The Blue House S04 E04

Dapo drank the water hastily and set the glass down with a thump. “What is this?” he asked yet again.
“Braids.” Ronke maintained.
“What led you to do this?”
“Nothing, I wanted to change my hairstyle.”
“You wanted to change your hairstyle? And you decided to do something that is forbidden.”
“Forbidden by whom?”
“Ronke what has gotten into you?”
“Look Dapo I’m tired…”
“Since when did you start calling me by name?”
“Oh you expect me to call you “dear”? Well you’ve stopped being dear to me so from now on it is Dapo”
“Ronke?”
“Since when did you start calling me by name?”

Dapo stood stunned staring at his wife who had even let the sacrilegious hair down.
“I’m going to bed.” Ronke dropped the bottle she had been holding in the kitchen and flipped her braids back as she walked past Dapo.
Dapo made for the door before he remembered that it was late at night. He grabbed his phone from the table and dialed his pastor’s number.
“Sir?” he began with a tremor in his voice. “My wife has braided her hair”
**********
She had finally finished the laundry and the kitchen was clean. Getting everything ready in time for church tomorrow morning was important if they were to get there early. She sat on the couch sipping a cold glass of water and ticking off her mental to-do list when Effiong walked into the sitting room and sat beside her. She stilled momentarily not sure of what to make of his presence then resumed drinking to calm her nerves.
“Hi.” Effiong said looking at her.
“Hi.”
“How are you?”
“I’m fine.”
“Hope your back isn’t hurting?”
At this Olayinka looked at him as if to say Are you kidding me? Since when do you care about my back?  “No it isn’t.” she finally replied then took another sip of water.
Effiong realized he was getting nowhere with his line of questions. “Can we talk?”
“I thought we were”
“I’m sorry about the other day.  A friend mentioned how he saw you talking with some guy…”
“And the friend told you that I was touching his arms? Better be straight with me Effiong.”
Effiong sighed. “It was a friend who knew about your… what happened.”
Olayinka glanced sharply at him suddenly realizing she had no idea how many of his friends knew about her affair, what would they think of her?
“He was just looking out for me. He didn’t know what to make of how familiar you were with the guy…”
“He was an old friend, that’s how familiar I was with him I told you that…”
“I’m not questioning you…”
“On this incident yes, but what happens when another friend finds me with another male friend? Are you forever going to question my faithfulness to you…?”
“This is harder for me than you can imagine Olayinka.”
“And it wasn’t hard for me…”
“You’re a woman…”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“You can’t understand.”
“So what do you want Effiong? Why are you here?”
Effiong sighed and thought about his answer. “I have all these issues but I still love you, I don’t know how we’re going to work through them but I wanted you to know that I’ve not given up on you, us.”
Olayinka exhaled and slowly reached for his hand. “We have to forget Effiong, we both have to forget everything” she said and closed her eyes.
**********
Obiora rolled off Helen frustrated, placing his hands behind his head.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Helen said turning away from him and lying on her side.
“You’re distant and unresponsive.”
“I can’t always be passionate…”
“We haven’t made love in two weeks, you should be passionate.”
“Obi I have a lot on my plate these days, I barely have time to think about…”
“You barely have time to think about us right?
“That’s not… I didn’t mean it that way.”
“So what did you mean?”
“Look you can’t insult me and then come back home expecting me to be passionate and coiling like a snake!”
“Helen? Are you feeling alright?” Obiora got up surprised, irritated and concerned. Helen never spoke to him that way. He turned her to face him.
“I have been under pressure and you’re the one who’s put me in this position. First you decide to take a new job in another part of the country leaving me to take care of the boys and the home and then secondly you accuse me of wasting your money.”
“When did I say that?” Obiora asked confused, shaking his head.
“You implied it, you asked how it was that I spent all the money you left and said I should be more careful with money and you didn’t even bother sending the money I told you I needed. You have the money Obi, the least you can do is send money to make things easier in the home and then the boys told Ada that I’m a witch because I can only afford to cook vegetable soup for them. And then you come home expecting me to be loving and I’m sad because this is not who I am. I have things under control, I put my emotions in check and do what needs to be done but I don’t seem to have the capacity to handle things all on my own. I feel like a failure, my kids hate me…”
“Shh… come here.” Obiora held her in his arms and let her cry.
“I miss you so much Obi, I can’t do this anymore…”
“Shh… it’s okay.” Obiora massaged her back whispering words of reassurance in her ears, trying very hard to understand his wife’s point of view.
**********
Banke paused the movie she was watching to take George’s call.
“Hi!”
“Hey babe. How are you doing?” he asked in a husky voice.
“Fine, trying not to miss you too much.” She replied in a lazy voice twirling her hair around her finger.
“I gave you nice movies so you shouldn’t miss me too much.”
“You gave me romance movie duh!”
They laughed. “Just a little something to remind you of me.”
“Indeed! How’s your head now?”
“Fine, the bump has reduced.”
“Challenges of a tall man!”
They laughed again. “Hey listen, I wanted to let you know I borrowed your token today.”
“My token?”
“Yeah, I forgot my token and I needed to pay for something urgently online. I’ll repay you as soon as I wake up tomorrow morning, I’m still looking for my token.”
“How much did you borrow?”
“Eighty thousand bucks but like I said I’ll give it back by tomorrow morning.”
“Okay… it’s okay I’m sure you needed it urgently.”
“You’re the best babe. I’m blowing you a thousand vanilla coated kisses right now…” George said in his deepest voice.
“Aww…”
“’Night babe.”
“Goodnight…” Banke replied in a breathy voice.
George ended the call and she checked her phone to see if she got a debit alert from the bank. Sure enough he had borrowed eighty thousand naira to buy designer shoes. She laughed awkwardly, was this the urgent purchase? She reached for her laptop and changed the password for her online banking. Obviously, telling him had been a bad idea. The man shouldn’t know how much she had, it had put her in trouble with Kunle.
She was about to resume her movie when she got a chat message from George.

Not every woman can trust her man with her money and I’m glad you chose to trust me. I love you more.

Banke opened her laptop and unchanged the password, she would have to keep her token much closer.