Age is Just A Number-Part 3

I waited two days before I called him. Well, I wanted to be sure I wanted to call him. Don’t mind me, I wasn’t playing hard to get. It was ringing for a while and I wanted to cut the call, but he picked up at that moment and said “hello”. Something about his voice was welcoming and reassuring at the same time. I don’t know, it just felt safe.

“hello” I responded with a little bit of uncertainty. It was awkward for a few seconds because we said nothing until he started apologizing.

“I am sorry for the way my guys went about contacting you, they are sometimes overprotective. I only told them I need to find a lady named Folashade, I told them where she lives and they turned it into a full-blown investigation.” He signed “I’m sorry”.

I didn’t know why I felt concerned about his worried state, so I immediately pacified him “it’s okay, you don’t have to worry about it, now that I know who was behind the tail, all is well and fine now”. I could hear his smile of sign or relief when he said “okay” and I could feel the worry leave his voice.

“If you are sure, it is okay, have dinner with me,” he said, although he wanted to sound very confident, I could hear the notes of fear in his voice. Fear of rejection, I think. I was wondering if I should reject him, but I was like who am kidding, he is a nice fellow and weird, but it is tough to meet nice guys like this, so I decided to shock him by agreeing to dinner.

“Yes” I said softly

He was shocked because, he was saying “don’t let the recent events…” and trailed off as soon as he registered that I had said yes to the dinner request.

He started laughing and the richness of his laughter made me laugh as well and with that magic, the awkwardness between us disappeared. We talked for a while and arranged our schedule for Friday evening and we share other information about ourselves. Like the fact that he was a widow for 15 years and he had two kids.

Although his kids were based in Bradford, England. And he prefers the Nigerian bustle, hence his choice of staying in Nigeria. Although he and his kids were frequent fliers to and FRO for holiday and sorts.

My Prayer alarm rang at midnight and I noticed we have been talking for 2hours, on my credit, I’ve been jazzed. I said a polite goodbye and stood up to clean up my room and take a bath.

On getting back to bed I saw a notification for airtime recharge and let me just say If I wasn’t jazzed before, I was now. The thoughtfulness was blindsiding.

Thursday was a drag as I was anticipating the dinner on Friday, so excited that nothing in my wardrobe felt good enough to wear so I called my fashion plug Banke Mélange. As always, she hooked me up with breath-taking dinner wear, I wonder how she does it, she understands me and what I need, and that’s the review everyone seems to give her.

Friday came and I began to have cold feet, I was looking for an excuse to cancel the date. I was letting so many thoughts into my head to dissuade me from going. Nothing came.

6 PM. My phone rang, it was Bolade, I thought he was calling to cancel, I was disappointed even before he spoke, but my belly twisted in excitement when he said he was about to leave the office to come to get me for our date. I told him I’ll be ready by the time he arrived and he said he couldn’t wait to see me before he ended the call. I hugged myself giddily and hurried to the bathroom for a quick shower.

The dress was a beautiful purple and pink dress and I knew minimalist make-up was the perfect pair to the dress. At 7:40 PM, I was ready and waiting for him to come. Felt like he was in sync because his call came in, he wanted to come in to meet me, but as a Nigerian, well don’t bring a guy until he is the one you want to marry. So, I told him to wait for me outside.

I stepped out and saw him standing by a car, this is a Benz (I think) but it also looked like a jeep(slang).
So, for dinner, I thought we would be going to a restaurant and I had done my research well on cool places to go to, that I could afford in the least, so if the case goes sideways, I could pay my part and leave.

Yes, I am a very proud lady.

However, the unexpected happened;