UYAI ✔️

Uyai (thirty)

"What?!" Effiong yelled then noticing the stunned silence that ensued he immediately palmed his mouth. He cursed softly then pulled his palm away from his mouth; He licked his lips nervously and blew through his nostrils.

He must've heard wrong.

"I'm sorry I didn't get you-" he furrowed his brows and inclined his ears as if to align it to the direction of the sound waves that her mouth would emit. "What did you say again?" he asked for clarification.

Uyai rolled her eyes. "I said no." she said with a neutral expression.

"B-But...I don't understand. Didn't you say you liked me?" He pulled his face in a frown as he waited for her reply. This was not going the way he planned. He had a feeling he must have done or said something wrong but he had no idea how and what he did.

"I do like you." she said, then grimaced as she looked at him thoughtfully that he wondered what in the world was going through her mind.

"Then why? I would've perfectly understood if you told me you wanted to think about it, but you outrightly said no and I'm so confused right now. Did I do something wrong?" he paused. "Wait! Did I ask too soon?" He asked again exasperated.

Uyai sighed, then smirked. She leaned back on her sit and folded her arms beneath her breasts. He watched her bewildered as she roamed her gaze round the small dinning before she settled it on him. Effiong shivered at the look in her eyes. He continued watching her even as her smirk widened. He knew he was in a lot of trouble for something he was unsure of.

"Did you really think--" she paused then gave a short laugh." Did you think that I'll just surrender myself to you-"

"What do you mean by surrender? I'm asking no such thing of you." he interjected in a protest.

Uyai cut him off with her hand. "Just a few months ago you had proclaimed your undying love to my sister and after you saw she was pregnant all of a sudden you're no more in love and now you expect me to believe you feel the same for me? And the funny thing is, you want me to reciprocate that feeling?" she laughed humorlessly

Effiong's face fell. He opened his mouth to speak but then clamped it shut. Uyai saw she left him speechless and proceeded with her speech.

"I like you, no doubt about it. But I wouldn't be stupid enough to be your girlfriend."

Effiong glared at the now empty bottle before him, affronted by her offensive choice of words.

Uyai ignored him. "Besides this is not our village, we're in the city and mind you I am not living with my parents and I doubt Mr. and Mrs. Ekpenyong would be pleased that I keep a boyfriend especially after what happened to sister." she breathed.

He looked up immediately and found that her eyes were downcast. His heart ached at the sight of Uyai looking so forlorn and he blamed his foolishness for not thinking that far.

"I'm sorry." He muttered and reached out for her hand; he felt it stiffened as he clasped it in his. Gently, he squeezed her fingers soothingly until he felt it relax. He watched as she weakly raised up her head, looked at him warily before averting her gaze to the side. "I am sorry." he repeated, subtly urging her to look at him. "I'm sorry that I'm so blinded by my feelings that I forgot to acknowledge yours, but I promise you what I felt for Affiong was due to a built up crush that only looked superficially, but what I feel for you--" he paused and timidly raised his free hand to her face. He could feel his fingers give off slight tremors as it caressed her chin to slowly bring it to face him, so he could see her eyes; It was guarded as it stared unblinkingly at him. "What I feel for you is real and I won't do anything to sabotage that. I can wait for as long as you want, you don't have to give me an answer right away." he whispered. "In fact saying you'll think about it, will do." he said as an afterthought.