Love is kind of funny. Someone's son will be somewhere minding his own business and trying to survive this country's hardship and "wahala" and then an unplanned love story would just pop. If I had been told some years ago that I’d end up here, I would have just laughed it off. But you know, life itself do set one up, and well it did set me up by starting with a simple “Good morning bro.
I had a routine then, which was to wake up, pray, get ready, head to work, come back tired, and that was it...on steady repeat. Then, these two girls decided to start greeting me every morning, they turned it as a part of their morning routine too. And at first, it was just “Good morning bro/sir...Me, sir, just imagine and before I knew it, it became “welcome back sir. Then, the real started “what did you buy for us. Every evening, they would be waiting with big smiles, expecting something. At first, I played along, buying little things just for fun. But deep down, I knew something's definitely up with one of the girls.
Then to my weekend football. That one place where stress disappeared, where I didn’t have to think about work, life, or unexpected. But guess what, They showed up there too, their apartment fence was just next the field, we played sometime and the ball went all into their house, I went to get it and met these two girls sitting and chatting, well that was how we started getting close.
Conversations started happening. Not forced, not planned, just easy. We got close. Really close. Too close. That’s when my problem started.
Let's talk about her family, I was practically one of them. Even my mum back then do refer to the place as my "family house", if anyone should ask of me and am not home, that will be the next place to check. I was always there, eating their food, gisting with her siblings, chilling like I was born into the family. That was my biggest fear. You know that sort of feeling when someone is already like a sister to you, and then suddenly you realize she’s not your sister at all. Because no matter how much I tried to deny it, I knew she liked me. And as much as I wanted to pretend, I knew I liked her too.
But fear gripped me, it held me so tight. From when I was growing up, I have always been close to female gender than males, so that made me not to usually feel romantic feelings for them. I once told a female friend of mine sometimes ago that I never saw her as a woman, she was trying to show some signals to me then, and she got offended by my response, she even said being in the circle of females has done some harm to me well that's a story for another day...back to my story, this was different, I am having this feelings for her, but I feared what if things went wrong, what if we started dating and everything gets somehow, what if I lost not just her, but the entire bond I had with her family, I wrestled with it for months. I was close with her sis too, even her mum thought it was her sister I had something for, we are very close pals, we call each other twinnie, smikes.(she's the one helping me button up at the above picture). Then one day, I did something, I told her sister.
And on a norms, this should have been a disaster. I mean, which sister just allows a guy to date her younger sister like that? But her reaction shocked me. She laughed and said, “I knew she liked you, even mum knew, and I have studied you to see that you are not perfect and no one is, but you are a good and well raised child. That was how she indirectly showed and gave her approval.
And that was it for the lover boy, there was no going back. We talked, we started it and yeah, here we are. It’s been a journey. A long one, there are days when its sweet as if it should go on and on, some days, it’s like "am done"hard and stressful. But we keep moving.
Love often takes one by surprise, and before you know it, you’re deep inside. I never expected this, and I haven't for once regretted it. She has her own off sides and I have mine too and so far there's nothing toxic.. We cool. Because at the end of the day, love isn’t always about grand moment s. Atimes, love is just about the small things and the quiet certainty/assurance that no matter how hard the days get, you’d still choose them over and over again.
All pictures are mine.
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