LIAR, CHEATER TROUBLEMAKER 3 (BANJI'S STORY CONT'D)

Damilola had been nursing a killer headache since that afternoon and the insistent vibration of her phone wasn't  exactly helping the situation. She took the phone without checking the caller-id, dropped the call and balanced her head on the pillow; making sure her head was comfortably balanced before closing her eyes again. Of course the vibration made that impossible as another hum came from the phone.

“Whoever you are, you better be important” she muttered before groping the phone. It wasn’t a number on her contact list; she wondered who it could be before answering the call angrily and screaming into the speaker:

“Why the hell are you disturbing me, common sense demands that when someone doesn’t pick your call, its either they don’t want to talk to you or they’re too busy to”, a chuckle came from the other side, fuelling her anger further.

“Your blood is always hot; you should learn to take things easy. I thought you didn’t pick the call because you were still angry at me”, came the response followed by another round of chuckles.

“Angry? Who are you please?” Damilola resorted to being calm since the initial angry approach didn’t work. Besides, her head was still hammering away and any more anger could make her head burst.

“Banji, Dammy please wait; I’ve got some things to say and I know I have no right at all to demand that you listen to me but I want to talk to you about something and I’m sorry if this call came at the wrong time. Are you there?”

‘So it’s been three weeks and he’s just calling? What an idiot!’ Dammy thought after the initial feeling of surprise was gone. She never would have thought he would even have the guts to call after their last conversation went. She cleared her throat. “Okay, I’m listening” she finally said.

“I need to see you. Please. I know it’s almost impossible but it’s not something I can talk about over the phone. The last time we talked, you didn’t even give me enough chance to talk and explain myself before threatening to make heaven come down to earth. Aye o ri beyen now. omo Yoruba shaa ni gbogbo wa”

Damilola massaged her temple, rubbing off the sheen of sweat coating it “Well, it wasn’t my fault you turned out to be a bloody liar, was it? You had every opportunity to tell me the truth and the thing is I didn’t even ask you first o, you were the one that asked about my relationship and when given the chance to talk about yours, you lied”

“I’m really sorry about that, that’s one of the things I want to talk to you about, only if you would agree to let us meet up and talk. Do you still stay behind the bank? Your grandma’s house you talked about that day” he asked. Banji sounded so desperate at that point that it sparked a curiosity begging to be satisfied in her. She took a deep breath before answering.

“No I don’t stay there anymore. Before I tell you anything or agree to meet up with me, let me give you a final chance to decide if it’s something meaningful or not. Because if this turns out to be another rounds of lies, I swear to God the curse I’ll place on you will be the size of Asia”

“Wow…does that mean you actually agree that you’d see me? Aye e o ni baje. Mo promise pe you won’t regret it” he sounded so excited, making Dammy wonder if she made a mistake by accepting to see him.

“It’s no problem. Now I really have to drop the call. I’ll contact you when I want to see you. Take care”

The next morning, Damilola woke up and wondered if it was a dream until she checked her call register and the conversation came rushing back into her head. The headache had reduced to a dull throb and she made a mental note to tell Ola, one of her close friends about the latest development with Banji and hear her opinion about the whole thing.

Three days after the late night call from Banji, she made up her mind to listen to whatever he had to say and decided to send a message to notify him of her decision. He called back, they both agreed to meet up the following day and she sent him the address of a place close to her home. On Saturday, the day of the scheduled meeting, Banji called again to ask if the agreement to see still holds, explaining that he went to Lagos and wouldn’t be around  till around 1pm that afternoon.

“That’d be very convenient, cos I have some things to do before then but I should be done by 1pm sha” she said.

“That reminds me, please unblock me on whatsapp because I might run out of call card and that would be the only way to contact each other”. She laughed and said okay.

1pm came and Dammy got dressed, waited for Banji’s call and 30 minutes later, he called to inform her that he was already at the joint she selected for the “date”

“It’s not a date o, Banji. You only said we needed to see and talk”

“Hahaha, okay it’s not. I’m waiting sha. Just come”

“I’m coming already”. She said and left the house.

Dammy entered Tees Resort and spotted Banji sitting three tables away. On sighting her, he stood up, scanned her from head to toes with his eyes, smiled widely and opened his arms for a hug .

“Hey babe! It’s so good to see you again”

She sidestepped his hug and stretched her hand out for a handshake, “Hi, how far” she greeted back. He awkwardly dropped his arms and shook her hand firmly.  He gave her a berating look for rejecting his hug and asked her if she wanted to order for anything to eat or drink; she told him she only wanted water and he ordered for a can of ‘star radler’ and her water before settling down to talk. 

After like 10 minutes of silence, Dammy broke the silence and went straight for the kill.

“So you said we needed to talk”

“Well, yes. It’s just that o ti fine gan ju last time yen lo ni,  your whatsapp profile pictures don’t do you justice at all” he said smiling.

“You know hypes don’t work on me at all abi. So can you please go straight to the point and let me get out of here?”

“Okay. The thing is, I want you to understand that I never lied to you. Maybe I wasn’t completely honest with you about me being involved with someone else. But like I already said the last day we had a chat on whatsapp, there are conditions under which the introduction was done. She’s pregnant”

“And I guess she impregnated herself? What’s it with men not wanting to take responsibility. If you didn’t want pregnancy now, all you had to do was use protection. So painting her in a bad light is wrong” Dammy interjected, taking a sip of the water that was served. She was already getting bored of the conversation

“I never said she was a bad person. But at the same time, sleeping with her doesn’t mean I planned to get married to her; that was just a mistake on my part. The truth is Dammy, I like you a lot and I would love it if we can be together. I understand that you said you’re in a relationship of four years but at the same time, that doesn’t stop you from having something to do with someone else. He doesn’t have to know and neither does anyone else. You know in this life, it’s bad to put all your eggs in one basket”

Dammy laughed dramatically, attracting glares from people around and quickly saying sorry, she continued to laugh quietly. “Do you know how you just sounded? God! You’re impossible. I am simply not like that and the positioning of my eggs doesn’t concern you o. It’s my choice and my own moral code, I’m not talking about yours o, cos I doubt if you even have one makes me understand that sticking to one person is enough for me. So thanks for the offer but if that’s all you called me here for, can I leave?”

“Dammy wait, I’m a man and I know what we do to ladies. I take it that your boyfriend you’re hyping is not even here. Do you know what he’s doing where he is? He’s probably there screwing someone else, you could even be the sidechick and you wouldn’t even know”. One would expect Banji to shut up Dammy’s dismissive remark. “All I’m asking for is one date to prove myself and let you know that you won’t regret this. Forget the fact that I’m with someone, it doesn’t change the fact that I want you and I want to treat you well”

“Cos I look like I’m treated badly in my relationship abi. The fact that you’re an idiot doesn’t mean every man is. T?hat you can talk like this is even a show of how irritating you are. It’s not your job to tell me whether I should trust my man or not, so whatever warning you have for me, apply it to your life first and let’s see the result. See, if you don’t have anything to talk about can I leave now? It’s getting late and I have to be home. And next time, please think well about the meaning of a ‘meaningful conversation’ before calling me to meet up with you. I thought you had actually gained more sense from our last chat but obviously not”

Dammy left angrily and kept blaming herself for actually entertaining the doofus. What was his business with how she handles her relationship and the number of guys she’s dating? She has heard lots of warnings from other guys about not trusting a man; is she making a mistake?  And finally, is it really bad and careless of her to put all her eggs in one basket?