Improvised Plan #ProjectNigeria

14- The Visit

Ola:

"How is your boyfriend?"

"What?" I reply, coming out of my thoughts in confusion.

Nonye shakes her head beside me and hisses. "Did you suddenly forget you have a man?"

I rack my brain for an answer. It's been two days since I last set my eyes on Saheed. After our agreement had ended, I had artfully avoided discussing him in Nonye's presence since then.

"He went to work," I blurt.

"He works on Sunday evenings?"

Dammit.

Didn't Saheed mention he's working on a huge building project?

"Yes. There's this huge contract he's handling. It requires every moment he had to spare."

"I see." Nonye keeps her eyes on my face, gauging my answer. It's her way of finding out of I'm hiding something, to stare at me until I squirm and confess whatever it is.

I remain silent and grip the steering wheel while negotiating a U-turn along Mobolaji Bank Anthony way, hoping that my fingers won't start to flutter like they always do when I'm about to be caught in a lie.

"Are you two having a fight?" Nonye asks after a few moments.

"Why would we fight?"

"Couples fight."

"We aren't fighting. It's all good."

We're just done pretending.

"So. What are you going to do about your relationship with Mark Anthony?" I ask, changing the subject.

"I forgot to tell you. We broke up last night."

I take my eyes off the road for a moment and glance at Nonye. "For real?"

Nonye sighs. "He was an ass hole, if you didn't notice."

"I noticed," I confess. "I wanted to mention it at The Venue before you told me about Rex's wedding."

"That was very stupid of me."

"No," I protest. "Saheed and I had a ball at Rex's wedding. It turned out to be fun."

A smile finds its way to my face as I remember how he had held me on the dancefloor as we swayed to soft music, his eyes locked on mine. How close we had been, fitting each other perfectly.

"See, Saheed is a keeper."

I blink a few times. "And you would know because...?"

"He's smitten by you. Your oblivious ass wouldn't notice even if he put it on a billboard at Maryland."

If only you knew, we're both good at acting.

While in traffic, Nonye purchases some spicy plantain chips and passes me a pack.

"You remember how much we used to love these?" she asks me.

I laugh at the memories. "We saved money in that milk tin, just so we could get plantain chips. And the irony was that we could have gotten a truckful of these if we just asked our parents."

"Ola, we've come a long way," Nonye states.

I stare at her for a while before nodding. "Yes, we have. You convinced your parents to change schools just because of me."

"Come on," she scoffs. "I needed a change of environment."

Before the age of six, I lived with my father. I attended a school close to where we lived on Lagos mainland and Nonye was my seat mate. That was how we became friends. After my move to stay with Dad's real family I changed schools. Nonye and I still kept in touch because Dad saw how lonely I was and arranged visits-- sometimes I had sleepovers at hers, and vice versa.