Sharing everything with my good friend Jane was so easy. We met at NYSC camp and worked at the Secretariat together. Then we interned together at Blue Breed Advertising and got permanent positions afterwards. She was just beautiful with great genes and her kind of beauty and body was almost unfair. I’m not even gonna lie to sound humble, I’m a light-skinned cutie pie myself with well-groomed dreadlocks and a chiseled body that I owe to countless gym hours.

The glasses I wear to correct my shortsightedness gives me a look that’s more sophisticated than nerdy. I probably owe that to my dreadlocks and my choice of a round thin-rim frame for my medicated lenses. Add our impeccable fashion choices to the mix and we looked like a match made in heaven to anyone who saw us together.

So how does someone like me get stuck in the friend zone with someone like her you ask? Definitely not by choice. At the time of our meeting, we both had serious relationships but it was impossible not to be friends with each other. During the final phase of our internship we posted a picture we took at the office where she was playfully pecking me but it looked so romantic that my girlfriend wouldn’t believe otherwise.

And who could blame her? We spent so much time together doing everything. We had so many pictures together but that particular picture was the final straw. My girlfriend broke up with me thinking I was having an affair with Jane and flaunting it in her face. Jane offered to speak to her and clear things up but I declined.

I was officially single but I never made a move on Jane even then because she still had a boyfriend and I knew from the early stages of our friendship that she was very loyal, a rare type of girlfriend. Even if she didn’t have a boyfriend, we had already gotten so close that for the first time in my life I had a platonic relationship with a female friend that I didn’t want to ruin if she took my advances the wrong way.

When guys at the office found out that Jane and I weren’t actually together, they began to make advances. She would tell me about them and we would have a good laugh. I hid my jealousy but I could sense that it was slowly mounting to a point where I would eventually unravel. Then one day the universe gifted me my chance and I took it so quick it probably surprised the universe.


When I pulled into the parking lot that Friday morning, Jane’s car was already there which was strange because I lived much closer and usually got to the office before her everyday. Once I was settled, I went to her office and tried the door but it was locked. Also strange. I usually barged in without knocking, shouting “Jane” and the door was always open. I suspected something was off. On my third knock she responded.