At the beginning though, she refused to count it against him. She had been with someone who she thought was everything she needed a man to be. Strong. Capable. Independent. In the end though, Lanre Balogun had left her at the proverbial altar. Not an altar exactly, he had waited until after their introduction to pull a disappearing act on her.
She had dated Lanre for two years, a civil engineer with a huge construction firm, he had seemed perfectly content to be with her. She lost her virginity to him and hadn’t even regretted the decision, he had made her feel special which was what she had needed. Until he dumped her. Even his family had been stunned by his insistence that he couldn’t continue with the marriage proceedings because they knew how much he loved Femi.
He had never come to talk to her, he had only sent a note through his brother and left her to face the taunts alone. The betrayal had hurt her so badly, it had taken her a while to get herself together and she hadn’t opened herself up to any other relationship until she had met David 2 years later. At the time, his biggest attraction was his difference to Lanre.
Where Lanre was tall, he was short, Lanre had been dark, he was much fairer than she was, Lanre wore glasses, he didn’t, Lanre had been deep and quiet, he was noisy and belligerent. She realised now how stupid it was to pick a man on those basis.
She promised herself after Lanre that she wouldn’t try too hard anymore so all the effort she had put into dressing and looking good, she diminished and started dressing comfortably. When David asked her for money, something Lanre never did, she gave it, she washed and cooked and cleaned because she did not want him to be able to leave her without a backward glance, as Lanre had done.
It hadn’t worked out quite that way though because even though she had walked out, he hadn’t glanced back, not even to call her after she got home. And everything else she had sacrificed in their relationship, her money, time, energy, the clothes she washed, the food she cooked from her own pocket hadn’t mattered because of the one thing she had refused to offer, her body.
And now, she was done with making sacrifices. She was done with managing a man. From tomorrow, she was going to go all out and find herself the kind of MAN she wanted. Lanre or David, none would matter anymore. What she wanted now was a good man who was competent, capable and caring and by God that is what she would get. That was what she deserved.
Question: Do you think Femi will ever find this perfect man she want to search for?
To be continued
