Love Life of a Lily-Livered Loner
By

Kayode Odusanya


A lot of stories are told of alpha males that have dozens of girls swooning over them. I’m sure you have read many stories, and watched many moves where the boy is smooth, says all the right words, and gets the girl to fall head over heels for him. Stories are even told of geeks that end of with the hottest girl in the school and live happily ever after.

These stories might be unrealistic to some extent, but people love them. Now, the thing is, no one ever tells the story of the lily-livered guy that has a miserable love life. There are even some instances where guys like that get the girl of their dreams, and then an alpha male comes along and takes the girl away from them, easily.

My name is Sam and I welcome you to my world…the world of a lily-livered loner.

Hello guys... So, this story is not your conventional type of love story...this story is based on the love life of Sam...a lily-livered loner. Some guys talk to and attract girls so easily, but some guys have sweaty palms, and start to stutter when they have to approach the girl they like. That is the kind of guy Sam is.

The first chapter is coming up in about an hour. I hope you like it.

Another Masterclass

Carry on boss

Chapter 1: How Joy Came Into My Life

As a loner, I spent most of my time on my backyard poultry farm alone, or indoors, surfing the internet. Chickens can’t talk, but I sometimes talk to them. It might be hard for a lot of people to understand, but they always kept me company. Watching the way they interact in the little community I created for them always kept me entertained.

The bungalow I lived in had no fences, and thus I had no barricade for the birds, but they never went past my compound. As long as I fed them when due, I was their master. They depended on me, but little did they know I also depended on them for my sanity. Living alone was a choice, but I have never believed man was meant to live alone.

While in college I always planned to live on my own terms after graduation. I was never good with one on one interaction with people, in fact, I dreaded it. So, my plan was to cut down my interaction with people to the barest minimum after leaving school. I was lucky to get a large chunk of money from a house sale in the family, and that helped me relocate to a neighboring state, rent a house all to myself, and start my backyard poultry farm.

This particular day, I was scrolling through Instagram when I came across a video of a resort place with Tigers; sort of like a mini safari, but with just Tigers. The tour guide was in the midst of three large Tigers, and the striped beats were all over him as he spoke into the camera. One of the Tigers was standing on its hinds legs, trying to chew the man’s skull, but he seemed unbothered. I guessed it was an act of play, but it still scared me. I was intrigued by the post, and I left a quick comment below the post, saying I would love to visit the place in the future.

I navigated out of Instagram and was checking my email when I saw a notification message from Instagram. Someone had responded to my comment on the post about the Tigers. The first thing that caught my attention was the profile picture of the girl. She was light skinned, had a red turtleneck top, with strands of brown braids resting on her chest. Her beauty was captivating.

She had replied with, “Really? You’re not scared of getting eaten up by the Tigers?” I read it a few times, highly excited. I replied with, “I’d take the risk. I love animals that much.” I put a little smiley face at the end of my comment. I didn’t want to appear like I didn’t have anything else to do with my life than wait for a response from a stranger, so I put my phone in sleep mode, put it in my pocket and was walking over to check on the chickens when my phone beeped.

It was another reply from her saying, “I love animals too, but I don’t know if I’m bold enough for this.” We continued to go back and forth from there on. When the conversation was getting too long, I went over to her DM, and we continued to talk from there on. I found out we were in the same city. What were the odds? I thought to myself. I felt the universe was trying to tell me something. I asked for her phone number, and she gladly gave it to me. I switched to chatting on Whatsapp, and the rest of the week saw us getting closer and closer.

Joy was doing her Maters program at the University of Ibadan, which wasn’t too far from where I lived. Over the next couple of weeks, we made a lot of appointments to meet up, but something always came up last minute that made either one of us cancel at last minute. One day, while chatting with her, bored in bed, I asked if she would love to come over and know my place. We had been communicating via phone now over 4 months, and I didn’t see us as strangers anymore. Her response was a laugh, and after a few seconds of silence, she said she didn’t feel comfortable coming over. I didn’t push it any further, and I continued our conversation.

