Ada - Episode 11

 

"I asked for a glass of wine and you bring me lemon juice" Tunde barked at Ada.

"The last thing you need is alcohol. You will have to make do with the juice."

"Well, this is my house and I call the shots. you will give me what I ask for!" Tunde barked.

"I am not your slave Tunde! if you want to take a drop of alcohol, stand up and get it for yourself!" Ada shouted back at him and stormed to the bedroom. 

Ada had had enough of Tunde's drama, he was just not pleasable, everything she did was wrong as far as he was concerned. Today he'd say the yam was over-cooked, the  next day he'd say the yam was undercooked, if the soup is not too salty then the coffee had too much milk or the beans too much seasoning cubes . For the love of God! She runs three eateries and most times personally cooks for her online customers when the order was not so overwhelming, and none of her customers complained, they always did call back to place orders. And he was feeding out of her purse and her gracious good services and the wretch had the guts to always complain of everything.She thought staying with him would help smoothen the path of their relationship but the opposite was happening. Two weeks of staying with him and he has been careful enough not to say thank you; not for the hospital bill nor anything else

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/ada

. Men could be egotistical, selfish and undeserving. well, she'd leave him to carter for himself. God will understand, she tried to be the dotting girlfriend and Tunde was being a spoilt child. Man, she's got a life to leave.

"Where do you think you are going" Tunde asked biwildered

"Where do you think I am going? I'd come back for my other belongings some other time."

"You can't just walk out of me, leave me to die on my own. I thought you love me, I imagined you'd stay back and nurse me into health"  Tunde said with a voice choked with restrained tears.

"Yes. I love you. Yes, I'd love to nurse you to health and no, I am not leaving you to die on your own. It's time you learned to take care of yourself by yourself. I have had enough." Ada's shoulders sagged as she left for the door. She did not turn back if she did she'd feel guilty and want to stay back.

"Ada, I am sorry. I just wish you'd have the sense of day to know I need you now than ever. You just leave me like trash. If you weren't drooling over Bernard while you danced with him I'd never have had this accident and all you do is kick me..."

The sound of Ada's bag on the floor swallowed his remaing words. She turned to face him and he could not believe the look on her face. She looked so furious, anger flooding her face as fire burning down a house.  She walked calculatively, her footsteps calm, a sharp contrast of her raging self. She stopped few feets from him, sat down and placed her heads in her palms. Tunde smiled cynically, the guilt chord always had a winning effect on Ada, she always fell for it, always. He knew he had won her. Everything, they say, is fair in love and war. He'd keep Ada as much as he wants too. He picked up the remote and started to watch soccer.

Thoughts flooded Ada's mind. Last night Bernard and Cleo had told her same thing, "you have to get back to your life and remember that you are not to blame for the accident". She had told them of all the times he made it point blank to her that she was the root of this accident, if she had learnt to keep herself to herself he'd never have been so mad to drive badly, instead she danced with the first stranger she saw. But, how was she to know he was coming for the anniversary? Has society added dancing with the opposite s*x as an item on the to-do-list for cheats? Yet, he was right in so many ways, she did wish to have Bernard. And what was that the bible said "He who looks lustlfully has already committed the sin of adultery". She had looked lustfully and uptill this very moment thought lustfully about Bernard. She was being a whore, she was gradually killing her own relationship with a man who she believes would never cheat on her. She was underserving. And so, for 120 minutes, Ada sat still, pondering her life over.

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It was a beautigul Wednesday morning. Cleo sat on the seat in her office, she looked lost, tired and frustrated. She rubbed her right hand over her temple. Headache! Mum was not willing to let her be. She wished her mum would understand that there were other worthwhile exams to sit for other than the exam of finding a man to give her whole life to, or rather "devote" as her mum said. she reminisced over her Monday encounter with her mum.

 "Nebolisa are wonderful people, you are lucky they love you"

"Mum, they are good. BUt i don't like their son."

"Do you like anybody?"

"Mum, you just don't..."

"Listen to me" her mum cut her abruptly and continued calmly," in our days, there was no such nonsense as 'being in love', we got married to whosoever our parents found worthy of us. We have done better than you people can ever do. We understood the sanctity of marriage, maybe  because we did not believe in "fallig in love" before marriage. We fell in love after marriage, learning to love the true nature of each other. What do you people do these days? You fall in love with the person's charade and then when you marry, you see him or her for who they are and the next wind, is the wind of divorce.

Read " Scars " by the same author ( Helen Nnamani )

. Listen to me Cleopatra, think about the Nebolisa's proposal. Remember, in africa, you don't just marry a person, you marry their families. Moreover, when was the last time you brought a man home?"

"Their son did not propose anything"

"His father did". Her mum replied with a hearty grin.

"MUM! If i am to marry into that family, I will be marrying the son and not the father!"

"Does it matter who does the proposal?"

"Of course it does" Cleo shook her head in despair, picked her laptop and walked briskly to her room

"If they come to pay your bride price, I and your father would accept" her mother said admist laughter, loud enough for her to hear.

She stopped, looked at her mum and said "You'd better get ready to move into the Nebolisa's house, it would be you getting married and not me. MUM." she made sure to pronounce the last word with an edge to it, sure it would upset her mother.

Now, here she was trying to remeber the last time she brought a man home. She had brought three men home when she was 22, she thought she was in love. She remembered crying each time her mum said a no. When she asked her mum why she had not been impressed by Alfred, her mum said "the boy is too tall, too skiny, his nails are too long. Tufiakwa". the thought of this made her laugh out. Mum was right, Alfred was really skiny!  

Now, what should she do? Allow her mum sign her away to her bestfriend's ex-sweetheart or try to find herself a man?