Written by @big_stan
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RADIO AFTER DARK
Femi walked into his room, exhausted and sad. He’d Spent the better part of three hours spying on his soon to be ex girlfriend. For the past two weeks, his friends had been telling him and showing him proof that Chioma was cheating on him and sleeping around with any big man she could find or any man that could give her a lift. This was someone that kept professing love to him everyday. He chose not to believe his friends when they told him about Chioma’s escapades because he wasn’t one to believe in hearsays and he had always trusted Chioma. So what made her turn from the sweet loving girl she was 4 years ago when they met in college and started dating to the desperate woman she now was? He asked himself questions he couldn’t answer because the answers just kept eluding him. Was it because he was currently out of a job and couldn’t meet her financial needs anymore? Was it because, she’d asked him for 300k last week to start a business and he said he couldn’t help her with it? Or did she just do it out of spite and didn’t care if she got caught or not? She really was brazen in her infidelity.
He’d trailed her that evening after Bisi called him to come see things with his eyes, and he went and saw things that didn’t Just make his eyes flood, but also made his heart shatter. He saw Chioma and another guy, having dinner in one of the Tantalizers outlets around town, and anyone seeing them the way they were getting along would be envious of the open display of emotions between the two of them. No one would have suspected that the lady sitting there on another guy’s laps and feeding him ice cream was in a serious 4 year relationship and had a man she came home to every night. Femi watched with tears streaming down his cheeks as the woman he loved allowed the strange man squeeze and tap her butt as they made off to his car, after their dinner. He couldn’t take it anymore, He hailed a cab and went back home. Then he remembered the words his friend told him some months ago that: “A woman would show you love only when money is involved. “ He’d argued vehemently with this friend that day, that the notion wasn’t true, but seeing Chioma frolicking around with another man, made him realize that his friend had been right all along.
Chapter One.
“Never waste your time trying to convince someone of your worth, if they don’t see it, they’re definitely not worth the effort.” That’s what the presenter just said on the radio when he turned it on for the nightly show he was gradually getting addicted to. He was listening to the slow love songs on the radio while thinking of all the sacrifices and compromises he’d done, all in a bid to make Chioma happy. His friends had told him severally to stop loving her like a fool, but he always retorted that ‘one had to be a fool, before they could really love’. Now he saw how foolish he’d been all along. His eyes started to open to what had always been there in front of him all along, He had always just failed to accept the tell tale signs that Chioma was stepping out on him. He remembered instances where she would excuse herself to answer calls from her “mum”, “brother” or other relatives. He also remembered times when she would come back home late smelling different, smelling of a guy’s perfume. Perfumes that he didn’t own or have and whenever he complimented her for smelling nice and different she’d say one of her overzealous cousins just loved hugging her. They were both working at different banks and he made more than her before he got retrenched but he always split his salary into 3 parts and gave her one part monthly for her upkeep. He even sent allowances to her mum every month. What then did he do wrong that made her turn against him so? He looked at the ceiling through blurry eyes in tears, wondering if it was wrong to have loved her like this. He’d even gotten a ring two months ago, waiting for her birthday next month to come so that he’d propose to her for she was the only woman he saw himself spending life with.
Then he heard her at the door, and hurriedly wiped his face and pretended to be sleeping. He left the radio on though, for she knew he always slept with the radio on. She walked into the room, called out his name twice, concluded that he was sleeping, then she called whoever he was on the phone and spoke in whispers “I just got home, I really enjoyed tonight and I can’t wait to see you tomorrow. No, I’m staying with my uncle, he’s already sleeping.” She concluded the call by saying “you too”. Then she kissed Femi on the forehead, not out of love though, but rather to be sure that he was actually asleep. Satisfied that he was, she went into the restroom to wash up.
Chapter Two
When she got back into the room, she undressed into her nightie, then she tapped Femi, waking him up. “Baby you couldn’t even wait up for me before you went to bed. I know I stayed out late. We had a hectic day at the bank, balancing accounts and then I went to my mum’s afterwards to check on her, and she sends her regards.” She said as she sat astride him, touching his face. “See how red your eyes are, you must have fallen asleep a long time ago.” Yeah, I was listening to the radio and then I fell asleep.” He replied as he made to sit up. “So what else did you do at work?” He asked her, staring at her as she looked everywhere but his eyes. “I attended to some unruly customers then me and Temi had lunch together with one of our customers at Bank cafeteria and then we had some abnormally with the accounts and I had to stay back a while longer to balance it. What did you do today, yourself?” She asked him, finally looking at his eyes. “I was home all day, submitting my CVs online and reading feedbacks from all the people I’d written to before, then I went with Shola to grab a bite and a drink.” He said the last part with spartan courage for he couldn’t believe how she would sit on his laps and lie to his face without any qualms.
