Prologue
"In everything, I think the occasion didn’t turn out
to be a disaster."
His wife's comment caused Tunji Afolabi to snort
with disdain. "The rice was overcooked, it tasted
like a puddle, and the air conditioner worked at half
capacity. I thought I would melt inside that black
suit."
"Well, you wouldn't have been happy with the
dinner no matter what. You were determined to be
a grouch about it."
"How could I not when your father kept reminding
his guests that I'm still a 'struggling' architect."
"Daddy was only trying to get you some
connections with his rich friends. We both know
you need them." She stood behind him in the
room, her slightly swollen stomach very obvious in
the satin nighties she wore.
Tunji glared at her from the mirror. "I don't need or
want your father's connections, I can work to get
mine. I am not a gold digger!"
Feyi was incredulous, "nobody said you are, you're
just jumping into conclusions. I don't see anything
wrong with what daddy did."
"Of course not, I didn’t expect you to see anything
wrong with daddy’s actions,” he bit back
sarcastically.
Feyi’s voice was dangerously low, “and what do
you mean by that Tunji Afolabi?”
“Oh, excuse me? Did it offend you that I just stated
the obvious?”
“Oh please, spare me the theatrics and grow up,”
she said rolling her eyes.
“Coming from the eternal daddy’s girl, that must
be something. Now tell me honey, since you’re so
grown up, what does living in your parents house
make us? Adults?” he flung at her and at the shake
of her head, continued. “I didn’t think so either.”
“So now its my fault we’re still in my parents
house after marriage? The last I checked, you
didn’t think it was a bad idea a few months ago
when I told you I was pregnant and you didn’t
have an apartment not to talk of the money to take
care of our baby. My parents didn’t seem like
supervillains to you then.”
“That was when I never planned in my wildest
dreams that you wouldn’t take precaution against
getting pregnant for me even as the only place we
had sex was a sleazy motel room.”
“Yes, blame it all on me, I’m the Eve that walked
into your life and destroyed your dreams and life
ambition. But if staying single was so enticing for
you that you couldn’t risk conceiving a child in
those sleazy motel rooms as you call them, why
didn’t you wear a condom? Huh?”
“I don’t believe this, I don’t believe you!” he said
exasperated as he unknotted his tie and hastily
unbuttoned his shirt.
“I don’t believe you either!” Feyi spat trying so
hard not to cry, “we’re expecting this baby in four
months time and you stand there, wishing it didn’t
exist just because of your stupid dreams!” she
cried.
He stopped the jerking motions of removing his
clothes immediately and looked at his wife who
had sank to the edge of the bed, crying. “Fey, I…”
“Forget it! And just so you know, I wish I didn’t
saddle you with this responsibility too, I wish I’d
gone through with an abortion like my mother
suggested.”
Tunji felt as if her words had flayed his flesh. “Of
course, its always been about you and your
parents, about your precious place in your family
as the apple of your father’s eye. The one they
couldn’t believe would end up pregnant or even
married to a loser like me.”
Feyi simmered for several seconds, her cheeks
glistening with tears. "You've been trying to
provoke me all evening, and you've finally
succeeded.”
She stood up from the edge of the bed and peeled
the duvet furiously. She slid on the cool bed,
covered herself with the duvet and yanked on the
small chain on the nightstand lamp, plunging the
bedroom into darkness.
Tunji Afolabi was not a man who suffered
emotional excesses. In fact, he prided himself on
his cold, calm businesslike approach to most
facets of his life. But as he undressed in the
darkness, there was nothing calm or businesslike
about what how he was feeling.
A soft curse broke free from his throat as the pale
frail image of Feyi sobbing wafted in his head. He
hadn’t meant to get his temper so out of check as
to hurt her. But damn it, he’d felt like lashing out
his life frustration on someone, anyone. And she’d
been the closest one.
Being street poor was as good an incentive he
could come up with for working like a dog to
ensure he would never be poor again, he pondered
bleakly. And without the good fortune of an
accidental meeting with Feyi, he would probably
still be down there, living that same hand-to-
mouth existence, he tagged on with a stark
honesty that made him grimace. He met Feyi, a
final year student of Accounting when he was
serving his motherland and loved her almost
instantly. They dated for a couple of months before
Feyi got pregnant and he'd wanted to take up his
responsibility.
Only problem was, Otunba Gbenga and Mrs Cole,
felt he wasn't good enough for their only daughter.
They couldn't stand the scandal of a bastard in the
family so they had organized and paid for a lavish
wedding in their honor. But if he'd thought that
would be their only intrusion in their young
marriage, he was in for a rude awakening.
