ME: *** almost choked with rice on hearing that question****
FUNMI: sorry, take some water please. Or was it my question that choked you?
ME: ***smiled*** not at all.
FUNMI: ok, now that you are alright, will you now answer me?.
ME: hmmmmmm, I don’t have a girlfriend.
FUNMI: why?
ME: the last one I had broke up with me because I wasn’t buoyant to meet up with her demands then.
FUNMI: and you thought it was her fault?
ME: **smiled*** whose fault then?.
FUNMI: Are you not the one who told her you work in a bank?
ME: ***laughed***
FUNMI: yes now. So what do you expect from her?, not to make demands when she knew too well that her guy is a banker?
ME: funny enough, it was before I got the bank job. Then, I was teaching in a secondary school earning 15,000naira monthly.
FUNMI: ***laughed*** eyah. Now that you have been working in the bank for over four months, why don’t you get her back?
ME: since she couldn’t endure with me during the tough times, then she isn’t needed now that I’m a bit ok.
FUNMI: ok ooo. Now that you are a banker, don’t you have another girl?
ME: ***smiled*** Lagos girls are too expensive to maintain, and with the little salary that I earn. I’m not sure I can meet up with their demands.
FUNMI: hmmmmm, onihaxy, you must be very stingy.
ME: no ooo, it’s not been stingy, it’s about cutting your coat according to your size.
FUNMI: hmmmm, who is your crush in the bank, don’t lie oooooooo.
ME: hmmmmmm. I don’t have any crush ooooooo.
FUNMI: you mean you don’t like anyone out of all the pretty girls in that bank?.
ME: ****smiled*** I like most of them as a friend.
FUNMI: so why didn’t you date anyone of them?
ME: you know I’m a temporary staff with just 6 month contract. So I needed to figure out my destination after the end of the contract. And besides, I heard that girls don’t always date temporary staffs because they aren’t going to stay long with the bank.
FUNMI: hmmmmmmmm. So you mean you don’t have feelings for anybody in the bank.
ME: hmmmmmmmmmm. Yeah, except for one lady sha who happen to be a superior colleague.
FUNMI: **smiled***. That aside, what are people saying about me?
ME: what people are saying about you as how?
FUNMI: I mean among your colleagues.
ME: nothing much oooo. Some feared you, some call you query mama, some call you silent lioness.
FUNMI: really?
ME: yes.
FUNMI: alright.
We finished eating, stood up and walked toward the reception. Funmi presented the receipt to the cashier and was about opening her purse when I told her “let me pay”.
She returned her pause back to her bag while I paid and we drove back to the bank while we continued to gist long the way. Funmi thanked me for the meal and she told me that she would be looking forward to more outings.
I got back to the bank and went to meet my other team members at their office just to check on them before going to my own office. On getting there, I was bombarded with numerous questions.
“Where are you coming from?”
“I saw you in Query Mama’s car”
“Where did both of you went to?”
“Are you related to her?”
“You are doing eye service abi?”
“Or was it because you are sitting at her entrance”
“I hope you won’t see her bad side someday”
“Abeg ooo. Remember us in your kingdom during promotions ooo”
The questions and discussions were just going on spontaneously and I was shocked to realize that people had not been actually minding their business. I was frustrated and I left them and returned to my own office only to meet the “gossip ladies club” in my office waiting to interview me on my outing.
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