He is fit.
Taut muscles and firm abs.
An air hangs around him that tells the story of a man who loves to take good care of himself.
Perfumes.
Designer clothes and shoes.
Voguish accessories.
She was once like him.
Those days when they ate right and worked out together.
The days of university.
When he was known to be pathologically possessive of her.
And she found it as an honest expression and qualification of his love for her.
She luxuriated in it.
Then they graduated.
Both served in Lagos.
Both were retained in banks.
And she rose faster than him.
Higher up the ladder.
He wanted to know all her colleagues and bosses.
Especially the male ones.
He will go on and on about how she comported herself around them.
You laugh too much.
You smile too much.
You are too friendly.
He is always laughing when you speak.
Are you the only woman in the bank why is it you they want to send on the course.
Each time she would explain and calm him down and tell him how cute it was to see him like that, after he explained that all he was doing was because of the intense love he had for her.
Then they got married.
It was hurried one.
He couldn't wait.
Needed her to be his wife.
And when they married, he wanted children.
Three came back to back.
Without time for her to catch her breath.
She recovered well.
Went back to her stylish, ebullient, beautiful self
Then he told her that her clothing did not speak well for her status as a wife.
He wanted them more dour and conservative.
So she did as he asked and changed her wardrobe.
Then he asked that she stop attending the friday night dinners she went with her colleagues.
She did as he wanted.
Again he asked that she put on weight because only single girls stayed slim, since being slender was an invitation to men.
She started eating more, taking multivitamins, milkshakes and stopped working out.
He told her that marriage had made him change his taste and his world view.
He explained that what he wanted for a girlfriend was different from what he wanted for a wife.
But he stayed slin and fit, didn't change his wardrobe and never missed an office social outing.
Everyone ccomplained as she spread out and lost the luster.
But she told them that as an obedient wife it was her duty to surrender herself to the molding of her husband.
She said she was as crazy over him as he was over her yet everytime she made a request of him to change a behaviour or routine, he responded curtly that it was not the wife's place to order her husband.
She apologized on end.
Her career growth was no longer faster than his.
He had caught up and overtaken her.
And the higher he climbed the meaner he became.
And as she grew sadder and made more assertive demands.
He began to say the words.
See how fat you are.
Which man would want a fat woman like you with three kids?
You should thank your stars that i am still with you.
His words shredded her self confidence and damaged her soul.
But she kept her smile for the public and hid her pain from her parents and siblings.
The children were her only pleasure.
Even as she tried unfailingly to bring them back to where they once were.
She couldn't succeed.
It was then whispers of infidelity surfaced.
She ignored them at first.
But they persisted.
The remaining friends she had would not let her rest.
They brought evidence to her at work.
Pictures.
It was then she saw her.
The lady who he was having an affair with.
It stunned her.
Because.
It was like looking at who she had once been.
Slim.
Fashionable.
Stylish.
Beautiful.
All she could muster were the words.
"I thought he said marriage changed his tastes?"
The rolled eyes of her friends which answered her were loud enough responses.
That evening she confronted him.
He did not deny.
Instead.
He said to her.
"Do not provoke me into making you a divorcee!"
And like that she retreated into a shell.
Quietly existing within the loveless confines of a marriage.
Rearing children.
Hearing from some friends how foolish she is.
And from others how staying with her husband was the best way to go because afterall he takes good care of his children.
Others saying - atleast he still makes love to you.
And others - atleast he has not brought another child that is not yours into the marriage
And even more saying - atleast he did not stop you from working.
Her parents and siblings pretends that since she doesn't complain they will not intervene.
And she who is 37 now looks 57.
He who is the same age as her looks 30.
She is locked in inertia.
Seized by fear.
Spending time and money in church as she prays for divine intervention.
Time keeps ticking.
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