My mud caked shoes left prints on the floor as I walked into the restaurant, not oblivious to the stares I was getting from the smartly dressed people in their Armani suits and Elie Saab dresses. Well, I couldn’t fault them as I knew I really did look a fright. I was drenched and my hair clung to the back of my neck. My once pristine white dress was dirty brown and torn in 7several places. Any other day, nothing would have possessed me to walk into such an establishment looking the way I did, but this wasn’t any other day, it was THE day.
I summoned up courage and marched towards the Maitre’d. I didn’t actually have that far to walk as he was already bearing down on me like a raging bull during a bull fight.

“Madam you can not be in here” he spluttered, clearly trying to remain civil but failing miserably.
This is it Rolake, I told myself. Now or never.
I am here to see Mr Jide Silva, I told the Maitre’d.

The contortion of his face from anger to surprise was hilarious but I knew laughter would be terribly inappropriate at this time so simply glared back.

He recovered surprisingly quickly and said ‘ Please leave the premises at once !’.

Annoyed, I was about to launch into a lengthy tirade when I heard the man in question call out “ROLAKE”! Jide was apparently just about to leave when my face-off with the maitre’d started. When that one realised I actually knew Jide he started apologising profusely. I couldnt help but smirk and say na nana na na( in my head of course). The shock of realising that the youngest Nigerian billionaire and heir to a multi national company would know someone so strangely dressed made him stutter. Jide took off his jacket and put it on me after noticing how much I was shivering (weirdly enough I didn’t). He gently walked me out of the restaurant and into the night.

‘Wait, whats going on…what happened….. how did you know I was here?’ , said Jide.

It all came out together though and I hardly heard a word until he repeated himself.

I think I should start from the beginning, don’t you think, I said.

He nodded and I proceeded to do just that.

‘I was in the car with Anita and Lola and somehow their excitement hadn’t rubbed off on me. They had been chattering non stop since we left Ikeja and hadn’t even noticed my pensive mood. Suddenly my first day at Corona came back to me. You, smartly dressed and already a playboy, even at the tender age of eight, sat on a table. All the girls circled around you as you regaled them with a story of your summer visit to the UK. I listened with rapt attention until you noticed me and motioned for me to come over. I think that was the day it all began. For me anyway…. we started talking a lot after that and became inseparable. We manipulated our parents into sending us to the same seconadary schools and university in the US’.

‘I thought everything would fall into place when we got back to Nigeria. But it didnt.. I waited for you for 5 long years until my father’s snide remarks about me pining for someone I would never get made me finally accept Dotun into my life. And still you didnt make a move and when he proposed I had no choice but to accept. Dotun genuinely loved me and I was prepared to be contented with that. On the way to the church this evening I saw the lights of the Majestic and was reminded of how much you liked the place. And then I knew I couldn’t go on with it anymore. I had to tell you how I feel or forever live a life of regret and what ifs… I took a deep sigh and looked up at his face. ‘Jide, I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember and I need to know how you feel’…

I started twisting my fingers and came to a complete stop. I had just placed so much into Jide’s hands and the terror of 7possible heartbreak was making my hands shake. Jide bent his head and took my hands in his. I saw a single tear glide slowly down his cheek as his shoulders began to shake. Confused and not really sure what was happening I waited for him to start talking. He put a hand is his breast pocket and withdrew…..

---

‘Emma are you serious?’, Biodun asked. ‘Don’t tell me he had been carting a ring around all this while waiting for he to come screaming to him’.

Emma didn’t realize he had been sitting behind her, reading as she typed. She shot him an evil look and turned back to her laptop.

‘Well’, she said. ‘I still don’t know. You guys are so hard to figure out. The possibility of that is very high and so is the possibility of him rejecting Rolake. The male species is a rather confused one’.

‘Ehn’ he shouted. ‘It’s you women that are confused…stringing along different men’.

At that she had to laugh out loud. But this was an argument nobody would win so she kept mum.

‘In any case’, Biodun continued, ‘if Jide wanted to marry Rolake he would have. Obviously, something is wrong with her’.

She flew at him in outrage and pounded him on the back.

‘Why cant you accept that maybe something is wrong with HIM!’ she said.

Biodun laughed as he tried to ward off her blows.

‘Jeez Emma, its just a story’.

She stopped suddenly as her eyes shifted to a photo frame that was lying face down on her dressing table and got a faraway look in her eyes. Biodun followed her gaze and stopped smiling.

’Oh Emma, i’m sorry’, he said. Didn’t mean to upset you.
‘Its alright, she answered. I’m over it’.

She put on a brave smile and continued typing.

---

… a handkerchief. Jide raised his head up and I saw his mouth stretched in laughter. He was laughing? After i’d just bared my soul to him. It was like someone had just doused me with a bucket of cold water.

“I’m sorry Rolake but I don’t feel the same way you do'”, he said .’I won’t lie and say that I didn’t suspect that you had feelings for me but I had hoped it would fade away. You aren’t my type and I don’t want to make you miserable. I hope we can move past….

My mind whirled as I struggled to come to terms with the fact that my worst fears had just come to pass. The ringing of a phone snapped me out of my reverie and I realised it was Jide’s..

‘Yeah, she is here ‘, I heard him say and he hung up.

The next five minutes passed in a blur as Jide spoke but I didn’t hear a word. I felt like curling up into a ball and fading away. The bridal car came to a halt in front of me and Anita and Lola hopped out. Jide must have told them what happened because they didn’t bother asking anything. They just guided me into the car and we drove off. I remember one last thing though- the strange look on his face as the car pulled away.

---

He placed a hand on Emma’s shoulder as she continued staring at the blinking cursor.

‘So he did break her heart?’ asked Biodun as he finished reading. ‘You know not all of us are like Segun’.

Emma tensed as she heard the name. Sensing the need for her to be alone, Biodun left her in the room and closed the door softly behind him. She stood up and went to the picture and raised it up. Inside was the word- SERENDIPITY. She had replaced Segun’s picture a few days after the pain of his betrayal had started fading away. That word alone had convinced her that although it was not planned, his leaving her had been the catalyst for her to pour her emotions into writing and launch a career as an author. In a way, she thought wryly, she actually had him to thank. Maybe the men folk aren’t actually that bad she thought and sometimes heartbreak could be blessings in disguise.. a light bulb went off in her head at that moment and she hurried back to her laptop.

---

Jide watched as the car moved away until it became a speck in the distance. Then he allowed the true tears to fall. Rolake would never find out that he had steered Dotun in her diretion in an attempt to get her to stop loving him. He tried to be distant and aloof but it made her hold on tighter. Even though he loved Rolake he couldn’t allow her to suffer loss so early in life. The blasted disease that had reduced him to a shell of his former self gave him only a few more months to live but he had the satisfaction of knowing that Rolake would be well taken care of.

Dipping his hand into his trouser pocket, he pulled out the 22 carat diamond solitaire cut ring surrounded by tiny rubies. He had bought the ring three years previously when he made his first million. Just a routine medical checkup though had changed his life in an instant. He had been diagnosed with a rare blood disease and it was a miracle that he was still alive. Well, thought Jide. Her hatred for me is a small price to pay for her eventual happiness. He turned round and started walking off into the night…..

---

Emma reflected on Rolake and Jide’s story. Rolake would forever look at Jide as a heartbreaker, never knowing the sacrifice he had to make for her own happiness. Although his actions would seem callous to anybody else, the selfless decision was one that would probably push Rolake to see Dotun as more than a friend and open her heart to a loving relationship. It was probably the best gift he could have given her and certainly the most expensive.

Written by Mojisola Abudu.

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