Lies That Heal

“Will you marry me? Make me the happiest man in the world and marry me Ivie…” he said. Ivie stared at him in disbelief.

“He was expecting a reply. This two-timing cliche looking bastard was actually expecting me to give him a reply. Can you believe that?! After cheating on me with both my best friend and my sister?! Does he really think I’m so stupid? Or does he think I love him so much that I would forget all the hurt and pain he caused me? If that’s the case then he really is a fool.”

She looked at him with all the hatred and pain she felt for him masked under a semi-bright smile. “Not now Ivie, not now… if we reject him now, we won’t be able to carry out our master plan. Nobody causes us to shed painful tears and have a happy ending. We will show him what we are made of. For now, let’s pretend and be the sweet, cutie, little fiance.”

She could feel the disgust that was written all over her face behind her makeup, but on the outside, her contoured cheekbones highlighted the fake smile she had managed to put up as she answered his foolish question.

“Yes, I do. I’ll marry you Temiloluwa.”

He picked her up and swirled her around as though they were acting in a Disney movie. She giggled girlishly but cursed him inwardly.

“The idiot bastard had dared to confess to me that he slept with my best friend and made out with Iwi. I mean, Claire is old enough to know her right from wrong, but Iwinosa? Iwi is just a freshman in Unizik. My baby girl is too young to be used by the likes of this imbecile! Ouuu… I’m so angry, I could slice his stupid smile off his face.”

Temiloluwa

He had hoped that this plan would work. However, Ivie had taken him by surprise as always.

How does someone remain calm and dispassionate no matter the situation she finds herself in? I had hoped that this would have been the last straw to break the camel’s back. Who simply smiles and says ‘I forgive you’ after hearing that she got cheated on with her best friend and little sister?

This should have been the deal breaker; asking her to marry me should have set her completely off, but somehow, she just smiled and accepted my proposal. How do I get this girl to show me emotions? I’m tired of being in a dispassionate relationship. At first I had found the whole ‘hard girl’ thing very attractive, but now I don’t know anymore. I honestly feel like I’m dating myself in this relationship.

Ivie

I trusted this guy with my heart. I gave him my all. There were other finer, richer men that were ready to spend on me. Even if I would have ended up crying, at least it would’ve be in the front seat of a Benz. I gave up all that; my contacts, clients, everything, because I fell in love with this fool and I wanted to be perfect for him. All that to waste. My idealized prince charming turns out to be a monstrous ogre.

Why did I even think something really beautiful could have come out of this? I should have known. It was too good to be true. For once, someone had treated me like a goddess. I had been treated so horribly in my previous relationships that the first guy that seemed to show me care and attention immediately transformed into the love of my life. I was a fool… scratch that, I am a fool…

Temiloluwa

I have always felt like I wasn’t good enough for Ivie. She had always seemed like she was out of my league and even my friends said the same thing too. She had a Mercedes G Wagon, an iPhone 12 ProMax, and an apartment in Lekki phase 2. What could I possibly offer her?

She had all these, yet she somehow wanted me. It was crazy then, many of my friends told me that she was just playing me. They joked about how sure they were that her accepting my proposal to date was a prank from her clique. I waved them all off and told them that she had finally fallen for my charm. I honestly hoped so because I had been asking her out since our high school days. We started dating but it felt like I was dating myself because she never showed her emotions.

There was one time that we were supposed to go out on a date. It was our one year anniversary but I got caught up in an impromptu meeting and I couldn’t reach out to her to cancel. She waited for three hours before going home. When I eventually got out of the meeting and called her, I was expecting her to shout or cuss or even reprimand me, but I got nothing. There wasn’t a single emotion in her voice when she spoke.

It was a year ago, I had called her phone later that evening “H-Hey babe… ha-happy anniversary once again my love. I’m so sorry for standing you up tonight. An unforeseen online meeting came up with all the team leaders across the country and my bosses didn’t permit me to leave. I’m so sorry baby. Wh-Where are you right now? Can we still meet today? I really wanna see you hon.”

There wasn’t a trace of anger in Ivie’s voice. “Nah… I’m tired, it’s past 10 pm and I have to wake up by 5 am to prepare for work tomorrow. Don’t worry, we will see whenever we see. Goodnight Temi, and happy one year anniversary once again.”

