TINU'S TALE - PART THREE

He lived in one of the high rise buildings on Bourdillon road Ikoyi. When we got there, he took me up the elevator to the 8^th floor and then we walked down the corridor to his apartment. The white walls of the sitting room was adorned by beautiful paintings and some Biafra artefacts, a few pictures of him, his siblings and his extended family but there was none of him with any woman or with any kids. So it was okay to rule out the thought of him being married. He then led me to master bedroom where he handed me a clean white towel, a doll dress and under wear to change into. I was surprised. What man keeps feminine underwear?

“Err.....Chibuzor who owns these things and why do you have them in your possession?” I queried.

He looked at me and smiled “I bought them for days like this. You wouldn’t want to go to bed wearing the same underwear you had on all day would you? Especially after our little extra vocational activity”. He mused.

“So every girl you bring to your slaughter house ends up leaving with souvenirs in the form of underwear and dresses? Interesting”

“You should go and take a shower while I fix us something to eat; dinner won’t make itself”.

“But I’m not hungry; I just want to indulge in those extra activities with you all night”. I didn’t know how these words fell out of my mouth, but they did and I was left embarrassed for a few seconds.

He came up to me and pulled me off the bed, held me close and whispered into my ear “Patience my dear, patience”. He planted wet kisses on my neck and grabbed my right butt cheek and with his left hand pulled my hair from behind and stared into my eyes – it was scary, but a big turn on. Then he pushed me against the wall and started to kiss me. He raised up my skirt, then my right leg and clipped it onto his while we made out like teenagers. I could feel his bulge press up on me and I wanted him to have me there, but he stopped.

“You would always have this, you would always have me...now go and take a bath and get ready for dinner. You’d need some food to give you energy for what I’m going to indulge you in tonight”.

“Yes Daddy”. I replied sardonically.

As I moved towards the bathroom I couldn’t help but notice my phones on the bed, but at that time I could care less about my husband would think and not even the thought of my son softened my already hardened heart. It’s crazy the type of hold Chibuzor had on me; I knew what I was doing was wrong but I didn’t give a damn. I was happy in the space I was with him. When I was done showering I got into the silk agent provocateur babydoll dress and underwear he gave me and went out to the kitchen. Whatever it was he was cooking smelled delicious.

“What are you cooking babe?” I asked as I held him from behind while he added some spice into what he was cooking.

“I get to be babe tonight?” he replied smiling. “I’m making spaghetti bolognaise but with some ginger and garlic....I hear it would heighten our libidos”

“Hmmm...Libidos ey? I see someone wants to be extra naughty tonight. I hope you got condoms though, because I’m not ready for any unwanted pregnancy or any pregnancy at all”.

He kept cooking and seemed uninterested in what I said.

“Chibuzor!! I’m sure you heard me the first time. Anyway, no condom no sex”. I said in my now serious tone.

He stopped stirring the sauce and pulled me close – “You sure about that?” Then he kissed me softly on my lip and pressed himself on me.

“Well, no. But I think we should protect ourselves don’t you think? Who knows what you’re carrying or what I’m carrying and with this mood of yours tonight I’m not planning on getting pregnant”. He gave out a loud hysterical laugh.

“What are you saying woman? We already had sex twice without condoms and you pick now...today, as the time to start using them? Come off it. If either of us has any venereal disease it would have been transferred already, but I’m sure we are both clean and what’s with all the pregnancy talk. Can’t you mother my child?”

“You’re actually crazier than I thought; as if sleeping with you isn’t bad enough you are talking about having a child. You better go have that discussion with one of your hook ups”.

He managed to give off a fake smile after which he went back to cooking, while I went to the sitting room to catch up on my favourite soap opera. Over dinner we talked basically about work stuff and life in general and it’s funny how we never talked about Shola at anytime, not even once. After the delicious meal came dessert; dessert being me. Before then, I’d never allowed any man go down on me, that is engage me in oral sex not even Shola. Always felt it was dirty and wrong, but Chibuzor – that man never gives up. He was hell bent on indulging me in this obscene act and his insistence and persistence soon paid off as I eventually gave in. Oh boy!! Forget any negative feeds you might have gotten or heard about oral sex. It’s the best type of foreplay any man can indulge a woman in. We had countless rounds of sex till we eventually fell asleep.

I woke up pretty late the next day, very tired and restless. When I checked the time it was already 8:40am or thereabout. I turned to the other side of the bed where Chibuzor laid but he wasn’t there. So I hurdled out of bed and went around the house looking for him but he was nowhere to be found. Only to get back to the room and find a note on the side stool.

