If you believe in destiny
It could just be that its a small world and so you were bound to bump into them anyways!
But Shade believed in destiny.
The first time she met Tutu, she was fascinated.
He was tall
He had lovely hair
And he spoke well
That was always her weakness.
He was in university and he was in America; back home for something or the other. That was twenty years ago
She was at a friend's wedding. A little bored and ready to leave but saw a friend on her way out. The friend was at the same table with Tutu. Nothing mattered any longer; she just wanted to be around him, talking about nothing, something, everything.
And that's what they did.
This was in the days of no mobile phones nor 'social media' so they swapped landlines, and someone called the other, and after chatting back and forth for a bit, they set up a date.
And yet, inspite of both of their best intentions, they could never seem to get the date right.
Between them, they had no car, no licenses, and no clue as to what one could do for fun.
One day, she just asked a cousin to pick her up, she met up with him and they just wandered about in Victoria Island for a while without doing anything really.
The date sucked.
She felt it, and years later, when they spoke about it, she realised he had thought so as well..
Every so often, Tutu would come home, and they would bump into each other
Maybe at a club
Oh wait, always at a club.
They would talk, and try to hook up but never get round to it
But they always seemed to be able to stay in touch via email.
Cut to Lagos
December 2016.
Shade had gone through drama with her now-ex, Jim.
One day she meets a few friends up at a cafe. And once again, she bumped into Tutu.
Still tall (er)
Hair still beautiful (er)
Still speaking well (er)
Still damn all that and a bag of chips
They spoke over coffee, he took her number, and he called the next day, and they hung out
Five minutes into the 'date', she began to panic.
It felt like it wasn't working, like the date was going to suck again.
Infact, it did suck. Till they went outside to wait for a cab and it began raining
And they got completely soaked.
And somewhere between the thunder and the lightning, she realised that it never would matter how the dates themselves went, all that mattered was that she hung out with him.
He of course, went back again. He had just been home for christmas.
And this time, she won't stay in touch. She won't try to make it into more than what it is- a magical encounter that only happens once a year. and only by fate.
She would rather not know if he is dating someone (okay fine, he is, she checked).
She would rather just forget about Tutu till the next time she was sitting idly at a party, and then got a pat on the back...
For now, she is condemned to that excruciatingly beautiful place where memories are glorified, and everything is magnified.
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