ROULETTE OF THE DAMNED 18: Gladiators

Abbey got out of the car and ran towards the front door of her parents’ house. As she struggled to find the right key for the front door, Abbey took in shallow breaths and looked around to make sure she wasn’t being watched. She eventually got the right key and inserted it into the keyhole. She turned the lock and hastened into the house.

The scene before her was exactly as Bukunmi had described. Jafar and Nnamdi lay a few metres from each other, blood spread out around them and a gun between them. Abbey wasn’t sure but the gun seemed like Jafar’s. With a tear-streaked face and a limp body, Bukunmi was at the far corner of the living room covered in blood as well.

The minute Bukunmi spotted Abbey enter the living room, she started crying all over again.

Running past the prone bodies of Jafar and Nnamdi, Abbey rushed over to her and knelt close to her; even then, she made a mental note not to touch her. “Oh My God, Bukunmi are you okay? What the hell happened?”

Still in shock, Bukunmi looked from Abbey to the bodies and back to Abbey. She started shaking her head. When she found her voice, she spoke amidst her tears. “I don’t know… It all happened so… so fast.” Looking down at her hands and her clothes, Bukunmi continued, “There is so much blood everywhere… Oh my God what have I done?”

Needing to get the whole story, Abbey added a subtle hint of command to her voice. “Bukunmi, I need you to tell me exactly what you remember happened. Go as far back as you can remember and leave nothing out. Every little detail is extremely important right now. The only way I can help you is if you tell me exactly what happened. I need to know everything, to the very last detail. Can you do that for me?”

Bukunmi slowly nodded.

“Okay then.” Abbey said in a softer voice. “Try to gather your thoughts on everything that happened and tell me what you remember.”

Stifling more of her sobs, Bukunmi started. “My Monday morning was unlike any other morning I’d had in a long time… I guess I owe that to the fact that I partied all night at Elegushi beach the night before.”

“You mean yesterday night?” Abbey asked carefully.

“Yes…” Bukunmi gave a small nod as her lips trembled. “Yesterday night…”

“Okay, go on,” Abbey encouraged.

“It had been a busy week last week and I hadn’t had any fun in a while, so I decided to go to Elegushi beach with a couple of people from work yesterday night. Seeing as we were going to resume work today by 8am, we all decided to pack our clothes for work before heading to the beach. I packed sets of clothes because I couldn’t decide on what to wear today, my shower kit, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a small towel, my body cream, and my make-up set.” Bukunmi took a deep breath as if to calm herself before she continued with her story.

“The beach was fun at first. There were lots of drinks, food, and good music. It was the perfect escape I needed from the madness of work from the last week and the madness of work that was going to commence today.

“While at the beach dancing and having a good time, someone walked up to me and started dancing behind me. I was going to walk away from the person when I heard my name. The voice sounded familiar so I turned to look at who it was and I saw it was Nnamdi.”

At the mention of his name, Abbey turned to look at Nnamdi’s body on the floor of her father’s living room.

“We got talking and for a while,” Bukunmi was saying, “and I really enjoyed his company. He offered me a drink and then he asked if I wanted to dance. One thing led to another and before I knew it, we were hooking up at the back seat of his car.”

Bukunmi wiped at her tear-streaked face with the back of her hand. “After sex, he told me he lived close to where I work and asked me if I’d like to follow him to his place so we could continue what we’d started in the comfort of his bed. He said he wanted to treat me the way he felt I deserved to be treated and not some girl he fucked in the back seat of his Range Rover. I said okay, and went on to tell the people I came to the beach with that I was going home with my brother-in-law.”

“But Bukunmi, Nnamdi is in no way related to you. Why did you lie?”

“Why wouldn’t I lie?” Bukunmi asked Abbey in a defensive tone, her tears threatening again. “After the disparagement I got from Andrew and Jiro that day of Mofe’s birthday about their impression of me, I started getting self conscious around the office and with my colleagues. I could not tell these people that Nnamdi was a guy I’d just had sex with in the back of a car and that I was going home with him to continue from where we’d left off. Luckily, most of them were too drunk to question what I had told them. A close colleague of mine however had noticed that Nnamdi was looking at me with more affection than necessary for a brother-in-law. She put two and two together and caught me in the lie. I eventually confessed the truth to her, and Toyin was predictably uncomfortable with the situation.”

