At exactly 9:45 PM, my phone beeped. Mirabel wants to be your friend on Facebook. I glanced at it and ignored it. I'd get back to it once I was done writing.
It wasn't up to two minutes later when another notification came. Mirabel sent you a text.
“I just read your story and… wow. You write like you’ve seen the inside of my head.” I pushed my glasses to my nose and squinted as I read.
I stared at the message for a few minutes, ignoring what I was writing earlier. I quickly scrolled to her profile on Facebook. She was a beautiful yet simple girl with a calm face. No filters, no pout. Like she had nothing to prove to people about how beautiful she was. I spent minutes rereading her profile and going through her pictures. I was stuck.
I tried to ignore it. I remember promising myself after my last failed relationship. No distractions again, just build yourself. But something about her message pulled a reply out of me.
“Thank you. That means a lot. I try to be honest and relatable with what I write.”
That particular night we exchanged numbers and spoke on the phone till past 1 a.m. It was weird yet had a beautiful feeling I couldn't describe.
We booked a day for our first date just two days later. It was at a quiet café on Oron Road. I still remember how my jaw dropped as she walked into that cart in a yellow dress. And when she laughed, it came easily, like a sound that lived close to the surface, like she had mastered the whole act of being a lady. Trust me, I never used the jokes I rehearsed if things were to become awkward. She wasn't like other girls, she made the conversation easier, and to top it all off. She spoke like a writer too. Not just with her words but with her hands, her eyes, her whole self.
“Wait, you also grew up in Aba?” I said, brows raised.
She grinned. “Yes oh. I even schooled at FGGC Umuahia. Abum ezígbóté Nwa Aba (I'm a pure Aba bred)."
“Then it's possible we've crossed paths without knowing.”
She laughed. For the first time in my life, I was dating a girl from my tribe. And so far so good.
Over the next few weeks, everything sped up like it was masterfully planned by the universe.
The calls. The voice notes. The screenshots of romantic poems. The good morning texts. I found myself smiling at my phone in public. Wishing and praying for her calls.
I let all my plans of building myself and not a relationship blur in the background. I told myself, maybe I can build myself and love someone too. Without a blueprint on how to do both together. I threw caution to the wind.
It wasn't long before the silence came.
No calls from her all through the day. And no replies to my text either. I waited all through the weekend.
Still no reply from her.
By the next weekend. We didn't call each other.
No fights. No arguments. No explanations at all. We just stopped talking. Just two people slowly becoming strangers again.
“What happened to your babe?” Uche, my friend had asked me one time he visited.
I looked up from my laptop and shook my head. “She stopped calling.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And you?”
I pulled off my glasses and rubbed my eye with the back of my palm. “There was no need to push.”
Uche didn't reply. He just cooked in bed and focused on his phone.
I sat in my workspace thinking about what could be the reason. Maybe we met at the wrong time in our lives. Maybe what was supposed to be just friendship was pushed too fast. Or maybe we were just a short story with no sequel.
I try not to live with regrets. In fact, every time I remember her in that yellow dress, the way she laughed, the way we just fit for a moment. I smiled knowing that I got the chance to let myself feel something beautiful for a while. And while it lasted, it was beautiful.
Maybe in the future, we'll ask questions about what really happened. But for now, I'd prefer to focus on my journey.
I threw caution to the wind. And even though it ended, I’m glad I did.