He was a victim of circumstances, even though he was summarily sacked from the bank after having worked there for 3 years, and over an allegation he wasn’t guilty of, he never stopped loving her and never stopped doing all the little romantic gestures he felt she needed. Their sex was still amazing, so what drove her to cheat on him? He remembered the words the radio presenter said the previous night to one of the callers that was going through something similar, she’d told the caller that: “You don’t have to be rich to be romantic. All it takes are little efforts to show that you really care.” And To the best of his knowledge he’d done all of that and more for Chioma. He still woke her up every morning and drove her to work and he always made sure that she had breakfast before going to work. She went to her side of the bed while Femi laid with his back to her, still not sure what made this woman change. Then his favorite song on the radio started playing and he let the words of Sam Smith’s “Writings on the Wall” calm his nerves. Then she cuddled up behind him and they both listened on in silence, each lost in thought. She was thinking on the best way to end the relationship with Femi without hurting him for he really was the best man she’d ever been with, but he no longer had a job and he’s not shown any signs of wanting to propose to her, but she still held him in bed as she enjoyed the feeling of stability she had with him. When she started cheating on him a month after he lost his job, she did it just for fun, now it’s become a habit she couldn’t and didn’t want to break. Femi was thinking of his next course of action to take to end this relationship. For if she could do this to him, after everything he’d done for her, then she had no business being in his life. Then the music on the radio stopped and the presenter picked a call; “Hello, my name is Leke and I wanna blow a wet goodnight kiss to my girl, she’s currently listening to the show. I want her to know that I enjoyed everything we did today and I can’t wait to see her tomorrow.” “Now, I’m envious. I hope she’s listening to all this love you’re pouring out to her on air. Won’t you call out her name so she’d be sure she’s the one and not someone else you’re referring to?” The presenter asked the caller and in that moment, Chioma froze in bed as Leke proceeded to call her name live on air. Why on earth did she tell him she loved listening to the radio at night? She asked herself. Well I hope Femi won’t get the connection. If she only knew. Femi just laid there, in emotional pain. He also heard every word the caller said and he knew the lady laying next to him in bed is the same Lady another man was blowing goodnight kisses to. The voice of the caller even sounded familiar.
Chapter Three
Femi was up that morning around 4am and he just sat in bed watching the woman sleeping peacefully beside him and in that moment he realized that whatever they had was irrevocably over. He watched her and all the memories they both shared came running back. He remembered the vacation trips they took to Seychelles and even to Dubai and how people envied and encouraged them. He remembered the few times he’d made her cry, especially that night when he’d rushed a woman in labour to the hospital and he hadn’t called home to inform her on why he’d be coming home late. He had been with the woman in the labor room for four hours that night and his phone was in the car. Strange thing was that he didn’t even know who the woman was. When he got home that night and saw Chioma’s tear drenched face, it gnawed his heart. He’d left her so worried about his whereabouts. In that moment, He believed that she really loved him. Four days later, the pregnant woman he helped used her connection as the branch manager of the bank Chioma was now working at to offer Chioma a job. He got out of bed and made breakfast and then ran her bathwater before coming back to wake her up, for if he didn’t wake her up, Chioma would sleep till noon.
After he dropped her off at work, He got back home and turned on his laptop. The voice from last night sounded very much like that of his friend Tunde and the last time he’d heard from Tunde was 6 years ago, when he’d Left school because his parents were leaving Nigeria for Canada. He logged onto Facebook and started his search, after going through the list of all the people bearing Tunde Omotosho , he finally saw the particular Tunde he was looking for. He clicked on the image and went through the profile of his old friend. He remembered how randy Tunde had been back then in UI, wanting to sleep with every girl that had big butts, so imagine how shocked he was when he found out that Tunde was happily married with two lovely kids. The kids' picture was even the cover photo on his profile. “Wow, Tunde has really done well for himself. “ He blurted out loud in envy and happy at how blessed his old friend had turned out. He now was a big shot engineer with Texaco in Canada and one of his posts even said he was currently enjoying his stay in Lagos. If Tunde is in Lagos, I would definitely want to see him, He thought to himself as he inboxed his old friend. Five minutes later, Tunde replied, excited at the thought of meeting his old friend and then they exchanged numbers and twenty minutes later, Tunde called.