Bukunmi shuddered as she remembered the conversation she had with Toyin the night before.

“Are you insane?” Toyin had railed at Bukunmi.

Bukunmi simply shrugged.

“Your dad is a police officer and your two brothers are in the Navy,” Toyin said. “You are familiar with the ugliness they have to deal with in their line of work. You know better than to go home with strange men, especially one you picked up at the beach at this time of the night. It’s past midnight for God’s sake, Bukunmi.  He could be a serial killer or something!”

“There are none of those in Nigeria,” Bukunmi said with a light laugh. “Besides, Nnamdi is not exactly a strange” – she put finger quotes on the word – “man. We’ve known each other for awhile back. And really, Toyin, what’s life without a little risk.”

Toyin sighed. “Bukunmi, don’t do this. You’ve had a lot to drink and you are not in the right frame of mind. How about I take you home?”

“Are you quite finished, Toyin?” Bukunmi said tartly. Then she took in a breath and said in a calmer voice, “Look, you need to chill about this. I promise you it’s alright. Nnamdi and I go way back. I’m totally safe with him, I promise.”

“I was such a fool,” Bukunmi said as she let her mind drift back to the here and now. “We got to Nnamdi’s house a little past 5am. I think it was 5:27 because I checked my phone as we got down from the car. I went into his bathroom to shower. He joined me.” She looked a bit uncomfortable as she continued, “We had sex again for over another hour in the bathroom, on the bed, on the couch, in the kitchen… everywhere. I couldn’t even get to have my night sleep. After it all, I got into the bed, while he went back into the shower.”

Bukunmi looked at Abbey and seemed to will her to understand her own point of view. “I felt like I had finally found the one, you know.” She sighed.  “After he showered, I got into the shower to get ready for work while he made us cups of coffee. He was so sweet. He even insisted that he would drop me off at work this morning.”

Bukunmi didn’t speak for a while so Abbey touched her shoulder gently and urged her to go on.

“On getting to work,” Bukunmi continued, “I kissed him goodbye and he said I should call him anytime… day or night. He even suggested that we see later today and I agreed because I really had begun to like him…and not just because he was such a good lay.”

“I know, honey,” Abbey said, not really wanting to hear of Nnamdi’s sexual prowess. “Go on.”

“When I got into the office, I realized that I hadn’t made photocopies of the document that was going to be needed for the Annual General Meeting coming up tomorrow for all managers on all forty-five floors of the company. I tried using my photocopier but it wasn’t working well so I took the elevator from my floor up to Jiro’s and Andrew’s area on the forty-first floor. I met with Benjamin, the guy that usually lets me use the photocopier on that floor and I started making all necessary copies. When I had only one more copy of the last page of the document to make, I noticed Jiro was walking to Andrew’s office with a funny look on his face. I hadn’t seen them since the debacle that was Mofe’s birthday so I was eager to meet them both and apologise. I quickly finished my photocopies, thanked Benjamin and made my way towards Andrew’s office. As I got closer to Andrew’s office door and I wanted to knock before entering, I heard Jiro shouting some stuff at Andrew, stuff about Andrew not caring. It seemed like a breakup in progress.”

Abbey felt shock rock her insides. Jiro and Andrew had broken up? She didn’t say anything.

“My curiosity got the better of me,” Bukunmi said, “and so I hid somewhere close to Andrew’s office where I could hear what they were saying but they wouldn’t know that I could. Even though I couldn’t see them, I got the gist of what their fight was about and I saw Jiro storm out of Andrew’s office. I was going to pretend like I was just coming to say hi to Andrew after Jiro left. When I peeped into Andrew’s office, I saw him picking stuff up from the ground. He didn’t even notice me. His laptop was cracked and there were papers everywhere on the floor. I quickly retreated.

