thirty.

“So you guys are going to start trying for kids?” my dad asked me with a straight face. I was over at my parents’ for a nice home-cooked lunch and I had just finished telling my dad about the whole Tejiri drama. Daddy had always been number one confidant right from time. He knew stuff about me that even Kiki and Layefa didn’t know.
“What?” I asked with a smile. Daddy wasn’t smiling back though. “Delores, I’m serious o. Are we going to hear the pitter patter of new feet in this house or not?” My mouth hung open for like ten seconds. I couldnt believe my dad was talking to me in that tone. It sounded like he was taking things more seriously than i was.
“Uhm..well..uh..yeah..i guess”, i stood up. “Not immediately obviously but sometime probably soon i guess”. “Hmmmn.” He grunted. I picked up my bag. What was his problem anyway? He was usually on my side. Why was he acting like there was something he really wanted to say but just wasn’t saying it?
“See you later, dad” i stomped out so fast i didnt even hear my mom calling after me.

It was raining when i got outside. My mom was probably calling me back to wait till the rain stopped. She’d always had a problem with me driving in the rain. I hurriedly got into my car and sped off.
I turned on my car radio and held on to the tuning button till i heard the sounds of Pink’s Perfect.
“Pretty pretty please dont you ever ever feel like you’re less than, less than perfect...” my speakers blared. I didnt even realize i was crying until a tear drop trickled past my lips.
It wasnt fair the way everyone was on my case. So what if I didn’t want kids? What if I wasn’t just cut out for kids? Huh? They didn’t think of that now did they?
As if all my own drama wasn’t enough for me, I still had Kiki’s drama to deal with. I punched my fist into my steering wheel and groaned loudly. Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I tried to imagine how my conversation with Kiki would go. Before calling her, I decided to check out the so-called my wife of Tobi Savage. Yemisi Savage’s profile was more secure than her husband’s. I could only see her name and picture. Hitting the ‘capture-it’ button, I saved the picture of her facebook profile.
“Hey Kiki. There’s something I gotta show you. And tell you. See you in a bit” I left her a voice note. I needed a subtle way to prepare her mind. Since I got back from that lunch with IK earlier this week, I had been avoiding Kiki like a plague.
“Hurry! Your ice cream’s melting!” kiki pinged back. It had been a while since Kiki and I ordered pizza and ice cream at the office. Must be a special occasion, I thought.
As I drove out of the estate, I made a mental note to reply all Chris Laire’s pings. He had been bbming me all day and I hadn’t replied a single one yet. He probably wanted to reschedule our meeting. I was barely out of the estate gate when I got trapped in the traffic. Moving my gear to Park, I settled back into my chair and reached for my phone. Apart from Chris Laire, I had so many other bbms, messages, and emails to reply. I tried to reply them all in order of priority (business first, obviously). Wiping a drop of sweat off my brows, I thought out loud, “what is wrong with this ac now?” The sun was something else! I wondered how those people who didn't have air conditioning were surviving this weather.
I let out a whoop when the traffic suddenly started moving fast. At least I’d been able to accomplish a few things. Just as I flung my phone to the passenger seat, another ping came in. Shaking my head, I moved my gear back to Drive and sped along the express.

“Delores Thompson! Where the hell have you been?” Kiki cried in astonishment. She looked from me to her watch to me again. “You’ve been gone for almost three hours!”
“I know, I know. I got side-tracked at my parents’ house. Then there was traffic. I’m sorry!” I rambled slumping into the visitors chair in Kiki’s office. “What’s all that?” I asked gesturing to the pile of hampers and bouquets at the corner of the office. Blushing from deep inside, Kiki replied, “Oh that? Just a little something Tobi had delivered.” I fought seriously hard to keep myself from gagging.
“Soooo...what’s up with Chris Laire? He rescheduled yet?” Kiki passed me the box of pizza. I quickly checked my phone. Before now, Chris and I were basically still at the ‘Hey’, ‘How are you?’, ‘How has your week been?’ stage of our conversation. His latest message was ‘I haven’t been able to stop staring at your display picture all day’.
“Oh my gosh!!! He is totally flirting with me!” I tossed my phone at Kiki. I tried so hard to wipe the silly grin off my face but it just wasn’t happening.

twenty-nine

“I’m sorry Delores. I realise that apologising doesn’t undo things but really I am sorry.” IK said slowly. “It’s ok IK. Sorry I lashed out at you like that but that’s pretty much how I feel.”

