he had been nothing but sweet and sour. When Aboagye started coming around, we were at the sour side of our love. We were fighting, and the fight was about another lady in church. They were getting too close, and it started to unsettle me, so I talked about it. I didn’t just talk about it; I nagged and got angry about it. He screamed, “If you think what’s in your head is true, then why don’t you leave me alone? I’m cheating, so leave me alone.”

Our fights always lasted for days, sometimes weeks. “Don’t let the sun set on your anger,” the Bible says, but we allowed all the elements of the weather to set on our anger. He wouldn’t pick up my calls for days. When he picked up, he would go back to yesterday and talk about unresolved fights. Sour for many days until one day, the sourness would melt away, and we would become lovers again.

It was those moments I looked forward to whenever things turned sour. For I knew the darkness might persist, but joy would come in the morning. So I gave him grace even when he treated me wrong. I used the good days to cancel out the bad ones. Even when I caught him cheating the first time, I nagged about it but forgave him easily. The story of our love wasn’t anything to write home about, but I had faith that we would eventually win the phase and stay forever.

Aboagye thought I deserved better. He believed he was the one in the position to love me right, so he beseeched me, “Please leave him. Even if you won’t date me, leave that relationship and be happy with yourself.”

For a whole year, Aboagye was on the sideline, biding his time and hoping I would listen to him. One day, I fought with Tony about that same girl in church. I told myself the relationship was over and nothing would take me back to him. To prove to myself that I meant what I said, I went to Aboagye’s house and kissed him. He was so shocked he laughed. “What’s this for?”

“Nothing. I feel like kissing you,” I lied.
“Are you fighting with him again?” he asked me.
“Who’s him? No, there’s no one. I don’t have a boyfriend.”

He made jokes about me, calling me a liar and even prophesied that I would go back to Tony in a few days. The prophecy was true. Tony, for the first time in our three-year relationship, came to say sorry to me. He said he overreacted and I was right for behaving the way I did. I felt like snow was falling on my burning heart. I didn’t think twice when he asked for a kiss. I didn’t think twice when we collapsed into my bed. The moment that made our love magical—we always found a way to each other.

But Aboagye was mad when he found out about our reconciliation, something he himself had prophesied. He said, “Don’t worry, I know what to do.” I asked, “What are you going to do? Not talk to me again?”

One Sunday in church, a hand tapped me from behind. I turned and saw Aboagye. In a loud whisper, I asked what he was doing in my church. He said he came to surprise me. He jumped a seat and came to sit next to me. I proudly pointed at Tony and said, “That’s him. That silly guy who’s taking me through a carousel of emotions.”

After church, Aboagye went missing. The next time I saw him, he was standing at the back of the church with Tony. When they both saw me, they stopped talking and dispersed. Aboagye walked in my direction. I asked, “What did you tell him?” He answered, “The truth.”

“What truth?”

He walked past me and left the scene. I quickly rushed to see Tony. When he saw me coming, he raised his hand and said, “Hey hey hey, don’t get close to me. You’re the one always accusing me of cheating; you see what just happened?”

Aboagye had gone to warn Tony that he should stay away from me to give me space to choose him (Aboagye) because Tony was the reason I couldn’t think straight.

Tony felt demeaned. To him, that was the line. He broke up with me right there and swore he would harm me if I got closer.

True to his words, he blocked me and sent warnings through friends to me. Our relationship died that day, never to resurrect again. I had Aboagye to deal with. I went to his place and gave him a piece of my mind, warning him to stay away from me. I blocked him and walked away.

Surprisingly, he didn’t fight back or say anything to me. Before I blocked him, I thought he would call or text, but he didn’t. That was the end of us—the end of me and him, the end of me and my boyfriend too.

Call a Friend and Ask For Thousand Cedis (A Prank)

Looking at where I am today and looking back at everything that happened, Aboagye did me a lot of good. He freed me from a toxic relationship I myself wasn’t ready to free myself from, and when I said I didn’t want him, he stayed back, giving me space to grow and glow.

We talk once in a while, me and Aboagye. He still has the aura. He asks about my husband. He extends greetings to my kids, and I also do the same. He has a beautiful wife. We both won in the end.

—Abrefi

This story you just read was sent to us by someone just like you. We know you have a story too. Email it to us at [email protected]. You can also drop your number and we will call you so you tell us your story.

******