“Then I headed over to Jiro’s office to see if I could get more scoop on their fight but I was told by his secretary that he was not in a good mood and would not like to be disturbed. I left and returned to my floor, submitted the photocopies, and picked up my phone to call you and tell you all that I had just learned. Your phone was engaged so I tried calling your office number but I was told that you were not feeling well. I immediately became worried about you because in all the time I have known you, you have never been absent from work on account of being sick. I decided to come over to your house and check up on you, but I didn’t have my car because I hadn’t driven myself to Elegushi beach yesterday or to work this morning.”

“So how then did you get here?” Abbey asked, sensing that the mystery of the two dead bodies on the floor next to them was about to be revealed.

“I called Nnamdi. I asked Toyin to cover for me till I returned. I figured since I had finished all that would be required of me for the next few hours, nobody would miss me in the office. When I got to Nnamdi’s car, I told him I needed to go home because I forgot something. I didn’t want to tell him I was coming to your place because I felt he would not want to see you after Mofe’s birthday. Nnamdi agreed to take me. My plan was to run in, see how you were doing, quickly tell you what I could and head back out without Nnamdi ever knowing that this was not my house.

“I got here and your father opened the door. He looked angry and I was surprised because I hadn’t expected him to be home. In truth, I totally forgot all about your dad. I asked for you and he had a hateful look in his eyes for a brief moment before he smiled at me and invited me in. He told me you were upstairs so I thanked him as I walked past him and ran up the stairs to see you. Your room was empty. That confused me. I came back down here to ask your father if he was sure you were upstairs, to find him seated on the couch over there with a gun pointed to me.” Bukunmi pointed to the couch she’d met Jafar sitting on.

“He told me to sit down, that we needed to talk. I was so scared… I sat down without a word. I had never been held at gun point in my life before and after everything you told me about what he did to your mum and knowing what he did to Edirin, I was really worried he would shoot me if I didn’t cooperate. He told me what happened between you, himself and Mofe. And then he said I should call you and tell you to come home with your mother or else he would kill me. I tried calling you but your phone was still engaged. I told him your calls were not going through but he didn’t believe me. He snatched my phone and tried calling you with it and met with the same busy signal. He said we would wait till you were off your other call and try again. He said he would find something for us to do in the meantime.”

Bukunmi shivered and Abbey braced herself for the worst part. “Your father got on top of me and tried to rape me. He reeked of alcohol and bad morning breath and I instantly felt like vomiting. I couldn’t take it, so I struggled with him, screaming in the process. He slapped me several times to shut up but I just kept screaming.” Her tears began to fall again. “One minute all I could hear was the sound of my own voice shouting for help and the next minute, I heard someone burst through the door and lift your father off me. I scrambled over to the back of the couch and saw that the intruder was Nnamdi. I was going to be relieved, when I saw something weird happen.”

“What?” Abbey’s heart was now racing. “Tell me, what weird thing happened?”

“When Nnamdi got Jafar off me, they looked at each other. They both looked surprised, like they knew each other and hadn’t expected to find themselves in that situation.” Bukunmi contorted her face in recollection of the events that had occurred.  “Everything became very confusing after that.”

“How so?”

“I don’t know… One minute they were fine and the next minute, they both started talking nonsense. I couldn’t understand them at first. Jafar was asking Nnamdi what he was doing in his house and Nnamdi was asking Jafar what he was doing in my house.”

I can see why that would be confusing, Abbey thought to herself.

Bukunmi said, “Your father started rambling about how wrong everything was going and how he never let any one of his employees to know his house. He said that the job he gave Nnamdi did not require him coming to his house at any point in time. Nnamdi told him that he had followed me to my house and was still on the job but was looking for the right way to get to you through me.”

“Get me through you?” Abbey asked.

“Yes, that’s what he said. To get Abbey through me.  They both looked at me like I was the reason for the confusion before they turned to each other and started arguing again.”

“Who was holding the gun at this time?”

“Your father.”

“Okay.”

