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.

twenty-eight

Just like a miracle, the traffic actually began moving. I let out a whoop of excitement as I moved forward. In less than fifteen minutes, I was in Victoria Island. The annoying thing however, was that I didn’t see the cause of the un-moving hold-up.
“I am in the building!” I called Kiki as I entered the elevator. “Thank God!the Tolu girl is not picking her phone again oh” “I’m on my way up”.




“So are you free now?” Ik asked as I picked up his call. I glanced at my watch. It was 1:30. I had just concluded the meeting with Tolu Adams. She was only thirty-two and had survived cancer twice. She was going to be the centre-spread of our October issue.
“Uh…I just got out of a meeting. I could meet you at The Tea Room in like thirty minutes.” I said shooting a glance at Kiki who was across the reception talking with Tolu and her husband.
“Aite. I’ll see you then. Thanks Delores.” He sounded desperate. I quickly e-mailed Mrs. Obie a summary of the meeting with Tolu, grabbed my stuff then headed out to meet Ik. I told Bola to tell Kiki that I was meeting Layefa for lunch though. As I drove down the road, I tried to envisage what IK wanted to talk about. I knew it definitely had to do with Kiki’s strange attitude. What would I say? Did I even really know what was going through her mind?
I turned into the parking lot of The Tea Room. I spotted a familiar figure walking towards my car as I parked. I got out of the car and took off my shades. “Delores! Hey! How have you been?” It was Tunde. “Tunde! Hey yourself!!” I hugged him. “Lunch?” he asked. “Yup” I nodded. As we stood talking, the bright sunny weather suddenly turned grey again. “Rain? Ah. I guess I better leave you to your lunch then.” Tunde said. I waved him goodbye and walked briskly towards the entrance.
Ik was at the door waiting for me. “Delores” he called. I turned and saw him. “Ik! hi!!” I pulled him into a hug. I hadn’t seen him for quite a while. And if I could say so myself, he looked gooood! “Thanks alot for meeting me mehn. I swear, you cannot know how much this means.” He held me as he led me to our table. “Oh stop it! You’re my friend too noww” I replied. We had small talk for a bit. He asked about Layefa. I asked about work. He talked about the unbecoming traffic. I talked about MTN’s bad behaviour. Then we got down to real business.
“Wassup with your friend naww?” he asked. He was staring at the table and playing with his spoon. “You know what IK, I wish I could tell you I knew” I said gently. “She’s hurt, I know that for sure. But then I also know she’s forgiven you.” I continued. “Are you sure she has? Cuz it doesn’t seem that way at all, Delores” he looked up. “I think she’s just going through a rather immature phase where she makes you pay for placing her love on hold”, I stuttered. “I mean, I don’t know. I’m just guessing.” I quickly added. Ik shook his head, “Kiki doesn’t play like that naww. She obviously doesn’t miss me, does she?” “She does! That’s the thing! She’s up to some kinda game I really cant explain”. I tried my best to sound convincing. IK just shook his head like he didn’t want to believe there wasn’t more to Kiki’s behaviour.
“But you know you messed up now. You really didn’t expect things to fall back in place just cuz you realised your mistakes, did you?” I told him. He started to say something but I wasn’t done yet. In fact, I had a whole lot to tell him.
“You cant ‘just for the fun of it’ play with another human being’s emotions, say sorry and think everything’ll go back to normal. You have no idea the pain and rejection Kiki went through while you were clearing your head or doing whatever the hell you thought you were doing! You should consider yourself lucky she’s even still civil with you” my voice got a little louder. “Ah ahn! IK you no try ohh.” I said a little calmer.
He stared at the table. I guess he was shocked to hear me give it to him hot and spicy like that. He buried his face in his hands and heaved a sigh of regret.

Ah ahn, I thought, what could be up? I quickly texted him back with the pin. Ten minutes later he pinged me.
IK: Yo how u been
Dee: heyyy! Long time!
Dee: I’ve been good oh. U?
IK: Yeah. Same here.
IK:Where you at?
Dee: Lekki.Traffic on my way to work.
IK: We have yans oh.
IK: Woulda called but I’m in a meeting atm.
Dee: Oh? Anything serious?
IK: Yes oh. Very serious.
Dee: Kiki’s ok sha. Right?
IK: Really, I don’t know!
IK: Was hoping you could tell me what was up with her actually.
Dee: Ah.
IK: Whatchu doing around like 1 today?
IK: We need to see bad bad.
Dee: I dunno for sure oh.
Dee: I’ll let you know when I get to the office.
IK: Ok. I’ll ping you later, k?
IK: the boss is shooting me dirty looks.
Dee: Lol. K. Ttyl.

The traffic was getting worse. It wasn’t even moving anymore. I called Kiki. “You at

work yet?” I asked once she picked up. “Ah ahn.What’s biting you? Good morning to

you too oh. I just drove in sha.” “Oh. It’s not a good morning here oh. I’m still in

lekki traffic!” “Ah. Eeyaah. Pele oh. Have you passed The Palms yet?” “I’m just about

getting there. Abeg send a deadline reminder to all the departments again. I’ll

probably get in just in time for the meeting with that Tolu girl.” I glanced at my

watch for the umpteenth time. “Sure, Sure. No wahala. I think she’s coming with her

husband sef.” Kiki sounded pretty calm compared to the tone she had yesterday. “Yeah?

