ROULETTE OF THE DAMNED 6: Revelations

Abbey knew it was past four in the morning. Daybreak was around the corner and she didn’t want to risk waking Jiro and Andrew if they were asleep. She hoped however that she would meet them playing video games. After all, they weren’t going to work at daybreak, and from what Jiro told her, they always stayed up late on Friday nights and slept for the better part of Saturday mornings.

Carefully leaving the front door slightly ajar, she took of her red heels and tiptoed through the hallway. Making her way to the living room without making a sound, Abbey carefully watched her step in order to not fall over anything. Her left foot hit a man’s shoe – Jiro’s or Andrew’s, she wasn’t sure – as she walked into the living room. There was no sign of either man anywhere in the room.

I guess they went to bed early. As Abbey made to leave the living room, the corner of her eye noticed the slight shape of something on the carpet. She walked silently over to it and used the torch light on her iPhone to check what it was. It looked – and smelt – like chicken.

No wonder Jiro said the cleaning lady complains about how dirty the house is when she comes to clean every Sunday afternoon. I’m glad I haven’t been attending their hangouts, she thought to herself. If I had, maybe I’d be the one cleaning up this mess. African men sha! Abbey shook her head in mild amusement.

Using one hand to hold the phone and the other to hold her shoes and her purse, Abbey surveyed the mess in the living room. There were bottles of beer on the centre table. Beside them, movies were stacked on the table. They looked untouched. There were no game pads or play station equipment abandoned anywhere in the living room. Except for the stain on the carpet and a couple of pillows in disarray, the living room looked pristine…too pristine, in her opinion. Abbey likened the feeling she was getting to that of walking into the room of a messy occupant in the morning to find the bed immaculately arranged, like nobody had slept in the bed.

The bedrooms…

She looked at her wrist watch. It’s almost 4:15 am. Could they still be awake?

Turning away from the living room and her musings, Abbey made her way quietly down the hall and towards the bedrooms. Her initial thought was to check on Andrew first but she decided against it. Jiro was the most important person to see at the moment. Once she had made peace with Jiro, Andrew’s case would be easier to handle.

At least, if I can get Jiro to forgive me, he can help me beg Andrew to forgive me as well. As they say, two heads are better than one, she mused. Knowing the entire layout of the apartment by heart, Abbey turned off the torchlight on her phone and made her way to the master bedroom.

On her arrival at the door, she expertly turned the knob of the door without making a sound, gently guided the handle of the door to submit to her will, and opened the door. The room was dark and she couldn’t hear Jiro snoring. Abbey left the door slightly ajar and walked over to the bed. Remembering that Jiro slept on the right side of the bed, she silently dropped her shoes and purse on the floor, left her phone by the bed cabinet, and got into bed on the left side of the bed. Reaching her hand out in the darkness, Abbey sought to grab Jiro into a warm embrace. Instead, she hugged the air.

Jiro isn’t in bed? she wondered bewilderedly. Confused, Abbey reached out for her iPhone yet again and put on the torchlight. Jiro’s side of the bed remained untouched and perfectly arranged. Where could he possibly be at this time of the night – uh, morning?

With no plausible answer coming to mind, Abbey decided to seek Andrew out instead. Packing her belongings and remaking the bed, she left Jiro’s room and made for the guest room.

***

The music played softly and melodious voices of a girl band Jiro had never heard before drifted from the stereo to his ears. It almost seemed like Andrew had hand-picked this playlist specifically for sex. All the songs on the CD had people moaning and sighing and singing seductively. It was the kind of playlist that not only put you in a horny mood, but also made you want to do more sexually…break boundaries…go beyond borders…reach your sexual peak and surpass it.

Jiro thought he heard a sound from outside the room but he couldn’t concentrate on anything but what Andrew was doing to him.

Andrew bit into Jiro’s flesh as he suckled on his nipples and ran his fingers expertly along the ridges of Jiro’s chest, muscles, and arms. Jiro couldn’t help himself from moaning deeply as Andrew licked his sensitive nipples. Encouraged by his moans, Andrew bit into the tender nipple again and gave his friend more pleasure while exploring the rest of Jiro with his eager hands. Clothes recklessly abandoned, Andrew pinched Jiro’s ass and thighs. He kissed Jiro everywhere. He scratched and sucked every body part Jiro had, one following the other; causing conflicting sensations to Jiro’s mind and body from every direction imaginable. Everything inside Jiro felt hot and cold at the same time. Pleasurable stings surged through his body. Everything felt new, scary, and indescribably exciting to Jiro. Sex had never been like this with anyone else. Certainly never with a woman…

Only Andrew!