“From what I understood from their discussion, your father had sent Nnamdi to you that night we had gone out to party at the club. Nnamdi was supposed to hit on you, get you to fall for him, and then keep you under controlled surveillance at the request of your father. Unfortunately for him, he failed to make an impression on you that night, especially with Mofe coming into the picture and all. After your father heard about Nnamdi’s failure, he told him to find another way to get close to you. That was when Nnamdi started tailing me until he found the perfect avenue to make it look like he bumped into me by accident. He wormed his way to making me invite him for Mofe’s birthday party. He just seemed so genuine. I didn’t know that your father had ordered a hit on Mofe’s life. Nnamdi’s plan was for him to come with me to Mofe’s birthday, charm the socks off you, send guys to kill Mofe that night, and go home with me. He believed that if anything happened to Mofe, because you were not speaking to Edirin, you would come running to me and he would be there as a shoulder to lean on. He would have broken up with me a couple of days afterwards, and started chasing you in order to comfort you. He believed that you and I would have a falling out because I would accuse you of stealing the guy that I liked and we would stop talking. His plan was to alienate us and have you all to himself so your father could control you through him. The only problem with his plan was that he hadn’t expected to see Jiro there too. He hadn’t even known that you and Jiro were once lovers before he had taken the job from Jafar. And then, you were antagonistic toward him, and everything just got out of control. And he couldn’t really go on with his original plan because I didn’t want him coming home with me, not after the way he had insulted you that night, even if you deserved it.”

“Wow.” Abbey exhaled.

“Nnamdi was sure he had failed in his assignment to get you. He was going to return the money to Jafar today, and then he saw me at the beach yesterday. Then he’d sent a message to Jafar asking for another chance at succeeding. As they talked, your father got so upset and was waving his gun at Nnamdi, like he was going to shoot him. Nnamdi kept on saying he would deliver, making promises and asking your father to put away the gun.

“Then your father calmed and turned the gun on me. He said I’d heard too much and I would have to be disposed of. Nnamdi argued that he could handle me. Your father would have none of it. Nnamdi reasoned that if I turned up dead, people would suspect he had something to do with it because a lot of people had seen him leave the beach with me yesterday and they had him on CCTV at my office coming to pick me up. Your father didn’t care, he wanted to shoot me anyway. I was so scared, Abbey…” Bukunmi’s eyes welled up and she began to tremble. “Looking up at that gun and listening to them argue about me living… I was so scared…”

“Oh B.K.,” Abbey said softly as she placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“I think Nnamdi must have felt your father was trying to implicate him with my murder so he could own him or something, because then, he started fighting for the gun.”

Bukunmi looked down at her shaking hands as she continued, “In their fight to get control of the gun, it went off. When they pulled apart from each other, your father was bleeding and Nnamdi was holding the gun. He looked shocked, like he hadn’t seen this going down like this. Forgetting about me for a moment, he began cleaning his prints off the gun and went into the kitchen to wash the blood off his hands. He was so fidgety. By the time he came back into the living room, I had picked up the gun and had it pointed at him.” Another shudder hit Bukunmi’s body. “I felt so used and confused. Nnamdi was the very first guy in a long time I had liked, but he’d merely been using me. Just because he fought for me with your father didn’t mean that he would ever let me get away with what I now knew. He was bound to kill me at some point. I knew this and so, I shot him…three times.”

“Oh my God…’ Abbey said softly.

“I shot him three times…” Bukunmi clasped her hands around her trembling body. “And then, I walked over to him to check that he was really dead. But then, your father grabbed a hold of my leg and dragged me down in a bid to get the gun. I didn’t even know he was still alive. I was so scared. I fell down on him, into his blood, and we began to struggle. He was strong but he’d just been shot. So I got control of the gun and…and…” She turned her bottomless gaze to Abbey. “I didn’t think twice, Abbey. All I could remember at that time was him trying to rape me and all the things he had done to you, your mum, and to Edirin. And I shot him. Twice. Once in the heart and another in the head. And I was shaking and scared and I didn’t know what else to do but call you. What am I to do now, Abbey? Oh god, what am I to do?” Her tears streaked down her face again.

