Being Human (11)

"I'm sorry, I'm not home. How urgent is it?"

Dolapo pressed the 'send' option on her bbm in response to Lizzy's ping. The day was already hectic enough, she couldn't handle any Lizzy drama or gist from her side. All she wanted was to go home, have a chat with her boyfriend, get all the clarification she needed, eat and sleep.
She threw her phone into her bag after sending the message she had typed. She was exhausted but was so glad when Uche called that they were on their way to pick them up at the mall.
She sighed one more time as her phone vibrated again.

"Stalker?" Folusho asked without lifting her head up from what she was viewing on her phone.

"Nope. It's Lizzy"

"I see..."  she still didn't lift her head up.

"Give me that... you're such a phone-addict" Dolapo snatched the phone from Folusho's hand to see what she was doing. She was texting her boyfriend; sending the pictures she had taken at the mall to him. It was her turn to laugh and tease her friend about being lovey-dovey.
They laughed, took their shopping bags in one hand and handbag on the other and strolled out of the mall to meet Jay and Uche who were already standing by the car, waiting for them.

Jay walked towards the ladies, gave his babe a quick peck on her fore-head, as he took the shopping bag from her before taking the one from Folusho.

"Had fun, huh?"

"Sure, we did..." Folusho answered as she stylishly pulled her phone out of Dolapo's hand, laughed and began running towards the car.

Jay smiled as he watched Folusho run and Dolapo who also hurried to catch up with her friend. He admired their friendship.

In no time, they were on their way home; there was so much talking in the car but Dolapo was silent almost all through.

***

Mrs. Martins sat on the rug for close to 30 minutes. She had never been rejected by any man, not one, it didn't matter the status of the man. She had also never being humiliated by any young man she picked interest in and brushed up before, as was in the case of Jay. She wondered to herself what could have given him such effrontery to look her in the eye and reject all her offers, both in kind and in the cash he was guaranteed to make just by sticking with her.

She managed to get up after some time, took her phone and began going through the pictures she had taken earlier that day. She couldn't help but laugh at how low she had brought herself. Jay wasn't the best of men to walk out on her, not on any level.
She made a mental note of what she was going to do to Jay, scrolled to her phone contacts and began dialing a number.
It was her friend's - Yetunde Taiwo; Jay's mum.

***

After clearing the dishes, Dolapo bade her friend who was obviously tired goodnight and promised to join her in the room soon. She was going to have a conversation with her boyfriend as planned.
She shut the door behind her as she strolled to the sitting room, found a comfortable spot beside Jay who was engrossed in the highlights of a match, and placed her head on his shoulder.

"Jay... we need to talk" she said softly.

"We do?"
Jay tried to avoid eye contact, as he continued staring at the TV, feigning deep concentration on what he was watching while trying to figure out what it was that Dolapo wanted to talk about. He had also planned on telling Dolapo about the likelihood of his business failing anytime soon and how it might mean starting all over again. He was not just sure how he was going to do that without going into the unpalatable details surrounding his business boom and why he thinks his business is about hitting the rock.
He reduced the volume of the TV, dropped the remote and faced his girlfriend.

"Actually... we need to talk" Jay said with a serious tone.
Dolapo liked the fact that he was ready to have a talk but she wasn't sure what to expect. She told herself to calm down as she forced a smile.

"Be serious, Jay..." Dolapo smiled.

"I'm serious, there's something I have to tell you, babe." Jay took her hands in his, paused a little, kissed those hands and smiled back at her.

"Okay... I'm all ears." At this time, Dolapo was scared; she had heard so many stories of guys being super nice before they break up with a girl and wondered if that was all this weekend was about but she told herself she hadn't done anything deserving of a break up and further imagined how she would drown herself in tears if anything awful happened; she then went on to tell herself to breathe in and out and hear him out...

"So she got me the office space, linked me with a few high-class people; it was sort of a training process, at least, that's what she called it... I stayed at her place for a while and when I was able to get my first contract on my own, something she called an examination, and executed the contract to an excellent finish, she gave me this apartment as a gift...."

Dolapo had regained consciousness, she had missed the first part of the story but she couldn't interrupt Jay who went on and on as though he had read her mind and rehearsed the response to all her questions and just had to pour it all out before he missed a thing.

"Wait... who did you say this woman was again? I'm sorry, I missed that part..."

"My boss... I have a boss." Jay paused; he couldn't afford to repeat himself.
A part of him was happy she had missed the part where she introduced Mrs. Martins as his mum's friend; maybe that detail wasn't necessary, he thought to himself. No one had to know she was friends with his mum.

"Oh... okay. You didn't tell me you had a boss"  Dolapo was now more confused but she tried to hide it.

"So... your boss gave you this house? Does that even happen?...
and you didn't tell me? I'm lost here " Dolapo rolled her eyes.

Jay calmly reminded his babe of the gist about the house and when he moved in, he had to avoid any argument that would make him go into unnecessary details about his relationship with his so-called boss.
They went on and on with their discussions; Dolapo tried to get more answers than Jay was giving her. She just knew something wasn't right, especially with the house gift discovery.
She was however glad to know that Jay had plans of settling down soon, and settling down with her.
She made up her mind to pray out the rest of the issues she was still bothered about.
They hugged and she went to her room to find sleep.

***

Dolapo brought her phone out of her bag just to go through whatever message she might have missed before going to bed. It was 1am already. She swiped the screen and found15 missed calls and tons of bbm messages and pictures from Lizzy.

"Oh my God... Oh my God" she screamed so loud that Folusho woke up and Jay came knocking on the door to find out what was going on...


*Being Human
*Faith Tunde-Yara
*Photo credit: shutterstock.com