Ronke,

I miss you so much it hurts my whole body.
The world is being unfair to us.
The world is on my sh*t list as is this couple that is making out across to me in this restaurant.
I think i'm going to have to go on a mission of revenge.
And I must beat up the world's face with my bare knuckles making it a bloody pulpy mess.
And i'll stump on this couple's teeth reminding me off your sweet little crooked tooth that I love.
I might spend the rest of the night behind bars.
Yet still my love for you would rekindle.
The year I obeyed the clarion call in service did I your face see.
I fear I may not see your warm smile and the sheer oddity of your crooked tooth.
I miss you so much my whole body hurts.

Yours
An Ex Corp Member NGR/201*C/001

Dating a Sugar Daddy was a No! No! Or it should have been.
The triumvirate of Bimpe's being - body, soul and spirit - was against the entirety of th SD business.
Every thread in her moral fabric cringed at the thought of having to get in bed with Chief Pascal Amuda.
Maybe! Just maybe, it would not get to that. She hoped.

You see, Adebimpe Adesuwa is a stunning beauty at 5'7", brown-skinned with a pretty dimple sitting below her temple every time her astonishingly small lips curves into a smile.
I know this because Bimpe is my friend.
It all started four years ago, Bimpe had been offered a provisional admission to study in the University of Calabar.
Bimpe was filled with excitement and the future for once in her life had lights shinning at the tunnel's end.
Bimpe isn't from a rich home, her mother sells palm oil and her father sells cooking gas and refills used gas cylinders and canisters.
I would tease her that her parent were in the oil and gas business. 'Akpan! Stop that', she would curse under her breath.
Her parent treated the news of her admission with a certain nonchalant disposition. A disposition that stemmed from the fact they could not afford such luxury.
Mama and Papa Adesuwa had seven mouths to feed and school up to SSCE level. Seven, not counting Bimpe and her ailing grandfather in whose house they still lived in somewhere in the ghetto of Lagos.
A university education was a luxury they could not afford for Bimpe.

Step in! Chief Pascal Amuda. Chief as he was fondly called by Papa Adesuwa was a family friend to the Adesuwa's and a long time coustomer to Papa Adesuwa's cooking gas business. He would roll up in his Nissan Pathfinder with 5 to 6 gas cylinders to be refilled every month ending. That's how he balled.
'Ah! Papa Adesuwa, your daughter is growing very fast and very beautiful ni', he said with a cheeky smile. Papa grinned sheepishly - a rich man's words are always funny.
Parents should be wary of male family friends who are quick to point out what a lady one's daughter is growing into.
Chief had overheard Bimpe tell her parent of her admission. He had overheard Mama say 'Bimpe! My daughter, you know we can't afford the luxury. It would be better if you could join mama iyabo in plaiting and fixing hair at her shop so you can support this family'.
This was his chance! Chief was a major shareholder in the SD industry. He believed it kept him young and rejuvenated. He had an estranged wife, one who was in the know of Chief's dalliances with university girls. To chief and the general public he was a divorcee - or so he tells everybody he meets.
That day, Chief offered to help out with the acceptance and tuition fees for Bimpe's first year in school.
He had rambled on and on about how it would be a waste to let go of her admission and how much he was concerned, that education is important. Except he didn't tell mama and papa Adesuwa his 'real' intentions. Intentions in which he wasted no time in telling Bimpe when he got the chance. Money was nothing to chief, a means to an end. Papa and Mama Adesuwa heaped praise upon praise on Chief Pascal, he was their saving angel.

Bimpe knew she would be dining with the devil himself, but she wanted to hope, the possibilities of a university education were endless. How could she say No!
Maybe! Just maybe it won't get to the bedmatics Chief was so keen on.

It was futile to hope it wouldn't, that chief wouldn't....
Bimpe had played smart through out her first year.
She had started braiding hair in the hostel to support herself in a bid to cut off ties with her sugar daddy, but the proceeds were enough to change her sanitary and nothing more. Chief had visited Calabar twice to which Bimpe had pleaded to the defence of excruciating menstrual cramps on both occasion. Trips to Tinapa and The Cattle Ranch in Obudu were substitutes to a trip to a hotel, to the disappointment of Chief Pascal.

Bimpe was threading on sinking waters, departmental dues, absurd hand-out prices, lab fees, course registrations and the likes were taking up her savings.
She had hoped she wouldn't have to go to Chief for he 2nd year tuition fee.
Bimpe wasn't doing too well in the hope department, she was fast learning everything came with a price.
First Semester, 2nd year, the deed was done. The 'T's and 'I's were crossed and dotted.
Bimpe was plucked like a cock plucked a hen. Her flower taken from her in exchange for her education - an expensive exchange in all its ramifications.
That night Bimpe felt filthy, she wished the hot bath she just had would cleanse her. She wished she had taken up mama iyabo's offer to braid hair. A hole had been torn in her fabric.
It was painful. It hurt. Chief was her first. Had she been an Asian, she would have taken her own life. The image of Chief's sweaty body on her, his sickening moan and groan the entire time while she writhed in pain and his evil smile of accomplishment at the end would haunt her the rest of her life.
What if she got pregnant? What if she got infected? ..
Bimpe's mind was flooded with all kinds of thoughts. She cried herself to sleep.

Fast forward! 3 years! Bimpe is in her final year, top of her class she has juggled close to six sugar daddies 17 to 25 years older than her. Her mother and father passed away in a car accident a year to the day.
The thing is I fell in love with Bimpe in her 2nd year when I met her that fateful night in tears behind the library block.
I wanted to tell her to quit the SD business but my pocket money was 5K monthly and they didn't even come in time.
'Akpan, you are a good friend', she would tell me. Her 'half-asleep' eyes revealed pain that couldn't be put in words.
Bimpe feels so empty inside.
I don't want her feeling that way, I want to erase every painful memory she has with good happy ones.
She deserves better. She deserved better.
I couldn't provide her with the financial security she needed back when I was in school with her.
I'm in the state civil service now, G.L 10 step 2. I want to show her that life can serve sweets too.

I'm in love with Bimpe. How did I get here?. My dad always said 'Never marry a woman out of pity'.
Am I in love with Bimpe out of pity?
It's amazing how love can be so simple and confusing at the same time. Pity, love, lust...the lines are blurred.
All I know is when she smiles and reveals her dimples on her subtle cheek I want to give her more smiles.

To Bimpe, a girl out there!