“Look at me, Bukunmi,” Abbey said as she held her friend’s face in her hands. “You’ll be fine. First things first, you said you packed some change of clothes before heading out to the beach yesterday, right?”

Bukunmi nodded.

“Where are the clothes?”

“Back at the office.”

“Okay,” Abbey said, her brain working faster than her body. “I need you to stand up and remove everything you are wearing.” When Bukunmi looked with incomprehension at her, she said with gentle insistence, “Trust me, okay? Just do it.”

Bukunmi got shakily to her feet and did as she was told. When she was naked before Abbey, she said, “Now I want you to go to my room and shower. When you finish, choose something from my wardrobe to put on. And then we can get out of here.”

Bukunmi nodded and started for the stairs. She stopped mid-climb and turned back at Abbey. “Thank you, Abbey. I’m sorry I dragged you into all of this.”

“No Bukunmi. I’m the one who’s sorry. You are in this mess because of me. I brought you into this. I promise that you won’t have to worry. I’ll handle this,” Abbey said with a tight smile. Considering the predicament they were faced with, there was very little to smile about. “Now go and shower. We need to get out of here as soon as possible.”

Once Abbey heard the shower running, she got to work. She wrapped Bukunmi’s clothes in a black trash bag. Then she began to thrash the entire place, knocking things down and about, in an attempt to make the scene look like a robbery had taken place. When she was done with that, she waited for Bukunmi to come downstairs. As Bukunmi made her way downstairs in a new set of clothes, Abbey gave her the keys to the car and told her to wait there until she joined her. Bukunmi nodded mutely and walked out of the living room.

Abbey made her way to the kitchen. Carefully covering her hands with her shirt, Abbey turned on the gas knobs, letting the smell of gas permeate the kitchen. In a matter of hours, the entire house would be inundated with gas. If any naked flame came on near the house, it would explode and burn to the ground. If not, the bodies would be found days later and it would look like a robbery-gone-wrong. Abbey hoped that the house would catch fire though. She knew that the Nigerian police didn’t have the necessary equipment to check for fingerprints but she wasn’t willing to take any chances.

She picked up the trash bag with Bukunmi’s bloody clothes and made her way out of the house.

Rushing over to the car, she threw the trash bag into the back seat and started the engine. As she drove away, Abbey looked at Bukunmi and said, “This will remain between you and me. No one else can ever know about this. Ever! Okay?”

Bukunmi nodded. She was crying again.

“Don’t cry, B.K.,” Abbey soothed. “I told you I would handle it and I have. If anyone asks anything, I know what to say. My mother and I travelled and came back to see two dead men in our house. Nnamdi was an armed robber and my dad had a gun. Nnamdi was not working alone. My father killed Nnamdi and the other armed robber killed my father and ran away. That’s the official story.”

Bukunmi nodded. There was a bleak expression on her face.

“Now tell me about Jiro and Andrew,” Abbey said in a bid to get her mind off the mess of two murders and a cover-up.

Bukunmi nodded again, and began to slowly recount what she’d witnessed at the office.

***

Three Weeks Later

As Andrew sat picking the last bits of the label off his beer bottle, a habit of his whenever he drank in a distracted state, he cursed at himself.

It had been three weeks since his fallout with Jiro and so far, he had not seen, heard, or spoken with Jiro since that day at his office. He had tried getting through to Jiro, but Jiro had completely shut him out. He had taken him off his social media accounts, changed the locks of his house, taken a sick leave off work for a while and hadn’t picked up any of Andrew’s calls. It was official. Jiro was deleting Andrew from his life completely.

And it was driving Andrew insane.

Andrew couldn’t believe that he been so remarkably stupid. He knew that when he had said what he had said to Jiro, he’d been thinking of Jiro’s future. Now, it only felt like he had destroyed one of the best things in his life. It wasn’t just his relationship with Jiro that had taken a nosedive; their friendship had taken a hit as well, and that was killing Andrew slowly from the inside.

