EVERYTHING GOOD||completed

One <The Friend Zone>

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. --Romans 8:28 (KJV)

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“Friendzone should be a relationship status on Facebook.” -Anonymous

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"Godswill, I love you too," she said, making a wide grin come on his face. "But only as a very dear brother in Christ and friend."

His grin disappeared as fast as it had appeared. What is it with these ladies and speaking in gentle tones and leading statements? If he wasn't so concerned about what she thought of him, he'd have given an eye-roll to punctuate her statement.

Godswill had thought his prayers had finally been answered when Adebimpe spoke those three magical words to him. But then, who was he kidding? He should have realised that those three words would become a shackle for the friend zone he seemed to have been stuck in for the past few years.

For the past three years, he had been receiving one no after the other from any and every sister he had proposed a relationship to. And it was always the same answer.

It was either they replied with "I love you like a brother" or "You're such a great friend to me and I love you as such" or "The love I have for you is agape".

Godswill was already convinced that there had to be something about him that made the Christian ladies think all he wanted was to be a friend or brother or mentor to them. Or was God paying him back for being overly 'spirikoko' and refusing to see any of the ladies he had met while in the university as a potential wife?

He had only wanted to concentrate on his studies and he had inadvertently turned his very beautiful classmates and even fellow sisters in church into friends, sisters and even mentees. Whereas, God hadn't turned his heart towards any of them. So why was He withholding his Eve?

Besides, society didn't help matters. It had been drummed into him from when he was a kid that the man was the provider, protector, repairer, and every responsibility that a young African male has been saddled with from the beginning of time. So, he had waited to graduate school with a first class in Chemistry because no company would recruit anyone with lesser qualifications. He had searched for a job in well-known chemical laboratories in the country but couldn't find one because where does a Chemistry graduate want to work in this Nigeria. He had strived to become an entrepreneur because no lady of the 21st century would bank her life on a man with no job or money.

Now, with his thirty-fifth year on earth staring him in the face, his restaurant had taken off and was doing great, he had a nice apartment which he shared with his covenant friend and he even managed to buy a fairly-used Toyota Corolla. Still, the bone of his bone seemed to be on a self-imposed hiatus.

Moreso, as he grew into an adult, he began to feel like his parents had done him dirty by naming him Godswill. It was so ironic how no lady had ever seen him as God's will for her.

Brother? Friend? The next person that calls me that is going to hear it from me.

What did that even mean?

Brother? I am definitely not related to any of these sisters.

Friend? I have enough friends as it is. And is it their enemy they want to marry?

Sighing, he looked up at Adebimpe. She was everything he loved and wanted in a woman. She was fair-skinned, plumpy and curvaceous with the most beautiful cat-like brown-coloured eyes he had ever seen on a human. She always spoke with a soft but clear, shrill tone in British English that rivalled that of the Britons of old. That wasn't all. She sang in the choir in church and every time she led a song, the power of God was always evident in the service. In fact, he was a living testimony to that. Each time she sang, his spirit always soared in him and he always felt like he was on the high-altitude plane that would enable him to commune with God face-to-face. Even her tongues was like a Browning machine gun, rapid and effective, putting down every demon that stood in the way.