A few days later, I was cleaning my chicken cage when my phone beeped and it was a message from her. She said she had a short break in school and asked if she could come over to my place for three days, as she didn’t want to go home. Even though I eagerly wanted to see her in person, the thought of her spending three days at my place made me anxious. I mean, we had been talking for almost half a year now, but I still hadn’t seen her physically. I didn’t know how she was like in person, and she didn’t know how I was like.

What if she didn’t like my house? I thought to myself. I live alone, and I was sure there were some things I would overlook in my house that a visitor won’t. I just wasn’t comfortable with her coming over, so I told her I was sorry I had just fumigated my bungalow, and was heading over to spend some days at my friend’s place. Of course, it was a lie.

I could tell from the tone of her text messages afterwards that she was disappointed, but I just couldn’t have her over for a whole three days.

When the next weekend came around, she hit me up again with a request to come over. This time, I really had a reason. I had just discovered the health benefits of garlic, and had been eating a couple of garlic cloves daily, for like a week. There was no way in hell I would want to see her for the first time with my garlic breath. That would definitely kill the whole vibe we had built over time. I felt so bad lying to her a second time, this time via a phone conversation. I could tell she knew I was lying.

The next couple of days that followed, she responded to my texts with monotonous answers. Sometimes she would respond after hours of me sending her a text message. I gave myself a full week for the garlic to leave my system, and then I called her up to schedule a meeting.

Welcome back kayo80 we don miss you

Thanks to you guys for always showing support...next chapter coming up...

Chapter 2: My First Meeting with Joy


For our first meeting, I wanted somewhere neutral; not on her school campus or my house. I gave her the assignment of finding a conducive spot close to her school campus she would be comfortable meeting; somewhere not too formal. She got back to me with the address of a hotel in the area that had a cool poolside bar.

On the meeting day, a Friday, I got to the place an hour early to check the place out. It wasn’t bad. Cool music oozed out of speakers, placed in strategic points at the number 7 shaped outside bar. The bar was built along the length and breadth of one side of the swimming pool.
There is a saying; you never get a second chance to make a first impression, so I paid a lot of attention to how I dressed for the date. Brown loafers on my feet, with blue jeans, and my favorite navy blue polo top on made me feel ready for the day.

After checking out the bar, I walked out of the hotel premises to use the ATM across the road from the hotel gate. I caught a slim and tall brown skinned beauty staring at me I crossed the road. She was on the other side of the road, wearing a tight fitted black gown hat stopped just above her knees. Standing on the median, in the middle of road, waiting to cross the second half of the road, she still had her eyes on me. She looked away after a while, and then looked in my direction one more time before walking into the bank premises, and heading to the ATM gallery, which was just by the security post.

I crossed the road, walked into the same compound, and ended up right behind her on the ATM queue. She looked back and we locked eyes for a few seconds before she looked away. If it wasn’t clear to me before, it was now crystal clear that the girl was physically attracted to me. The normal thing to do would have been to find a simple way to talk to her. A lot of guys wouldn’t have found that hard to do, but to me, it was the hardest thing in the world; my heart started beating fast just from the thought of that. My palms got sweaty quickly, and my head went low. I hated myself for feeling this way. People always told me I would outgrow this, but here I was at 28, still too weak to approach and talk to someone of the opposite sex.

The girl looked back a few more times, but stopped after a while. I felt miserable watching her walk away after she was done using the machine. From the corner of my eye, I saw her look at me one last time. Why are you such a lily-livered guy, all you had to do was talk to her, she already gave you the green light. A voice in my head said. But it just wasn’t that easy for me. “Excuse me, the ATM is free.” A man behind me said, and I looked back at him, before realizing I had been lost in thought. I smiled and stepped up to the machine.

……….