How could I let him go without a fight? Andrew asked himself the question he’d been beating himself with for the past three weeks.

Because I had to, he answered his own question.

Sometimes doing the right thing sucked. The first few days without Jiro had been a study in misery. Everything felt dull and annoying. Work was the last place Andrew wanted to be, his bed reminded him of Jiro so he slept in the living room, but he had made memories with Jiro there as well. His car smelled of Jiro, his phone was filled with Jiro’s pictures, and his plans for the next couple of weeks had been planned specifically to suit Jiro’s schedule. He felt like he wasn’t in control of himself or his decisions anymore, and the craziest part of it was that he didn’t want to be in control…not anymore. All he wanted at this point was Jiro. If Jiro were with him, he’d feel a lot better. As it was, all Jiro’s absence had offered Andrew was a guilty conscience, an empty bed, a river of painful memories, and a broken heart. Everything about Andrew felt absolutely empty and he had never felt so alone. After the first couple of days of misery, the ache of loss had grown, not abated. After three weeks, the loneliness had become absolutely unbearable.

I have to find him! Andrew decided. I have to find him and beg – no grovel. I’ll stalk him till he takes me back. I’m so stupid. I never should have waited this long! It begins tonight!

“Andrew?” Mofe said, drawing him back to their table.

Since Jiro broke up all contact with him, Andrew had shut himself out from all forms of socializing, which was unlike him. However, the loneliness had begun to ache so much that when Mofe called him to have drinks, he’d jumped at the offer. He’d thought about pouring his heart out to his cousin and get comforted in return. But now he was here, he really wasn’t in the mood to talk. He might have accepted Mofe’s invitation in a bid to reconnect with the outside world, but now that he was doing just that, he realized that there was only one true way to really reconnect with people again. He had to first reconnect with Jiro.

“Sorry Mofe,” he said. “I got carried away for a brief minute. What did you say?”

From the way Mofe was looking at him, Andrew knew he’d not been paying attention to him for more than a brief minute.

“I asked how you are holding up,” Mofe said. “You don’t look too good and you are not your usual cheerful self. You know you can talk to me. What’s wrong?”

Andrew was about to answer when Mofe’s phone rang. It was on the table, and Andrew saw the Caller ID was Abbey’s name.

Mofe answered the call. “Hi honey. Let me call you back. I’m still with Andrew.”

Abbey said something on the other end of the line. Mofe smiled, the picture of a man in love. “I love you too, baby,” he said softly. “I’ll let you know when I’m on my way home.”

When the call ended, Mofe turned his face to his cousin.

Andrew stared back at him, his face contorted with incomprehension. He was shaking his head slowly as he said, “Tell me something, Mofe… Why Abbey?”

Mofe’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“You’re the kind of guy who can get any girl he wants. And you chose Abbey. I’d never have pegged her as your type. Why her? I understand that this might seem like a stupid question but I really need to know. I know that we can’t always choose who we fall in love with, because the heart wants what the heart wants. We do however choose who we date. And you chose to date Abbey. I just…I don’t know. I guess I’d like to know why you feel the way you do about her.”

There was a pause as Mofe appeared to ruminate over Andrew’s question. Andrew was sure he wouldn’t answer at all when Mofe finally said, “I’m with Abbey because she is easy-going, gorgeous, and in her own clumsy way, romantic as hell. I know she can be selfish sometimes, but she also has a streak of selflessness in her. Everyone has their flaws, and I love her despite all of hers. I might be able to get any other woman if I wanted to, but none of those women could ever compare to Abbey. It’s not just about looks or personality. Abbey and I simply connect in a way that I cannot describe. Without her, I’d just be sitting around wasting my life with other women. When I’m with her, I feel complete, like I’m exactly where I need to be.” Mofe took in a deep breath as if to calm the rise of his emotions as he talked about Abbey. “When I’m with her, every minute feels too important to waste. So I try to be the best person I can be for her while trying to make her feel as special as she makes me feel. I consider myself to be her gladiator. I’d kill for her if I had to. It’s not just the sweet parts that make her special. It’s how willing I am to make the difficult decisions that need to be made for her sake and mine.”

