eleven

“Funmi?” I said as she picked up on the fourth ring. “Dee, how far now?” Funmi answered, “Where are you?”. “I’m in the bathroom at my in-laws house oh. It wasn’t an emergency after all. Thanks for worrying jare.” I replied. “No wahala. I even told Kiki to call you too. Did she?” Funmi said. “Yeah, Just now”, I said checking out my hair in the mirror. I guess it did look kinda hot the way it was. After we hung up, I adjusted my dress, stuck my purse under my arm and left the bathroom.
Everyone had moved into the living room. They were on a conference call with Mrs. Thompson who was in England, Sarah (Layefa’s oldest sister who lived in Canada) and Novo (Layefa’s oldest brother who lived in Texas). Yes oh, technology has advanced like that. Layefa signaled to me to come say hello.
“You guys, Delores is here now” Layefa said into the speaker phone. I said hello to everyone real quick then they got back to suggesting baby names. It was some long ass call mehn. After forty-three minutes, Mr. Thompson decided it was time for everyone to say their goodbyes. “You all have cell phones, you can call them later” he said.
Layefa made a big show of checking his watch for the time before he announced, “Delores and I have to leave oh. We both have hair appointments to get to. Man, how time flies!”. Everyone including me just looked at him like he was crazy. We both had hair appointments? That was the lamest excuse I ever heard for leaving a family gathering.
I quickly looked away before anyone noticed my surprised look.
We hugged everyone goodbye then headed to the car. “Thanks again!” Tejiri and Kome called as they waved us goodbye.

“Aaahh” I yawned stretching once I had strapped in my seatbelt. “What a day, shey?” Layefa said reversing into the street. “Uh huh” I muttered. We drove in silence for a while before I hit the stereo button. Layefa reached for my hand as I was about to pull away and said, “You know I’m sorry, right?”. “What exactly are you sorry for, Layefa? Why do you even have to be-” I was saying before he shushed me. “Baby, lets get home, please?” he begged. Hmmmn, this one that he has been saying we should get home first, I hope this isn’t one of those I-think-you-should-sit-fist situations, I thought.
“Whatever” I said brushing his hand away and turning towards the window. “I just thought I should let you know I’m sorry for whatever this is”. Layefa said turning his attention back to the road. We were silent again. Even when Empire State of Mind(Our jam) came on, we were still fronting. Thankfully, the usually crazy lekki traffic was minimal.
Just as we were driving into v.g.c, I lost it. I couldn’t wait anymore. My mind had been racing for almost forty-five minutes. Even though I knew we were practically three minutes from the house, I couldn’t bear it anymore.
“Pull over,Layefa.Now!” I said firmly. He must have known I wasn’t playing cuz he did just that mehn. He didn’t even argue, he just parked at the side of the road .”Please just tell me whatever you want to say”, I said almost crying, “Abeg I can’t chill again, Layefa, seriously.” I unbuckled my seatbelt and turned to face him.
“Fine.” He replied unbuckling his seatbelt and facing me too. He told me how he’d known about Tejiri being pregnant ever since but he’d been working really hard to ensure I didn’t find out.
“Why on earth would you do that?” I cried. For some strange reason, I thought there and then I was gonna find out that the baby was his or something crazy stupid like that. Fortunately, Layefa didn’t say anything like that. He said that he’d been considering how to bring up the topic of us trying to have kids just before Tejiri told him about her pregnancy. He said he was waiting for the right time to tell me about having our own kids and he thought he’d tell me together with Tejiri’s news. The Fashola case kept him occupied so he didn’t have enough free time to compose how he’d bring it up. When the time for the baby shower came, he ordered all the cute stuff Tejiri kept thanking us for, online and sent them to her. “I deleted the invitation she sent to your mailbox and replied it telling her you were swamped with work but would send your gifts” he said fiddling with the keys in his hands. I didn’t even know what to ask first. I just stared open-mouthed at him. “Close your mouth, Dee” he said startling me. My mind wasn’t even there at all. I couldn’t believe all this time Layefa wanted a child but couldn’t tell me.
“Let’s go home” I finally said.