I watched through my bedroom window. She had called 20 minutes earlier telling me that she would be coming by. I now watched her taking brisk slow steps under the growing jacaranda trees. I knew she couldn’t see me from my window. But her steps suggested that it was me who made her legs slow down. Today she looked glamorous, as usual. No wonder the next guy that passed her had to stare uncomfortably. I chuckled. But I recovered my grim expression because I knew what weighed her heart; and mine too. In a matter of time, we would all speak our hearts out.
2 minutes later I heard the distinctive knock. Not loud, but still loud enough for one to hear. The 5 time rapping on the mahogany door that my mind had now gotten used to. I took my time before walking to open it. The one that suggests, “I was in the bedroom listening to music.” I didn’t want her to think that I was anticipating her arrival. But my sinus tachycardia suggested otherwise. I pulled the door knob without a rush, and she stood there smiling from without but I sensed sadness from within.
“Hye,” she opened those red lips that I so much loved to kiss. “Hye, please come in” I ushered her in. Her strong perfume walked inside too and the air settled as if to watch the angel that had just landed. She took the seat she usually did, the one next to the door. Then silence. “What can I get you?” I offered. “Just a glass of water,” She said with a whitened smile. So far no mention of the word honey or darling or dear. “This is the day that the Lord had made, we would rejoice and be drunk in it” I corrupted my nursery school song knowing what the next 1 hour held.
I came back with the glass and took a seat next to her. She did not waste time before breaking the ice. “Simon, we need to talk,” I wasn’t surprised. This sentence had been travelling for the past one week but had arrived today. In the last 7 days, our conversations had taken a strange shape. They always seemed incomplete, like something was always not being said. The only question was, “Who would say it first?” The break up seemed to be coming. I was ready for it. I had even practiced my words for the occasion. But now they seemed useless. She was here to finish it.
I watched her and wondered what had gone wrong. I still felt a tinge of love for her but not as strong as before. Maybe it was my new work colleague who had been sending suggestive messages for the past one week. Messages which read like “I love your physique, I wonder why you are not in the WWE” “Your voice gives me goosebumps, shouldn’t you be on radio?” and others which reminded me of the first month between me and Kylie. Kylie who now sat in front of me like a sheep ready for slaughter.
“What is it Kylie?” “Simon, you know I love you right?” “Kylie, where is this going?” I pretended to be in the world of oblivion. We had been together for the past 6 years. It had all begun back when I was still in high school and the “funkiez” were the hunting grounds. I had hunted and got Kylie and they had been five years of lovey dovey until last week. Maybe, just maybe we had been together for so long and now it was time to move on to fresh grounds of hunting.
She looked me deep in the eye. She then placed her palm on mine. I didn’t hold it. But the words that came next held me to my feet. My heart almost stopped. A drop of sweat quickly rushed to my brow. And a cold shiver sprinted down my spine. “Simon…I am pregnant,” she had whispered. But it felt like she had screamed into my ears. “Did you say…” “Pregnant.” She cut me short. I looked at her and a rush of emotions tore through me. I didn’t know which to pick for her. I just swallowed hard and without knowing it held her hand…
