I Am Looking For My Wife (E1 – E3)
E1 - I Am Looking For My Wife
JOY
There was a knock on the door. Joy got up from her position on the large sofa to get the door. She had been sitting there for approximately three hours, staring into space. With the corner of her eye, she checked the clock. The hands said 10 PM, just about time for her husband to return home.
She reached the door and stopped. Even though she was slowly getting used to her husband reaching home late, she was still cautious. She stepped on her toes and looked through the peephole, careful not to make a sound. There was a man standing on the other side, his head bent over the face of his real wife – his phone.
Joy fingered the handle of the door, it was cold and smooth. The click was almost silent.
“Welcome honey” she crooned as her husband stepped in, giving her an absentminded hug and kiss.
“How was work?” He asked Jane.
“It went well, yours?” She asked, stepping out of his way as he walked towards their room.
“Fine. Thanks, honey” he said. She watched him as he dropped his bag on the bed and began to undress. Unlike other women who often had to wait on their husbands, she did not have to do any of that. Jake took care of himself after work, he was usually not hungry and when he was, he had no problem with preparing dinner for himself. All he had to do was take his bath and plop in front of his computer.
Jake was a man that carried work home with him. He was a hardworking man with a strong will. There was no compromise with him, the money had to be made. His strong will also affected his decisions. Jake had decided they did not want to have children yet. He was no doctor but he had been able to treat even their parents of baby fever.
Unlike him, Joy needed a baby to keep her warm, unlike her husband who was almost never around. It made her wonder what he was scared of. He need not care for the child. Perhaps he feared that she would change. He never gave her enough attention and she never complained. Perhaps he thought she would not tolerate his absent-minded behavior towards their baby. He was right.
His parents still called her Iyawo which means “new wife” even though they had been married three years. They knew their son and were sympathetic to Joy’s plight. Jake had come out of the bathroom and changed into his pajamas. He was about to settle in front of his computer.
“Are you hungry?” She asked him, draping her arm on his neck.
“Nah baby.” He said “I ate at work”
Joy nodded. She was expecting that. She knew the yam pottage she had prepared for him would go uneaten. Jake tugged at her arm.
“You are choking me, babe,” he said.
“Oh!” She quickly released her grip, patted his head, and got up. Inside the bathroom, she smiled sadly to her reflection in the mirror. With soapy hands, she blotted out the sharp reality of her pain. Thinking that It didn’t matter if she was sad, and looking forward to her husband making love to her later that night.
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JAKE
I stepped through the spinning doors of the company I head. The library was busy as usual, 8 am in the morning and everyone was already charged up and diving into their duties. They all looked up as I strode through the large room. My eyes landed on some young customers, who stood in a group and were listening to what a member of staff was talking about. They all seemed attentive save one, a girl in a short red dress.
She stared me up and down as I nodded in reply to everyone who greeted me. Sooner than I wanted, I was in front of the elevator. In the corner of my eye, I saw the girl detach from the group. The elevator door closed before my eyes, I was disappointed, I had hoped she would get in with me.
“Sir, someone is here to see you” my secretary’s voice came through the intercom. I jolted from my seat. My tie was lying somewhere on the table, I put it on. I picked up my smartphone, I quickly checked my reflection and made sure the tie was arranged properly.
“Let her in”
I sat pensively in my seat until the door opened. I busied myself with some files on my table. The door opened and closed. When I looked up, it was a young man standing in my office. I glared at him.
“Hello Sir” he greeted, with a wide confident smile that grated on my nerves.
“Hello, how can I help you?” I asked him.
He walked over to my desk and sat down. I sighed inwardly. It was going to be another hard day at work.
JOY
Five years ago, Joy had decided to take her mother’s advice and open a tailoring shop. She used the money she had saved from her teaching years. It was small, and the result was a small shack squeezed between two houses. The shack contained just two machines, one for sewing and one for knitting. In those days, Joy worked in her shop alone. It was not until two years later that she started having apprentices.
There is dignity in labor her mother would always tell her. Five years after she began, her little shop had transformed into a small designing company with a boutique attached in front. She had ten fashion designers in her employ and worked fewer hours. The only problem with working fewer hours was that she got home too early.
Sometimes she wished she was a banker with an 8-10 job so she wouldn’t have to wait at the door for a husband who was forever reluctant to return home after a day’s work. Contrary to what he thought, Joy was aware of his love for clubhouses and women and the knowledge only magnified her hurt.
A man was standing at her office door. Joy’s feet came to a halt. She knew who it was. Why did he keep coming for her even when she said no over and over again?
“Hey beautiful” He greeted her when he caught sight of her.
“Moses. What are you doing here?” Joy asked. Her voice wasn’t friendly.
“Hey! Calm down. I just accompanied the flowers and the chocolate” he replied
“That’s great. It means you can very easily accompany them back”
“Let’s get into your office,” he said. Joy stood and looked at him. She wanted badly to refuse but she knew they couldn’t remain out there bickering. Her staff would be too only too happy to watch them wash their dirty linen in public. She opened the door for him to step through, then she locked it behind him.
“What are you doing here?” She asked him. He did not answer, just dropped the gifts on the work desk, and walked up to her.
“You are extra sad today,” he said. His fingers skimmed along her cheek, making her shiver. Then he kissed her and kissed her again.
“Moses don’t,” she said, her breath already betraying her. He smiled and held her hands to his chest.
“Don’t bother. I am not planning to take advantage of you” he said.
“Just leave, please” she begged. He wasn’t listening to her.
“You don’t need to push me away because when I said I love you I meant it. Look at me” he held her chin in his hand until she was staring him in the eye. “I intend to do things the right way”
Joy stood for a while after he left. Her back against the wall.
