WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

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“Hey stranger” Dayo said grabbing Aisha’s hands as he caught up with her on the bridge. She looked like she had seen a ghost a reaction that should have been his since she had ghosted him over a year ago.
No warning, no explanations, just an Aisha shaped hole in his heart. As she stared at him she could not believe she had walked away from this man who had offered her the world to end up heart broken and a shell of the woman she was with him.

“Hey Dee, you look really good…how have you been?” She asked staring at him with those eyes that always seemed to to break down his defences and leave him vulnerable.
“ I have been good, we thank God. I am doing okay…I haven’t seen you since…that night…” He responded squeezing her hand a little tighter in a way that suggested that he didn’t plan to let her go this time.

They had met during her service year in Lagos, She had been introduced to him as an understudy, he was expected to familiarise her with the workings of the company and her responsibilities during her stay there. She was stubborn and cute, she frustrated him in more ways than one. At the end of her service year the company was uninterested in retaining her as a staff, but Dayo wanted to keep her for life, he couldn’t imagine not seeing her smile everyday, not hearing her giggle and teeny snort that warmed his heart and made him feel butterflies, he asked her to be his girlfriend and move in.
When she said yes he felt like he had won the lottery. Everything was easy with them, co habitation, communication, even the sex was amazing. Then one day he had come back from work and couldn’t find a trace of her in their home, not her clothes or her cats, she was gone.

He had tried to call and text her to no avail, and she was never very active on social media so he knew that was a dead end. He had spent months going over the events of their last night together, trying to figure out what went wrong, what he might have said, but no matter how much he spun it in his head he still could not find a logical explanation for why she left and now here she stood before him, eyes filled with fear and something else he couldn’t recognise… pain? Regret?

She knew she owed him an explanation, and she wished she could find the words to soothe him and make him feel better, she could see the torture on his face but there was little she could do about it. “ It was really nice to see you Dee, but I’m running late…I’ve got to go…” she said gently squeezing his hand and hoping he would just let her walk away without putting her through the ordeal of finally explaining why she had up and left him and them.
“It was nice to see you to Aisha, take care” he said turning and walking away quickly before she could see the hot teardrops running down his face as he walked down the bridge, he couldn’t believe her guts… She was late? She had to go?? No remorse for sending him spiralling down a wormhole of women that looked like her or dressed like her but never seemed to fit the whole in his heart.
No appreciation for months of bliss spent together? He had given her all of him and then some…the least she could do was an explanation, a proper break up, some closure…he deserved that much!!!

He slammed his car door and sped off without thinking, one hand barely holding the steering wheel, the other searching frantically for his liquor flask.
When he looked back she was still standing on the bridge, there was no way she could see him in the sea of cars below but she was looking.

Later that night she walked into her flat tripping on toys on the floor “ Mamiiiii” her mini-me yelled ecstatically making his way towards her. As she picked him up and held him close to her heart, she felt the same hot tears Dayo felt running down her face. “Mummy is home “ she sang softly rocking him slowly as she let her mind wander to the days before and what could have been.

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