MELODY 11

As the moment went by, Toke noticed she was beginning to feel something different for Sunkanmi, apparently he had the most gorgeous smile she has ever seen a man have, and she was so lost in thought until Sunkanmi called out her name

“Toke, are you okay? You seem a little bit distracted” He asked her

“I’m okay, I was just…..never mind, I’m fine what’s up”

“Nothing actually, we were talking about you before you got distracted”

“Oh really, okay so why don’t you tell me, do you have a girlfriend?” She asked him and that made him laugh “What’s funny, I mean you should be looking at getting Melody a mother soon, right?”

“Well, I intend to though but you see, I just have to take my time, I need a good woman as a wife and a mother to my daughter, besides I’m still young”

“Young? How old are you if I may ask?” she sounded so curious

“I’m 28” He told her, Toke became so discouraged knowing that she was actually older than he was with almost two years

“Wow” She lamented and thought: see me thinking he could be mine, anyway, he wouldn’t want to be with a lady with one breast

“I guess you are disappointed” He mentioned

“No, why should I be?” She asked

“Anyway that’s my age, do you mind telling me yours?”

“I’m 29, soon to be thirty”

“Oh, I see, it doesn’t matter I guess”

“Huh? What’s that?”

“I don’t know, was just saying” He looked at her and his heart became heavy, how long was he going to hide the way he feels about her? He asked himself “Damn it Toke, I think I just have to let you know, I really like you” the moment she heard what he said her heart began to beat so fast “Yes Toke I really do, I know it might be difficult for you to believe me but it’s so true, I’ve felt this way ever since the day I met you, and seeing how much you love Melody, it gives me the conviction that I want to be with you, but now I guess you’d feel I’m not good enough for you because of our age difference” He paused so he could hear what she would say

“Sunkanmi I….I….” She stammered, at that moment a lady’s voice was heard from behind them, it was Rita

“So this is where you are, so this is what you do now Sunkanmi, you know I couldn’t believe it when they told me you were cheating on me with this ugly looking lady, I just had to come to find out myself, how could you do this to me?” Rita cried

“Who’s she?” Toke asked, she was confused

“She’s nobody” Sunkanmi answered

“Really, I’m nobody, you must be mad, aunty don’t let him deceive you, I’m his girlfriend, in fact I’m his fiancée, soon to be his wife, you better use your head and don’t let this fella deceive you because that is what he’s good at” Rita spoke aggressively

“I can’t deal with this I’m leaving” said Toke, as she stood up to take her leave

“Toke, please don’t listen to her, she doesn’t know what she’s saying” Sunkanmi muttered trying to calm Toke nerves down, but Toke had already taken her bag to leave the premises, Sunkanmi tried to stop her, and that made her bag fall on the ground and everything in it poured out of the bag, Toke bent to pick her belongings and sunkanmi helped out too “Don’t listen to her Toke, none of the things she’s saying is true” he continued talking to her when she was done packing her things, she rose and walked away in serious annoyance, Sunkanmi tried stopping her

“Don’t touch me” Toke screamed, she got into her car and drove away.

“How dare you Rita, how dare you spoil this moment for me” Sunkanmi ranted, he was really vexed

“Don’t blame me, I was only fighting for my man, anyway, I forgive you for cheating on me”

“You are crazy, so crazy, I don’t want to ever see you again, or else I will have to kill you myself” He walked to where his car was and drove away also.

Toke drove straight home, and not long after she got home she heard a knock on the door, she was too displeased to see Sunkanmi standing behind the door

“Toke I know you are in there, please open the door please” He pleaded, after much hesitation she eventually opened the door

 

“What do you want?”She asked him with a straight face

“That girl isn’t who she says she is, I don’t have anything to do with her”

“Oh you must think I’m a fool right, she claimed she’s your fiancée and you are telling me that she’s not, what do you take me for?”

“She’s not my fiancée, I’ve never asked her to marry me, I don’t love her, I swear I don’t, what I had with her was just sex, nothing more……Toke please you need to believe me” He spoke calmly, she left the door and he followed her in

“See the thing is I don’t even care if she’s your girlfriend or not, I don’t have a problem with that” She sat on the couch and he sat close to her too

“Toke I feel something strong for you, I can’t explain it, I just wish you can look through my heart and see that I have deep feelings for you, deeper than I can comprehend” He held her hands as he spoke, her heart began to beat fast again, she could feel the sincerity in his voice

“You having feelings for me is of no use” She told him

“Why? we could make it work, it doesn’t matter if you are older than me, I can make you the happiest woman on earth”

“It’s not about the age Sunkanmi”

“It’s about what, Melody?”