***

As she got closer to the guest room, Abbey could see a dim light emanating from under the bedroom door. She smiled. Andrew was awake. At least she’d be able to make things right with him. If she could do that, then Andrew would be the one begging Jiro for her. When it came to the two men, it didn’t really matter which one she had on her side. As long as she had one of them in her corner, the second man always listened.

Getting closer still, Abbey started to hear mumblings from inside the room. She wondered who Andrew could have been talking to on the phone at this time of the night. Could he be talking to his recent ex-girlfriend, Kimorah? Abbey hoped so. She had always liked Kimorah. Perfect couple, she had called them.

As Abbey reached the door, the mumbled words became stifled moans. It sounded like there were two or three people in the room – or was it four? Abbey could not be sure. One thing was certain though…something fishy was going on in that room. There were no video games set out in the living room, no movie seemed to have been watched all night, Jiro was not in his bed, and there were some funny sounds coming from Andrew’s room. Yes… something fishy was definitely going on and Abbey intended to get to the bottom of it.

Abbey reached out for the door handle to Andrew’s room and quietly made to expertly open the door like she had done for Jiro’s room. Holding the door handle, many possible scenarios flashed through her mind about the sounds emanating from the room. One thing sounded distinct…the sound of sex. Some people were having sex in the guest room where Andrew was sleeping – or was meant to be sleeping in. Scared to see what lay on the other side of the door but too curious to stop herself from discovering what those secrets were, Abbey pressed her small waist into the door and made to open it.

She was stopped by the sound of a creaking door behind her. Quickly leaving the door handle that led to Andrew’s room, Abbey tiptoed towards the front door where the creaking sound came from. As she got closer to the front door, she heard someone calling out in a whisper, “Aunty Madam…”

She instantly remembered she hadn’t shut the door to Jiro’s house and silently prayed that she had not led thieves to his doorstep. Rushing over to the front door as fast as she could without making a sound, she carefully checked to see who was at the door. It was the cab driver that had driven her to Jiro’s apartment. She opened the slightly ajar door a little more and put her head out to answer the man.

“Oga, wetin na? I talk say make you wait for me,” she said.

“Ah, Aunty Madam, I no fit wait for you again joor,” the cabbie grumbled. “You no look time? Na 4:30 in the morning we dey. You talk say make I wait for five minutes, but I don dey here for thirty minutes now. Abeg pay me my money make I dey go.”

“Oga no vex abeg. Please ehn, just give me ten more minutes. I need to do something first. Abeg no vex,” Abbey implored.

“Aunty madam, you no dey hear word? I say I no fit wait again. Abi you don forget say tomorrow na environmental? If you want make I drop you somewhere else, talk now or else I go collect my money from you and I go comot for here.”

Shit! She had totally forgotten that tomorrow was environmental Saturday. If she didn’t leave with the cab driver now, she most likely would be stuck at Jiro’s and wouldn’t be able to move around from the hours of 7am till 10am.

Torn, Abbey looked back in the direction of the corridor, her mind on Andrew’s door. She needed to find out what was going on behind that closed door. On the other hand, if this cab driver left her, she wasn’t sure she would find another cabbie to take her home. Abbey hesitated as she considered her options.

“Aunty madam, I no think say you get another place to go tonight. Please pay me my money make I dey go my own way,” the cabbie said, his patience obviously wearing thin.

Still trying to decide on whether to stay or go, Abbey got money from her purse and paid the cab man his fare.

“Thank you,” the cab man said, and made his way swiftly to his car.

Looking back again, Abbey remained wavering. Her attention was diverted however when she heard the cab driver start up his engine. She looked around her. It was a 4:35 am on an environmental Saturday morning. No one would be rushing out anytime soon. If she didn’t leave now, she’d never get home on time. Checking to make sure she had everything she had brought along with her, Abbey quickly locked the front door to Jiro’s house. Shoes, purse, and phone still in hand, Abbey ran bare feet to the cab and said, “Oga wait abeg. Please carry me home. I go come here another time abeg.”

“Ah, okay. But that one na extra money o.”

Abbey wasn’t surprised. The man was out at this time of the morning to earn a living, not play father to girls in short black dresses and red shoes. “No problem. Let us just go.”

“Okay, Aunty madam,” he replied with a toothy grin.

As the cab pulled away from Jiro’s apartment, Abbey stared at the front door. Some people were having sex in that house. It was Jiro’s house. Jiro was not in his bed, and both Jiro and Andrew’s cars were parked outside. The answer was obvious to her. She just didn’t know why she had not seen it earlier. The living room had no sign of games or any activity because they hadn’t played any games. They had drunk bottles of beer, eaten something with chicken in it, gotten a little tipsy, and had gone to find girls to sleep with.