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***
Jake entered the bathroom and Joy quickly concealed the pregnancy test kit in her hand. She usually bathed last but she had come in early because she wanted to take the test before Jake woke up. Her husband looked scruffy and handsome just like every other day. He raised an eyebrow when he saw her.
“What are you doing in the bathroom so early?” He asked.
“I had to pee,” she replied. Technically, it wasn’t even a lie.
“Okay. Come here” They hugged.
“Good morning, love”
“Good morning baby girl” Jake replied. A blush skittered over Joy’s cheeks. He was being so unusually sweet.
“Let me leave you to bathe, okay?” She asked.
“Okay,” Jake said. Slapping her ass as she left. Joy giggled, the laughter sounding high pitched and forced in her own ears. She was at the door when he called her.
“Hey baby”
She turned around to see him. His shirt was off and he was hairy and unchanged. Sometimes Joy wondered what had changed between them. He was still as sexy as the first day they had sex but their lovemaking had soured. She still had the “banging body” but it was really hard to get in the mood sometimes.
“I have something to tell you,” he said.
“Okay. Now?” She asked. He was getting into the shower and Joy wondered if he was planning to have a conversation with her from inside the shower.
“No babe. Go wait for me. I will be out soon” he said.
“Fine” Joy thought as she left the bathroom. “I have better things to do anyway”
“Don’t do it” her conscience implored. She entered the room, his phone was lying there on the dresser, beckoning to her.
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JAKE
Telling Joy I wouldn’t be back for a month was easy. I knew I was lucky to have a wife like her. A beautiful and intelligent woman who chose to be simple for love. She never even asked me why I was traveling so close to my yearly leave. She was attentive as always and docile too. She even asked to come with me.
“You will be lonely. I will be so busy attending a series of business meetings” I told her and she nodded quietly.
“I will be lonely here,” she said after a while. I sat down beside her and held her hand.
“Should I call Tara and tell her to come stay with you?” I asked. Tara is my younger sister.
“Nah. I will be fine”
“You sure?” I asked. I got a momentary thrill from it. I felt like a caring husband all of a sudden. It was a surprisingly good feeling.
“Yeah, I am sure” she replied. I hugged her close to me and kissed her on the forehead. She collapsed into me, sometimes it was sad to see just how much this woman loved me. In the early days, I would beat myself up every time I failed her. Although the guilt did not last very long, I still felt twinges from it from time to time. This was one such time.
“Take care of yourself,” I said and that woman squeezed my midriff so tight I almost cried.
“You too,” she said quietly. There were tears in her voice.
Two hours later as I sat in the airport waiting for my flight, my phone screen lit up. It was a text. It contained a delicious picture of huge tits mashed together and the caption under it read “I can’t wait to see you”. I grinned, all the cobwebs Joy’s mood had left on my being evaporated. I was ready to live again.
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JOY
Three years of marriage, no children, a husband who was marrying his work, and Joy never felt she had made a mistake. She was still holding on. What could she do? It is not easy for a woman to admit that she had failed in the fundamental duty she was born to fulfill – marry a good man.
She couldn’t admit that being careful not to wrong kind of men had landed her in the laps of a man who cheated with impunity and without any consideration of his neglected wife. Joy had been the “I want to keep myself” kind of girl. Jake was not her first lover but she could beat her chest and proclaim that few men in this world knew what her panties looked like.
Growing up under a strict mother had helped keep her in line. The threat of a wasted life had made her stay very far away from men until she was twenty years of age and even then, she was still careful. The day she met Jake, she had been twenty-four years old and a final year student. According to her mother, “ripe for the picking”.
Jake swept her off her feet with his manliness and his sharp wit. Soon they were humping away at each other on his large bed.
“You are so sweet and tight baby. You make me want to marry you” he had told her.
She remembers laughing at the comment and forgetting about it. Four months later, and after many of such experiences Jake finally proposed to her. She could no longer remember his exact words but he had called her “a perfect fit”. After the engagement, they began to get to know each other more.
Jake told her he wouldn’t want children immediately after marriage as he planned to “enjoy” her before she gave birth. He was scared she would stop being a “perfect fit”. Joy remembered laughing, thinking he was very hilarious. When she asked him how long he would like to wait, he told her six months.
She was happy. Six months was just okay with her. Then he began to manipulate her in his sneaky way. When they made love he would comment about how tight and sweet she was and how he would regret losing that “grip”. It was slow but it worked. His comments made her worry that giving birth would make her unattractive to him.
When one year passed and she began to insist, he gave her space. That was the beginning of the end. Their love crashed and began to use crutches. He started coming home late from work and having sex with her occasionally. He didn’t tell her expressly that he still did not want children but his attitude said it all.
“You are on your own if you choose to get pregnant”
Living in the house with him was not so bad. They lived like friends with benefits. He lived to go to work every morning. She lived for those days when he woke up on the right side of the bed willing to spare her a kiss or a hug. She lapped those moments up like a greedy dog. The physical neglect was manageable, the emotional neglect made her want to burst into tears all the time. What hurt so bad was her love for him. She had been waiting for it to die. Waiting to wake up one morning and not feel mushy when she looked at him.
“I am dying here,” she said to her reflection. She had been sitting at her dresser for hours. Used tissues were scattered on the ground around her. She was done blaming her tears and sadness on hormones. She took a deep breath, knowing that when she crossed the line there would be no going back. She picked up her phone and dialed.
A few minutes later, a man’s voice cut through the silence “Hello, what’s up?” He asked.
Joy smiled. “Where did you say you live again?”
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