“Hey baby, how are you feeling now?” I asked Shantel over the phone.
“Worse babe, I feel like I am about to die, everything in me is screaming for help, I can’t do this anymore, I can’t go through this pain every single time!”, Shantel exploded before bursting into tears.
“Oh mine, is it that bad? I thought this month was going to be different since you didn’t consume a lot of sugar and you took your meds early”, I said softly.
“Benson I am so tired, I don’t want to be a woman anymore!”, Shantel broke down again.
“Please don’t say that my love, who am I going to get married to? who will be the mother of my sextuplets?
Upon saying this Shantel burst into laughter. I smiled as this was my cue to continue with my jokes.
“Honey don’t mind this period cramps, it’s so stupid, imagine coming only once in a month just to attack you, monthly visitor my foot! If it had the balls let it show up daily and see if we wouldn’t destroy it to pieces, bloody coward!” I said to Shantel who was laughing really hard at this point.
“The bloody thing is lucky that I am not there or else I would have taught it a lesson”
“Babe stop, it’s okay, I can’t breathe”, Shantel managed to say whilst laughing.
I waited for her to finish laughing as she deserved to laugh to her heart's content, I heard her catch her breath like she had run a marathon.
“Young man you won’t kill me”, she managed to say.
“God forbid! am I mad to kill my missing rib? My soulmate?”, I said to her and I could hear her giggle at my response.
“Benson I wish you were here”, I heard her say softly. I knew the distance thingy was creeping on her again but that was about to change as we would be meeting finally in a few days.
“Soon babe, very soon”, I replied warmly as I couldn’t help but think about how our first meeting would be.
Shantel and I have been dating for a few months now and other than the regular pictures and videos we exchanged we haven’t met in person. We do so many video calls but that didn’t replace the feeling of being in the same place.
I have heard so much about people meeting online and finally ending up together and I have also heard of people being deceived via Social Media. When Shantel and I started I couldn’t believe that I had fallen in love with a client.
I love to consider myself a professional in my field, so as such I don’t mix my work life and personal life but Shantel changed the narrative. She stepped into my life and changed everything.
How we started talking was so funny. Shantel had placed an order at my studio to get a portrait of her father, for some reason her order wasn’t inputted in the system. She had called several times to inquire about the portrait but she couldn’t get through to us. She finally got my direct number from an acquaintance of hers who was an old friend of mine.
The very first time she called me she didn’t fail to vent, she spewed everything without filtering and I was amazed at how she was so eloquent even when she was angry. I was held spellbound by her voice, as angry as she was her voice was still angelic. Not finding the right words to say I finally interrupted her; “Wow! Slow down lion”
“Lion? Do I look like Simba from Pride Rock?”
“No ma’am you sound like Nala, Simba’s wife”
In a split second, I heard her laugh and her laughter was damn contagious as I started laughing too.
The joke had calmed her down and in no time she had explained everything to me without bringing down the roof.
From that day Shantel and I started talking regularly, we moved from talking about her father’s portrait, surprising him to talking about ourselves.
The more I got to know about this lady through our long phone calls the more I fell in love with her and one thing about love is that it has the ability to make you forget your principles and enjoy every bit of it which I did and the rest is history.
Finally, I and Shantel will be meeting at the Golden Tulip restaurant in a few days, I am so excited and at the same time nervous, the one thing I feared the most was Shantel not falling in love with me when she sees me.
The D-Day came and I made sure everything was in order, I didn’t want anything to go wrong on our first date.
It was 5:30 pm and Shantel was already on her way to the venue, my heart was beating so fast, my palms were sweaty and I was sweating even though the air conditioner was on.
I could stand or take anything but not Shantel’s rejection. I said a word of prayer just before she stepped in.
My eyes were fixated on the tall slender lady in red heels who walked through the door, I knew she was the one as I had seen tons of her pictures not to recognize her in person.
She scanned the entire restaurant and her eyes landed on me and she smiled, in that moment all my fears were gone as I smiled back at her. She walked down to where I was and I couldn’t help but pull her into a hug, she whispered “Man you are so damn hot”, I did the victory dance mentally as I knew the woman I was holding is mine and mine alone.
All images are mine except otherwise stated.
