BURNT OUT X

In that moment, she had to watch herself not to overturn the contents of her glass on his head. All the thoughts and insults running through her head which she could heap on this guy. She calmed herself down, got up, took her purse which was hanging by her side on her chair and walked out of the restaurant. One of these days, someone was going to push her too far………………

**************

‘Maybe I overreacted a bit. I could just have suffered through the next hour and a half and then say a very nice goodbye.’  Esther thought through her date and how it had gone down.

“Which part of Spintex are we going, Madam?” the driver interrupted her self recriminations.

“Rainbow. Do you know the place? It’s after Coastal.”

“I know Coastal but I don’t know this Rainbow place.” He replied.

“Don’t worry. I’ll give you directions when we get to Coastal.” She remembered she hadn’t called Fiifi back and she decided she’d call him right before she sleeps tonight. A friendly voice on the other end of the line would help her a lot. She wondered how George was doing. As soon as the thought came to mind, she discarded it for more musings on her date but her thoughts came circling back to George. She was glad she didn’t come home to change into different clothes for this evenings date. It would have been wasted time and effort. They had decided to go for dinner straight from work because of traffic and it turns out that was a sound decision.

Her phone vibrated just then to notify her of Kwame’s text. The text message was one of an apology as to how the evening had gone. She appreciated the gesture. She however refused to give him the impression that she thought she had overreacted. So, she sent a text back gracefully accepting the apology and saying she’ll see him on Monday. Whatever he wanted them to be, she hoped that expectation would die a natural death.

When George knocked on the door to Esther’s apartment that evening at 7.00pm, he refused to accept his loud and erratic heartbeats were because of fear. The fear of finding out how much better off she’d been without him. Fear that he had been replaced and most of all, of what she would do when she laid eyes on him.

He wondered if she was home, if she has gotten a job and if she was dating somebody. Miriam opened the door and smiled at him but he could tell she didn’t really mean it.

“Good evening, Miriam.”

“Good evening. If you are looking for Esther, she isn’t in.”

“Okay, but may I come in and wait for her?”

“Suit yourself.” Miriam went back to the kitchen to continue with the meals she was preparing leaving George alone in the living room. He sat there on the couch, going over conversation starters in his head, trying to find the best one to use with Esther. ‘Does he start right on with an apology or does he start with a banal subject? He wasn’t sure. He supposed it will depend on her mood when she sees him.’

As he waited, he heard the sound of a vehicle, most probably a car, as it stopped outside the house for a while and then sped off again. Next, he heard the front door to the girls’ apartment open. He heard voices in hushed conversation and he could only assume Esther was home and Miriam was giving her a heads up about his presence before she came in and met him.

“You have a visitor waiting for you inside.” Miriam told her at the door.

“Well, hello to you too. Is it Fiifi? I was planning on calling him back.”

“And are you ever going to tell me the person’s name, or should I guess?

“………Oh no! don’t tell me it’s George. Not with the day I’ve had and the mood I’m in.”

“Yeah, it is.” Miriam answered.

Esther sighed out loud and headed straight for her room to change her clothes. On her way, she saw George standing just inside the doorway of the living room, watching her. Without a word to him or even a glance to acknowledge him, she entered her room. She spent a few minutes sitting on her bed, gathering her scattered thoughts together. She missed him. She was happy and angry at the same time to see him. As she changed into a pair of slacks and a tank top, her anger won over and she went out to meet George with all the self control she could muster. As soon as she entered the living room and sat down, Miriam came in and informed them both that she was stepping out for a few minutes to buy something down the street. ‘Thank you so much, Miriam, for leaving me alone to deal with this mess.’ Esther thought to herself. They both heard the apartment door slam as Miriam walked out.

Over the silence that followed, George ventured to break the ice. “So, Nana, how have you been?”

‘So we are back to calling me Nana, abi?’ His use of the familiar pet name just served to infuriate her the more.

“What are you doing here, and what do you want George?”

“Is it wrong for me to inquire about your health?” She didn’t dignify the question with an answer.

“Won’t you ask me how I am also doing?

“You are not going to make this easy for me, are you?” Still no answer. He realized she planned on saying little until he had exhausted every reason he had to stay, to try and make things right. Then maybe he would leave her alone. He remembered the smart thing to do when she got this way was to provoke her into a reaction, mostly anger. With the issue at hand, he knew it wouldn’t take much to get her there.

“I came to say I am sorry for what happened with us and to ask that you give us another chance. A chance for me to make things right.”

“Okay. You’ve stated why you are at my house. I have heard and I’ll think about it. Now, if you’ll just excuse me, I have stuff to do.” she dismissed him.

“It’s not like everything was my fault. If you hadn’t been so stubborn, we wouldn’t have had to break up in the first place.”

“What did you say?”

‘Finally!’ he thought with some satisfaction to himself.

“You came all the way to my house to tell me it is my fault that you were weak-minded enough to cheat on me? On second thought, you know what? Yeah, it’s my fault. Now that you’ve made that clear I hope your business here is done. I’m kinda busy.” 

First blow landed, fair and square and it wasn’t pleasant. He wasn’t giving up yet. Until all the anger is out of the way, they can’t have a rational conversation anyway.

“Weak-minded huh! How do you feel getting that off you chest?”

