Peacemaker

Still on that #KenikodjoMeetup hangover mehn!! I am writing a post just to tell you guys how it went but first, let me finish this short story that has been sitting in my drafts. As for those of you inboxing me with tear emojis and asking me when the next meetup is, I told you, didn’t I? My readers are too amazing for a meetup to be anything less than lit! 

Okay, enough gloating. On to the story! 

P.S: Shoutouts to Lamisi for hooking me up with the Northern day names. They are so beautiful!  (Asibi is the name for Saturday borns)

‘Are you out of your mind?’

‘Nope. For the first time in a long time, I am pretty calm and grounded.’

‘No, Patrick, this can’t work. This has to be a mistake.’

Asibi avoided looking him in the eye.

He was pacing up and down, silently willing her to look at his face.

‘Asibi, I am not playing games with you.’

‘This is a mistake.’

‘No, I believe it is fate. God made this happen.’

‘Don’t drag the Lord into this.’

‘But he is the one who has a master plan. You are the one who told me that.’

‘For God’s sake, Patrick! Stop twisting my words.’

‘I am not. I am just showing you how this could be God’s plan.’

‘You think God’s plan is to make you date my childhood friend for 7 years and then decide to fall in love with me, 5 months to your wedding date?’

‘I think it is God’s plan to make sure I don’t marry the wrong person. Kelly is a great person-‘

‘Exactly. So stay with her. Or go somewhere else if you must. But forget me.’

‘Why?’

‘How can you even ask that? You came to me for help. You were having problems with my friend and you needed to know that you were not imagining things.’

‘Yes, and you helped me with that.’

‘Oh, I did huh?’

‘Asibi, I am not playing games with you. I am not some mean, hurtful person. I stayed in a committed relationship with your friend-‘

‘Say her name. She is not just ‘my friend’.’

‘Fine. I stayed in a committed relationship with Rachel for 7 good years. Never cheated. Never strayed. Never forgot an anniversary or a birthday. But when it is time to get married, you have questions. You wonder if you can actually deal with all the things that bother you that you have pushed under the carpet. I don’t have any sinister intentions, but every time we spoke, I became more and more aware that marrying Rachel was a mistake. And then I began to see you.’

‘Patrick, that’s what they call the Florence Nightingale effect. You fall in love with the person saving you, but it never works out. It never works, especially if the girl you are leaving is the childhood friend of the one you are chasing. We grew up together, our mothers are like siblings, I can tell what is on her mind from right across the room.’

‘And that is why I came to you. Because you know her and she is always talking about how smart you are. If there was anyone who could tell me that I wasn’t crazy and exaggerating the minors, it was definitely going to be you.’

‘And yet here we are. This is a mistake. This was a mistake. I have seen too many movies and heard so many stories like this. What business do you have falling in love with your fiancé’s childhood friend? That’s ‘

‘Who made it a crime?’

‘I don’t know. Society. E-e-everyone?’

‘Well, they were wrong. There is no rule that stops me from falling in love with you. You will be judged by gossips and meddlers, but their opinions don’t matter.’

‘Rachel’s opinion and those of every single person we have in common matter.’

‘Are you really going to sacrifice your happiness for what people would say? You are braver than that.’

‘You don’t know me, Patrick. You are assuming a lot.’

‘No, I am not assuming. I know you. I know that you like boiled plantains but not fried ones. I know you will pick out all the onions in your food before you start eating. I know you can’t sleep without your Amakye Dede playlist-‘

‘That’s cute- the fact that you listened when your wife to be was talking about me, but you don’t know me. The things you love about me, you used to love about the girl you were going to marry. The things that would irritate you about me, you haven’t discovered yet. So don’t do this. Don’t mistake me for your dream come true, your missing rib or the water that will quench your thirst. I am just a peacemaker.’

 

Don’t try to dismiss my feelings.