I was back at the bar now, sitting by a table for four, all by myself, sipping on my cup of Guinness stout. I was seated facing the swimming pool, focused on the people in the pool. An athletically fit dark skinned guy was teaching a girl to swim. He made her lay horizontally on the pool, with his hands around her back and legs, while asking her to continually flap her legs. After a while, he would withdraw his hands, and she would stay on the surface of the water for a few seconds, floating, before struggling to stay afloat. He would then help her up, and they would both laugh, and then do it again.

Elsewhere in the swimming pool, to the extreme right from where I sat, was a bunch of teenage girls taken underwater shots as they swam around in circles. They were about 4 of them. I was still amazed at how long they could stay underwater when, from the corner of my eye, I saw someone approaching. She smiled when I turned to look at her. She was a lot shorter than I thought, about 5ft3, but she was breathtakingly beautiful. She had on a white, blue, and red stripped blouse, with sky blue jeans, and brown sandals. I particularly liked the navy blue scarf she had covering her head.

I got up to hug her when she got close enough, and she apologized for coming late before taking the seat next to me. I told her she looked finer in person, and she said I also looked more attractive in person. I couldn’t tell if she meant it or she just said it because I had said that. The alcohol I had in my system gave me some confident, and it made me very relaxed around her.

We had started talking about how it was odd we were finally meeting after chatting for months when a waitress disrupted our conversation. Joy ordered for a bottle of malt, and I asked if she would like anything to eat. She shook her head, and I asked if she was sure. She looked into space for a while before asking the slim dark skinned girl in a black t shirt in front of us if they had Asun. She said yes, and I ordered two plates.

We remained silent after the girl left. It was odd communicating on the phone for so long, and now seeing physically. You need time to get used to the person next to you as opposed to how you had imagined they would be in your head. I broke the silence by asking if she could swim, and she said no. She asked if I could swim, and I said no. We went silent again, watching the people having fun in the water. The waitress came back with her bottle of Malt, and I ordered a second bottle of Guinness for myself.

She was a bit shy when she first got to the place, but she relaxed with time, and started talking freely. The swimming pool instructor reminded her of her first love, so she went down memory lane, telling me about her love life as a naïve teenage. Occasional, she would smile while narrating a story from the past. She looked more attractive up-close, especially when she smiled. Her voice turned me on. It was raspy and felt like it was dipped in chocolate.

Just before we called it a day, I decided it would be cool for us to take pictures. I pulled out my phone from my jeans pocket and started taking photos of us both, from different angles. She was really close to me, and at a point, I asked her to kiss me. And like I had hypnotized her, she was about to do it, then quickly pulled back, laughing. It was so cool looking at her laugh, with her cute smile and great set of teeth.

As we walked out of the bar after the date, she asked of my chickens. I had a special breed that grew as big as turkeys, and she eventually told me one of the reasons she wanted so much to come over to my place was to see the birds. I knew she loved animals, but I didn’t know she was that into animals that she would want to visit me just to see the chickens.

I asked if she would be cool with coming over next weekend, and she was silent for a few seconds before saying, “Okay.” We didn’t say much after that, till we said our goodbyes when she was about to get in the Uber I had ordered for her.

Nice one... Next one

Next chapter coming up...

Chapter 3: A Weekend with Joy

Even though I had known Joy for a couple of months, I still felt skeptical about her coming over to my house. Over the years, I had become comfortable with being alone, mostly because I felt I wasn’t really good with relationships; whether friendships, or intimate relationships. I always found a way to mess things up, or people would complain about my lifestyle being weird. So, I just thought it was best to keep to myself. My relationship with most of the girls I ever had anything to do with was usually strictly physical, and on pay as you go basis, if you know what I mean. I was always comfortable with having friends with benefits, where no one owed anyone anything, and I didn’t have to see the girl for too long. But, with Joy coming over, that was going to change everything. She wasn’t naïve, so I believed she knew there was no way she would spend a weekend at my place without the matter of sex coming up, and I just felt that would complicate everything.

