I AM RICHARD AND THIS IS A NEW SERIES I TITILED DELUSION He was going to propose to her. He had everything planned out. The engagement ring, the restaurant, his line; every aspect was considered and taken care of. He called her to confirm the meeting, she had tests in school the next week, but they agreed that he should come pick her up by 7 pm that evening. Juwon met Dave about a year ago, at a seminar in the University. Dave was a guest speaker and Juwon kept asking very brilliant questions, he was impressed and asked to answer all her questions over lunch. She agreed, and the rest is history as they say. One year after, Juwon is in her final year studying accounting at the University of Lagos. In a couple of months, she and her best friend, Kunle, will become graduates and go on to pursue their individual dreams. They had been great friends for a while. They grew up together, attended same schools and always enjoyed each other’s company. They never saw each other beyond that point of being ‘just friends’, but it was hard explaining so to everyone, every time. Dave knew about Kunle, he knew that he and Juwon were best of friends and he respected that, but he couldn’t deny that it bothered him a little. When he walked into Juwon’s room that evening, he saw Kunle sprawled on the floor in his boxer shorts, with books and sheets of paper scattered about the place. As he was taking that scene in Juwon stepped out of the bathroom with her towel wrapped around her wet body. She smiled at him slightly but he just stared on. She looked around and immediately realized the concerns on his mind at that moment. Dave walked out of the room as Kunle began to put on his clothes and prepared to leave. Dave got to his car, opened the door and just sat there. He was upset with what he saw and just wanted to drive off. He was still contemplating the thought when Kunle stepped out with his phone to his ear. The urge to hit him hard on the face was strong, but he resisted and just sat there. Kunle walked up to him. “It’s not what you think Ric; we are just friends and nothing more.” Dave remained silent and didn’t even look at him. Kunle sighed and then put his hand in his pocket and brought out his phone, he punched a few buttons and asked dave to look at the picture on the screen, “That’s my girlfriend; she is a student here as well.” Dave remained silent still. Kunle put the phone back in his pocket and walked away. Juwon stepped out much later and they drove off in silence. His entire plan was already falling apart. They got to the restaurant and sat at their reserved table, the silence bothered dave a lot, but he didn’t know what to say. “Do you want to talk about it?” Juwon asked. He just shook his head without looking at her. Just then, Kunle stepped in with a lady, the same one whose photo he had shown dave earlier on. They walked up to where dave and Juwon were seated. Dave was confused when she sat beside him and Kunle sat beside Juwon. “Hello Dave, my name is Nike.” she said stretching her hands for a handshake. Juwon took it up from there. “Dave, meet Nike, Kunle’s girlfriend and my very good friend too.” Nike smiled and nudged Dave a little, “Ain’t nothing happening between these two knuckleheads Dave, I assure you. I’ll be the first to kill Kunle if he does anything stupid.” She winked at Kunle who just chuckled. “Are we gonna eat or what, I’m starving,” Nike continued as beckoned on the waiter to come attend to them. “Oya, Juwon, come over and sit by your husband before I get too comfortable by his side.” They swapped seats. Dave bowed his head a little for a while, when he raised it up again, he whispered into Juwon’s ear, “I’m sorry,” and then he kissed her. Kunle smiled and Nike clapped loudly that heads turned towards them. The waiter came, took their orders and they had a great evening. Dave’s stare shifted from Nike whose mouth didn’t stop moving, to Kunle who kept stealing glances at him, and then to Juwon who seemed to be the most pleased about Nike’s presence at the dinner table. Juwon laughed out loudly at Nike’s jokes, and when she wasn’t laughing at her jokes, she would caress Dave’s arm as she stared at her with a certain fixation – a look of adoration. That was the first time Dave met Nike, at the dinner he had planned to ask Juwon to marry him. But it wasn’t really the first time he was seeing her. Kunle was mostly calm and quiet, except when Nike’s jokes were so funny then he’d let out an exaggerated chuckle, and that was it. Something about him suggested that he really wanted Dave to believe that he and Juwon had only explored love within the boundaries of friendship, and nothing more. He wanted so badly for Dave to accept that he was not a threat to his relationship with Juwon. Dave took a row call with his eyes going around the table. He looked at Kunle who had been gazing at him. He held his gaze for a short while, until Kunle yielded and resulted to playing with his fingers. Next stop was Nike, something about her naturalness and free spirit made him sceptical, like she was acting some rehearsed script. If that was the case, she was certainly a damn great actress, he thought. He turned to Juwon who was seated by his side and would not let go of his arm. For a moment he felt sorry that he’d had a moment of doubt of her honesty and faithfulness to him. He let her hold his arm some more, he decided to consider that to be his penance. After the dinner, there were filled stomachs, ribs needing stitches and the shining diamond ring still enclosed in its case in Dave’s pocket. As he drove Juwon back home, he wasn’t sure if it was the extra people present at the table that turned him into a shrinking violet, or it was something else he couldn’t quite figure. Somehow, however strangely though, he was not afraid he had made the wrong choice. She kissed him good night and smiled knowingly as she stepped out of his car parked a few metres away from her hostel gate. She got into her room, took off her clothes, laid on the bed for a while before picking up her phone to make a call. “Hey you…home yet?” she said with a broad smile on her face. “Sweetie! No, still on the road.” The voice on the other end replied excitedly. “I had a good time at dinner tonight”, the smile yet present on her lips. “Yeah, me too. I enjoyed the meal, but that was not my best part though”, the reply came amidst loud giggles. Juwon laughed loudly before replying, “Silly you! Hmmm…tell me, what was your best part?” “O, you know.” “Okay, maybe I do, but tell me again, I want to hear you say it, please.” “Awww…the things you make me do though.” Juwon giggled at her end. “Okay, I loved how your foot crawled up my legs and caressed in-between my legs. Thank God for the laughter around the table, caused sufficient distraction.” “Naughty! Naughty!” Juwon, managed to reply as she laughed and rolled on her bed, her fingers finding their way into her pants. On his way home still, Dave for some reason couldn’t quite get the scenes of the evening off his mind, like there was something there he ought to see, but just wasn’t. He loved Juwon, and at that moment all he could think of was the best way to ask her to marry him. Keep in touch,story continues in a week.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 06:40:13 +0000