How many girls were in that room now? she wondered. Two? Three? Five? Abbey felt like a fool. She had met an amazing man tonight, but had run away from him just because she’d felt guilty about somehow cheating on Jiro by lusting after Mofe. She had even been stupid enough to come all the way to his house and lie down on his empty bed while he was making love – no,  fucking – other women with Andrew in the room. They shared so many things in their lives: their offices, their cars, their keys, their secrets and many other things. It was no wonder they would share the same women.

My God…and to think I wasted my time considering Jiro as my life partner, she thought wrathfully. If after only a week of fighting, he had found some slut to replace her in bed, what would happen when she got married to him? Here I was, feeling guilty about being physically attracted to Mofe when Jiro has the audacity to have a gangbang or an orgy with his best friend and other girls after only a week of our argument! Didn’t the four years we spent together mean anything to him?

Abbey shook her head in disgust. I will not let any man treat me that way. Never…Not after what I have seen people close to me go through. I will not follow the footsteps of those that have come before me in my family. I will never succumb to a man’s ill-treatment of me. Never!

Determined not to let any sentiment cloud her good judgment, Abbey made the decision to close the door of her heart to Jiro forever. No man was worth the heartache. She wiped the tears from her eyes as she approached home. She paid the cabbie and made her way to the front door to her house.

No more tears. It’s official. Jiro and I are done.

***

Three minutes past six. He’d be here in less than an hour, Abbey realized. Clad in red colored panties and a matching bra, she stood in front of her closet, trying to keep her heart from leaping out of her chest. Her cell phone rang. For a moment, she stood there holding her white jeans, staring at the iPhone. It was just her alarm reminding her of her date. She knew she’d never be ready on time if she didn’t get reminders, so she had set the alarm. She dismissed the reminder, threw the phone back on her bed, and went back to deciding what to wear.

“Did he call yet?” Edirin asked.

“Yes, he did. And thanks a lot for giving him my number,” Abbey retorted with loving cynicism.

“You’re welcome a lot.” Edirin stuck out her tongue at her friend out in open rebellion.

Abbey laughed. “Some friend you are.”

“Didn’t you want him to call?” Edirin asked. “The guy is great to look at and he’s got a great personality to match!”

“Yeah…I have to admit, he does,” Abbey said.

“He begged me for your number…not that he couldn’t have gotten it himself anyway. You know, he’s a smart guy, he could probably get anybody’s phone number without my help.”

“Did you stay long at the club?” Abbey asked. She didn’t really care about the answer but it was the only way Abbey knew to change the subject off Mofe’s expert information gathering skills. What she really wanted to know was who he went home with…or who else’s number he got before he left.

“Till the club closed,” Edirin said. “But he only stayed about a half hour after you left.” Edirin chuckled and added, “Just long enough to get your number.”

“Oh…” Abbey wasn’t sure why that made her feel better. It just did.

It had been a week since she met Mofe at the club and he had called her every day since then. They spent nights talking on the phone and most of the day texting each other on Whatsapp. She hadn’t heard from Jiro since that night she almost caught him in his house. She was sure he would not know she had been there because she had been careful not to leave anything behind. It didn’t matter anymore really. Regardless of whether or not Jiro ever tried calling again, she’d tell him they were officially over. She was done taking the back-burner role in his life.

“So when are you seeing him?” Edirin asked.

“Tonight.”

“Tell me something I don’t know, Abbey,” Edirin said, her voice laced with sarcasm. “What time are you meeting him?”

“Six thirty.”

Edirin’s face lit up with excitement. “Good for you! Are you nervous?”

“Very! Bukunmi called me and complained about Mofe’s reluctance to even look at her after I left. To be honest, I’m surprised he didn’t go home with Bukunmi instead. She really went all out for him before I left.”

Edirin laughed. “If you think she went all out for him before you left, you’d be shocked by how much harder she worked on him after you left. He just wasn’t biting.”

“I know you’ve told me this several times today but I still can’t believe he actually thwarted Bukunmi’s sexual charms. I saw him do it before I left the club but I thought it was just a front he put up because I was there. I mean we are talking about BUKUNMI here, for Pete’s sake. She is physically every man’s desire! Just my luck, eh?” Abbey said. “She really needs to stop playing that card though. Just because she is beautiful doesn’t mean she should over-sell her beauty. She works with Jiro and Andrew in the same company and from what they told me, a certain Bukunmi on the 16th floor has been sleeping with almost all the guys in that building. There must be over 40 floors on that building. She really needs to slow her roll. Good thing they don’t know she and I are friends. I love her to death but she can be such an embarrassment at times.”

