FED UP

(…continued…)

  

                The waiter, with the help of another waiter, brought the pepper soup. Then they went to get drinks. They soon came back with the drinks. As they ate, they talked about issues any of them raised. Suddenly, Mabel froze.

  “What is it?” Cynthia asked her.

  “Segun just drove in,” she said pointing towards the entrance.

                They followed her pointing and saw what looked like Segun’s car coming into the compound.

  “That looks like Segun’s car,” Cynthia said.

  “He is not the only one with that type of car,” Coker’s fiancée said.

  “And we are not seeing the face of the driver well,” Coker said. “So you can’t jump into conclusion.”

  “Even if he is the one, so what?” Mabel said confidently.

  “I wonder why you were shocked in the first place,” Coker said.

  “You don’t understand what heartbreak does to a woman,” his fiancée said to him.

  “Let us see who comes out of the car first,” Cynthia said.

                They looked at the car without talking. When the driver of the car parked and came out, he was not Segun. Mabel heaved a sigh of relief.

  “I told you it may not be him,” Cynthia said.

  “If it was him,” Mabel said. “I will know it is a setup and I will not talk to Coker again.”

  “I know eventually he will want to come back to you,” Coker said. “But I will not involve myself at all.”

  “I know he will,” Mabel said. “I wonder who will do for him what I did for him and who will take from him what I patiently took from him. Even if he comes back, it is too late. I have moved on with my life.”

  “Kemi is dealing with him seriously. I wonder why he still chose her and is still with her. Sometimes I think he is under a spell.”

  “Spell indeed. He made his choice.”

  “What kind of choice is that? Jumping from frying pan to fire.”

  “So I am now frying pan?”

                They laughed.

  “I didn’t mean it like that o.”

  “I get what you mean.”

  “But seriously, who would give you up for Kemi?”

  “He fell for bigger body parts I guess.”

  “Na him know o.”

                Cynthia and Coker’s fiancée just ate and listened as Coker and Mabel talked about Segun. When they were done eating the food, Coker asked if they wanted another round of food and drink.

  “I am full,” Mabel said.

  “I don’t mind one more bottle of drink,” Cynthia said.

                He told the waiter what else to bring for them. They drank and talked about random topics. After about an hour there, Mabel’s phone rang.

  “It’s my mum,” she said when she checked it.

                The others nodded. She picked. Her mother asked her whether she had gone to the market and she said she had not. Her mother told her few things to buy for her. Then she hung up.

   “I forgot that we were meant to go to market,” Mabel said when she was done with the call.

  “Me too,” Coker’s fiancée said. “I want to cook something special for my sweetheart.”

  “Ok na,” Coker said. “I hope my money will not get involved.”

  “Why won’t your money be involved? Won’t you eat it?”

  “Make it a surprise.”

                They laughed.

  “I am equal to the task,” she said.

  “But you will still collect it back somehow,” Mabel teased her.

  “Trust me.”

                They laughed.

  “Finish your drinks let me drive you to the market,” Coker said as he gulped his drink.

                They drank theirs. Then Coker beckoned on the waiter for the bill. She brought it and he paid her.

  “Shall we?” he said, standing up.

  “Come and move my chair back na,” his fiancée told him. “You are not learning all the romantic things I have been teaching you.”

  “Are you disabled?” Coker asked laughing.

                She laughed hard, got up and pursued him. He ran slowly and allowed her catch up with him. Then she mildly beat him on his back.

  “Lovebirds,” Cynthia whispered to Mabel.

  “That reminds me of Cynthia and Chuka,” Mabel said.

  “Who and who?”

                Mabel laughed as she got up.

  “Carry your bag let us go joor.”

                Coker came back to the table with his fiancée. She carried her hand bag and they left the table to the car. When they were settled in the car, Coker drove out of the place.

  “You are going straight to the market?” he asked Mabel. “Abi you are going home first?”

  “To the market,” Mabel replied. “We are not buying too many things and there is no more time to waste. If we are not home on time, my mum will be worried.”

  “Ok.”

                He drove them to the market and parked in the parking space at the entrance of the market.

  “I know you will come back in the night,” he said laughing. “You will search the whole market for where they sell things cheap.”

  “Yes o,” Mabel said, laughing.

  “Let us go na,” his fiancée said to him.

  “No o,” Coker told her. “I don’t have strength and patience for all the walking around and bargaining.”

  “Who will carry my shopping bag for me?”

                He touched her hands and said, “Your hands are functioning well.”

  “Go away joor,” his fiancée said, laughing.

  “I will wait for you in that bar over there,” Coker said pointing. “Let me watch the match going on now.”

  “Ok. Don’t take any more alcohol o.”

  “I will not. You know I have daily limits.”

                The ladies left and Coker locked the car and went to the bar.

  “I don’t know why men like pretending,” Coker’s fiancée said as they walked into the market.

(…to be continued…)

-©2015.Chinedu Isaac