Episode 9
Written by Oluwatosin Odebiyi
‘’Hi hope you won’t mind us joining you?’’ Kelvin asked the young lady politely.
She smiled, throwing him a quick look.
‘’nope I won’t mind sitting with two handsome young men. I’m all alone’’ she answered pleasantly, throwing another quick look at me.
‘’my name is Kelvin and he is Jude, my cousin who just arrived from the states. I’m trying to show him around the country’’ Kelvin said with a smile, trying to start a conversation with her but then her attention was more on me and after Kelvin introduced me, her eyes kind of brightened more.
‘’are you from Colorado?’’ she asked me curiously. I shook my head nervously.
‘’no I grew up in Arlington Virginia’’ I answered nervously. Her eyes instantly fell.
‘’oh I’m sorry. I mistook you for someone else. You resembled an old friend of mine’’ she said with a smile while Kelvin looked on silently.
‘’anyway I’m Mrs. Pamela, wife of a serving senator’’ she introduced herself, leaving me shocked with the revelation. Yes I knew she was very sophisticated and rich but I never imagined her to be the wife of a serving senator, moreover she looked quite young to have a serving senator as a husband. Nevertheless she was a very friendly lady and I kind of had a very strange desire to be with her.
‘’why do you look so surprised?’’ she asked me.
‘’no nothing, just that your husband is a very lucky man’’ I replied softly. She laughed and said nothing else.
The event soon started, capturing our attention. We didn’t say much to each other until she got up to leave three hours later.
‘’I can’t stay any longer. I have to leave now. You can call me up later’’ she said with a smile, offering a business card to me before walking away. I threw a quick look at Kelvin who stared at me with an open mouth.
‘’I guess she has something for small boys. Imagine ignoring me and paying every attention to you’’ he joked as I took a quick look at the business card.
‘’I like her very much and I just feel like being with her. I don’t know why I’m feeling this way’’ I confessed.
‘’you feel nothing but lust. She has a great body but she’s married. She’s married to a senator. Get that into your head’’ he advised and changed the topic without knowing that deep down I had plans for the beautiful lady.
‘’how old do you think she could be?’’ I heard myself ask Kelvin as we left the event hours later. He stared at me suspiciously before shrugging.
‘’Between twenty six to twenty eight years old. She’s quite young’’ he answered with lack of interest, but for me Pamela’s image stuck in my head and refused to leave. It really was my first time of having such strong desire to be with a woman.
We returned to Owerri the next day and yea I returned with Pamela’s image in my head. If not for one thing, I would have thought what I felt was love but perhaps Kelvin was right. What I felt was lust instead.
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Tuesday afternoon, Kelvin transferred one million naira to my account. ‘’that’s your share for a well done job. The money got in yesterday and you know we have to work harder for another pay. Please use the money wisely. And save as much as you can’’ he advised me with a smile. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe myself. I couldn’t believe I could make so much money by only sitting at home, working with a computer. I felt on top of the world. It was the first money I ever earned with my sweat.
I quickly rushed to the bank, withdrew thirty thousand naira and headed straight to a boutique where I bought a fancy gown and necklace for Tracy. I equally bought fried rice, chicken and ice cream from a fast food joint close by. My plan was to surprise her with the gifts and equally make use of the opportunity to apologize to her. Because all through the weekend I ignored her calls and messages due to the fact that I had no tangible excuse to give her on why i was away from school and I still badly needed her friendship and help.
I headed straight to the hostel with all I bought, hoping to buy her with the gifts. But it was a miscalculated effort because she shut the door on my face the moment she noticed I was the person knocking on her door.
‘’listen Jude, I don’t know what is going on with you anymore and I don’t associate with any guy who doesn’t take his future seriously. You just have to forget about our friendship. We have nothing in common any longer’’ she shouted from her room, leaving me stunned.
‘’this isn’t the way to treat a friend. At least you should have offered a listening ear to me first before concluding things in your mind’’ I shouted back, banging on her
door. She opened the door once again, this time holding the suitcase I left in her care.
‘’you have to take your dad’s stuff. I don’t want it in my room anymore’’ she breathed as her eyes fell on the things I bought for her.
‘’I know you are angry. And you have every right to be angry with me. But please leave my dad’s stuff out of this. I left it in your care for a reason’’ I begged.
‘’just get out of here please’’ she muttered, sighed and shut her door again.
Her action really annoyed me in a way because she wasn’t my girlfriend even though we shared many things in common. I simply turned and returned to my room with all the stuffs I bought for her, regretting ever spending my money on them.
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The next day, Tracy carried on with her attitude of the previous day. She simply ignored me even though I prepared for school very early because of her and without her company in school I felt out of place and had to leave before the second lecture of the day.
The next few days would have been extremely boring for me if not for Pamela who turned out to be a very free and jovial lady. After reaching her on phone where I introduced myself all over again, she kind of became very free with me, to the extent of adding me up on her social media accounts. She was mostly active on bbm. In no time we developed a very strong bond. I told her almost everything about myself, though I lied about my age by claiming to be twenty six years old.
‘’and what are you still doing in the university. Hmmm I really thought you were within the age range of twenty two to twenty four’’ she had asked when I lied to her about my age.
‘’my dad wanted me to study in Nigeria by all means, something I kicked against and had to spend two idle years at home before succumbing to his wish’’ I lied
further. But not only did I open up to her about myself, she equally opened up about her life to me.( Though, she never really told me everything about her life).
However she told me of her fears, plans and dreams. She equally opened up about her marriage life by telling me that she was nothing but a second wife to a senator from the northern region.
‘’My dear it isn’t easy getting your life back after sacrificing a lot to get to the top.’’ Were the exact words she typed the evening she told me about her marriage life. I didn’t push further with the conversation but I knew she had lots of problems going on with her marriage and even though I had lots of questions to ask concerning her background, religion and so on, I kept them all aside because they were none of my business. All I wanted was a good time with her; A very risky adventure. Yes and I kept my dealings with her away from Kelvin
To be continued
SHADES OF LUST