Our food arrived so we paused the conversation. The silence was pretty awkward while we ate so I brought out my blackberry and hit the twitter app.icon. I couldn’t help chuckling. My timeline was rather entertaining.
From no where, “Would you tell me if there some other guy?” Ik suddenly said. I raised my head from my food, “What?”. He repeated himself. I made sure there wasn’t even a pause for a second before I said, “Yes, IK. I would.” He nodded then went back to his food. Immediately, I closed my twitter page and opened the search page of Tobi Savage I’d bookmarked earlier. I clicked on the link to his Facebook. I didn’t even have to go far before I saw something that made me drop my fork:
Relationship status: Married to Yemisi Savage.
“Everything ok?” IK asked. “Yeah, Yeah. Just some stupid guy tweeting rubbish.” I replied exiting the page.
Apparently, IK was done eating. He pushed his plate away from him, leaned back in his chair and stared at me. “What?” I asked, stabbing a piece of chicken with my fork.
He kept staring at me for a few more seconds then: “I was gonna ask her to marry me”. My mouth formed the biggest ‘O’ ever. IK just stared at me with the same expression he’d had on his face. I was so speechless. I couldn’t believe that after all Kiki’s fears; IK did want to marry her.
When I didn’t say anything, he continued: “I ordered the ring online from H. Samuel”. All I could say was “Wow!”. It was all just too much for me to process that fast. Not only was Kiki gonna get married, she was also getting her dream engagement ring! Fuck Tobi savage mehn! “Please don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind.” I said looking straight into IK’s eyes. “You tell me, Delores. Should I?” I swear, right there I felt shock through my heart. He was considering leaving her? “IK! Are you kidding me?” this is getting rather serious oh, I thought. “Don’t get it twisted, I love Kiki. I wanna be with her. But do I think she’s ready for marriage? I really don’t know!” I shook my head. I just couldn’t believe that Kiki was about to ruin her dream life with her own stupidity!
This is the part where I have to be the bestest friend I could ever be to Kiki, I thought. “Kiki’s ready, IK. Really, she is.” I lied through my teeth. “She’s been ready for as long as I remember. You really don’t wanna know how many nights we stayed up crying and praying that one day she would indeed be Mrs. IK Ofili. I can’t believe you didn’t catch any of her signals! After about five minutes of not saying anything and staring into space, IK finally smiled. He chuckled then said, “Are you serious?” his eyes were actually sparkling with excitement. Oh boy, I thought. Kiki sooo owes me one. “Yuup!” I said downing the last of my juice. “You better not be whining me ohh” IK was still smiling. I shook my head and glanced at my watch. It was already past 3.
I wonder why Kiki isn’t pinging yet, I thought. I needed to get back to the office. “I gotta get going oh. I have a butt load of things to get done before the end of the day” I said.
“Oh. Sure thing. Thanks for seeing me Dee. Really, I appreciate this more than you could ever imagine. Seriously. Thanks.” He stood up to see me to my car.
“It was no trouble. Now that you have my pin, just hit me up next time you wanna talk, k?” I said picking up my bag and heading for the door. We walked to my car together. The rain hadn’t started yet. There were just little drizzles.
“Say Wasup to Layefa oh. And drive safely” IK said shutting my car door. I nodded and pulled out of the parking lot waving goodbye.

As I drove, a gazillion thoughts clouded my mind. Now that I had given IK the impression that Kiki was still on the marriage P, I had to make sure she really was! The whole Tobi savage thing wasn’t even helping. It’s like the guy was eroding her of all her senses. I tried to think of a subtle way to break it to Kiki that she had been frolicking round town with another woman’s husband.
Breaking my thoughts was a PING from Kiki. I didn’t reply. I tossed my phone into my bag and focused on the road. I rubbed my temples with the tips of my index and forefingers as I said a silent prayer to God to avert any traffic ahead.