Chapter 6 Decision

SADE

I was lying on my bed when I felt the vibration from my phone; I picked it up and saw it was Bright, the guy I met in the club.

"Hey," he said when I answered the call, "what are you doing right now?"

"Nothing, do you want to see me?" I asked.

"I'm in chevron hotel, room twenty two. I'm waiting for you." He said.

"Okay, I'll see you there soon."

I didn't know why but I felt kind of safe with Bright. Maybe it's because he didn't treat me like the other men I slept with, maybe it's because he looked good and smelt good, one thing I knew is that I didn't like what I was beginning to feel for him.

BRIGHT

I was so fired up I could not wait for her to arrive. She might be a prostitute but she didn't even look like one. The imagination of smelling her perfume threw me off while waiting in bed.

I picked my phone about to call her when I heard knocks on the hotel's room door; I sprung out of the bed and rushed to open it, I smiled seeing it was Sade. She was so pretty; I was beginning to love for her.

"Can I come in?" She asked. I was still admiring her pretty figure that I didn't hear her. "Can I come in?" She repeated.

"Oh! Sure, sure, sure. I-I--I'm sorry, come in." I said when I realized she was talking to me.

She walked in and went straight to the bed. She sat on it and took off her heels; the smell of her perfume gave me set me in the mood. After closing the door, I walked to the bed sitting next to her. "Baby girl, I'm going to treat you like none of your clients ever have." I couldn't believe I said that.

Her face showed that she was disgusted at what I said. "You know my policy, money first." She said.

"Okay," I brought out two bundles of one thousand naira from my pocket, "here." I said handing it over to her in her hand. "Hundred thousand naira just like I promised."

She put the money in her bag, and then looked at me straight in my eyes; she started romancing my left thigh till she could see I had an erection. She unzipped my trousers, put her hand in my trousers and started to kiss me.

SADE

As my Uber driver took me to the hotel I was going to meet up with Bright, I couldn't help but reflect on my life, on what I had become, exactly how my mom saw me, exactly what Toyin me made promise I wasn't going to become. I was destroying another woman's home, I was beginning to take her husband from her little by little, I was also falling for him. I was only going to make Chief pay for what he did. What was I doing? I thought to myself.

***

He moaned as he nutted in me then fell on the bed and was breathing heavily.

"Damn baby, fuck. You're so sweet." He said.

I got out of bed and started to wear my clothes

"You're leaving already; won't you at least stay a little Sade?" He asked.

"I don't like wasting time. I am not your girlfriend." I said to him.

"Okay," he said then got out of bed to dress up too, "at least let me drop you off somewhere please."

I looked at him for a while. "Okay, thank you."

*

While he drove his phone rang the first time and after seeing who the caller was, his face showed that he didn't feel like picking it but after the callers persistent calls he finally yielded.

"Sorry it's my wife." He said to me.

"Hello, I'm coming okay." He said then cut the call.

Men, they are all the same. Treating us like shit. I felt sorry for his wife for some reason, after he had told me about his wife and his only child. So why wouldn't I be filled with guilt?

"You know what? Drop me here," I said pointing where he could park. I took a deep breath in and out, and then I looked at him, "don't ever call me again. We are done with this-this thing; I am done with this thing. Please Bright take care of your family and stop being an irresponsible-foolish man." I said then got down.

I could only imagine how his face was after I said those words and got out of his car.

BRIGHT

I kept wondering why switched up just like that, I wondered why her mood changed all of a sudden. I knew she was right about me minding my family, but how could I when my wife kept making it hard for me.

I called Sade relentlessly to ask her what was going on with her, but she never picked my calls until one day, I tried her line and she finally answered her phone.

"Hello, Sade." I said.

"Hello sir." She responded.

"Why haven't you been picking my calls? It's been two weeks now." I said as I paced around my office.

"You're married, Bright." She said.

"So, how does that concern you? My home business is not your business after all."

"You're right Bright," she went quite for a few seconds, "I no longer work as a prostitute, just like you should stop being into me, you have a wife, I can't let you do this to her."