“No…….I’m dying, I….I….I have cancer, I have cancer” She began to cry profusely, Sunkanmi was speechless, he watched her as she cried, hoping she would stop and tell him that it was a joke but unfortunately, she continued crying while he remained mute.

MELODY 10

It was a beautiful garden, serene to the core, Sunkanmi got there before Toke, and he waited for almost half an hour until Toke joined him.

“Hey” She mentioned as she stood beside where he sat

“Hey” Sunkanmi responded, he stood up and hugged her “I’m so glad you could make it, you look stunning by the way” he complimented her

“Thank you, and you don’t look bad yourself” She said to him and sat down close to him

“Would you like to take anything, I bought drinks I thought you’d like, Melody do tell me you love fruit juice so I got you one”

“Yeah I love fruit juice, nice” she said as she grabs the juice from him

“I got small chops as well”

“Hmmm nice, I got this really planned out”

“Well I had to right”

“I like that” She opened the package and started consuming the content “Hmmm, tastes really good”

“I’m glad you like it”

“So speaking about Melody, how is she, she’s still at your mom’s house”

“Yes, she is, my mom would not let her go and I guess Melody doesn’t want to leave either so maybe when she realizes she misses you she will want to leave there and come to yours”

“Yeah right, so I’ve been meaning to ask, about her Mother, where is she?”

“I knew sooner or later you’d ask this question, anyway Melody’s mom is dead”

“Aww, I’m so sorry to hear that, I was actually thinking her mom was somewhere living her life, that she left because of her condition”

“That wasn’t the case, she died while given birth to her, she was my girlfriend when we were in school, we just got to the university when we started dating, we were really in love then, well you how it is when two young people are in love, so we would have sex almost every day” Toke gave him an awkward look “Yeah yeah I know that look, that’s just how it was then, so we dated for three years until Lola, her name was Lola, she eventually got pregnant, it was quite difficult for us to decide on what we wanted to do because Lola wanted to get rid of it but I wanted it, I loved her so much that I wouldn’t mind having a child with her at that time” Toke interrupted him by saying

“I guess her parents wouldn’t have taken it likely”

“Yeah, she had strict parents, but then I spoke to my mom about it and we tried to convince her to keep the baby, she agreed eventually, we were going to have the baby without her parents knowing, at least till after the baby was born, my mom was so supportive during the pregnancy stages but as fate could have it, she had complications when she was about 7 months gone, she had to undergo cs, unfortunately, she had the baby and didn’t make it out” He became so sober has he spoke

“Wow, that must have been a really painful event”

“Trust me Toke, it was, it was very difficult to accept that she was gone”

“How did her parents take it?”

“It was crazy, so crazy, they actually got me arrested, I was in jail for close to 5 months, it was hard for me to cope, but at the end of the day, they let me go and told to me to be responsible for the new born, well I didn’t mind, I wasn’t going to let them take my baby away anyway, so my mom helped in taking care of her and she is still helping out though” He chuckled

“I’m so sorry you went through all that, so how did you take it knowing that she was couldn’t talk”

“Oh, that, well she was born that way, we found that out when she was a baby, we noticed she wasn’t making any sound, we went from one hospital to another and they made us know that the complications that happened during her birth affected her vocal cords, they said nothing can be done, that we would have to live with it, and we’ve done that ever since”

“Nice, I really admire your courage, I can’t imagine how horrible it must have been and your mom and she must be such a wonderful woman”

“Yeah she is, I don’t know what I would have done without her”

“I know right… wow you’ve been through a lot”

“You can say that again but anyway, I’m fine now, my girl is doing great and I love her just the way she is”

“You just have to, she is such a beautiful girl” They laughed a little and paused.

“So enough about me, what’s up with you, Yeah how’s your boyfriend or should I say your bodyguard?”

“Really, my bodyguard”

“Well he acted that way the other day”

“Very funny, just so you know he is no longer my boyfriend, we broke up”

“What! Why? Was it because of the other day, I thought you guys must have reconciled after that day”

“We did actually, but something happened during the week and it lead to our break up, he actually broke up with me”

“I’m so sorry, do you mind talking about it?”

“Maybe another day”

“That’s fine, just know that it’s his loss, okay”

“Yeah yeah I guess” Toke stared at him, she liked the way he smiled and found it really cute, Sunkanmi stared at her also, to him, she was the most beautiful lady he has ever seen. The day was still long and they still had a lot to share.