Irakabiri

Chapter Five

The weekend had come to an end quicker than Zuba had anticipated. Luckily, she had spent enough time indoors eating (a lot), napping, watching Netflix, and emptying tissue boxes all due to a combo of cramps and mood swings. Although on days like these she felt like fighting Eve, she knew the poor girl couldn't have possibly spent a lifetime watching that one tree go to waste. Zuba gave Eve a pass on that one although she thought Adam was a coward to blame it on her. Another one of her period rants was that homeboy could've shared the pain and at least taken on the burden of giving birth so that way the men wouldn't be so quick to ask for "another one under my name" or "one ain't enough I need two". 

Butoyi hated hearing Zuba talk about how unfair the whole Adam vs Eve played out and often reminded her that if God, the master of the Universe had made it that way then it was the fairest decision. "Besides," he would say, "women are even more beautiful when they become mothers. Do you even realize how powerful that is? Like you can literally bring a human being to life."

"Yea yea...it sounds all dreamy and perhaps it would be all that if you men where to take responsibility and not act like the baby's gotta be a full grown kid for you to interact or spend time with them. I bet you a great deal of men out here are the first to announce they're expecting but won't even be present in the delivery room." Zuba would say.

"You know what, I cannot wait until you get married and start popping babies like you planning on a full soccer team"

"Well, apparently I do not have to wait until marriage. Wouldn't be the first to do it."

"Leave your mother out of this Zu!"

There was no winning against Zuba at that time of the month.

*

The days at work seemed much longer than usual and she tried to avoid crossing paths with Mr. Gihu, her boss, so she wouldn't have to announce the bad news. Zuba was disappointed in herself as she had managed to get an opportunity and sabotage it all within one month. She had to think fast and see whether there was an alternative that would make her look a little less of a quitter. When the two inevitably bumped into each other, the only thing she could come up with was,

"Hey, can you come over this Saturday at my place?"

"You are inviting me?" he asked.

"Yes...why do you act all surprised?"

"Well I normally have to beg for us not to go to a hotel..."

"Let's just say I've missed you and have prepared a nice cozy evening for two."

Mr. Gihu was not the one to be told twice and so the date was set and Zuba had not though about it through but did not doubt she would later be full of ideas.

When Saturday evening came, she lit some candles and put on her robe and opened the door when Mr.Gihu rang the bell. He was no beginner in the romance department and brought fresh white tulips as he remembered Zuba hated roses. After a warm embrace, Zuba sent Mr. Gihu to change into a bath robe while she added the finishing touches and checked on their dinner.

"What are we celebrating? Have we been seeing each other for a year yet?" he asked.

"No but feel free to leave if you can't appreciate me preparing something nice for you..." she replied.

Mr.Gihu decided to be quiet but still careful as something was certainly up. Zuba had prepared a mini pedicure session with her new foot spa bath massager that had coincidentally arrived the previous week from Kampala.

"I could get used to this Zuba..."

"Yea...let's not let that happen."

She then started the hot tub with the idea of a romantic bubble bath with Epsom salt and a mixture of essential oils in mind. When Mr. Gihu saw the candles around the tub, he could not help but admit, "I'm just going to let you know that you can already ask me anything right now..."