Love the one you’re with

2006
It was the eve of his wedding. She had been ignoring his calls. After the 12th ring she was fed up. With annoyance, she picked his call and all but shouted. “What is it?” “Please” he slurred, “just say it. Give the word and I’d call the whole thing off. I love you and want to be with you. You, not her!” She rolled her eyes although she knew he couldn’t see and spoke with a sigh. “You are probably drunk mister, your big day is tomorrow, you should rest.” With that she disconnected the call, threw her phone away and cried herself to sleep.
He got married the next day, relocated and went to pay her a surprise visit 4months later in his old town.

2007
He uncurled her legs from around his waist and went to the bathroom to answer his call. This was unusual. She thought to herself maybe it is from the office. Throwing on his shirt and barely pulling on her panties, she picked up the half eaten can of cheeseballs and snuck into the bathroom. She was going to jump on his gorgeous naked back and give him the fright of his life.
“Baby, I said I don’t want to talk about it. You are not pregnant. We’d see later and we will discuss.”
She blinked; a chill took root in the pit of her stomach and worked its way up her spine. Did she just hear him call someone that was not her baby? The can of cheeseballs slipped from her fingers and fell to the floor. She stormed out of the bathroom tore off his shirt and shrugged into her clothes. She grabbed her bag, bundled out of the apartment and started walking away, not knowing where she was going but sure she wanted to be anywhere but here. She got to the street junction, saw a two-way signpost and realized her vision was blurred. She had been crying.
Looking disheveled and windblown, he caught up with her and forced her into an embrace. “Shit you scared the hell out of me baby. Why did you leave like that? What if you got lost, kidnapped or worse?” She eased out of his embrace. Looked him straight in the eyes and asked. “How long?” he stopped trying to hold her, let his shoulders fall and spoke. “Two years.” She readjusted the straps of her bag, cleared her throat and spoke with a voice devoid of emotion. “Take me home.”

2009
“Not all men are bastards you know.” The other girls stopped their man lashing chatter and stared at her. They knew about her unfortunate history with men. She of all people deserved to call men bastards. She smiled at them, flipped her hair away from her face, picked a brightly colored corsage and spoke. “I like this one.” She was on the bridal train of her former roommate. She was getting married to her ex. He came to drop her off one night after a date and would you believe it? Met his future wife.
She felt betrayed, disillusioned, damaged then she felt free.
She finally understood.
She made up her mind to stop living for society and decided to live for herself. She was going to struggle, achieve and succeed. If she ended up alone but fulfilled and happy then so be it.
She insisted on being on their bridal train – it was the least they both could do. Forgiving as she was, she couldn’t hide the delighted tic she felt when he squirmed and stuttered around her. It didn’t help that she had a ‘rocking’ body and oozed panache.
She was seeing someone who worshiped the ground she walked on. Sometimes she felt overwhelmed by his actions and public display of affection but pushed aside the feeling by saying to herself she deserved it and more. Her phone rang, it was him. Dropping the corsage, she hurried out of the room to answer it and slammed into a moving wall. Her phone fell and hit the marble floor. She was crossed. The wall wasn’t a wall after all. It was a man he stooped down and picked up her phone without a contrite note in his voice he teased. “I usually have that effect on women but I guess your phone would do.” He handed her the phone. “I am Tonye by the way, I believe you are mine. I mean my date”



2013
She bit back tears as he held her hand under the running tap. She closed her eyes and prayed the wound wasn’t deep. There was blood on her wedding band and she really wanted to scream. They couldn’t afford to go to the clinic because all his money and hers were tied up in deals, loans and investments.
They were broke.
He led her to sit on her favorite chair. His usually smiley face was lined with worry she couldn’t help but love him more.
He placed her phone beside her it was blinking; there were two new messages. The first was from an unknown number. It read simply;

“In everything give thanks.
- For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? "And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?”

The second was a bank alert.
They were going to be ok.
She did not marry when ‘her mates were getting married’, she didn’t marry the most popular, wealthiest or romantic man. She got married when the time was right for her to her friend, ally and lifetime companion.




* This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.