The day came, and I still had the urge to call her up to cancel, but I decided to let things happen naturally. At least, she was the one that brought up the idea of visiting me in the first place. Early that morning, an aunt of mine abroad had called to give me a task that I had to do immediately, and I couldn’t turn it down. I was still at a cyber café, doing the work when she called and asked if I didn’t want her over again. I checked my watch, and saw it was already 4pm. Time had gone by so fast. I apologized, and asked her to take a ride to where I was, and that I would pay for it. A few minutes later, she called to inform me she was at spot I was at. I went down to get her, and spent about half an hour completing the project before we left the place.

On the way to the bus stop, she had a frown on her face, and when I asked what was wrong, she said nothing. It felt like I was taking her someplace against her will and I really wasn’t comfortable with it. But she was an adult and I felt if she really didn’t want to go anywhere with me, she wouldn’t have called me up. She was silent throughout the cab ride to my house. I knew it had to be more than me making her wait at the cyber café, and decided I would let her be and ask her when we got home.

I hadn’t set up the living room in my bungalow yet, so we went straight to my room when we got home. She sat on the bed for a few minutes, quiet, and then she made a call to a particular person. Apparently, her friend was supposed to return the money she loaned her that day, but never showed up, and her phone had been switched off. After a few minutes of angry talk, and reaching a conclusion, she hung up. That was when she looked around my room and realized I didn’t have a TV. That was a personal decision as I didn’t like distractions, not like I couldn’t afford one. She joked about not staying the whole weekend because of that, and we laughed it off before she asked if she could go and see the chickens. It was 7pm, and I told her they would already be asleep by now. I let her know I would take her along when I was going to feed them early tomorrow morning.

My room was setup very simple; grey painted walls, with very little furniture in it. The first thing you see when you walk in is a rosewood dining table, and one single chair. The table was made for the dining area of my living room, but when the carpenter kept delaying with the complete set of chairs, I paid for what was done, and decided to put the table and chair in my room. On top of the table at all times was my white Apple laptop, where I did all my online writing jobs. There was a little space after the table, and then you had my bed, which was next to the window. It was a master’s bedroom, with the toilet and bathroom en-suite, so I didn’t have to leave the room much. I used the room right next to it as my walk in closest, with all my clothes, so that my main room could be as less cluttered as possible. I hated clutter.

I had a second laptop, a black Acer that I used mostly for movies. After eating the Pounded Yam and Egusi soup, with beef I bought from a popular restaurant in my area that night, we settled down to watch a movie in bed. She had changed to jeans shorts, and a see through silk shirt, with nothing underneath. It felt real good to have a female in my house, on my bed, giggling at the comedy movie we were watching.
When power went out, she decided to save the laptop battery, and so closed it short. We lay in bed after that, talking about our past relationships. She was really interested in hearing about mine, and the more I opened up, the more she did also. She had only had two boyfriends all her life, and the last one left her just a few weeks before we met online.

Our conversation slowed down after a while, and her body had been tempting me all night. You see, Joy was busty, and as she moved around in bed, her breasts would sometimes hit my chest. Every time that happened, I felt sexually aroused. I didn’t know if she was doing that intentionally, so I decided to make my move. We were lying in bed, side by side, and she had her back to me. I made an attempt to cuddle her, but she gently removed my arm from her body. I waited a few minutes, and tried again, but she did the same thing. I took a deep breath, turned around to face the wall, and closed my eyes to sleep. A few minutes later, she said, “Sam, are you awake?” I said yes, and turned around. There was silence. We were now facing each other. I couldn’t see her, but I could tell she was ready for me. I went in for a kiss, and she kissed me back and moved in closer to me. Still kissing, I slowly unbuttoned her shirt, and she pulled away for a second to take off the shirt herself. I also took of my top and went back to smooching.

I tried to go to third base, but she said, no, and I didn’t want to rush her. She seemed to really like kissing; as we kissed none stop for about an hour or more. Power was restored, and it killed the whole vibe. We slowly stopped, and she fell asleep in my arms.

……….

