THE EXCHANGE
Episode 14
We must have slept because I was surprised to see I was n@ked when I woke up, then I saw Baba T beside me on the bed and suddenly, I snapped back to my senses later but there wasn’t anything I could do about it so I started to cry. I was a v!rgin & had promised to make that a wedding gift to Tunji. Baba T started to apologize; he said he needed to let me know that it was not an ‘arranged’ thing; that it just happened & he never knew I was a v!rgin, which was a good thing because I had just cemented my place in his heart & he would go to any length to marry me.
I told him about my chastity vow with Tunji and how what we did was a betrayal.
“Well, if I had been in your life for as long as this Tunji guy, I would have closed the deal a long time ago to avoid something like this from happening. You are a very beautiful and intelligent girl, with such lovely voice & smile with a very good command of English; you are also very industrious. How can anyone keep you hanging for so long and not expect more serious suitors to take over? ” he said, trying to justify what happened.
“If you want me to, I can tell my folks to come see your family as soon as possible and we will be married within the month so that we can make it official. I told you I was not here to play, I want you for keep. I want you by my side as my wife & mother of my lovely children.” he continued as he knelt before me, taking my hands in his.
All the sweet words from Baba T wasn’t really ‘doing it’ for me anymore, as I felt really bad & sad. He asked me if I will wait for breakfast but I said I did not want his mother to start fussing over me this morning & I’m sure one look at me will tell her what happened so he pleaded with me to just humor his parents since his father won’t understand why I took off like that so I consented because I didn’t want to seem rude. I took my bath, scrubbing as if I’ll be able to scrub what had happened away but the regret was seated deep within me.
Baba T had his bath in another room where he dressed & then we met in the sitting room, where he held my hand & begged me to cheer up.
Breakfast was ready by the time we got to the main house & his mum was in the lounge with a pitcher of freshly squeezed juice, from which she offered me a glass & said “u love birds are finally up.” It touched me deep within me but I forced a smile as I knelt down & greeted her. We moved to the dining room, where the table was set as if we were having a breakfast party. I would really have enjoyed it if last night hadn’t gone the way it did so I just took a slices of toast sandwich and a cup of coffee. I explained that I was not an early eater and Baba T’s mum said that will change once I’m married because I need to eat well so that I would have the stamina for pregnancy; I almost gagged when she said that and it took all my will not to embarrass myself.
Immediately after breakfast, Baba T took me to Laide’s place where my goods were waiting for me. I just wanted to go back home so immediately after loading his jeep we left Laide’s house. He wanted to take me to Abeokuta but I rejected the offer, he argued that my goods were too many but I insisted I was going to charter a bus because I just wanted to be by myself.
He begged me not to abandon him now, not when he had found his second half and I told him I would see him but I had to go take care of a lot of things back home.
The bus we chartered was brand new and we transferred everything from Baba T’s into it. The bus was filled to the brim becauss his mum had packed all sorts of food that could feed us for a month, clothes, jewellery, bags & shoes for me.
Baba T was the one who negotiated with the driver; he told him that I had two stops to make & he should drive with care because he is carrying his queen to Abeokuta.
When we arrived, my first stop was the Salon, where all the goods for the Salon was offloaded and I shared almost half of the food items with those in the compound around my Salon especially the cooked food. They thought I went for a party and they were saying “awon ara Eko yi sa”. The driver also said, please don’t forget me o, & I told him no problem. Then we left for home, where we offloaded all that was left, keeping most of the food items in my mom’s shop in front of the house. I paid the driver & took the bags inside. My mom locked her shop and followed me inside; the moment she looked at me, she knew something had happened. She took me into her room before asking if I was okay but
I told her I was not feeling too good & I needed to just rest. She said Tunji was around through out yesterday since I left without telling him. She Tunji said we had a misunderstanding and that was why I left without telling him &
begged her to talk to me. Tunji said he took out his frustrations on me and got me angry but I told my mum I couldn’t deal with that at the moment because I was tired and she let me be.
As soon as I got in my room, I just started crying…the fact that Tunji had been trying to find me to fix things between us even made it worse. After about an hour in the room, someone knocked on my door…I hurriedly wiped my tears, cleaned my face & asked the person to come in; it was Tunji…before I could say anything, he went on his knees & began to beg me. He tried to explain the reason for his behavior; I hadn’t bothered to ask about his follow-up interview with the Oil Company was his reason for acting up. Since he never shared it with anyone except me & specifically told me the date of the interview; but on Dday, I didn’t say anything not even to wish him luck & it was obvious I had
completely forgotten (apparently, the interview had fallen on one of those days that I visited Lagos).
Tunji said he was sorry for not communicating & for acting like a child.
“I could have just told you why I was angry but I chose to be immature about the whole thing” “I just can’t imagine my life without you, fighting with you was like intentionally choosing
not to breathe. I tried but couldn’t do it…I felt like I was fighting myself” Tunji said, as he looked straight into my eyes. Then he paused for a moment…he could tell that I had been crying. He held me and told me he was really sorry for making me cry. It was as if he flung open the floodgates of tears with that statement. In my mind, I knew I was the one that should be apologizing, & not Tunji but I couldn’t tell him what happened & made me cry even more.
“I’m so sorry for hurting you…I’m really sorry” he continued as he held me. After a while, I calmed down & asked how his interview went. He said it was really great & they told him to come back in about 6 weeks to find out. Tunji was with me for the rest of that day as he was doing everything comfort & make me happy, he asked about Christmas trip to Lagos & I told him I had but enough & will not need to visit Lagos untill next year. Tunji asked me if it would be okay to move to Lagos because if he got the new job, it could require moving to Lagos after the training in Germany.
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