THE EMIRATI CONNECTION
CHAPTER 3
Though I was totally against the very idea of her sleeping over at my house, there was nothing I could do about it. It was raining hard outside, and it was too late to go home. Apart from the fact that it was going to be disrespectful for her to go home that late and knock the main door, thereby disturbing her already sleeping parents, her neighbourhood too was very dangerous. Those were the conditions that I took into account when I accepted that she should stay the night.
“Do you wish to sleep on the sofa here in the living room? Or do you wish to follow me into the bedroom?” I asked her.
“I will sleep here, right here on the sofa.” She replied.
“Alright, in that case, I will go get you something you could cover to keep you warm.”
“Thank you.”
I went into the bedroom and returned a few minutes later with a duvet and a single pillow for her to use. I said goodbye and went back into the bedroom, making sure I locked my bedroom door behind me. I couldn’t trust sleeping with a stranger in the same house and leaving my bedroom door open. If she had agreed to sleep on the bed, it would have been different. I would have done my very best to stay awake. But sleeping apart, I would easily fall asleep, and I couldn’t trust a stranger in my house when I was asleep.
I was deeply asleep when I heard a knock on my bedroom door. I wondered what she wanted. She had already declared her intentions of spending the night in the living room and I had done my very best to make the place comfortable for her. What else did she want?
“How may I be of help to you?” I asked from within, raising my voice loud enough for her to hear me.
“I need to relieve myself, please.” She replied. “I am pressed.”
“Oh! That is true. I will be there momentarily.” I spoke as I got up from the bed to go open the door for her.
The house was built in such a way that the master bedroom was attached to the water closet. It was a single room apartment. There was a living room, a bedroom attached to the water closet and a kitchen. Therefore, for someone to have access to the washroom, the person must have access to the bedroom.
I shifted to one side as she passed by me, went into the washroom, relieved herself and came back. Now, instead of her to go back to the living room and continue sleeping, she instead climbed on my bed and made herself comfortable. I stood, watching her sleeping and wondered why the sudden change of heart.
“You prefer sleeping there now?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“No reason.”
I got on the bed, turned my back to her and was about to go back to sleep when my phone rang. Vexed, I got the phone and realized that it was a video call on WhatsApp. I cursed under my breath for forgetting to turn off my data service. You won’t believe who was calling; it was my girlfriend. I was confused on what to do. On the one hand, I couldn’t dare not answer my girlfriend’s call. It was late no doubt, and I could lie that I was already asleep, and I just happened to forget my data on, which in a way was actually true. But that girl had a way of knowing when I was lying and when I was telling the truth.
On the other hand, I could answer the call and ask Hermine to stay quiet until the call was done. That would normally anger her greatly because she was already in love with me and had already started to consider me her boyfriend. But in my mind, we weren’t lovers. We hadn’t even had s*x and I had expressly explained to her that I had a girlfriend. So according to my own understanding, she had no reason to be angry if I did pick the call.
Now, there were two evils. The first of the two evils were to answer the call and ask Hermine to stay quiet and stay out of view (since it was a video call). The immediate effect would be anger, rebuke and disappointment from her. The second evil was not to answer the call and lie that I was already asleep. The effect would be that my girlfriend was going to accuse me of seeing her call and deliberately ignoring it. She was also going to accuse me of being with a woman and that that was the reason for ignoring her calls. I decided that picking the call was the lesser of the two evils.
I moved close to Hermine and told her to stay quiet.
“My girlfriend is calling, and it is a video call. I want you to stay quiet and out of view.”
“What? Are you crazy?”
“No, I am not. It is an emergency. I didn’t anticipate this.” I explained.
“But you told me that you had talked to her already this night.”
“Yes, that is why I cannot understand why she is calling again. But I have to answer the call.”
Before she could respond, I had already answered the call.
“Hi babe.”
“Sweetheart.”
“You are still up?” I asked.
“Yes, I am not feeling sleepy. How about you? How come you are still up?”
“I went to relieve myself. I was about to get back to bed when you called.”
“That means you left your data on?”
“Yes, babe. I did. I am sure I drifted off to sleep. I had a very long day, you know.”
