Chapter Thirty-Nine - The Mistakes We Make for Love

The sigh of relief that came out of me baffled him. He stood to his feet. “I thought you wanted to do this?” he asked. I could tell he was a little irritated. “Why would you suggest we have sex if you don’t want to?” he asked.

I fumbled for the words. Reader, this man has a way of staring down my soul, it’s hard to hide anything from him.

“Because, I don’t want you to leave me. I’m new to this dating thing. I’m not as pretty or as accomplished as your ex. You guys were intimate and we haven’t been. How do I know that you’re not still into her and keeping me around for fun?” I stood on my knees on the bed as I spoke so we would be almost the same height.

He paced the room, squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. That’s how I knew he was fed up.

“Araba, how many times have I told you that you have nothing to worry about. I don’t care about Trudy. She’s in my past and has been for a very long time. If I’m being honest, I regret dating her. We both made a lot of stupid mistakes and when things ended, it was the best thing that happened to the both of us. I’m with you. I love you.”

My eyes widened. His face softened and he took a seat so we were only a few inches apart. He took my hand in his. “Do you know why I chose you, Araba? I chose you because you’re smart and confident. You’re the funniest girl; in fact, person, I know. I also chose you because you’re really beautiful without even trying and when you try, no one can come close to you. I don’t want you to be another Trudy. If I wanted her, I’d have just gone back to her instead of wasting your time. I want you. That’s why I didn’t want us to do anything today. I want to do this right. I want us to work for the long haul.”

I smiled. He embraced me and I stayed there taking in his scent. I don’t know what they put in cologne but it is potent. It can make you fall in love with a man unexpectedly. There have been proven cases of women casually walking down the street and falling madly in love with a man after taking a whiff of his cologne. It didn’t matter that he was built like a bag of Doritos, if he smelled good, they were in love.

I guess this is free advice to the brothers on here. Invest in good cologne and turn your love life around.

As we came from the hug I whispered “I love you too”. He smiled, showing his perfect teeth. How did I get so lucky?

“Can I kiss you?” he asked.

“Yes.”

***

The freshmen would be arriving soon which meant that the September Rush was on. September Rush is where the boys in older years, make a play for the female freshers because they’re easier and more naïve. It was the October Rush in the 90s but we didn’t really call it that anymore. It was still ongoing but it was just nameless now.

Carl was playing with the idea of joining the boys to go fishing. After all, he’d spent his first year more single than a pringle and poking his nose into business it did not belong in. It was time to have some fun and play the field like Kwame and Boateng had done.

Only problem is, love is a game that you don’t play. It plays you.

Seeing as he wanted to play the game anyway, he had to roll with the boys that were well versed in that territory. That wasn’t hard to do since those boys constituted the majority of the male student population. If you’ve ever wondered why women have been outranking men lately, here’s the reason; while the women are in the library studying, the men are meeting to discuss how best to waste both their time and the woman’s.

Boateng was out of the game and so was Kwame which meant Micah was the next best thing. The boys met up in Micah’s room and gossiped like women at the salon. Whoever told you men don’t gossip has clearly never sat in on a conversation before. Not only do they gossip but they also lie and they do it in pidgin too for extra effect.

“Ah, you see that Mara girl, the one who reported the lecturer last sem – yeah, that one, I ‘clear am’” Mathew, Kwame’s old roommate, said. Carl nearly spat out his drink.

“Yeah! She’s such a freak. I now understand why that lecturer was moving to her because who doesn’t like a bad bitch.”

Carl choked on his drink. Was it his Mara they were talking about? There weren’t that many Mara’s on this campus and there certainly weren’t many who had reported a lecturer because of a sexual scandal.

“When was this?” Carl asked coolly. He could not display the slightest hint of emotion.

“Oh, during the vacation. She and I were interning close to each other.”

Ah! The classic internship. Internships are just a grand opportunity for students to continue their tomfoolery outside of the school campus. They spend their days waking up at ungodly hours of the morning, trekking to offices to run errands like buying breakfast for the boss and then during break hours, they engage in work gossip and casual office fornication; returning home at the end of the day to their eager parents, promising that they’d learned a lot.

Carl was never one to hear about his friend and not tell them. Last season was a clear indication of this. That boy’s mouth was looser than the elastic of my old bonnet. He went over to Mara’s room right after hearing the information.

“I just want to see how you’re doing and how you’re holding up” he said when she let him in. “Oh, that’s so sweet. I’m doing great. Thank you.” Mara replied. Carl gave a fake smile and then dived right into the meat of the issue.

“Mara, I don’t want to alarm you and I know you’ve been through a lot already but I need to tell you something. Mathew is walking around saying that you guys had sex.”

“I see” Mara said. Carl could not gauge her expression. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Mara, I’m not sure what he said to you but that boy took advantage of you and now he’s running around saying things …”

“Carl, relax. He didn’t take advantage of me. We only ever did stuff but we never had sex. I'm not surprised though."

He was too flabbergasted to speak.

“Do me a favor and keep this between us. I don’t want anyone else in the group knowing.”

Carl could only nod in affirmation.