MAY

30: GOALKEEPER.

“You say we are just friends. Are we really? Cos friends don't stay up all night texting about how good or bad their day was. Friends don't call at 7Am just to hear from you. Are we really just friends? Cos friends don't look at each other the way you look at me.”

—@c.e.o_muna

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C H A P T E R 30:

A life without a controlling husband at home to hit her at the slightest mistake, both real or imagined, was like a dream come true. Having the full house to herself without anyone standing her way was even more amazing.

May felt like a free bird even if she knew it wasn't going to last, for Edric would come back whenever he likes but she was having the best time out of it and only that mattered.

He didn't for once called her on phone to know if she was faring well, which May didn't even care cause his absence had given her so many opportunities. She stopped selling oranges. She used the little profit she had from the orange business to enroll into a catering school in order for her to master cooking.

If she wasn't at the catering school, at home or at Mama Edric's house having a good mother and daughter moments with Maryam, then she was spending the day with Iby. They had gotten so attached to each other that people began to question their relationship. Few people, who simply couldn't mind their business, wanted to know if they were actually dating.

"Oh! We are just friends," May would say to them. Then, if Iby was there with her, she'd turn to him and ask, "isn't it?"

Iby would be lost for what to say like he didn't understand what she was asking then, he would manage a stammer, "Y—ye—yes."

It grew worse when she started calling him, "bestie" or sometimes, "bro."

He didn't like that. Simply because he was in love with her and it was baffling that she didn't seem to notice or maybe she was just pretending? He didn't know.

From the day May was discharged from the hospital, Iby had always being by her side, making sure that she had no space or privacy to hurt herself again. She didn't question the reason why he became extra caring and loving towards her. She didn't question why he was always checking up on her, making sure she ate healthy meals and took her drugs. She felt that as a close friend of hers, he was only doing what he thought was right.

In just two weeks, May had changed so much. She had added more flesh. Her skin was lighter and smoother than ever and she was wearing more appealing clothes.

She hadn't noticed this before until her gossip of a neighbor, Caroline said to her one day, "Ha! May, this is a surprise oh."

May brows drew in quizzically as she asked, "What do you mean? What surprise?"

"Don't tell me you don't understand what I am trying to say."

"How I'm I suppose to understand when you haven't told me anything yet? If you have something to say, be forward about it. I have somewhere else to go." May told her, checking her wristwatch to see if she was late for her catering class.

Caroline smiled widely. "Don't be like that na. No vex."

"I am not angry. Just say it already." May impatiently cuts in.

"Uhm. Listen eh. I am just trying to say you're getting fat everyday."

May looked down at herself with confusion and disbelief on her face to check if there were any changes with her. There sure was but not has Caroline had emphasized it.