Cock crows from my chickens woke us up early the following morning. We went out together around 6:30 am to see them. I had a wooden cage in my backyard for the birds. It had a top and bottom compartment, and I placed it close to my room window outside. It faced the open space I had in the backyard. The cage was always open; the birds slept there, but went out to look for food in the morning. They loved earthworms, grasshoppers, ants and moths, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy their appetite because of their size. So I also fed them industrial feed twice a day.

Joy was scared at first when I came out with their sack of food, and 50 of them came running towards us. She left my hand after a while, and walked around, watching me pour food to their feeding bowls that I had positioned in strategic corners of my compound. The birds weighed an average 5 kg, but still were able to carry their weight around very well. When I was done feeding them, we sat on a wooden bench facing the open space in my backyard, watching them eat. “They kind of run like dinosaurs.” She said, focusing on a particular rooster that kept running from one feeding bowl to another.
“Dinosaurs?”
“Yeah; they sort of do like Dinosaurs.”
“Hmm…now that you say so, they do kind of move like Dinosaurs.” I said, smiling at the realization that she was actually right.
“So, which one are we going to eat today?” She said as she turned to the side to look at me, with a smile on her face.
“Umm…”
“I’m just kidding.” She said with a light laugh. She looked forward, and then turned back to look at me before saying, “Do you eat them though?”
“Nah!” I said; looking at two roosters, fighting, jumping in the air and clawing at each other. “Of course I eat chicken, but not just my birds.”
It always marveled me how chickens go from infants to adults all under a year; watching their growth, and being their provider and caretaker for those months gave me a sense of responsibility. The birds also helped when I get lonely sometimes. Those were the main reasons why I had the chickens. It really had nothing to do with the money I got from selling them, because the bulk of my income came from the self-help books I wrote and sold online.

Joy and I sitting in my backyard, watching the birds eat as we talked felt so special to me. The best Apps could be made by the best App developers in the world to help people communicate better, but nothing felt as good as one on one communication in real life; nothing.

Keep the updates coming boss

Carry on Boss

Still here

Sam makes me feel like someone I know . Sam is not just introverted, but a loner and it makes interactions very hard. Once he forms a bond, he will never break it unless the other person leaves. Thanks Kay. More ink to ur pen.
Sometimes I feel your writing not just as fiction but a part of life lived by someone.

Now I'm up to date with this one. Bros Kayo80 abeg no forget say we dey here...

Oya Oga kayo80!
Pls continue

Sorry for the delay guys...my plan was to post updates every weekend on this story, but sh*t happens... I encountered some unforseen circumstances. Sorry once again, I will start posting again Sunday night... By the grace of God.

Wow, that's good news,
Thanks in anticipation

i knew an update won't come today...


u never keep to ur words OP

Chapter 4: A Visit to Joy’s School

Things went quiet between Joy and me after her visit. I thought she had enjoyed her time with me, but I wasn’t so sure anymore. She was responding to my chats with monotonous answers. Also, one time I had asked her when she would be paying me a visit again, and she answered with ‘never.’ Even though there was ‘lol’ at the end of her message, which might suggest she was joking, but I have always learnt that a lot of truth is shared in jest.

I was hurt and I started thinking of what I might have missed during her three day stay at my place. I remembered she complained about me not having a TV, but I had two laptops and dozens of movies on them. I didn’t think it was that. Or could it be that I wasn’t romantic enough? The day she came over was actually Valentine’s Day, but I didn’t know till the following day. That’s how out of touch I was with the real world.
I kept thinking what the issue must be; was I not macho enough? Or was she vexed I had tried to sleep with her on her first visit over? Or maybe I didn’t feed her enough. I was going crazy, and it reminded me why I had decided to stay single for so long. As easy as it might be for a lot of people, this dating stuff was so complicated for me.

After being so needy for days and sending her multiple messages without getting befitting responses, I stopped sending her messages. I started feeling independent again after about three days of not reaching out to her at all. On the fifth day, I got a “Hii” message from her. The way she typed ‘Hi’ always made me smile for some weird reason. I stared at the screen of my phone for a few seconds before responding. We chatted on regular stuff, and when I noticed she seemed genuinely excited to be chatting with me, I asked her when she would be coming over again. She went on to ask why she had to come over, and why I can’t come over to see her instead. I wondered why I never thought about paying her a visit on her school campus. I guess because she had been so eager to come over to my house in the beginning I had thought that things would always be that way.