Ehn, it’s good now.” “You dis girl sef! You didn’t even ask me about my dinner last

night. With Tobi!". This is serious oh, i thought. She wasnt even talking about Ik. I considered telling her about Ik's mysterious words but i decided against it.It could be about a surprise for Kiki. "You know what kiki,I'll call you back" I hit the end key.Next i clicked on my google shortcut and typed in the name Tobi Savage. i needed to get t the bottom of this once and for all.

twenty-six

He smiled as he put down the paper, “Dee, I didn’t say that naww” “But you sound

like you are! Do you still want to hear more?” I pouted. “Sure baby. We’ve got a few

minutes to spare before we head out” he glanced at his watch. “Okay, okay. Did I

tell you about the time he was to photograph Reggie Bush for a Calvin Klein

commercial?” I was so excited talking about Chris. Kiki didn’t seem in the mood to

hear every single detail of my interview but I knew Layefa would always listen to me.

“So the director was trying to explain something to Reggie when Chris jumped in and

was like ‘I think this is what he means’ taking off his shirt and all! He said

Reggie and the rest of the crew were stupefied!” . Layefa actually chuckled. “So

what happened after that?” “The director was so taken by his poise that he renounced

the original idea and decided to do the commercial with both Reggie and Chris! Side

by side! And Chris still took the pictures!” “Wow! This guy really gets you excited

oh! How did he still take the pictures?” Layefa knew just how I like people reacting

to my gist. I just couldn’t stand it when I was telling someone about something and

they go ‘Mmhm’ or ‘yeah?’ or ‘eeyahh’ ‘Are you serious?’. I expected questions to

show you were really listening.


“With that Timer thing naww. Asin he’s seriously talented!” I finished my croissant,

glanced at the clock, gulped my juice then said, “Gotta run, boo”. Layefa glimpsed

his watch, “Yeah, yeah. We should get going”. We headed out the kitchen door.


“Baby, I think forgot my Coach sunglasses in your car” I said as I locked the door

behind me. “Oh? Don’t think you’d need them with this weather sha” we looked at the

sky. It had suddenly turned grey. “Darn! I hate rain!” I sulked. “See you later,

Dee” he kissed the top of my head and walked towards his car. I walked over to mine

and minutes later we both drove off.


I turned on the radio and let the music drive me. I was even more excited when

Freeze came on air. He cracked me up diee! A teenage girl called in and asked Freeze

to call up her dad and find out if he was really cheating on her mum. Like there’s

this thing they do at Cool FM where they call up people and play pranks on them to

find out stuff for people that called in. So Freeze called the girl’s dad and

pretends to be an ex-boyfriend of the lady he’s supposedly cheating with. It was

some funny shit mehn.

“Hehehehe, it’s your boy Da Grin…” the intro of my message tone blared. I scrambled

for my phone in my bag. I just loved getting text messages. They always got me

excited. I guess every girl feels that way when she hears her message tone too.

It was from my network! Boy was I pissed! I didn’t even read it before I deleted it

in anger. Just as I was tossing the phone back in my bag, I got another text. This

time it was from IK. It just simply said: what’s your BB pin?

twenty-five

After I left the office I got stuck in traffic for about two and a half hours. The

only thing is, this time it was my fault. I should have known better than to hit the

road during rush hour. I had to call Chris and cancel, anyway. I got home at 8:12

exactly. Layefa was already home. I let myself in and slumped on the living room

couch. I didn’t even take my shoes off. I was just sooo tired.

“Dee?” Layefa called coming down the stairs with a towel tied firmly round his

waist. He probably heard me driving in. “Huh?”I muttered sleepily from the couch.

“Where are you naww?” His eyes danced around before he finally spotted me. “Whatchu

doing there? You tired?” he asked walking over to me. He pulled me up gently and

wrapped his arms around me. “I need a driver” I nodded as i nuzzled my head into his

chest. “Awww. Poor thing.” He patted my back and kissed my hair.


He finally got me up to the bedroom.
“So how was your meeting?” Layefa asked as he pulled off my shoes. I hissed. “Can

you believe I couldn’t even make it? I spent the entire evening on the road!” “Ah

ahn. The trafficwasn’t that bad when I left Lagoon oh” “Oh. You guys went to Lagoon

restaurant?” I sat up. “Yeah. Daniel’s always loved it. Saida seemed to be a big fan

of theirs too.” “Huh? What? What does Saida have to do with anything?”, I spat like

her name was venom. Layefa seemed to notice the fire in my eyes. I really did not

like hearing about that Saida chic. He quirked an eyebrow, “I told you she was

coming naww. Daniel met her at my office and seemed really taken with her so he

asked her to join us”. “Hmmnn” I muttered as I headed for the bathroom. “She really

wanted to meet you oh. I think you guy’s will really blend. Daniel too was also

really looking forward to seeing you after all this time.” He followed me. “Mmhm” I

mumbled as I massaged my scrub into my face. I rinsed off the scrub then turned to

face him. “Yeah, Daniel sent me some invite to an album launch party. Didn’t even

know he had my e-mail.” “Oh. I was surprised too when he told me. He said y’all used

to talk way back”. I nodded, “Yeah, way way back. Like during that wedding time. How

is he though? He changed much?” “He’s just the same mehn. Daniel can’t change. If

you see how he was whining Saida!”.