"Sade, please. Let me just see you for the last time, please." I felt like I was going to cry.

"No," she said without hesitation, "think about your family. I know you don't believe it, but-but you can love your wife." She said, and ended the call. I didn't waste time, I called her back immediately but it didn't even go through at all.

Maybe she's right, I thought. For the sake of my son I had to make my marriage with Mary work. Maybe it was a gift that I met Sade, maybe she was sent for me to realize the things I have. It wasn't going to be easy I knew, but I decided in my heart that I was going to make things right.

SADE

I stood in front of Toyin's grave; tears running down my cheeks, my mouth filled with silence. I folded my arms around myself then started rub them.

"I know I promised you that I was not going to cry anymore because it's not what you want for me. I'm sorry." Again my lips went silent. The sky looked like it was neither going to rain nor be sunny, just dull. I stood listening to the whispers of the wind.

"You know," I said as I sobbed "I--I did something terrible for a long time now, something I myself would have never believed. Something I promised I would never do." I wiped the tears from cheeks.

"I loved you Toyin, I still do..." I took a deep breath in then out, "I'm changing this time for the best, I promise you." I smiled. "I brought this for you." I said after sniffing the rose I bought.

It started to get dark, the cemetery was going to close soon so I decided to leave but then I remembered I hadn't told her one last thing, I turned back facing her grave stone. "And Toyin, this is the last time you'd see me. Rest in peace my love."

The traffic on the road that night was so much that even bikes could not easily maneuver, so my bike man took another route, a route which I quickly recognized on seeing the houses around, I recognized it so well because I used to live there. As he rode through, I remembered the surrounding; serene. What would have become of me if I hadn't left the house? I asked myself

"Stop. Stop here." I said to the bike man when he reached my house, my mother's house of course, I got down paying him.

I remembered the night I left the house as I stood looking at the gate, the state I left my step-father in, the look on my mom's face that night, everything played back in my mind. I walked to the gate and knocked on it.

I heard someone unlocking the locks from inside. "Ta ni yen?" Who is that? The person asked opening the gate slightly. It was my mom. She and I stood just staring at each other.

"What am I doing here?" I finally said.

"Sade? Is this you?" She asked. She looked much older. "Omo de mi - my child."

She was about to grab my hand but I quickly withdrew avoiding her grip.

"I'm not your child, I was never. You didn't love Toju, you didn't love me ma mi." I said as I tried not to cry.

"You only loved that-that animal that slept with me for years and you never noticed, you never cared when I tried to tell you." I said as tears rained down.

She looked down to ground. "Sade, I swear I have leaved my life since you left with regret, pain, and sorrow." She looked at me, she was also crying. "Sade I know there's nothing I can say to make you love me but-but-"

"But what, mommy?"

She looked down staring at her feet.

"But I wish I could-I love you Sade and I know you don't believe."

I had never seen my mother like that, truly sorry, truly being sorry. She dropped to the floor kneeling down in front of me, crying holding my legs.

It was just too emotional for me. I forced her to stand and hugged her.

"I love you mom, and I forgive you. Maybe fate brought me here. I love you mom." I hugged her tight. "This is the last time we'll see." I withdrew from her embrace.

"Sade, please."

"Good-bye mom." I said walking as fast as I could from her. As I walked I could hear her still crying.

The next day when I was arranging the house, I found something I had long forgotten, 'Toyin's bag.' I checked it and still saw the sum of money she was given in it. "Eight hundred thousand!" I said. I had paid Toyin's hospital bill from my own money and from borrowing from colleagues in the mart I was working as well as a proper burial for her, I borrowed. What was I going to do with that money and the money I myself owned from prostitution? It took me two days to think hard about the right choice.

*

I remembered when I was in the hospital with Toyin.

"I just really want us to leave this country Sade. Honestly, so I can start a new life and forget about the one I lived here." Toyin said.

"...You know what? That's what I've always wanted." She said.

*

"Outside the country," I said to myself laid back on the bed, "I should start a new life outside this country, away from all my past."

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