“Wow,” Edirin said. “Funny how guys gossip as much as girls, and yet women are the gossips of the world. Anyway, back to Mofe. I don’t know why or how you did it, Abbey, but you practically had the guy panting over you.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Abbey said as a silly smile crept into her face. She couldn’t help it. Even his name made her smile.

“I would. You should have heard the third degree I got when you left. He thought you left to get away from him.”

“Why?” Abbey asked. Staring at her friend, she said, “Edirin, tell me, what did he say?”

“Oh, he thought he might have been too pushy or something.”

“What did you tell him?” Abbey didn’t want Mofe thinking she was a bitch. She was just beginning to like him.

“That you’re crazy sometimes,” Edirin said with a cheeky smile and an evil glint in her eyes.

“Gee, thanks,” Abbey said, feigning being deflated.

“I meant it in a nice way,” Edirin said in her most reassuring voice.

Abbey smiled then. “I know you did. Okay, I’ve got to finish getting ready. Mofe will be here soon.” Standing in front of her mirror, she wore her rainbow-coloured maxi dress and brushed her hair for the umpteenth time. “Maybe I need more makeup.” She sighed. “Makeup won’t even hide my nervousness right now. I need a lot more than makeup. I need a freaking miracle.”

Edirin laughed.  “Whatever miracle you want to make, do it quick. It’s already 6:30. I’m leaving. Call me in the morning. I want details.”

Ten minutes after Edirin left, Abbey put on her sandals, grabbed her purse and went down to the living room. She found her mother sitting on the couch, drinking her usual evening cup of tea while watching her favourite soap opera on TV.

The older woman looked up from her show, a wide smile upturning her lips. “You look great,” she said. “Where are you off to?”

“I’ve got a date.”

“Oh. Okay, dear. Say hi to Jiro for me. Don’t forget to take your house keys too. There’s going to be vigil tonight in church and I’ll be attending it. I hope your father decides to attend too. You should come over and join me at the vigil, Abbey. You need to be more prayerful. You know you will soon be a married woman in your husband’s house. You have to be the bedrock of your future home.”

Abbey still hadn’t told her family about the Jiro issue just yet. She had no idea how or where to start. “If all goes well, I’m going to be a little late. As for the church vigil, I’ll try to make it, mum. If I don’t make it, pray for me.”

Tari smiled knowingly and said, “Maybe some other time then. I’ll pray for you though. Tell Jiro I said you must drag him to church next time.”

Abbey smiled at her mother as she walked over to kiss her cheek. And that was when she noticed it. If it weren’t for the slight puffiness below her mother’s left eye, Abbey never would have seen the bruise at all. Tari did a good job of concealing her bruises with make-up. She’d become an expert. Abbey had known for a while now about her father’s enthusiastic fists on her mother’s face, but her mother never actually came out and talked about it. Although Abbey had never seen her father hit her mother, she knew it happened. The worst part was they both said they were happily married. Suffering in silence was not the way to go, but her mother always had a defense for him. It irked Abbey that her mum kept going to church and praying that her father would change. After almost twenty-five years of marriage, Abbey doubted that very much. Even if God was to decide to work on her father, he would still be stubborn. He reminded Abbey of the twenty-first-century version of the biblical Pharaoh.

This is why I can never be with Jiro again…my perfectly dysfunctional family. I cannot be in a marriage that abuses me physically, emotionally, or psychologically. Jiro falls under the last two categories so he’s out! Four years is more than enough time to make a decision about who you want to spend the rest of your life with.

Despite her resolve, Abbey secretly knew that she still felt strongly about Jiro. If Jiro came back begging, she’d have a difficult choice to make: The devil I know or the angel I barely know? Jiro or Mofe?

She sighed. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it, she told herself.

The doorbell rang. Abbey’s knees were shaky as she made her way to the door entrance. She stood for a moment by the door, inhaled deeply, and then opened the door.

“Hey there, sexy. You look amazing,” Mofe said.

“Thanks. You don’t look half bad yourself,” Abbey replied. “Ready?”

Mofe nodded. “Sure.”

In a bid to avoid questions about her relationship with Jiro if her mum saw or heard Mofe, Abbey swiftly closed the door behind her and let Mofe lead her to his car. As for the potential questions her mum was bound to ask her later when she eventually found out about Mofe, she told herself again that she’d cross the bridge when she got there.

That is, if he ever makes it that far, she silently affirmed.

 Written by The Controvert