The Lives We Lived

47: Cheating

"Kemi!" It was Zainab 's alarm that highlighted the fact that the plate of pepper soup was already overflowing.

She picked up a dish rag to soak the soup that had already spilled out of the plate and that was now pouring to the floor. Her hands worked quickly, mopping the soup off the marble countertop in quick dabs.

"Where is your mind?" Zainab returned to the folds of brightly coloured linen that she was sorting out.

"I could've sworn that it was an empty plate."

Kemi put the pot aside along with spoon. She squeezed the soaked rag over the sink and the brown water sloshed against the sink she had already cleaned.

Thinking about Osa gave her double the amount of work she had to complete. It was almost nine o'clock on a Saturday and he was not back. Last week he had come home by eight with more work to do and had converted Mama's room to his mini office. In fact, he had worked all week and had come late to church on Sunday. This Sunday, he would probably not come to church.

She was starting to worry. Since they returned from Benin, things between them had been strange. They were distant in a lot of ways. Physically and emotionally. She had gone over everything that had happened since then. There was no fight or bad word spoken. Other than the day she tried to call him to dinner but his phone slipped out of his hand.

He had been especially distant since then.

"Have you noticed anything strange?" She asked.

Zainab spoke in a muffled tone through the pin she secured between her mouth with both of her lips. "Strange how?"

"About Osa?"

"He's not back yet?"

Kemi shook her head.

Zainab was not usually the person she would go to with her troubles about Osa. She would go to Efe, or one of his friends, or their pastor or his unit head at church. But Osa hadn't been around her with those people and even when he had chances be, he was as cordial as ever. She didn't know if they could feel the coldness between them. Or if it was just something her mind was making up because she hadn't had sex with him.

"Wow it's late oh."

"He has those nights."

But those nights were becoming more frequent. When he took this position, she knew he would spend more time away but not this much time and not this late and not this constant.

"Does he seem distant to you?"

"By staying away from you with such long hours? Yes, but it's not worse than Bode."

"It's not just coming home this late. It's..." Kemi's voice trailed as she paused, unsure of how much of her intimate life she wanted to share.

"It's what?"

"Nothing." Kemi turned, then closed the lids to the storage bowls for the pepper soup she had prepared. "I wanted us to share this but he's not here. I am worried."

She thought Zainab did not catch her words until Zainab asked, "Worried that he comes late or worried about why?"

"Aren't they the same thing?" Kemi stacked the plates.

"No." Zainab pinched a long bronze pin and dropped it on the table. "He could be late because of traffic, because he got held up, because a police man detained him, or—"

"Or what?"

Zainab's eyes strayed with a cautionary look. "I do not want to say this about your husband."