We changed into out PJs and slipped under the covers. “Oh. So he’s liking that one?”

I scoffed. If Layefa was noticing the air of hostility that I put on whenever it

came to Saida, he sure wasn’t acting like it. “You know Daniel naww. He doesn’t

waste time.” “That’s their business abeg. ’Night hon.” I stretched then rested my

head on Layefa’s chest. “Awww. You’re really tired oh. You didn’t even tell me bout

your interview with that photographer dude again” He stroked my hair ten turned out

the lights. “I’ll tell you tomorrow” I mumbled.




“So his maternal grandmother was the only full-fledged Nigerian in his family tree?”

Layefa asked as he sipped his coffee. I had been telling him about Chris Laire ever

since we got up. “Yes! Can you believe that? And his attitude is sooo Nigerian!” I

bit into my croissant. “Standing up every time you got up? Nigerian? Uh…I don’t

think so!” “Oh? So you think that is such a big deal? He’s just a true gentleman!”.

Layefa rolled his eyes and picked up his newspaper. “Alright baby. Whatever.” He

sounded bored. I brushed the edge of his pants with my shoes, “Am I boring you? Have

I been talking way too much?”

twenty-four

First let me tell you Dafe is. Apart from the fact that he was Mrs.Obie’s Godson and

the director of P.R., Dafe was the cockiest sonuvabitch I had ever met in my entire

life. Poise was generally known for giving young people chances which explain why

we have a lot of twenty-something’s heading our departments. Now back to Dafe: Some

months ago he set up a meeting for both of us at Tea tree. I thought it was

something about work but how wrong I was. He made a lame attempt to bring work in

but i knew was totally hitting on me. He had arranged for us to be the only ones in

the restaurant. The fool even tried to kiss me! If he was being sweet, I would have

at least stayed till the end of the diner and explained gently to him how nothing

and nobody could make me cheat on my husband. But the fool was so arrogant! So he’s

a fine boy? Who cares? He was even on Exquisite Magazine’s list of top 20 bachelors.

Abegi! Layefa was in TNM’s top 25 young and successful men last year, so there! Dafe

talked like he had the keys to Lagos in the palm of his hand. Even when I rose to

leave telling him I was going to meet my husband, he acted all “Well, it’s your

loss”. Since that night, we’ve managed to stay out of each other’s way. Until today,

apparently.


I closed my mouth and stared straight ahead of me. He didn’t deserve even a muffled

hello. I raised my hand to smoothen my hair.

“Don’t worry your hair looks fine” he said with a lopsided grin (I saw from the

corner of my eye). I didn’t even say anything in reply. I just continued humming

along with the music. Just as the doors opened on the 3rd floor, he called out, “See

you around, Delores” and walked out. I hurriedly got out too before the doors shut.

I walked into the head of department’s secretary’s office quickly before I could run

into anyone else.

“Ah! Good evening Mrs. Thompson!” the secretary who I’m sure I wasn’t really older

than greeted rising from her desk. “Good evening! Are you guys done with the

articles?” I asked taking a seat. She looked like they had just been busted. She

started stammering explaining how her boss had everything under control. I chuckled

inside then said, “No pressure, no pressure. The deadline’s not today abi? I was

just passing by.” I swiped one of the free samples of organic lip balm from her

table then headed back upstairs to check on Kiki.


“So??? What happened? What did he say? You guys good?” I interrogated bursting into

my office. Kiki was all smiles typing away on her blackberry. She didn’t even look

up at me, “Huh?” “Kiki! Answer me naww” I pestered. She typed some more then tossed

her silky Indian weave aside. She finally acknowledged me. “What did you say naww? I

just heard a mumble of different sounds”. Look at this mumu girl oh. I laughed.

Everything was probably good with IK now that was why she could be doing me like

this. “Kiki! Stop it! Just tell me!” she smiled, “Okay fine. He said he was sorry

for everything. I said I was sorry for avoiding his messages. He said he missed me.

That we should get together for dinner. Told him I couldn’t then-” “WHAT??? Why

would you say that”, I cut in. “I told you before naww. I have a date with Tobi.”

She replied like I was getting on her nerves.

I raised my hands in surrender and walked round to my side of the desk. i shut down

my computer while Kiki continued with her typing. Ten minutes later, we had packed

up our stuff and were headed home. I headed for the elevator while she headed for

the stairs. As a health rule Kiki always took the stairs. We waved goodbye and I

made a mental note to check out that suspicious Tobi character.