LITMIR.BIZ

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sure she was okay. She understood that Suzan had not yet gained victory over her demons but she was still fighting, and that was important. As the closing time got closer, her phone rang. It was Richard. Just seeing, Richard Calling put a big smile on her face and made her heart somersault a couple of times. She picked the call and they exchanged pleasantries, with him asking about her work and general wellbeing, to which she replied in the affirmative. The only thing that bothered her right now was that she found the sound of her own voice strange, the change wasn’t on purpose but it happened all the same making her feel weird. One thing was sure, she was not trying to flirt with Richard. No, she was not.

      “Hello, can you hear me?” Richard asked calmly.

      Sarah hit herself for being absentminded, “Erm, did you say something?”

      “I asked if you would come over to my house so I can tell you what really went wrong with your phone.”

      The idea of meeting him in his house made her uneasy, so she requested that they meet in a restaurant instead but that seemed to hurt his feelings so she agreed to go to his house after the close of work.

      After work, Sarah found her way to Richard’s house. Richard couldn’t stop staring at her, he hadn’t noticed how beautiful she was in school. He smiled because somehow, seeing her made him think of getting married and starting a family. Of course, he had to get to know her better, they weren’t close in school. He had been among the fellowship executives and she, a member among hundreds. Since, it wasn’t easy knowing all the members personally, Sarah unintentionally fell among the class of people he didn’t have a close relationship with in school.

      Sarah, on the other hand, admired the magnificent bungalow Richard occupied. The simple but pretty decorations and the rose flowers by the window made her fall in love with the house. She wasn’t surprised that the colours in the house blended together. She remembered that at a time, he was the president of the Decoration unit on campus. He offered her a bottle of fanta, a plate of moimoi, roasted fish and fried egg spiced with sausage, chicken, carrot, tomato, onion, lettuce and of course salt which she graciously took. After eating, they laughed and spoke generally about work, their likes, dislikes and a little about the phone. Sarah had a nice time with Richard. Within her, she fervently hoped that he’d invite her to his home again. After all, premarital sex was the sin not visiting a man alone.

      Beloved, wisdom is profitable to direct.

      Yes God but I am sure that Richard would never go against any of your commandments. He loves you. Nothing can go wrong from staying alone with him.

      Although, Sarah felt like she already knew everything about him, still, the sensation that coursed through her being at the sound of his voice was surreal. It made her wish she could wake up to it every morning.

      After spending an hour with him, he saw her off to the junction and waited until she boarded a bus. Sarah advanced home singing as her heart’s content overflowed with happiness. It wasn’t every day you came across a very handsome Christian who was financially stable, stupendously handsome, mature and funny all in one. Sarah opened the front door to see her mom knitting. She smiled. Knitting was mom’s hobby. For as long as Sarah could remember, mom had always done that whenever she had nothing to do and now, she was probably waiting for her only daughter and husband to come home. “Mummy, good evening ma,” Sarah greeted her mom with a hug.

      Mother dropped her knitting pin and thread and hugged her back. “My princess, you’re quite late today. There was traffic, right?”

      “Yes ma, I mean, no ma.” Sarah blushed, remembering the hours she spent chatting with Richard.

      With raised eyebrows, Mrs. Okoro asked, “So why are you home by this time young lady?”

      Sarah looked down at her hands, “I visited the phone repairer.”

      “I thought you said you gave it to a Christian friend,” Mrs. Okoro said, motioning for her to sit down.

      She sat down with her hands buried in between her legs, praying her mom won’t pry further. “Yes, I went to find out how he was coming along with the phone.”

      Mrs. Okoro smiled, “Hmmm, and it is this person that is making you sing with so much joy.”

      Sarah opened her mouth in shock then looked away embarrassed, “Mom, when did you hear me sing?”

      Mrs. Okoro took up her knitting pin and thread and began knitting. “Except you brought home a nightingale, it was you who sang as you climbed the stairs.”

      “I’m just happy, that’s all,” said Sarah as she dropped her bag on the couch and her shoes by the chair.

      Mrs. Okoro drew her cheeks gently, “You are already of a marriageable age and you still practice this bad habit of keeping your things anywhere.”

      Sarah took her bag and shoe to the room. Her mother was a neat freak. She had dinner alone that night, then night devotion with mom and sauntered into her room while mom waited up for dad. He was held up in a slow moving traffic on third mainland bridge. Sarah beamed as she thought of her parents, she had never seen mom eat breakfast or dinner once without dad except on occasions when he travelled out of the state. Every night when she curled up on her mattress, underneath the comforter, she told God she wanted a marriage just like her parents’. You only had to watch them for five minutes to get jealous. Theirs was a story of true love. In her twenty three years of life, she had never heard one unkind word escape the lips of either parent. Yes, they sometimes disagreed but their innate yearning to be on the same side never failed to rise to the challenge, reminding them their love was irreplaceable and that if they had each other, they had the best gift on earth. Nothing else mattered as much as their love which bore fruits of compromise, care, respect and its root – God. May be her dream marriage wasn’t that far off, Richard seemed like the perfect man. All through the night, she kept weaving fantasies of herself and Richard. She would be the happiest girl in the world if Richard asked her to be his wife. What a wonderful life they would have together, loving each other and educating their kids on Godly principles. They would name their kids, Diamond, Sapphire and Pearl. She wanted nothing more than to grow old with that young man. Hmmm! But this meant she had to fasten her growth spiritually, she wouldn’t want him to think she wasn’t good enough for him.

      Chapter Two

      Wendy arranged her apartment, everywhere needed to be perfect when Charles came around. She was joyous. The only thing left to do was to convince Rita, her roommate, to vacate the room this weekend. Her eyes caught sight of the red nightgown in her partially open box which she had not worn yet and twinkled. She had just gotten that night wear yesterday from a classy boutique. The boutique attendant had told her that, brides to be mostly bought that particular nightgown to impress their husbands on their wedding night. She had no doubt that when Charles saw her in this, he would be convinced that she took their relationship with utmost seriousness.

      Later, she would call Suzan and advise her properly. She had not said much earlier because of Little Miss Virgin. She believed that a woman must do everything humanly possible to keep her man. She truly sympathized with Suzan, Suzan was a reasonable girl and she trusted that things will work out for her soon. Suzan just needed to give it time. The person whose happiness she strongly doubted was Sarah. Guys loved loose, silly girls and Sarah was too uptight and smart for her own good. She couldn’t think of any single guy who would like to have a relationship with her, not with all her idiosyncrasies, the worst which was her ‘no sex until marriage’ rule. Which guy would be able to put up with that? In all her adult years, she had not met one man who could do without sex in a relationship. As she folded her clothes, the door opened and Rita Macaulay stepped in carrying a huge polyethylene nylon bag.

      Wendy kept the last piece of cloth in her wardrobe then turned to face her effervescent roommate. “Ree, did you go to the market?”

      Rita replied as she struggled to get out of her leggings. “Yes, I went to get foodstuffs. My sweetheart said he’s coming to see me today. I want to cook his favourite, Banga soup and pounded yam.” She tugged at her leggings until she finally pulled it off then dragged the nylon

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