Opinion: The Day Your Lover Did Not Show Up’ – By Ucheoma Onwutuebe

It’s a Friday.

Your lover would tell you on the phone he is coming into town on business. And in your lovestruck mind, you already assume he is there to see you ostensibly. You would skip morning mass and attend in the evening just to whip up something quick. Something memorable. Something with enough enchantment in its aroma that would make him race up the stairs and sweep you up in his arms.

He lives in the nearby city, an hour and thirty minutes drive from you. Because your jobs are exhausting, you try to make up for the times spent apart by meeting up fortnightly.

But this time he would call and say, he is here on business. Deals needed to be signed. Debtors needed to be tracked down. But you would ignore the edge in his voice and keep at up your culinary magic. Are you not the daughter of your mother? How can he come to town and not eat anything?

You would meet him at a popular lounge where he would await the men he had business with and when they arrive, you would feel like a sour thumb and would have to leave them to do their talking. And as you leave you’d think, He would stop by my place before he leaves. He would stop by.

An hour forty-five minutes later, you would be sitting at the edge of your living room settee holding your phone, hoping that every red blink would be his, hoping that each caller at the end of the line is him. The bells chime for evening mass and you would be torn between two. To hold on for him or to attend to matters that burden your soul in the faithful champers of your town’s cathedral.

The clouds would begin to thicken and in that instant you would know that your lover would not make it to the banquet your prepared for him.

After mass, after the thunderstorm had subsided, against your angry judgement you would call him to ask if he arrived safely. He would sound tired, he would say yes. But you would not keep it in, the disappointment ebbing in you. You would tell him it is not fair that he did not show up. Then he would become angry and ask why do you fuss over the tiniest stuff? There are other weeks ahead, he would reprimand. Today was just bad timing. You would say you are only expressing yourself. You are not mad, just disappointed. It is not a crime you miss him. But he would tell you he is tired. Tired of the ‘one day, one trouble’ part of this relationship. He would say goodnight and the line would go dead.

You are a woman who does not deal well with disappointments. No, you do not nag. At least that is what you believe. But you keep muttering to your self as you pace your little apartment, But at least he would have showed up, what is the big deal in showing up? I have not laid eyes on him for two weeks and he rushes off like that? Eh?

You would remember all the appointments you cancelled just to be with him for thirty minutes. You would remember the nights you took the last bus, risking all odds just to wake beside him by morning.

You are a woman who just began to learn the acts of sacrifice. You never believed in latching onto one person, all your emotional hopes. You love to diversify. You put your eggs in many baskets such that if Ogananya does not show up, Jidenna would. If Adekunle picked watching football match with his friends over hanging out with you, Peter would fill in his blank spaces. And that evening, you would long for the other men in your past life. Those who had desired you fiercely that they would not dare come into town and not make out time to see you.

You remember one of them. David. He lived down the street. You told him off because your lover got angry when he still called you even when David knew you now had a boyfriend.

David would not wait for the phone to ring twice. Yes. He would be with you in the next two minutes. And shortly you would be laughing in your dinning room, wiping tears from your eyes as David spoon feeds you.

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