Always Yours (Lagos Romance Series) by Somi Ekhasomhi Page B

I even brought up Folake? I asked myself, marvelling at how I had succeeded in spoiling our easy camaraderie of a few minutes earlier.
    “She was with me in SA.” He said finally.
    So it had been a lover’s getaway after all. A well of pain rose in my chest and enveloped my whole body, my fingers tightened around the steering wheel. I don’t care, I thought silently, I don’t care if they go on holidays together all over the world, I don’t care and I’m not going to cry.
    “Oh!” I said, blinking furiously. I forced a smile. “I didn’t know you guys were going together.”
    “We didn’t go together.” He said. I could feel him looking at me, but I willed myself not to turn to look at him, I didn’t want him to see any shiny tears in my eyes, any sign that I was still weakly, stupidly, hung up on him.
    When I didn’t say anything, he continued. “She called two days after I arrived, and said she was in Johannesburg.” He shrugged. “And she came over.”
    I nodded and swallowed, why was he even telling me. Didn’t he know, couldn’t he guess how painful all this was for me. “I hope you guys had fun.” I said, trying to sound nonchalant, and failing horribly.
    He scoffed. “Fun… if only.” He shook his head. “She was there because she came to find out for herself that you were not with me.”
    I turned to look at him, unable to contain my surprise, then turned back to the road and kept silent.
    “She actually checked all the drawers.” He laughed bitterly. Then stopped and looked at me. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”
    “What am I supposed to say?” I asked. “I don’t think I have the right to an opinion in your relationship.”
    “But you do have an opinion.” He pressed.
    “I don’t have enough information to form an opinion” I said. I really didn’t know what to feel, on one hand I detested Folake for being the hypocrite, trying to catch Michael out for having an affair, when she was having one herself. On the other hand I just felt weak, exhausted by the whole insane love triangle this was becoming.
    He laughed without mirth. “You always know the right thing to say.” He said finally.
    “Do you love her?” I asked quietly.
    He looked at me for what seemed like hours, though it could only have been mere moments, and then turned back to the windscreen, we were nearing the end of Third Mainland Bridge now, and driving against traffic, the roads were free. It almost felt like I was flying, like the car was driving itself, flying with Michael and I to some destination that was a mystery to me, as much of a mystery as his relationship with Folake.
    “You don’t like her, so you don’t understand why I would want to be with her.” He stated softly.
    “It doesn’t matter whether I like her or not” I stammered. I slowed down and joined the traffic descending at Onikan . It was already dark, the sun had gone and left a cloudy, moonless night. There was a brief flash of white, followed by the deep rumble of thunder.
    “When I met Folake, I wasn’t interested in love or in a relationship.” He said. “I knew who I wanted” He gave me a look. “But she didn’t want me.” He paused and thought for a second.
    “She was a challenge, she had all these guys hanging around her, twisted around her little finger, she acted like she didn’t care about any of them, but she needed their attention, it gave her some sort of validation”
    You don’t have to tell me all this, I wanted to say. But I couldn’t. Why was he telling me? I wondered. Was he trying to validate his love for Folake? And when he said the person he loved didn’t want him, did he mean me? I remembered all the calls I had ignored and the texts I had deleted without reading, and I felt foolish, how could I have made him feel that I wanted nothing to do with him, when all the time I had been longing for him.
    But it was he who had made love to me, and afterwards apologized, filled with regret, regret