Can we try again?

Seventy-five

Daniel

It was Daniel and Kim's first Christmas officially together. First Christmas together as newly engaged. He sure was looking forward to spending the entire day with her. They'd planned to spend the entire day lazying around in their Christmas Onesies, eating, drinking, watching Christmas films. Just the two of them. 

In the beginning, Daniel was over the moon. He was buzzing with excitement. It was a good feeling he had. The feeling of becoming more responsible, more grown-up. More like a man. A husband. A husband-to-be.

But then things began to turn out not the way he expected them to be - although he wasn't even sure what he was expecting in the first place. All he knew was that at first, everything was all rosy, and he so wanted it to remain so, but once the hype and the excitement from the proposal all died down, he started to notice slight changes - changes that he couldn't really pinpoint. Even though they lived together, it was as if they were still miles apart from each other.
Every now and again, Daniel felt like something was missing between the two of them. And the worst part of it was that he just couldn't place his finger on it. 

And he couldn't confide in anyone, which made it worse. He didn't tell Victor, because deep down, he felt maybe he was just being ridiculous and it was just nerves and Victor would call him up on it. Victor would tell Daniel that he was just being stupid, and he should chill out.
Telling his mum was also definitely not an option for Daniel, because she didn't know about Kim in the first place. None of his family members in Nigeria knew about his relationship with Kim or that he'd proposed to her. 

Even his Aunt Uwa in the UK had no idea - he was ashamed of himself for that.
He knew though, it was only a matter of time till his mum found out - news travel fast - and he was expecting his phone to ring any day from now, his mum yelling at him in frustration,  disappointment and anger.

"Who is she, Daniel?" She would scream at him. "Why did you not tell us? I am disappointed in you. If your dad was here with us what do you think he would say, eh?"

He'd been wanting to tell his family about it - about Kim, their relationship - but for some reason, deep down, he knew his mum wouldn't be so keen on it. He would have mentioned it from the very start - when they first met - but even Daniel didn't know his relationship with Kim would come this far. And when the two began to get serious, he just put off telling anyone altogether, knowing how his mum would feel.

How was he even sure of this when his mum hadn't even met her? That was the question. But he just knew it. He knew Kim wasn't the sort of girl that would rock his mother's boat. And even with this knowledge, he still decided to keep the information to himself and carry on with his decision to propose to her, even though he knew his mum would disprove. 

Kim, on the other hand, didn't seem bothered about the fact that his family were not aware of her. That worried Daniel a little, the fact that she didn't mind. It felt like she didn't care. 

Why on earth did he go ahead and propose to Kim? It was the same question that kept bugging him; hovering in his mind over and over again.

He loved her and he really believed that she would make a great wife for him. He was positive about that.
But then again, could he actually go ahead and marry her without the knowledge of his family or the blessings of his mother? Because that seemed to be the path he was taking at the moment.

Maybe that's why he seemed to be so unhappy and discontent recently. The fact that he couldn't tell anyone back in Nigeria about his wife-to-be; he couldn't share the excitement that's been bubbling inside of him. Now, he knew that it was only a matter of time until the news would spread like a wildfire across the continent to his mum.