Hey

You looked very sound asleep and didn’t want to wake you

 anyway I’m off to work and I hope you’re up early enough to get to work else you’d have a query waiting for you.

You might also want to think of a good lie to tell your husband. I’m sure he would be dying inside to hear from you.

“Wow!! Look at this bastard”. I couldn’t even blame him, there was no point crying over spilled milk. He had shown me the type of person he was the first time but I was still stupid enough to let my feelings get the better of me. There and then, I made up my mind that the affair with him was over and never again in the duration of my marriage would I be caught up in any adulterous web. I still needed to shower, get into clean clothes and go to work. Then I still needed to settle down and come up with the perfect lie for my husband. It sure was going to be a very long day.

It was now 9am and I knew either way I was still going to be queried by the good for nothing bastard for coming late even when he was my reason for doing so there was no point rushing to work. I headed home instead and took a clean shower, got the maid to fix me something quick before heading to work. My phones were still off and all I prayed for was that Shola didn’t feel the need to come over to my office. What would I do, what would I say?

 I pondered on this for a long while till I finally came up with something. I went downstairs and stood by the busy road where I placed a call to Shola.

“Hey babe, I’m so sorry I haven’t called you. I was asked to rush down to our factory in Ibadan yesterday to sort out something, but that meeting ran till late in the night hence my reason for not coming home last night. The network was messed up, calls weren’t going through and data service was even worse. I’m so sorry babe I hope I didn’t get you too worried. How is Sesan?”

“I’m fine and he’s fine too. I was already on my way to your office when your call came in. You really shouldn’t do that next time, I’m sure if you sent a text I would have gotten it. I called Chibuzors phone countless times too but he didn’t take his calls. You really shouldn’t be doing that to people that care about you, you got us all worried. What kind of stupid work is it you’re doing that’s making you act irresponsible that you’re forgetting your duty as a wife and mother? Look, you’re soon going to have to stop that job because I don’t understand this nonsense”.

“Oko mii, I’m sorry. Please I promise it would never happen again. Please I’m sorry I would always keep in touch no matter how caught up I am with work”.

“That’s your business. If it happens again be sure you’re never going to work again for as long as we are married”.

He didn’t let me say anything again before he hung up the phone. I heaved a big sigh of relief. Thank God he didn’t come over.

I wasn’t seeing Chibuzor anymore and for the next few weeks/one month, all I did was enjoy time with my family. Then one morning I woke up extremely tired, threw up a few times and was sick in my stomach. I was very hungry and angry at the same time about everything. Like the smallest things that I would normally pass on from started to piss me off. I couldn’t go to work that morning so I called in sick and in the afternoon, Shola sent his driver to come and take me to the hospital. It wasn’t until after I told the doctor my symptoms that I realised I was pregnant. Christ Jesus. He ran every possible test on me including the pregnancy test and to ascertain my fear, he came back and told me that I was pregnant.

I was pregnant with chibuzors child – the worst thing that could have happened.

In the three-four weeks that I had stopped seeing chibuzor, I slept with my husband just once and even that time he didn’t ejaculate, because he was angry at how I was motionless in bed and allowed him do all the work. So there was no way the child could have been his. The doctor gave me a few drugs after which he congratulated me again and told me he would speak to Shola later in the day to also congratulate him. That was when I realised I needed to devise a plan to get myself out of the predicament I had gotten myself in. I pleaded with him not to tell Shola yet as we had been having issues and I would prefer to surprise him with the news of a new child when I deemed it right. He gladly agreed.

When Shola got home from work, I simply told him it was all work stress and the doctor had prescribed some drugs that would relieve me in a matter of days. I decided not to let Chibuzor in on this development and in the following days I started checking around for a doctor that could perform an abortion on me. I found one who seemed to match the profile of who and what I wanted so I booked an appointment for the next week. I met with him at his hospital somewhere on the Lekki-Epe express way. It was very discreet and not a place anybody could easily locate which was fine by me. He did an examination on me and informed me that I was six weeks pregnant so all he would give me were drugs to expel the growing foetus. He handed the drugs to me, some of which I was asked to take in his office and the others to be taken when I got home; and in return, I paid him a very handsome amount of money.

He told me I would feel dizzy and my tummy would hurt a lot but that I shouldn’t worry as that was the usual body reaction to the drugs. So when I got home and started feeling the stomach pains, I decided to take some sleeping pills that would knock me out while the drugs destroyed the foetus.

I woke up at the family hospital with the doctor, Shola, my mother and sister by my side. The look on their faces said it all, they knew about the abortion. What would be my reason for abortion? I shut back my eyes and sought the great oblivion of sleep.