Chapter 9, Episode 6

Last updated on February 2nd, 2024 at 04:53 pm

“Tochi, how’s work and your PPA?” I knew he was a ghost Corper, but that was it. I didn’t know anything else, not his exhibitions, his clients…nothing.

“Those ones are there jare. Men are hustling.” Here we go. I chuckled and replied, “Women are hustling too…”

“Well, it’s not a competition, you were the one that asked.” He replied. Still not looking at me.

“No one is competing here. The response you gave was vague.” He briefly angled his head towards the opposite side then straightened again. I waited for him to reply, but there was nothing. I would say this was new but it’d happened many times when we were in school. Although this time, I expected Tochi to recognise that we were in a long-distance relationship and could not afford to wing it as we did in school.

Tochi, you stopped talking.

“Ah, you didn’t ask a question.” He replied, sounding exasperated.

“Is that why you sound like I am disturbing you?”

“Angela, what is it?” He asked calmly.

“Is there someone?” He kept quiet. Just as I was about to repeat my question because I was in Lagos and I must get answers, he answered, “You have asked this question before. This is the second time you have asked. Don’t ask me the third time.”

“Tochi, is it because we haven’t had sex?” At this, he stopped and looked at me. Then he took my hand and we kept walking.

***

Since Sunday night when I arrived here, Tochi and I had not talked about our relationship. It was Wednesday and I was leaving on Saturday. Every time I broached the subject, Tochi changed it as if it was unintentional. Now that I knew he was avoiding it, I laid off.

We had just played Scramble and the atmosphere was light. I brought out my phone and sent a message to him on WhatsApp quoting the checklist I sent him.

… We need to talk about these. His phone made a notification sound and he picked it up and then looked at me. I raised my brow and shrugged. He face-palmed and then sat up.

“This list is too long, Angel. It feels like I’m doing an exam.” Ouch!

“This is how you invalidate my feelings, Tochi. It’s long and trivial to you, but it matters to me, why make it then seem silly?”

“Okay, okay okay. I’m sorry. Was just joking.”

“That’s what you say.”

“Angela, stop nau.” He said as he pulled my ankle. “Oya, number one out of twenty, Irregular call schedule. Explain.”

“This is self-explanatory.”

“Now we want to talk and you are not ready, me I want to go and watch match o.” 

“Tochi, wow. Just wow!”

“Angela, please talk…you take everything too seriously. Were we not friends before we started dating? You already know me.”

“Okay, we should have a regular call schedule since we don’t see often.”

“Okay, make sense. But sometimes, I’m busy. Sometimes, I don’t have airtime. Sometimes, I don’t have the mental strength.”

“Okay, you don’t need airtime for us to talk, WhatsApp is there.”

“Alright, let’s go to number two: Little to no updates.”

“Tochi, have we concluded on number one?”

“Yes na, we should do WhatsApp call often.” Honestly, I wanted us to have a set time every day and I had promised myself to discuss it with him, so I asked. “How about a set time during the day? We can talk before or after then, but no matter what’s happening, we must reach out at that time.” He looked at me for a while and nodded, “Oya na, what time?”

“What time are you mostly free in the evening?”

“Hmm, I can’t really tell o.”

“Okay, let’s do 8 o’clock at night.”

“No wahala.”

***

Tochi did not make the conversation easy at all. When I mentioned insensitive jokes, he got angry and insisted that I was trying to change him. We had to move to the next one without coming to a headway. When we got to the next one, ‘Too heavy boundaries,’ he just shook his head, laughing. “Angela, I see you don’t know me at all, I am not hiding anything from you or putting up a wall around you. This is just my life.” He agreed to open up more.

I really wasn’t convinced that he was even taking any of these seriously but I had to trust that he was and probably covering up by playing around. When we got to, ‘bond getting weak’ he looked at his wristwatch and said, “Hmm, Angela, the match is in twenty minutes. Let me check if my boys have messaged me.” He was quiet for a bit, then, “Yes! I trust them. Babe, let’s continue later.”

I could immediately throw a tantrum but it would have felt like an overreaction. To everything I did, Tochi believed I was just trying to make a big deal and we weren’t supposed to be too uptight about our relationship. So, I continued. “Tochi, it feels like our love is not as strong.” He sighed and texted on his phone. He faced me holding my hand and ankle, “Angela, my Angel… I promise you, this is all in your head. You are letting the issues your parents had to get to you, to us.” I dropped my eyes to the bed and inhaled. It actually seemed true. My parents seemed to have worked things out but I still felt scared when it came to relationships.

“Okay,” I replied, barely audible.

“Can I go, baby?” He said, standing up as he grabbed his face cap again.

“You need my permission?”

“Yes na. I can’t go if my madam doesn’t want me to.”

“Okay o, bye bye.”

“Thanks, babe.” He rushed out of the door. The door opened almost immediately as if he had forgotten something. He held my face and kissed me. Whew! That was hot. We had kissed a couple of times, but this felt different. It was the first kiss in months.

…

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