My One and only love............... 1

Inikpi and I had met about six months ago at a dance club in Lokoja, Kogi State north central of Nigeria. I had gone with a couple of girls I worked with, Aisha and Fitimi. They wanted someone to help keep the wolves off; they wanted to choose, not be chosen!

 That was okay with me – I had been feeling melancholy. I'm not sure why. It's like something was going to happen, something that would make me sad. When you are like that, it seems to feed off itself. The girls were dancing and I was sitting at the table staring into my beer when I sensed a presence next to me. I held still for a minute, I guess hoping whoever it was would go away.


Finally I looked up and immediately forgot my beer. A young lady (in my mind I never saw a girl or a woman; strange that!) stood there with a smirk on her face.

I looked closer; there was something about her. Something... she wasn't beautiful, but yet she was. She had a very dark hair cut short. A pixie face with a cute upturned nose. Not really tall, maybe 5'6", slender but curvy, probably a little underweight for her height. She had a white blouse with a black skirt. The blouse was my favorite type, you know, kind of off the shoulder with elastic around the top, I guess what you would call a scoop neck. It was my favorite because even leaning over to pick up a drink lets you know the color of her bra.

She was leaning over a little bit, ready to say something to me.

It was a nice lacy white bra to match the blouse!

I was in love for the first time in my life!

"If you are not too wrapped up in that beer, would you dance with me?"

"What beer?" I mumbled as I tried to unwind from the chair.

As I stood up, my feet did something with each other, independent of any plan of mine, and I lurched into this mystery that had appeared in front of me.

Laughing, she said, "My, you are an even better dancer than what Fitimi told me!" as she pulled me onto the dance floor.

WHISPER TO ME

Whisper to me; tell me do you love me true,

Or is he holding you the way I do?

Tho' love is blind, make up your mind, I've got to know,

Should I hang up, or will you tell him he'll have to go?

Luckily for me the song was fast and loud. I was able to gather my wits and do a credible job with the dance. The next number was a little slower and we were able to talk.

Laughing again, she said, "I'm Fitimi's cousin. She didn't know I was going to be here but we ran into each other in the rest room. She told me that you were watching out for them and I thought that was sweet. She was going to introduce us but a guy she wanted to meet asked her to dance. She pointed to where you were and told me to introduce myself."

"Hi, I'm Inikpi" she smiled as she leaned back and put out her hand.

"I'm Ina," I said as I shook hands with her. "I'm sorry I stepped on your foot before we even started dancing."

She smiled and said, "You are more than making up for it; you actually dance very well."

"Could I ask what you were looking at in your beer?"

I almost blurted "there was a tear in my beer", but managed instead to say with some small amount of charm, "I was waiting for you to show up and I didn't want to be bothered by any of the other girls!"

She stopped dancing for a minute, looking at me with a serious look on her face. She started chuckling, "You're pretty smooth for a guy that can't even stand up without falling over."

She leaned in a little closer, putting her arm around me.

We sat out a couple of dances and had a beer and got to know about each other.

I was 28 and an assistant manager in one of the micro finance bank  in the confluence town of Lokoja. Aisha and Fitimi worked in the teller counter. I had gone to Kogi State University to get my degree in Business Administration. I dated a few girls but I told her "I've only fallen in love once, though!"

I didn't tell her it was with her.

Inikpi had gone to school at the University of Ilorin, majoring in Electrical electronics Engineering. She was working in the technical department of one of the telecom startups in Lokoja.



The bandleader announced that they would play a ‘slow blues’ I was hearing for the first time and then take a break. We stood up and started dancing, a little closer this time, as the band played.

As we danced, Inikpi at first looked a little sad, then a bit angry. It made me a bit nervous since I was really starting to like her. After the dance we went out front to get some fresh air.

"I love that song," she said, "It always makes me sad, but a little mad too! You know the part where it goes:

'I was dancin' with my darlin' to the sweet melody

When an old friend I happened to see

I introduced him to my loved one

And while they were dancin'

My friend stole my sweetheart from me.'

"How could a girl be with another guy and do that to him! It just makes my blood boil!"

I felt relieved that it wasn't anything I had done, and actually a little thrilled because it sounded like she would be very loyal. Sweet words to me! I took her hand and didn't say anything and after a while we went back in.

Later she took me home since I had ridden with the girls; Aisha was the designated driver.

When we got to my house, we chatted for a minute, and then I got out and went around to her window. I told her how much I enjoyed the evening and asked her if I could take her to dinner the next week. She said she would love to and gave me her phone number.

I started walking away, paused, and turned back to her. "Inikpi... Inikpi, I probably shouldn't say this, but you know I love you, don't you?"

Grinning she answered, "Of course, you dummy! You wear your heart on your sleeve!" Shaking her head, but with a smile, she backed her car around and left.

YOU CAN'T SAY THE WORDS

You can't say the words I want to hear

While you're with another man,

If you want me, answer "yes" or "no,"

Darling, I will understand.

We started dating regularly. That first dinner I was going to take her out on turned out to be dinner at her place. She had the left half of a one story duplex in Lokoja and lived by herself. She rented it furnished, so the furniture didn't reflect her taste. I noticed that it even had old-fashioned shades instead of blinds. She had insisted the owner install curtains for the front window since it was next to the entry door. With the shades down you could still see shadows, silhouettes really, on the shades at night when someone would pass in front of a light.

That first dinner turned out to be quite nice. Inikpi had a great sense of humor, a sort of sardonic wit. We laughed a lot and it turned out she was a great cook. I was rewarded with a somewhat more than chaste kiss goodnight. I had been careful not to mention love again. I didn't want to spook her.

Our relationship grew closer every time we saw each other. Inikpi turned out to be a very caring, loving person. We never seem to fight about anything. She was fun to be with and sexy as hell without trying.

We gradually became more intimate, certainly a lot of very hot kisses. Fondling became a regular thing. Passion became a passion for both of us. We had not made love as yet; I felt she would if I pushed it but I wanted the time to be right. I had a plan!

I felt Inikpi loved me as much as I did her, even though she hadn't actually said the word as yet. Maybe I was being a little presumptuous but I felt a marriage proposal would be well received by her. I rounded up in order, an engagement ring, a dozen pink roses, and a beautiful card that said the loving words I had trouble getting off my tongue without twisting them all around.

I wanted to surprise her with my proposal – this might have been somewhat rash given what happened that night when I went to change our lives forever. Instead of doing this on an evening when we had something planned, I went over when she wasn't expecting me. She said she was staying in to do her hair, clean the duplex, and watch an old movie. I thought it would be fun to catch her with her hair down, so to speak. Little did I know!

YOUR SWEET LIPS

Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone.

Let's pretend that we're together, all alone.

I'll tell the man to turn the jukebox way down low,

And you can tell your friend there with you he'll have to go.

I got to her place, found a place to park, and walked to her door. The way the place was set up, you had to walk in front of her front window to get to the door. As I walked past the window I glanced at the shade. I stopped suddenly in shock at what I saw.

The shade was down but the curtain wasn't pulled. Silhouetted on the shade was the crisp outline of a couple engaged in an apparently passionate embrace! I couldn't see any details, but it was clear, at least, that a very intimate kiss was taking place. I stood there for a long minute staring. I had heard of people saying their brain had frozen in a moment of shock; now I understood what that was like.

My life ended right then... my mouth tasted of ashes. Finally I pulled myself together, feeling a sudden rage. If I were to suffer, why should I suffer alone! I wanted confrontation! I wanted to throw the ring and the roses in her cheating face. Damn her!

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