Must Read: Three Women (short story) - Season 1 - Episode 24

6 years ago

Must Read: Three Women (short story) - Season 1 - Episode 24

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It was Sunday morning and Dapo la!d in bed all dressed up and ready for church. Lola appeared from the bathroom, naked, apart from a shower cap on her head and a towel hanging from her shoulders, which she used in drying herself as she walked into the room. She headed straight for the dressing table.
Dapo looked at her bulging tummy ‘How many months now? 5? 6?’ He thought and wondered how his wife would be at 8 to 9 months of pregnancy.

Lola playfully threw her towel at him. “Hey! Where is your mind?” Dapo didn’t answer her; he just looked at her as she applied cream to her body. He remembered her holding Kole, Dupe’s brother’s hand and was sympathizing with him after she had heard that his ‘wife to be’ had left him months to their wedding.

He had never really known anybody from Lola’s past and now he felt threatened.

The way she laughed and talked about people that only she and Kole knew; how she was so free with him got Dapo feeling jealous.

“You know what? Just go without me. I really don’t feel like going anywhere today.”

Lola said and dropped the comb she had been using on her hair.

“What’s the matter?” Dapo asked her, looking concerned. He walked up to where she was sitting and held her in an embrace from behind.

“Nothing, I just don’t feel right. You know how pregnant women can get…” she was saying then just stopped and smiled.

“Are you sure you want me to go? I could stay here with you.”

“No. Go! Go! You staying here would just make me feel worse. I just need to be alone for a while.” she said and Dapo poked his face in front of her to get a pretty look at her, and his eyes showed concern. “It’s not you, it is me. Please, just understand.” Lola concluded.

“Okay.” Dapo said and started living the room

[B] “Wait.” Lola said and got up from the dresser. “Drop by Dupe’s house and give her this.” Lola picked a little purse from the table and walked over to hand it to Dapo. “She must have left it by accident in the car yesterday. Tell her I said hi?”

The pregnancy is really getting to Lola, he thought to himself as he drove. He was at an intersection now, either take a right turn to church or a left to Dupe’s house; he took the left.

Maybe it wasn’t just the pregnancy; maybe she saw something or someone lately that got her thinking. He looked at his watch; it was 8.45a.m, which was 45minutes before church was supposed to start. The drive from Lola’s house and back wouldn’t take him more than 30 minutes he thought.

Someone ran up to the gate as he was about to park his car outside Dupe’s house. It was the guard’s son, and he let Dapo in without much questioning. The door to the house was unlocked, so he just let himself in. He heard some humming coming from the kitchen and moved in that direction. He stopped at the dinning section and waited for the person to emerge.

“What? How did you get in here?” Dupe asked, shocked to see Dapo in her home. She was holding a bowl of ice cream, and wearing just a t-shirt, that stopped at her knees.

“Sorry, I should have called; your guard let me in.” Dapo took a critical look at Dupe and it was like she was a different person. She had no make-up on, but she had that kind of beauty that was eminent, regardless of make-up. And she kind of looked older to him today, but he didn’t know why that was so. Her hair was scattered here and there; for the first time, Dapo saw her as a woman. He noticed her full b----t for the first time; her hips were ever so evidently outlined as the lower part of the t-shirt rested on them. There was an uncomfortable silence in the room.

“What? Are you actually checking me out?” Dupe said, with a mischievous smile on her face.

“No.” Dapo answered, very composed, but not taking his eyes off her.
“I better go and put something else on.” she said and started heading for the stairs.

“Wait, I just came over to give you this.” he said and held up her purse. Dupe turned around and her face lit up at the sight of the purse “I hope you have not been looking through that.” she said and started running towards Dapo. “Give me that.” she tried to snatch it but Dapo raised it a bit higher. “Hey! Stop. Just give it to me.”

“Calm down. What’s the big deal with the purse anyway?”

“Just let me have It.” all the while, Dupe was face to face with Dapo, her body pressed up against his. Then she stopped and looked him straight in the eyes; after a couple of seconds of staring she stood on her toes and was going to kiss him on the mouth, and then deviated and kissed his neck instead. The purse dropped to the fall. Just then, Dupe retreated and picked it up. “That is how you disarm a man.” She said with a little sexy cat walk to a corner of the room. She quickly went through the content of her purse. “Are you sure you didn’t go through this?”

“Why would I?” Dapo said, with his face to the floor, embarrassed and feeling guilty that he had been thinking of Dupe in ways he shouldn’t have.

He saw her walking towards him from the corner of his eyes, and then she stopped just a few inches from him. She held his face up and kissed him passionately on the mouth. He kissed her back for a while, and then realizing what he was doing, he withdrew.

“Hey! I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.” Dupe said, feeling guilty.

She walked back to the corner of the room, like a naughty girl that had done something bad.

There was silence for a while, and Dapo just felt uncomfortable with what had just happened. The message alert from Dapo’s phone broke the silence. He read it, and appeared to be taken aback from what he was reading.

“Can I use your phone? I got to make this really important call.” he talked liked nothing just happened between them.

“One second.” she said and disappeared into the kitchen. She re-appeared a couple of seconds later with a phone in her hand.

“Thanks” he said, and held the phone in his left hand, and his own in his right. He located the number he was going to call, and typed it on hers. His eyes got bigger at what he saw. He looked up at her, and then rubbed sweat off his face, and copied the number from his phone again, thinking maybe he had made a mistake the first time. Then he looked at her again, this time with disdain.
“What?” Dupe exclaimed.
“Why didn’t you tell me you knew Kike?”
“What? Who is Kike?”
“I don’t get it. We saw her together at the mall…” he stopped himself, looking really confused.

“Who are you talking about?”
“Her number is stored right here on your phone; Mrs Cole.” he said as she walked towards him in a fast pace.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, and took her phone from him.

“Oh! What? You’ve known her all this while?”

“It’s not like that.”

“While I told you all my problems with her, you knew her all along?”

“Dapo, do you trust me?”
“What are you…” his phone rang and stopped him in mid-sentence. He looked at the screen for a while before picking up. “Hello Kike, I was just about to call you.” he said into the phone. He kept quiet as it seemed the person on the other line had a lot to tell him. “Okay, I’ll be there.” he said, after about a minute and hung up. He stared at Dupe for a while, and from his eyes, she could tell what was on his mind was more about what he just heard on the phone. He walked out of the house without another word.

“Dapo! Dapo! I have to tell you something.” she rushed to the door, but he was already gone. She wanted to chase after him and tell him the truth, but with what she was wearing, her neighbors would just read the wrong meaning to the whole situation.