Andrew stared at his cousin in awe for a moment. “Damn, that’s a brilliant answer.” He sighed. “I messed up big-time, Mofe. I messed up with Jiro, and I think it might be too late to get him back.”

“If Jiro is truly what you need,” Mofe said, “then believe that things will work out. It’ll click as long as you are open and ready for it when it happens.”

“You sound so sure,” Andrew said miserably as he put his head in his hands. “I wish I could believe those words. You don’t know Jiro like I do.”

“I guess I don’t. Okay, so what exactly is your next move in your quest to win him back?”

As Andrew opened his mouth to answer, the waitress with the name tag ‘Funke’ pinned to her breast pocket came over and asked, “Can I get you anything else?”

“No thanks,” Mofe said.

“And how about for your other friend staring at you from the door?” Funke queried. “It looks like he’s coming this way. Should I get a drink for him too?”

“Who?” Andrew said. “It’s just the two of us here tonight. There’s no one else with us.”

“Oh I am so sorry, sir,” Funke said, looking apologetic. “I was so sure that gentleman was with you two from the way he was looking in your direction.”

“Well, we’re not expecting anyone else,” Andrew snapped. He usually got hit on at bars by guys, and while he’d enjoyed it in his pre-relationship-with-Jiro days, he was especially now not in the mood for any casual acquaintances.

Mofe tapped his hand and said, “You might want to take a look at the guy before you say that.”

Andrew turned an irritated look to his cousin. “You too?” He suddenly didn’t care as he continued, “You know that I’m not interested in anyone else, Mofe. Why would you tell me to look at another guy? I’m not even over Jiro yet, and I’m not sure I’ll ever be.”

Noticing the waitress was starting to look uncomfortable with the discourse, Mofe said to her, “Can you please get us our bill. Thank you.” As she hurried away, no doubt to dispense this bit of gossip with her colleagues, Mofe said to Andrew, “You idiot, calm down and look at the guy already. Stop being so difficult.”

Sighing heavily, Andrew said as he turned around. “Okay, where’s this guy you want me to see so badly?”

Mofe pointed. “Over there, the guy in a black shirt.”

Andrew followed his pointing finger. And he gave a start. Sudden heat suffused his entire body. A burning hot point of flame centred itself in his chest and banked slightly to the left to flare brightly inside his shattering heart.

I’m having a heart attack, his head told him.

As the wave of heat rushed from his chest region to his boxers, his shaft sprung to life like it was on salute.

Okay, so maybe it’s not a heart attack.

He couldn’t think or breathe as he stared at Jiro. He’s here! You’re not imagining it. He’s really here.

Jiro was staring back, his expression from across the room carefully neutral.

Mofe cleared his throat. Andrew heard him speak up. “For someone who asked me why I chose Abbey, you seem to find it easy to forget that any other person exists whenever Jiro is around. It’s actually kind of poetic.” There was a smile in his voice. “Maybe I should leave you two alone so you can catch up on things.”

Even though he had heard everything Mofe had said, Andrew was not interested in looking away from Jiro. But then he turned to his cousin to thank him for the evening. He realized just then that removing his gaze from Jiro actually hurt in a weird way. “Oh God, Mofe, I’m sorry I’ve been such a dick this evening. It’s just that Jiro…oh my God, he’s actually here.” He was struggling to understand how Jiro could have walked into the same bar he and Mofe were having drinks in out of the hundreds of bars in Lagos. And then, a thought nudged its way into his head and he cautiously asked, “Wait, Mofe, did you… Was this your idea?”

“Yes. Well, actually no. It was Abbey’s.” There was a smile on Mofe’s face. “Now make it worth it already. He’s a hot-headed man but he’s still your man. So, go get your man.” He winked.

“Thank you, Mofe,” Andrew said with feeling. “You and Abbey rock.”

He turned his head to the place where Jiro had been. But he wasn’t there anymore. Panicking, he raked his gaze all over the bar, but caught no sight of Jiro.

He was gone.

Written by The Controvert