“Hey Femi, how long has it been? “ “Six years, Tunde. How your side? “ Femi replied, happy to hear from his friend and still wondering why the caller from last night sounded just the same as his friend. “I’m good,bro. We really need to see and catch up. I’ve been in Naija for a month now. Came to broker a deal with some oil companies here in Lagos.” “Yes o, Tunde, we really need to see because there are many things you need to tell me o. Especially how you met this beautiful woman and what you told her that made her decide to marry you.”. They talked for about 15 minutes about how life had been for both of them since the last time they saw each other six years ago and then they fixed an appointment for later that afternoon. From the phone call, Femi realized that his randy friend was still the same old person he was, not even been married to a wonderful woman could change him. He wondered why then his friend got married if he was still busy going about sowing his wild oats. He had breakfast, while checking his mails for any positive news and still nothing. He’s been jobless for five months now and it wasn’t getting funny anymore. He won the best marketer award twice in a row, only for the stupid allegation of the missing 10 million naira from a customer’s account ruin his prolific banking career. He’d spent two days in the prison after his sack while his accounts was been investigated but he wasn’t fazed by all that for he knew he was innocent of the charges levelled against him. He was determined not to relent or give up on his quest for truth on what really happened and right now his savings was going low and Chioma kept complaining about all the stuffs she had to use her money for. He’d already gotten used to her selfish ways but one thing he did like about her though was that when she decided to spend, she went all out, but for the most part, she was selfish though. For at the moment, she was the one with a job but he was still the one paying all the bills and getting stuffs they both needed.
Tunde was already waiting for him at the club they’d both agreed to meet up, He was way too early and it was good to know that Tunde still kept that good punctuality habit of his and not just his randy tendencies. “You really haven’t changed one bit.” Femi said as he admired his friend. He really looked good and was oozing wealth. “So have you, Femi. I don’t see any ring on your finger, don’t tell me you’re not married yet.” Tunde asked and knew instantly that Femi always had a good comeback response. “Married man, where’s your own ring? I see you’re here deceiving all these girls here, you’re Lucky I don’t know your wife.” “I really thank God you don’t know her. She’s a very wonderful woman though. She’s an Hausa lady. I met her there in Canada, dated for 3 months and we got married and we have two lovely kids Deji and Dayo”. He said with pride as he showed Femi a picture of his family he always carried around in his wallet. “I’m happy for you bro. I envy you even. Well, I’m currently dating someone too, we’ve been dating for 3 years now but that’s not why I’m here though. Tell me everything you’ve been up to since you got back. I heard someone last night on the radio that sounded very much like you blowing goodnight kisses to one lady and I was like ‘that sounds like Tunde.” “Yeah bro, I was the one. there’s one banker lady I met two weeks ago when I went to sort out my domicillary account and transfer some money to my cousin. I met her when I was coming out of the bank and I had to collect her digits. You need to see this girl, bro. Her ass is just…. “ Femi stood there, stunned as he watched his friend describe the backside of Chioma. He didn’t let the hurt show on his face though, He just kept listening. “Had to lie to her that my name was Leke in case she decided to start searching for me and creating a scandal I wouldn’t want my wife and my family here knowing about.” “Have you made love with this Chioma girl?” Femi asked, hating himself for he already knew the answer before he’d even asked the question. “Of course Na. You no trust me? The next day she came to see me at my hotel and the love making was intense, we’ve made love around 8 times but yesterday was the height. I kept begging her to spend the night, but she keeps talking about this strict uncle of hers that hates it when she spends the night out. Can you imagine, Femi? A lady her age, still allowing an uncle control her. She told me about always listening to the radio at night, that’s why I called in to blow her a night kiss yesterday.” He sipped his Guinness as he wondered why his friend was looking angry. It’s not easy for anyone to be sacked the way he was, so he could understand. Femi sat there on the bar stool with clenched fists, trying very hard not to let his emotions betray him. So he was the Uncle Chioma had at home. Who then was the other guy she saw him with, yesterday? It doesn’t Just rain, it definitely pours. He excused himself and went to the restroom but he heard Tunde talking to Chioma on the phone letting her know that he couldn’t wait to see her later that afternoon. He didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to hold it in. He got to the restroom, took deep breaths and then thought up the best plans to punish them both.
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