For close to four months her parents had been
sleeping between him and Feyi, in a manner of
speaking. It never felt as stark as her going to bed
in anger because of an argument caused by her
parents, again.
Feeling guilty for that intrusion now, Tunji stripped
off his clothes and wore his pajamas. He joined
Feyi in bed and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry for carrying out my frustration on you
Fey. You deserve so much better that I feel I'm
falling short."
Feyi sighed and turned after a spell, "you're not TJ.
You're putting in so much effort to provide for us
and I really appreciate it."
Tunji didn't seem satisfied, "if only we could go
away, move far from your parents and start over
someplace else, maybe we'd be better off."
Feyi kept mute, she didn't have an appropriate
reply to that.
*****
Feyi was sobbing in bed when he rushed into the
room as one that was demon possessed. He didn’t
remember to greet the maid downstairs as he
rushed into the house and took the stairs two at a
time. He couldn’t recall how he got home because
he’d driven in a haze, he could only remember his
car tires screeching as he parked hastily in the
garage and ran out. He wasn’t sure he had even
locked his doors too. But suddenly he was in the
suite that was his and Feyi’s in her parents home.
He stooped to her face level and took her wet
cheeks in his palms.
“I came as soon as I heard Fey, I’m so sorry.”
She threw her arms around him and cried harder,
“its all my fault, I wished ill luck on my baby, I’ve
said so many negative things. Oh my God, I’m a
bloody murderer!” she said hysterically.
“No you’re not Fey, you loved the baby as much
as every mother should, it wasn’t your fault.” He
pulled away her wet face from his shoulder and
cupped it in his palm tenderly, “this changes
nothing between us Fey, I love you very much
still.”
She smiled at him sadly through her tears, “I love
you too Tunji, I’ve never loved any man as I love
you.”
Something new charged up the atmosphere. It
began with a small flicker of her long eyelashes as
he dropped his gaze to her mouth. He wanted to
kiss her. Tunji knew it with an instinct older than
time itself. His heart stopped beating, then started
up again at a faster pace because—by God, he
wanted to so much. It was crazy, he just lost his
baby in a miscarriage but his lower body ached for
the woman that was his wife, one who was
grieving but looked impossibly sexy at the same
time.
He knew he was going to do it. He knew he just
couldn’t hold back. She was beautiful, a warm,
soft, achingly desirable creature with passion in
her eyes and on her softly pulsing mouth.
Sliding his fingers into her hair, he stroked a
fingertip along the smoothness of her extended
throat. Her brown eyes deepened to black and her
lips parted. He felt the growing rush of her blood
flow into his own. She moved even closer, a
willing recipient of what was about to happen.
Feeling like a man controlled by a magnet, Tunji
kept totally still as she brought her mouth closer
and closer to his.
He groaned and crushed his mouth on hers,
feasting hungrily. Four months of being married to
her hadn’t cured him of the raw need that pulsated
through his veins. To be with her, to have nothing
but their skin between them. Feyi felt the same
way as she deepened the kiss nibbling furiously
like one demon possessed and pushing him to the
limits of control.
He pulled back from her, “Fey, we can’t…”
Her dark eyes whirled in pools of confusion and
told him she was aroused too, “you don’t want me
anymore?”
“Its not that Fey, its just that, we just lost a child
and it would seem inappropriate…”
“I don’t want to feel the emptiness TJ,” she
pleaded, “I want to have you inside me, I want to
feel you. I want to make love to you.”
The words felt like music to his ears and he saw
the stark pain in her eyes, he felt fiercely
possessive of her at that moment. He would do all
he could to protect the woman he loved from pain,
he thought and claimed her lips once again.
Afterwards when they were fully sated in each
other’s arms and the glow had returned to her
face, he cupped her sleepy face in his palms.
“Let’s go away Fey,” he said on an impulse. “Lets
move away to another city and start over, just the
two of us.”
She shifted away her eyes from him and indecision
marred her features, “Why Tunji? We’re happy
here.”
“You are happy, I’m not,” he said letting go of her
face and rolling away from her. “I’ll never be
happy until I can take care of my wife like a man
should and shoulder my responsibilities under my
own roof too.”
Feyi sat up from the bed she’d been lying on,
holding the sheets to cover her Unclad body.
“Tunji, there’s no haste in doing that, we’re
comfortable here. In the city where my parents
live. Close to home.”
He looked at her sadly from the other side of the
bed. “The only person I see comfortable here is
you. I cant do this anymore and I’m only telling
you to come with me because I’m going to leave,
anyway.”
Tbc
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