"Jibowu wa!" and I was thrown out of the bus, sprawling on the tarmac, with my hands bearing my weight and my bag toppling over. Gapers gathered. Sorries mounted. They helped me up, dusted my side and scolded the driver who had not let me fully alight before hitting his accelerator. The driver couldn't care less. He zoomed off as soon as he saw me get back to my feet. I got into a Maruwa going to Ojuelegba. I had a date.
I had promised to be there on time, but traffic was terrible. I knew I was never going to make it to Shoprite in time. In order to keep my word, I flagged down a commercial Power Bike. It was drizzling but I thought I could pull it off. As soon as we'd hit the road, the rain came down in buckets. I wanted to ask the biker to stop but he was ambitious, meandering his way through the traffic jam.
I got off the bike with my chiffon dress gummed to my body, eyes red from tears and hair damp and scruffy. I knew I looked awful. As I entered the mall, I made a beeline to the rest room hoping to be able to get myself dry with the automatic driers. It didn't work. I came out and guess what? My date hadn't even arrived.
I felt betrayed, to have gone through all that hell just to make sure to keep to my word that I'd make it there on time, even having to break the number one girl rule that says it's better to appear late, than appear ugly, and then my date hadn't made an effort to be there before me. I didn't need any other preaching. I had already made up my mind to date this guy only when pigs fly.
When he finally arrived and I told him all I had to go through to be there, he tried to give me a pep talk. I managed to take an ice cream and chat a little but I was just going through the motions. I knew there wasn't ever going to be a second date.
Radiant~ April 2016
Please note that Radiant's Blog has been moved to another site: www.radiant.ng
For more recent posts and comments please visit radiant.ng and subscribe to the mailing list. Thanks for your support.