We fixed a date for the next day, on her school campus. I couldn’t wait.

………

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to dress casual, or corporate. In the end, I wore beige colored chinos pants, a sky blue long sleeve shirt, and black suede loafers. I called her when I got to the garden we were meant to meet on her campus and found a nice spot for us far from the crowd. The garden was like quarter the size of a football field, and it had had concrete benches with backs scattered all around the place. It was right next to her postgraduate hall, but there were more undergrad looking students roaming around. I was seated on one of the concrete benches by myself, under a big tree, watching teenagers stroll around aimlessly when my phone started buzzing in my pocket. It was her, and she wanted to know exactly where I was. Before I could find the right words to describe my exact location to her, she had already seen me and was heading in my direction. I ended the call, put my phone back in my pocket and looked up, watching walk towards me with a smile on her beautiful face.
She had on a flare, sky blue silk gown that stopped at her knees. “Don’t look at my legs.” She said and made me smile. She had really nice legs.
“How are you?” I asked as I stood up to give her a hug.
“I’m fine. Where are you coming from?”
“Why do you ask?” I asked as she sat next to me and turned sideways so she could look directly at me.
“Well, your dressing looks a bit formal.”
“Oh! Well, I’m actually coming from home.” I said and looked at what I was wearing.
“Okay. So…how are your chickens.” She asked with a smile on her face.
“They are fine.” I said and I stopped to look up as there was someone in front of us; a lanky teenage boy, wearing glasses, and with a backpack on his back. Without a word, he handed us both flyers and left. It was a colorful, glossy looking flyer for a church event. I glanced through the words on it, turned it around to look at the blank white back, and then placed it on the bench next to me. Someone that needs it will find it, I thought to myself.

We continued our conversation, and even though I had spent a weekend with her, I was getting to know more about her than I had ever known. I guessed it was because we did a lot of movie watching and making out while she was at my place, but this time we just had each other’s words to entertain ourselves. She did most of the talking, and opened up a lot. At Some point, I wondered why she was so comfortable telling me so much intimate details about herself, and then I realized I had always being an open book with people I let into my world. My openness had made her feel comfortable sharing her own secrets.

She was single, and her last experience with a guy didn’t end so well, so she had decided to stay to herself for a while. Even though I had no reason to doubt her words, I still thought she could be lying to me about not being in any relationship. But then, I thought back to her weekend with me. The only time her phone rang was when her mom called. There was no way she would have a boyfriend or even just a lover and not receive a call from the person on lover’s day.

She made it very clear to me that she didn’t want to get into any relationship any time soon, and I respected her decision. But it made me think of the definition of what we had together, because it sure wasn’t just friendship, and it also wasn’t a relationship. I guessed I would find out with time. Only time would tell.

Thanks for the update.

Kayo80 is back, but can you please make the update twice a week.. the suspense is killing bro

Thanks for the update boss

EAhumble:
Kayo80 is back, but can you please make the update twice a week.. the suspense is killing bro

Yes. The reason I didn't post on Sunday was because I want to post three times this week.

Chapter 5: A Double Date Night

Joy visited me at home one more time after my visit to her school, but afterwards, she never came over again. Weeks would go by when we wouldn’t see or really chat, and then we need meet up at a bar for a few hours. We started getting distant with time.

Through a series of hints she was dropping every now and then, I could tell the reason she wasn’t coming over again, even though she was so eager to do so when we first met had nothing to do with me not being romantic, or me not having a TV, or all the other things I had thought. The main reason why she wasn’t visiting me any longer was because I wasn’t giving her the kind of money she was expecting I would be giving her.

