The Lexon Club at Victoria Island started to gradually fill up as the time passed the hour of nine and I was brooding at a table corner drowning my third bottle of Orijin
The night was clear and the stars competed to gain prominence among themselves.
I usually do Orijin first before the party and clubbing begins. I think it is soft. Emeka Nobia thinks otherwise. He once made me realize that Orijin has 17% alcohol and it is just as much as the alcohol content in any bottle of Harp or Star, his two favourite brands
Any ways, my eyes were still alert. It usually doesn't matter the number of Orijin I take, I never get tipsy or drunk. Or so it seemed.
It usually is my opener. My intro.
With my pack of Benson And Hedges, I am good, and I can brood about matters
Well, I was expecting four of my very close and long time friends. It was Babatunde's birthday and he decided that we should club
We had all agreed.
Babatunde, the birthday boy, had grown a pot belly over the years but he was still energetic and jolly as usual. He worked with GTB, was married to a dark lovely lady, and was a deacon in one of these prosperity churches
Emeka Nobia was 39 and still single. He had stunning looks that made him a lady's man. He had studied law when we were all at UNILAG and fried his hair like his senior pastor
Emeka Nobia once told me, "I relax my hair to make it look good just like you brush your teeth and cream your body to make them look good"
My response was , "I see. Why don't you practice law? Why don't you defend a case in court and see what the judge would do to you and your fried hair?"
We both laughed
Musa Mohammed, the third person I was expecting, had lived in Lagos all his life. He spoke Hausa , Yoruba and English language fluently. He dropped out from Med school(LUTH) but returned to UNILAG to study Economics
This Bornu state economist was a liberal muslim who attended a number of church functions
That was why Musa was closely knitted to us. Together , our ethnic, tribal and religious inclinations faded away and a bond, a camaraderie gained ascendency
Musa Mohammed was married to an Edo state born fashion designer. They seemed happy together. But we all knew that they cheated on each other.
Tarie Benjamin, the last and only lady I was expecting, worked with MTN. She was an ICT expert. She had a cute boyish looks but a "killer" hip. Somehow, none of us boys had made any moves to eat the pudin. She was an unspoken 'no go area' for us, as we had come to accept her into our brotherhood
Tarie earned much more than all of us combined because she was actually an ICT CONSULTANT for MTN. Yet she kept her life simple and valued our friendship which stemmed back from our UNILAG days. She was a chronic single and had a "short dating spell" with everyone who tried.
We, the boys, needed Tarie
She had been a life saver on a number of occasions to us. Severally.
As I sat smoked and seeped, my mind hovered on the lives of the friends, I was expecting.
My phone rang
I did a quick puff and blew out smoke
My fingers grabbed my BB Z10 and I picked the call. It was my wife.
"Honey, where are you? Aba ke mo?"
"Lexon"
"When are you coming back?"
"Later in the night"
A brief pause.
"Don't come back drunk. Remember that you will be playing keyboard tomorrow in church."