Ivie

I remember quite vividly how this moron forgot our first year anniversary. After I had gone through so much stress and energy to have Teni dress me because I was too tense to pick a dress for myself, this goat had the audacity to bail on me. It had taken me so much effort to prepare myself for the outing that day. I kept checking myself in the mirror for hours. Wishing to see his face light up in admiration of how pretty I looked. It never happened.

When he called me to apologise later that night, I wanted to shout at him and tell him to fuck off but I controlled myself. I wasn’t going to lose my cool and go back to my toxic ways. I was an angel to him, and I didn’t want that to change. Instead of quarrelling and shouting at him, I would rather implode and continue to appear like a saint to this young man. I wasn’t ready to lose him.

Temiloluwa

After I saw her reaction to my flunking our date, I realized that something was really wrong. No normal girl would be that chill about a one year anniversary date going wrong. I felt that I needed to do something to spice up the relationship. I decided to lie to her that I cheated on her twice – with her best friend and her little sister. If I had hoped to receive any form of reaction, I was grossly mistaken. She simply walked out and said nothing.

Now, here I am, hugging and twirling her round after getting my marriage proposal accepted. I know I should be happy that I got my request approved but I am not satisfied. There has been no change and now she thinks of me as a cheat. It’s a miracle that she still accepted me even with everything.

“Baby, thank you so much for accepting me. I am honestly so grateful for your love and forgiveness. Thank you for not giving up on me. I love you.”

Still no response from her. A part of me was starting to doubt that she truly loved me. I don’t think so anymore, but I somehow feel like I am eventually going to get my reaction from her. Maybe not now, but some time in the future, this thing would have accumulated a chain reaction of emotions that have been locked away for months or even years, and the butterfly effect will either destroy or heal. I am honestly hoping for the latter.

Ivie

When Temi met me, I was a very popular ‘runs’ girl in Abuja. I had senators, ministers and Rep members in my DM begging me for my presence, even if only to give them a private show when I refused them sex. I had clients abroad that only certain kinds of connections could bring, men that were ready to pay in dollars, pounds and Euros.

I had ‘men’, but then I decided to give love a chance and I left it all to follow the bright eyed handsome nerd that had been crushing on me since before I saw my first period. For me, there was no greater test of love than the test of time and Temi had passed that test. He didn’t wait like the rest to see if my curves would form well enough for them to lust after, he loved me all the same. I think the most endearing quality that made me settle with him after so many years of silent pursuit was the innocence in the love he offered me.

When I decided to give him a chance, I knew that I was not mistaken. I had been with many men and as such, believed that I had no right to be openly possessive and territorial with my man. I believed in Karma and allowing myself to get due punishment for my mistakes, even if my executioner was myself. I felt better that way. And before Temi, I had never felt the need to feel otherwise, because try as I might to have maintained a relationship with the people I loved, I always ended up getting burnt. All had burned me, All except Temi….

I still remember our first night together like it was only five minutes ago. That was the night he had carefully and masterfully planted his hex to bewitch me. The night was nothing short of glorious, because for the first time ever, I had experienced what it felt like to be treated like a goddess.

Temiloluwa handled my body with the sort of reverence that only religious bigots could offer, and he worshipped my body with every lick, bite, suck and thrust. It was as if my body was getting invaded, but not in a creepy assaulting way. It felt like he was breaking through walls that I never even knew existed within me. I heard my first cries and was suddenly reminded of the image of a baby having its first cries. He took me back to my roots and fondled his way through my childhood and adolescence, bringing me back to my very present and even carrying me farther ahead to unknown horizons. It was like a rediscovery of myself– that night.

I was thoroughly convinced that we were going to have sex that night, the air was too thick with lust to resist having a taste of the real deal– or so I thought. Temi showed me that with the right person, there was no real deal. Every deal was the real deal. Every touch, every stroke, every groan, everything, was good enough to send you past the farthest of horizons.

I realized that night that there were no erroneous zones on my body, because everywhere and everything responded to the slightest touch, the quietest whisper, and even the softest groan. It was surreal, I had only read about encounters like that in the Harlequin novels I read as a budding adolescent. I never would have thought that it was something that could be experienced in real life, with real human bodies. That night, and the next 638 nights passed and we still have not had sex.

