Wasted Years (Episode One)

Episode three

Wasted Years
(Episode 3)

I'd barely taken one limping step toward the hospital exit, when Inyene held me firmly to a stand and said, "I hope you know you will be coming home with me?"

I gasped, afraid there was going to be another fight.

"She will be coming with me." Dakota retorted.

"Hell no, my cousin will have absolutely nothing to do with you ever again," She turned to me, "Ifure, let's go to my car now."

"Baby, don't mind her please, she is mad, can't you see. Come with me." Dakota said as he gave out his hand to me.

I was indecisive, confused and tired.

I calmly turned to Inyene, "I will go with him." I said. She felt nearly as bewildered as I sounded. "You're, not serious right?" She asked surprisingly. She was reluctant to accept my decision.

"You can't go to a man who will destroy you. And I hope you won't come back to the house to tell me about how he hurt you again, I won't find it funny anymore Ifure. You're not a child anyway." She shrugged, took her hands off me and walked away.

I knew she was angry. There was bitterness in her tone. She hated Dakota with her whole heart, but it didn't change my feelings toward him. I loved him despite his flaws.

He held my hands and led me to his car, then we drove home quietly.

"Your cousin said insolent words to me, right before you, and you couldn't defend me." He said as we alighted from the car.

"What did you want me to say?"

"You always have nothing to say. If that is how women in your family talk to men, I won't take it." His voice was disarmingly husky.

"Don't say anything about my family anymore." I said angrily and managed to leap alone to the sitting room.

That night, he wouldn't let me rest. His hands ran through my thighs, even when I tried to stop him. "I just came back from the hospital Dako, I am not strong." I said painfully.

"I will be careful baby." He said. His fingers tarried at my knee, but his gaze rose to my face, making me wonder if he had felt the violent throb of my pulse. If he had felt the pains in my abdomen, how I groaned in pains when he forcefully made love to me.
I cried all through the night as I bled painfully. He held me in his arms and said, "You will be fine before morning, the pains will go away before morning."

Few weeks later, I had recovered fully and began office duties. I owned a jewelry shop on the island. 'Ifu' was a brand name everyone in Lagos knew of. Celebrities and the affluence patronized my brand. I made so much money from being a jeweler and it was all I was passionate about.

So, on this day, Kunle came to my office again. He was one of the men who were in love with me, and had wanted to marry me. I heard my salesgirl say to him, "is she expecting you?" But I didn't get his response.

I heard his voice, I knew it was him. So I stepped out and gave him a bonny face.

"Ifure darling, I have been passing by this place since three weeks ago, your staff said you weren't around. I missed seeing your pretty face." He said sweetly.

Kunle was handsome, rich and kind. He was the kind of man Inyene and mama would have loved for me to marry.

"What do you want?" I asked meanly.

"You. I want you. Date me Ifure, please I beg you." He said. His golden gaze mesmerized me.

"I have a boyfriend." I said.

"Oh that..." He laughed, "I didn't say you should be my girlfriend, I mean be my wife." I tried to draw in a breath, but it stalled in my throat, stymied by the glimpse of sensual decadence his hoarse revelation afforded me.

I had a vivid vision of Dakota, kneeling down and putting a ring in my finger at that very moment.

"No Kunle, please leave. My boyfriend might be here anytime soon." I had said this sentence to countless men.

"Before I leave, I will want you to think about my proposal and get back to me." He said sensually and blew a kiss to me, walking away.

I liked Kunle. But it was Dakota I loved.

That evening, I drove home quite early. I had a quick shower, made dinner, and washed all the dirty clothes in the house with the washing machine. Dakota had warned me never to use the washing machine to wash his clothes.

"But that is why I bought it for you." I retorted softly.

"It is only lazy women, women who aren't wife materials that wash with machines. Use your hands and wash, you're a woman." He said to me.

But on this day, I was tired, I had to wash with the machine quickly before he got back home.

I had done the house chores, cooked and ironed his shirts.

He arrived home late that day, and while I hurriedly prepared his dinner, I noticed he'd forgotten his phone on the kitchen sink when he came to give me a welcome hug. The phone beeped, it was how I knew it was there. Then I picked it, it was a credit alert; I went through it and saw over three million naira in his account. I was amaze. It was his last year in Lagos business school, he wasn't paying tuition fee anymore, what was keeping us from getting married?

Disgruntled, I brushed my hands on the kitchen napkin and went to him.

"What is keeping us from settling down Dakota?" I asked.

He looked at me for a moment before he said, "School."

"That's not true. You've paid your tuition fee for the year, and this is your last year."

"I don't have money. I haven't been paid salary for three months now. I have just six thousand naira in my account."

There he lied again; He had over seven hundred thousand before the credit alert. But I couldn't let him know that I knew of it. He'd warned me never to go through his phones anymore, and I never wanted to cause another fight.

"The reason I am asking this is because someone wants to marry me." I said. He sprung up from the bed, and I could see jealousy in his eyes.

"Who has come to deceive you again?" He asked meanly.

"He isn't deceiving me. He is serious." He rose to his full height, "I am the only man that loves you." He said. I was pissed with his words, tired of hearing them, frustration made me lash out.

©Vicky Bon
2018