Must Read: Forever And Always

Episode 6 years ago

Must Read: Forever And Always

I shifted my thoughts away from that wicked man. I could not even call him a father. Why would a person with conscience do that to a fellow human being. Even if my mom doesn’t tell me how bad and hurt she still feels after twenty five years, I could tell she had not healed.
James’ call came through. He reminded me of the date we had later this evening at our favourite place in Lagos mainland. Spice coffee shop. They served a wide variety of coffee drinks, hot chocolate and tea. Their hot muffins and ginger-glazings were treats I looked forward to.
James would always take me there anytime we had a fight and wanted to make up. It was a special place he chose for us and when I visited the shop frequently with him, I found out I liked place and their packages. Two years ago, I found out James was cheating on me with a lady who was serving where he was too. That explained the sudden change in his attitude. When I confronted him, he had cried and wept like a baby. He was truly sorry and he apologized.

He promised never to do anything to hurt me anymore. Knowing me, I was too emotional and couldnt handle extreme emotions. I told my mom about it, yes it was always my mom. She was my confidant. She pleaded with me to forgive him and so I did. But these days, I really didn’t know what James was up to. Was he cheating again?
Was he going to break up finally? He had been giving me weird attitudes. The day I went to see him at his house, we had a fight and he hit me.
That was why I shouted at him when he called last night. What did he want again? How would he hit me and expect me to act all lovey-dovey like nothing happened. I only agreed to this so called date to know what he is really up to. So I could know if he actually tired of the whole thing or not.

“Aunty! Aunty!! E sokale now” The old cab driver squeaked out to me in a typical Yoruba accent. There was a puzzled look on his face, like he was wondering where my mind was. He had probably been calling me since.

I greeted everyone at the ground floor with smiles. It was just four minutes to eight. I sighted the beautiful young lady I spoke to yesterday and went to say hello to her. She looked as radiant as ever. Seriously I loved people who looked happy and bright. Even if they are handling Shtt in your lives and they have a lot of dramas going on, you would hardly know. “Good morning miss”She had greeted, smiling as usual.

“Good morning. I am Adetola and you must be Miss Lara” I said, quite confidently as I looked from her I.D card to her face and back to her I.D again.

She was initially surprised I knew her name but soon got how I knew she was Lara when she saw my eyes moving from her I.D card to her face.
She smiled again.

“Yes, I am Omolara Adegoke” she introuduced. She asked me how my first day was and I just said it was fine even though it was the exact opposite. No thanks to that fat witch.

I got to my section upstairs only to see her again looking angry like a kid whose ice cream had just been taken away. So irritated and worked up. As soon as I saw her, my face fell. The look on her face was so dreadful. It was like a claw smashing through my chest and squeezing my chest in pains.