Choices – Episode 3

By Tunde Oni

At times I wonder if my beauty is a blessing or a curse. Attracting both the good, bad and the ugly. I wondered what was it about me that just drew men in. I just cannot get over the fact that I had almost entered one chance with a married man. Just remembering the crap he was giving me about never cheating on his wife before he met me. I really was angry and totally pissed. I knew the girls were going to totally have a field day laughing at me when I gave them the gist. I decided to stop over and get them some pizza and chicken to appease them.

“Hello, how may I help you?” The cheery voice of the woman working at the counter kind of pissed me off because of my mood and I just visibly glared at her.

“I want one large spicy pepperoni pizza and 3 pieces of  peppered chicken.” I murmured quietly, avoiding the gaze of the extremely good looking guy standing beside me. It was quite annoying seeing that I was not even in the mood for guys.

The pizza place was quite full but I still found an empty table towards the back since I still had to wait for the pizza to be freshly made. I tapped angrily at my phone answering Tola who was chatting me on bbm asking where I was. I looked up when I felt somebody sit at my table and I was already angry when I recognized the guy from the counter.

“Is it okay if I sit here with you?” He asked with a genuine smile on his face and I scowled at him,

“You’ve already sat down so why bother to ask?”

“I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. I will just move to another table.” He said politely and I immediately felt guilty.

“No, it is okay. Sorry I snapped at you. I am just in a really bad mood”.

”No it’s okay. It happens to even the best of us doesn’t it? Do you want to talk about it? My sisters always say I am a good listener”

He sounded so genuine that I decided to give him the full gist. I was quite surprised at myself because I am usually closed up to people I don’t know. He actually laughed at me when I told him about how I was making a full of myself on Sunday and when I rolled my eyes at him he stopped laughing. By the time I finished the whole story to the point where I walked out of the restaurant and stopped over to buy pizza, he actually bust out laughing and people around actually turned to stare at us.

“Now that you have had a good laugh, can you see why I was angry?”

“Yes, I get it but I guess the guy was just captivated by your extraordinary beauty.” He said and started laughing again.

They brought our orders at that moment and I just got up. “I am happy I could be your amusement for the day. Good night Mr.” I walked away.

I wasn’t surprised that he caught up with me just as I was getting into the car. “Can I at least know the name of the beauty that makes even married men weak?”

I raised my brows at that.”Seriously, you ask for a girl’s name by mocking her?”

He just shrugged,”It works at times. My name is David by the way, David Oke.”

“My name is Oluwateniola Williams, my friends call me Teni. Thanks for listening though. It was nice having company while waiting for Pizza.”

“So are you going to give me your number so I can at least check up on you and make sure your broken heart is healed?”

“Thanks for caring David, I do not have a broken heart,” I said as I got into my car and drove off waving to him and smiling. I was definitely not giving out my number so soon after being fooled once.

”See who took a lifetime just to get pizza, I should have just had dinner instead of waiting for you,” Chinonso said as soon as I entered the house.

”I did not ask you to skip dinner because of pizza madam. This was just an extra after all I already ate Chinese food before stopping over for dinner.

Typical Chinonso style, she just rolled her eyes and snatched the bag of food from me and settled down to eat.

”Okay, I have gist for you guys, I saw Josiah today.” By the time I was through with the full details we launched into full gist of how horrible some married men can be and I was so glad that making fun of me was the last thing on their minds.

Soon after pizza, I was about to go to my room and retire for the night when we heard the knock on the door. There was confusion on all our faces as nobody was expecting guests. Chinonso was at the door in a jiffy and I heard her talking briefly with whoever was at the door and giggling. That got Tola and I curious and my jaw literally dropped when she walked back in with David smiling behind her.

“Seriously, are you stalking me? What the heck are you doing here? How do you know my house? Is this a joke?” I bombarded him with all those questions at once.

“Which of those questions do you want me to answer Teni? He asked with an annoying smirk on his face.

“He is so cute, who is he? ” Tola whispered into my hears beside me.

I was still a little bit pissed and wary so I fired him straight, “answer all of them now.” I snapped.

”Okay, I was not stalking you. I was just driving home after you drove off and I noticed we were driving in the same direction. Coincidentally, you stopped here which made me realize you live just a few houses away from me. I live at No 30. I went home and decided to come back and be sure you feel better now and to introduce myself to my neighbor and no, this is not a joke. Does that answer all your questions? I am really sorry I scared you”.

I was quite dumbfounded but Chinonso and Tola quickly ushered him to sit down.

“Okay as you can see, I am fine. Thanks for checking, you can leave now”.

Chinonso was the one to reply me, if you want to go to bed then please do, we will gladly keep him company. I sighed and sat down finally. I kept silent and listened intently while the girls grilled him about his life. I had felt quite free with him in the restaurant and I didn’t quite understand why I was feeling quite scared now. Maybe because I thought I will never see him again but now it is obvious I was wrong it scares me. I have not exactly had the best judgement with men of recent. About an hour later, he finally left the house after succeeding in getting my number from the girls since I refused to give it to him the second time. Amidst all the hoos and haas from the girls about how hot he was, I finally ran to my room and locked the door. Thoughts of David filled my mind throughout that night and I wondered why once you get out of a relationship, one just gets surrounded by guys.

…to be continued