Last updated on February 9th, 2024 at 04:10 pm
“Zabby, did you know that my phone rang?” I tapped Zabby. She shifted her headset and looked at me. She was currently editing her video for YouTube and I just entered the room after taking a shower.
“Did you hear my phone ring?” I asked for a second time and this time it sounded dumb because she obviously didn’t hear. “Don’t worry,” I added and she resumed her work. Tochi had called three times at eight o’clock—our usual call time. I panicked a bit because I didn’t know if he would have misunderstood me not picking up the calls. I dialled his number as I wore my pyjamas. I almost heaved a sigh of relief when he picked up my call.
“Give me two.” He said on the other end of the phone.
“Hello, you didn’t want to pick up my call abi?” He said to me
“I was in the bathroom.”
“Ehn, all of a sudden. If I didn’t call you, you would be saying one thing, crying up and down.” Tochi was the most insensitive person ever. I had imagined being insensitive to him more than once and it just didn’t seem right to me.
“Let’s talk later. I don’t think you’re ready to have a conversation.” He was going to talk when I hung up. I wasn’t in the mood today.
I switched on my laptop, I would just binge-watch my favourite movies until I slept off.
“What happened?” Zabby asked. Oh! Now she heard this. I had a feeling she heard my phone ring earlier but chose to ignore it because it was Tochi, but since I had no proof, I didn’t push it.
“Nothing.”
“Hmm, okay o.” I started playing the movie, ‘The Other Woman’ for the umpteenth time.
***
“Shift, let me watch.” I was about thirty minutes into the movie when Zabby came and pushed me before she even talked. We stayed up until midnight watching two other movies.
***
“Ah, I thought you won’t call me again o.” Tochi and I had not spoken for about three days since I hung up on him. It’d been a while since it happened, actually, it hadn’t happened since I returned from Lagos over a month ago. If Zabby had noticed, she did not say anything.
“How are you?”
“That’s what you will say. You this girl, Bamboo girl, you have pride.” The first thing that came to my mind was to hang up again.
“Tochi, is this your way of trying to make matters light?”
“Okay okay, no vex.” I shook my head and continued the conversation.
“What’s up with you?”
“Nothing much o.”
“Okay. I am going back home today.”
“You know that that Zabby’s place you went, you didn’t tell me.” I didn’t know what to say, so I kept quiet.
“You are not answering abi?”
“Tochi, I don’t know what to say.” I could apologise and let it go, but Tochi had upset me twice and I did not get an apology, there was no way I was going to apologise for visiting my cousin and not informing him.
“Ah, okay. I’ve zipped my mouth.”
“To-”
“Angela, forget. It’s Tochi that’s not perfect. Everything I do is a problem, Angela is perfect.”
“This is what you will say? We have not spoken in three days and this is your reaction?”
“You were the one that hung up on me, I can’t even remember what happened again. Me I don’t have the strength for grudges. I can’t be hustling and keeping a grudge. A man’s got to make money.”
“This is the way you act that makes me feel like you don’t care about the relationship. It’s all about hustling for you now. Any little thing, you announce that you are hustling.”
“I don’t get. You complained about the relationship and I adjusted. But guess what? It’s still not enough for Miss Perfect. Is it Zabby that’s teaching you? Cos since you went to her house, we have been fighting.” Tochi was really into this, typically, he would have found a way to end the conversation.
“Can we continue this when I get home?” I did not want to start getting into an argument possibly about Zabby with her around.
“Okay.”
“Thank you.”
***
Tochi and I did not continue our argument when I got home. It was almost the new year and I was not feeling excited about it. When I got home that day, I texted him and he replied that he and his friends were going to see a match which meant that we couldn’t clear the air. We did not speak throughout the next day and when he eventually called, he said he had a contract and got busy with it.
I did not want to take this energy into the new year. I cherished my relationship and I wanted to make it work but it didn’t seem like it was feasible…Or Tochi did not want it to happen. When I went to Lagos, I gave Tochi his birthday gift and I hoped he’d send me a gift on my birthday too, but he didn’t. At least he posted me on his status. I didn’t think there was a need to ask considering that he didn’t have to ask me for his. We had too many issues even though he didn’t think the same.
***
I rolled once more on my bed which I had been on for hours, snacking and scrolling through my phone. I opened WhatsApp and checked the status updates. Joe had just posted a video of him working in the studio. He was dressed casually in a white shirt, denim shorts and sandals. The video showed him adjusting the model, as he took pictures of her, he was in his element. Without thinking, I sent him a message:
This one that you keep adjusting the model. I went back to his status and it was a picture of the model and him, probably after the shoot session.
Jealous much?
You can always be my muse, Sweetcakes. He replied.
…
Thanks for reading this episode. Please leave a comment below!
