My girlfriend date
I had a date. A girlfriend date. We connected on one of those social dating sites and we exchanged numbers almost immediately and started texting each other via whatsapp. We talked about everything from arts to literature to poetry and what not until we decided it was time to meet in person. My week had a crazy schedule with meetings lined up and emails from work waiting to be responded to. I wasn’t quite sure when the meeting was likely to happen as my schedule could flip from a leisure time in the middle of lunch with a friend to a crazy tirade of bargaining an over-priced Lagos taxi and meandering through tedious traffic in other to make it to an impromptu meeting. But i agreed to the said Friday and I looked forward to meeting her. She sounded very interesting and upbeat on the phone from the few times we spoke.
My Friday morning began with that awful feeling of heady drowsiness that accompanied a very very bad catarrh and cough. It was a feeling of all kinds of miserableness. It had come with prior symptoms of an irritable itchy sensation on the throat and i took a packet of peptol tablets for fast relief the night before; but it returned the next morning with its worst for me. I wanted to cancel, to tell her how miserable i felt and to reschedule but at the same time i didn’t want to stay home under the hot weather with no power supply and no fuel for the power generator. I kept turning and tossing in bed until it was about 10:30 am while the meet up was for 11:00 am. Now living in Lagos with the very unpredictable traffic there was no way i could shower, put on make up and join a 2 drop danfo bus to Ikeja mall and make it in time for an 11 am. Her call came in by 10:35 am while i was in the shower and i sent a text saying that i was behind schedule by 45 mins. I made it out of my house by 11:00 am and arrived the mall at 11;45 am, i checked my phone at the time i was entering the gate and she already sent 2 text messages to say that she was already waiting for me. I got to the mall and took the second entrance because i wanted a quick dash into the rest room to unload my distressed nostrils, and that was when i met Nelo a friend’s friend who is very personable and chatty and we hadn’t seen in almost 2 years after she changed her address!
“Ijeoma!” She yelled coming out from vlisco store where she now worked.
“Oh my god!” i yelped.
“Nne kedu? i na ama so mma!… ha! nene kene” she said admiringly as she turned me around with one hand.
“It’s been almost a year o… keduzi nke n’eme noboby hears from you at all”
And i prayed fervently that for all the times we hadn’t been in touch she wouldn’t try to catch up on that at this moment. We talked about her hair and the struggle with her recent transition to Afro and i lectured her on the hair regimen that works for me, we talked about other things from relationship to church to school and work and how she is already bored at her new job and i cautioned her to better sit put at work, save money start up a business and when its doing well then she could quit. We spoke for about 15 mins before a customer came in and ‘my already late lunch’ date was saved. I ran all the way through the aisle lined by different stores on both sides and started calling her phone to find out where she was waiting for me. I had decided on the long note of apology i would recite once i got there starting from how miserable my morning was and leaving out my brief catch up with my friend. I arrived at kfc where she was seated and spotted her immediately with her nerdy glasses and a silk scarf she tied in the familiar manner i had seen a few times in her pictures. I started with my apology mid-step towards her and i could see the disappointment that registered all over her and i felt so bad.
“You know you could have said it was for 1 pm and i wouldn’t have left my house so early to beat traffic” She said as she hugged me and i started my apology recital all over again hoping that some how those words would redeem my unforgivable lateness.
Aima was of a warm and likable character and was already laughing at a joke i told about the fuel queue situation and how our dear president just has to travel at every given opportunity. We started out with 2 cups of cold stone ice cream, and our conversation was repeatedly being interrupted by some rude guy who wouldn’t respect the privacy of two females hanging out. We proceeded to lunch and then the movies and pizza and when we looked at the time it was 8 pm and we hugged and said our goodbyes.