“I don’t want to see you or talk to you or have anything to do with you. How about that for getting things off my chest?”

“Or, is there someone else you are not telling me about? At least I accorded you the courtesy of telling you the truth that I was going out with someone else.” That did it! She was surprised her blood vessels didn’t burst from how much blood her heart was pumping.  The nerve of the guy! She really wished she were dating someone else at the moment.

“That is enough. Get out. Get out of my house George. Get out!” with every issue of the command for him to get out, her voice rose a little higher till she was almost yelling it at him.

‘Where was Miriam when you needed her?’

“I am not going anywhere till you calm down and we talk about this.” They were both standing nose to nose now. She turned around swiftly and went to her bedroom, took out her purse from her bag and walked out, leaving him alone in the house. She was about a hundred metres away from the house when she realized she had left her phone in the living room. She refused to go back for it. She boarded a bus on its way to Roundabout. She was on her way to Fiifi’s place. She’ll be there till 12.00am before she comes back home. By then, she knew George would be long gone. She hated that this was becoming a trend. As if she was always running away from difficult situations.

Miriam came back home around 8.15pm. When George heard someone opening the door, he thought it was Esther coming back but it wasn’t.

“George, you are still here. Where is Esther?”

“She stormed out of here a few minutes ago. Didn’t you meet her on your way back home?”

“No, I didn’t. What did you say to her to make her angry?”

“Nothing much. Just my presence, I guess.” Miriam eyed him doubtfully.

“I suppose you came here to win her back? Good luck with that. Right now, you are all that is wrong with her life so you are going to need all the luck you could get.”

“By the way, where is your girlfriend, Pokua?”

“She isn’t my girlfriend anymore.” Shaking her head disappointedly, she said; “Guys! Good luck. You are really going to need it.

“While we are waiting for her to come and kill you, we might as well feed you and fatten you up. I’m bringing you some rice.”

They ate and waited, and waited. Two hours into waiting, George grew apprehensive and asked Miriam if this was normal for Esther. Miriam reassured him that she was alright. He refused to leave then, claiming he wanted to make sure she was alright. Miriam guessed she was probably at Fiifi’s place so there was no cause for alarm.

Fiifi drove Esther home after convincing her it was the grown up thing to do. He also reminded her that she had been waiting for George to come back to her for a long time, so she should go and sort things out with him. At five minutes to twelve, she said goodnight to him as she got out of the car. She found the same pickup truck parked by the house but she still didn’t make the connection that it was George who drove that truck there. She decided to call him up tomorrow for them to talk this through. She had left her keys and phone when she left so she knocked on Miriam’s bedroom window. She responded from inside that the door wasn’t locked.

Esther found George sprawled out on the couch, asleep. “He refused to leave. Said he had to wait and talk to you. Are you going to wake him up?” Esther heard Miriam say behind her.

“No, we’ll talk tomorrow.” She went inside the room and took out the mosquito coil Miriam had burning away by his side in the room, to keep the mosquitoes away. 

“He reacts strongly to the stuff. Better the mosquito bites than the coil fumes.” She explained to the askance look on Miriam’s face. She didn’t even realize that she was fussing and Miriam wasn’t about to draw her attention to it. Miriam had already covered him with a sheet so when she entered her room, she just brought out a pillow for him. She gently raised his head and placed the pillow under it. When she turned to leave to her room, she found Miriam staring at her.

“You have just one pillow.” Miriam said.

“Yeah, so?”

“And you gave it to him.”

“What’s your point?”

“And you are still angry at him.”

“Miriam, I still don’t see your point.”

“You are pretending you don’t see my point but it’s okay, I’ll explain. You are angry at the guy and yet you give the only pillow you have to him. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is.”

“Whatever you say, madam matchmaker. For me, I’m tired so I’m going to bed.”

By 6.00am, she was wide awake but she refused to leave her room. She heard a faint knock on her door about half an hour later and she called out to the person to come in. She already knew who would walk through the door and she was right, it was George. He came in and knelt by the foot of her bed as she rose and leaned her back on the headboard.

“I’m really sorry, Nana. For everything. If you really don’t want to see me or talk to me, I understand but I hope you give me the chance to make things right. Whatever you need; time, space, anything, you just name it. Pokua and I, we didn’t even last two months. Do you know why? Because she wasn’t you. Just tell me how to make it up to you and I will. I’ve been wanting to come and do this for two months now but I never could muster up enough courage for the feat. What I did was wrong and I am sorry I blamed you for it last night.”

‘Oooooh, that is so sweet.’ She however could not find the voice to say that out loud because her throat was clogged with her tears.

“I have something for you. It’s a piece of jewelry. I don’t mean to buy you off or pressure you into forgiving me but if you do forgive me and are willing to give me a second chance, then you can take this right now. If you want time to think about it too, you may take all the time you need. I love you and would love nothing more than spending my life with you.” With that, he brought out a ring that was obviously meant as a promissory ring. She stared at the ring for so long until her tears blinded her eyes. That was when she knew she was going to say yes. It was almost like she didn’t have a choice in the matter. Not after he had been so sweet. 

Yes, she was going to say yes and hope the projection of their forever become an experience they would both tell stories about to their grandkids someday in forever.

    

 *************THE END! *************