The two times she had visited me at home, I had given her enough money to get to her school and a thousand Naira on top. In hindsight, maybe I should have been giving her more. But before I met her, I had dealt solely with girls on a pay as you go basis. That is, they come, we have fun, and I give them some money for their time while leaving. It was more like business, and I never wanted that to be the case with Joy. I would give her money some times when she asks for specific amounts to handle some stuff, but I never felt comfortable giving her a large sum of money whenever she visited me at home. I would stop seeing her as a call girl if I started doing that, and I didn’t want that to happen.

One day, after going a couple weeks without seeing her, a friend of mine came into town for the weekend. The evening of his arrival was a Friday, and he felt like enjoying the night life of my city. He asked if I had a girl I could invite for a double date with him and his girl. I couldn’t think of anyone other than Joy, as she was the only female friend I had. While at the hotel my friend was staying in, sitting in the front seat of his SUV with him, I called Joy. I asked if she would like to hang out at a lounge with me, my friend, and his girl tonight and she accepted without hesitation. The condition though was that we come over to pick her from her hostel. I told her no problem, and requested she start getting ready as we would soon be on our way over.

After ending the call, my friend went up to his hotel room to get his girl, and we headed out to Joy’s school. His girl was a quiet person, nerd type, with glasses, just like my friend. I didn’t speak to her much after the initial introduction as she appeared to be the reserved type. She sat in the front seat with my friend, and I sat at the back, having a conversation with my friend on the way to our destination.

After a couple of minutes delay when we got to her school, Joy finally appeared from her hostel gate. Dusk was falling rapidly, but I could still see her smiley, beautiful face. She was dressed casual in a black tee shirt, sky blue jeans, and brown leather slippers. I introduced her to my friend, and we got in the car and drove off. I felt the urge to move closer to her and hold her in the back seat, but I was not confident enough for a public display of affection. Besides, we hadn’t seen in a while, and I know how girl’s feelings toward a person can change quickly. She might not be cool with me doing that with her anymore and shove me off, which would ruin my day, so I kept the space between us.

The lounge wasn’t far from her school campus, and we arrived there within minutes of takeoff. We sat outside, as the inside was filled up. They had black plastic tables and chairs scattered around a wire meshed compound. The canopy we sat under was also black, and it gave the place a dark feel. My friend and I were sitting at the table facing each other, and the girls were also facing each other at the four chair table sitting arrangement. When we settled in, my friend asked Joy if she knew the meaning of her name in Yoruba, and she answered with, “Ayo.” He smiled and asked what tribe she belonged to because he really couldn’t tell. She smiled and asked him to guess. Then his girl, with a smile on her face asked him why he wanted to know her tribe. He turned to talk to her, and that was the end of the conversation he was having with Joy.

His girl must have thought he was flirting, but I just saw it as him trying to make Joy feel comfortable. A light skin waitress dressed in all black arrived, and we ordered drinks. A few seconds later, a lady in white apron from the kitchen section of the lounge came over, and we all ended up ordering the same thing; fish and chips.

The drinks arrived within a few minutes, and we had to wait a while for the food. When loud music started booming out of speakers all around us, and we got tired of talking out loud to be heard, each person resulted to going through their phones. We would talk a few times, every now and then, but majority of our time there was spent drinking, eating, and going through our individual phones.

Later that night, when we went to drop her off in school, Joy gave me a very intimate hug when I walked her to her hostel gate. She held on real tight, and longer than usual. It was unexpected as it was quite unusual for her to show public display of affection. When she pulled away from me, through the bright street lights fixed around her hostel, I could see in her eyes that she genuinely was happy to have seen me that day. It appeared like she didn’t want the night to end. Before I could ask if she would like to come home with me, she had already turned around and was walking into her hostel.

As I walked back to join my friend and his date by the car, I thought of what could have prompted the change in her disposition towards me. I found out what it was months later, but it was far from what I had believed it was; far from it.

Thanks for the update boss

Great update but I don't really know where this is going oo!
I always love your story @kayo80

It's good to have you back. Thanks forgthe updates Kay.