“Alright.” She said, paused for a short while and then suddenly became suspicious. “Who is in that house with you?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, feigning innocence.
“I am asking if you are alone.”
“Of course, I am. What are you talking about?”
“I don’t believe you. If you are sure that you are alone, then show me around the house.” She ordered.
I quickly made a finger motion at Hermine and asked her to come behind me. I then switched to the front camera and walked all around the house, showing her everywhere. I even went to the washroom and kitchen just for her to be convinced that there was no one around. When she was sure that there was no one around, she said goodnight and dropped the call. As soon as Hermine realized that the call had ended, she flared up.
“You are very disrespectful.” She said, angrily. “You have no respect for me.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“You are answering your girlfriend’s video call in my presence.”
“What is wrong with that? It’s not as if I didn’t tell you I had a girlfriend.”
“And so, what?”
“‘And so, what’ what? It’s not like you were in the dark about this. Please, I need to go back to sleep. Goodnight.” I said half angry and went back to bed, turning my back on her.
“I can’t sleep on this bed anymore. In fact, I am going back to the living room.” She threatened.
“Suit yourself.” I spoke.
She left the bed angrily and went back to the living room and laid on the sofa. This time around, I didn’t shut the bedroom door because I was wide awake and wanted to be aware of what she was up to. She switched off the light of the living room, got her phone and dialed a number. Whoever she called answered and they started talking. I couldn’t clearly hear what they were talking about but to my experienced ears, it sounded like they were talking about love. So, I got angry and went to the living room.
“What do you think you are doing?” I asked.
“What does it seem like I am doing?”
“You are talking to a man at this hour of the night?”
“Yes, I am. What is the big deal? Are you not just from talking to your girlfriend?”
“You can’t make that comparison. You have no right to talk to a male at this hour.”
“And you have the right to talk to a female?!”
“Yes, there is a difference.”
“What is the difference?” She asked, sitting up in the chair.
“This is my house, and I can do as I deem fit. On the other hand, you can’t.”
“Oh! It makes sense to me now. Do you know what? I am leaving your house right now.” She threatened.
“But it’s late. It’s almost 2:00 AM.” I told her.
“Yes, but I am leaving anyway, and you will never see me again.”
“But it’s risky going home now. If something happens to you. I will be in trouble.”
“No one knows I am here.”
She was really angry and was really serious about leaving my house at that ungodly hour of the night. I had to try to calm her down and I did succeed do so. However, it took about an hour before she succeeded to calm down.
Early that morning, she left to her house. She left in anger and refused to talk to me. In a way, I was happy to see her gone. I had spent just one night with her, and we had had so much wahala. I imagined what would happen if we spent many nights.
For a whole week, I didn’t see her and neither did I call her. I was beginning to think that she had forgotten about me and moved on, but that was not to be. One day she texted me and told me that she must see me urgently. I told her I was at funeral and couldn’t make it. It was around 8:00 PM. She said she was in my neighbourhood and would wait for me until I return. I was in no funeral. I was just tired of her trouble and didn’t want to see her again.
I told her that it was useless waiting for my return because I was going to be very late. All this while, we were texting. Now, she tried to call me so from the noise in the background, she could determine whether I was really in a funeral or not. I didn’t only ignore her call, I also switched off my phone, just to make sure that she couldn’t reach me.
Around 12:00 AM, I decided to go home. It was around 12:30 AM when I arrived our compound. I had delayed that long so that no matter how long she persevered to wait for me, she surely would realize that it was futile to keep on waiting. Being very sure that she had gone, I was still in front of the compound, walking to my apartment which was at he back when I met my next-door neighbour. He had just left his house and was going to club. Out of curiosity, I decided to ask him if there was anyone at my door. I was just asking for the sake of asking. I knew there could never be anyone there waiting for me at that time. But I was in for a shock.
“Good evening, bro. I greeted. Is there anyone in front of my house waiting for me?”
“Yes.” He laughed. “There’s a particular lady that has been sitting on your balcony since 6:00 PM. Boy, I am sure you are in serious trouble this night.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
