We’ve all been through heartbreaks at one point or the other, love is a complicated tussle that more often than not, explodes in our faces. The journey of a relationship is heavily booby trapped and just almost anything can go wrong. Sometimes, let’s admit it, we get bored with our partners, we cheat, we lie, and it all comes to an end leaving at least one party devastated. We realize love isn’t as magical as we thought it was. Granted, there are those that survive the test of time and end up in marriage and a beautiful future, in some others, the verdict becomes simple, you were just not right for each other.

Ever since I was little I would watch these American romance movies where boy meets girl, woos girl, girl falls in love, and they would both seem happy together, and I would tell myself, when I get a girl I can convince myself that I love, I would love and treat her right. Our love would be like fireworks on the fourth of July. It would be fulfilling and it would be simple and perfect because everything would fall into place. The condition was, I had to convince myself that she was the one my heart beats for. I grew up knowing a lot of girls with their different attitudes and slowly built an understanding of them. Girls, I tell you, are truly a complicated specie created by God. We are hopeless without them but with them, sometimes its like you just want to strap yourself to an anchor and dive into the Bermuda Triangle. I learned to keep my emotions on check because I realized girls will manipulate them or shatter them. The few ones that might be human enough to accommodate them may no longer be satisfied with them in the long run. It’s a cold world out there trust me.

Forget what the heading of this article says, I’m a grown ass man now though, or at least I’m no longer a kid. I believe I have attained a respectable level of maturity therefore, I can deal with issues of the heart appropriately. I’ve had had my fair share of flings with girls, pseudo-date them and move on before anything gets too deep. That, my friends, is the motto. Well, was the motto, until I met Natasha. Tasha as I’d like to call her, wasn’t the prettiest of them all, she wasn’t the kind of girl I would sell a lung just to be with. She just kind of wormed her way into my life. This is the point where I reveal that Tasha and I work at the same place. Before you readers pull out your Uzis and start pumping me with bullets in your minds, I admit I flaunted the golden rule. Do not eat where you poop, or more clearly, business and pleasure are not supposed to mix. I thought I could wither the storm and heck, what’s a guy without a challenge that has to do with a chick right? I didn’t really pay much attention to Tasha at the beginning. She got close to some of the guys in my inner circle at work then one day, walked up to me and forced a conversation out of me.

She was inquisitive that girl, and I was curious as to why this girl took a sudden interest in me. We talked for an hour or so, then through out the evening after work and it was thrilling. I made up my mind, I wanted her BB pin so I got it. I made her add me because I didn’t want to directly ask for it(sue me, I’m weird like that). During that time we had gotten to know a whole lot about each other. She had definitely gotten my attention. By the time I got home, I just couldn’t wait to see her the next day. Things moved pretty swiftly from there. I’d see her from afar and this weird smile would creep up on my face. We spent more time together in the office but nobody read anything into it, the place was big after all and there were a lot of staff. Plus, she was close friends with my buddies at work and thus, the perfect cover was established as we became a circle of friends.

One day, Tasha invited me for a friend’s birthday gig, I had plans that night so I declined the invitation even though she hinted the possibility of her getting drunk and losing her inhibitions at the party. I could tell she wanted me to accompany her really badly. That night while on my bed, I glanced at my phone and saw the red notification light blinking. It was my lovely Tasha. I opened the message and she had texted me to throw her disappointment at me for not going to the party with her. From the way her words were arranged, I could tell she probably wasn’t herself. She then blurted out an “I love you”. I wouldn’t say I didn’t see it coming, I was just surprised at how direct it came. I didn’t know what to say at that moment, I just replied with an awkward “yeah you too”. Her reply to that was purely disdain. I think I broke her heart that night. The next morning she told me she was drunk and was typing bollocks to different people but I knew better, that heartfelt rendition was not a machination of a drunk mind, it was the truth. She later on confided in me that after three failed relationships in the past, she just wished the next guy she would date would be the first to pop the magic words and actually mean it. Little did I know that slowly but surely, I was falling for her.

Okay. I like. Following. This is great. Keep at it.

One evening after a long day of work which now included flirting with my new found friend, I got home and went through the pictures I had of her on my phone and I couldn’t stop staring at them.

I had this cheesy grin on my face like a fat kid left alone in an ice cream truck would have. Then it hit me. I had fallen in love with Tasha. It all started to make sense now. Cupid had finally hit a target on my behind. I scrambled to get up, picked up my phone and sent her a romantic message on BBM telling her how I felt and how I could finally tell her what I knew she wanted to hear-that I loved her. This was it. I had fallen in love with a charming, smart and intelligent girl
and there was nothing I could do about it. If love could be described as the influence weed has on you, I think its safe to say I was higher than a kite.
Little did I know what was in store for me…