At first, I was worried that he did not want to have sex with me. I was worried that he had probably found out about my previous promiscuous lifestyle and considered it unsafe to be in me but after one year of dealing with all the many ‘what ifs’, I decided to man up and ask him directly in the most uninterested tone of voice I could muster. I noticed the faint glint in his eyes when I asked him why he had refused to be intimate with me. Till today, I do not know what that spark meant. When asked he simply told me that he didn’t want to.

“I don’t want to have sex with you because I’m the old-fashioned type that would love to make love to his wife for the first time on their wedding night. You can call it cliche and boring, but I choose celibacy.”

He didn’t know it but that was the moment he found my ‘mumu’ button and collected it from me. With all my on site and off site experiences with the opposite sex, I had concluded that they were all dogs that wanted nothing more from a woman than to be fucked. Yet, there was someone, one man, who still felt the need to stand by his principles, irrespective of what his peers were saying and doing. At that moment, he not only had my adoration but also my respect. I had never met such a man.

This was why his confession about cheating on me came as a big shock. I instantly lost all the respect I had had for him. He was a dog like everybody else and I was going to punish his cheating ass in the most painful way possible.

Temiloluwa

The first and only time Ivie had ever shown any form of interest in our relationship was when she asked me why I didn’t want to have sex with her. I was so happy that I almost shouted. It took every ounce of self control in me to sound as level-headed as possible. I wanted to experience that again. I wanted to see that concern and doubt that I felt everyday in her eyes too.

My desire to cure my dispassionate girlfriend pushed me to approach her best friend and her sister. I asked the both of them to play along with my lie in case she confronted them about it. I staged everything so I could finally see her shout at me, get jealous or even burst into tears. I wanted something, anything, that would make me know for certain that she loved me and wanted me as much as I did her. Sadly, I got no response.

Six months later

“Do you Ivie Omoriodion take Temiloluwa Osatuyi to be your lawfully wedded husband, to stand by him in good times and bad for the rest of your life?”

“I don’t.”

“What?! Did I hear correctly? Ivie do you or do you not take him to be your husband for eternity?”

The pastor could barely keep his astonishment in. This however was the moment I had been waiting for for over six months after he had had the audacity to propose to me after confessing to have cheated on me with the two most important females in my life; after lying to me that he wanted to stay celibate.

“I have waited for this moment for eight months now. Eight months ago I had the real beast within you reveal himself to me. You lying, cheating bastard! Did you really think that I would forgive your infidelity just like that?! Did you really think that I would forgive you for ditching on our first year anniversary date just like that?! Well, I am done now!”

Just as I was about to turn and storm my way down the aisle, he grabbed my right arm and hugged me, shamelessly crying like a baby. At first, I thought he was sorry about the hurt he had caused me. I tried freeing myself from his embrace but he only held me tighter. I started thinking it was because he was scared to lose me. It touched my heart but I was not about to give in. Just when I was about to attempt my freedom again, he spoke.

“Throughout this service I continued to experience mixed feelings. I was happy to be getting married to my first love, the queen of my heart, but I was also afraid that I was getting married to a woman that didn’t love or care about me. All these years, I have wanted, prayed even, for the day when you would show me your feelings. I grew even more desperate when we started dating and there was no change. In my desperation, I lied to you so I could squeeze out an emotion, any emotion, so I would know that you indeed felt something for me.

I had foolishly hoped that my lies would heal you of your cold dispassionate heart and help you realise that you could also be territorial, possessive and just as passionate in public as you are with me when we are alone. I love you Ivie, I would never cheat on you, my queen. I’m sorry I lied, but I’m more grateful that it paid off, because now I know for certain that you have also loved me as much as I do you.

I know this is probably the most stupid thing you have had to experience all your life, but permit me to ask again. Ivie Osadebame Omoriodion, will you be my wife for the rest of our lives? Please, tell me you will…”

I looked around the hall and rested my eyes on the two most important females in my life. After my parents died, my only living relative had been my little sister and my best friend had been there with me through everything. They were smiling at me and nudging me to accept the man kneeling in front of me. I was angry, but I was also happy.

“He has been mine alone all these while. He never cheated on me…” I thought to myself.

I held his bowed head up, planted a light kiss on his forehead and whispered into his ears, “what do you think?”

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