I was about to open my mouth to speak when her phone rang. “Hey husband, what’s up?”
she said, picking up the phone. “You’re outside?” she continued, “naughty you, I thought you
said you wouldn’t be able to make it,” she added with a giggle. “I’ll be down in a few
minutes,” she said, hanging up. She informed me that she had planned to see a movie that
night with Bayo and he had earlier said he wouldn’t be able to make it only to show up
unannounced at our place. Way to go Bayo! Perfect timing, I thought to myself.
“What was it you wanted to say again?” she asked.
“Never mind,” I said, “it’s not important.” I wasn’t about to ruin their date night with my bad
news. I figured I’d find a more convenient time to tell her, if I ever found the courage again.
I could not understand why something always came up or I developed cold feet whenever I
wanted to tell her about Bayo’s escapade with the kente lady. Maybe it was a sign for me to
keep my mouth shut and mind my own business, but I wouldn’t be a good friend if I kept
quiet would I? If my friends ever caught my fiancé cheating before my wedding, I think I’d
want to know.
A few minutes later, Yemi was all dressed up. She waved goodbye to me before hurriedly
rushing out to join Bayo.
Finally, I was alone at home and I was free to take that power nap I wanted before Yemi
began her chattering away but somehow I couldn’t get myself to sleep. I felt guilty, I needed
to talk to someone.
I picked up my phone to dial Tolu’s number and as usual it rang with no response. That had
been the trend for the past 3 days. I could not understand why he hadn’t bothered to get
back to me after all the numerous missed calls I left him. Different thoughts ran through my
mind, could his wife have hijacked his phone? Did he lose it? Did he have to suddenly travel
without letting me know?
Then the thought suddenly came to my mind that maybe he was avoiding me, but why would
he? We never fought, I didn’t do anything wrong and our last rendezvous was amazing. I
could still picture myself in his arms at the hotel , so why wasn’t he picking up my calls?
READ ALSO : Old Enough Yet Unmarried – Episode 13
I couldn’t think of what the problem was. As a matter of fact it was now giving me sleepless
nights. I made up my mind to go to his workplace to see him after work and, if he wasn’t
there, I’d have no choice other than to go to his house to see him, whether his wife was
around or not… after all, he said he was divorcing her.
The next day after work I went to his workplace to see him as planned. I had called a couple
of times before going but there was no response as usual.
Luckily as I just finished parking my car in front of the hospital, I saw him come out through
the main entrance door, he was probably done for the day. I watched him as he walked
towards the parking lot while I was still in my car. I immediately dialled his number to ask him
to wait for me; the phone rang as usual, he brought it out of his pocket, looked at it and put it
right back.
I felt like I had just been dealt a blow to my face, why on earth was he avoiding me?
I was about to get out to confront him when he walked up to a car that was parked not too far
from the entrance. The car wasn’t his as far as I knew unless he had just bought a new car in
the past week. I was still trying to figure out whose car it was when a lady got out of the
driver’s side and gave him a kiss on the lips. He playfully squeezed her bum as she handed
him the keys to the car, he got into the driver’s seat while she sat beside him and they drove
off.
I couldn’t believe what I had just seen. The lady in question was not even his wife—she was
a young beautiful girl probably not more than 25 years old. Heartbreak is not even enough to
describe how I felt after what I had just seen. I had fallen so in love with this man—who had
been playing games with me all the while. I can’t even remember how I was able to drive
myself home that day, I was weak. I cried myself to sleep. The worst part was that I didn’t
have anyone to confide in because I hadn’t told any of the girls about him. Yemi, who knew
he existed, didn’t know the full story.
I decided I needed to get some closure. If he was going to dump me he should at least be a
man and tell me and not avoid me like I was some kind of plague. The next day I called his
phone, this time with a different number,— believe it or not I actually bought a new sim card
to make that call because he had been avoiding picking up private numbers.
The phone barely rang and he picked up immediately, “Hello Dr. Tolu speaking, how can I
help you?” he said in the most cheerful voice.
“So you’ve been avoiding me?” I said immediately.
At the sound of my voice he began to stammer, “Te-ss-ss-y?” he said.
“Yes it’s me, it’s nice to know you still pick your phone these days,” I added sarcastically.
“I’m sorry,” he started to explain, “it’s just that you’re always calling at the wrong times and
I’m always too tired to call back when I’m less busy,” he lied.
“Really?” I asked.
“Y yes,” he stammered, “actually there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you,” he quickly
added.
“I’m listening,” I said.
“I don’t know how this is going to sound but I may not be getting a divorce anymore,” he
announced, pausing for a while to hear my response but I said nothing. “My wife and I have
decided to try to work things out for Dade’s sake,” he explained further.
“I see,” I finally mumbled, “so what happens to us?” I asked.
“We can’t continue this relationship,” he said. “I’m really sorry,” he added, heaving a huge
sigh. “Please try to understand.”. Those were the last words he said before he hung up on
me, without even waiting to hear if I had anything to say.
I think that has to be one of the worst breakups of the century. Dude didn’t even have the
courtesy to call, he broke up with me on my own airtime and didn’t even let me finish.
I was definitely getting paid back in my own coins—what was I thinking dating a married
man? Now I understand why they say “almost doesn’t count,”… almost divorced is not the
same as being divorced. He cheated on his wife with me, why did I imagine my case would
be any different? I should have quit while I was still winning.
The next few days were horrible for me. I had become a shadow of myself and the worst part
was I didn’t tell a single soul what I was going through, I was bottling it all up.
On one of the days I was home watching TV when they were showing an advertisement for
sanitary pads. It was so creative, I enjoyed it. It was at that moment that it dawned on me
that I hadn’t seen my period in a while! I panicked and checked the calendar on my phone,
my period was 10 days late already. How was it possible that I hadn’t seen my period for 10
days and I didn’t notice? I began scolding myself but the truth was, with the way I was so
depressed, even if 30 days passed I wouldn’t have noticed.
I began to think of all the possible reasons my period could be coming late… I know that
sometimes a period may be delayed due to stress, use of contraceptive pills, hormonal
imbalance, being underweight or overweight and certain medical conditions.
I tried to figure out which one of them applied to me and concluded I must be stressed. I
waited anxiously for it to come; 5 more days passed, still there was nothing.
I knew that another reason I hadn’t seen my period could be because of pregnancy but I
didn’t even want to think about it, not with everything that was going on.
As much as I dreaded it, after 7 more days passed without any sign of my period, I decided
to get a home pregnancy test kit to take the almighty pregnancy test.
I opened up the pack and read the instructions carefully as I began to carry out what it said
step by step.
The instruction was to dip one end of the strip in the urine to be tested which was to be
collected in the container provided and wait for some time.
The pregnancy strip had one red coloured bar on it; after dipping one end into the urine, if a
second red coloured bar appeared beside the first after a while, then the test was positive; if
it remained one coloured bar then it was negative.
If you’ve ever done a home pregnancy test before then you would know that it was the
longest few minutes of my life. My heart was pounding as I waited to see what would happen
to the bars on the test strip.
For the first few seconds, the bar on the strip remained single. I kept my fingers crossed, I
was getting ready to heave a huge sigh of relief then I noticed a second bar start to form
slowly but surely—it started as a faded pink line then suddenly it became darker and darker
till it was bright red like the initial single bar.
“Noooo!” I screamed, “I can’t be pregnant!”
I began to sweat like my bathroom had suddenly become an oven and was beginning to
roast me alive. My hands were starting to shake.
How could I be pregnant? Why me? Why now? What did I do to deserve this?!!!
– Written by Dr.O
Find out what happens next in episode 15