GETTING OVER ED...

I didn’t want to care any more than I felt. My life just went bust with Edward’s deserting me. He left me for some obscure girl, Angie; young, I hear she is 20 and with good looks!

Looks?

What about me? I had the looks too but as far as I know Ed left me, his girl of four years. We were of the same age and that had worried me since most girls dated older… I remember him reassuring me that love-wise whether decades separated us we would always be soul mates.

“We were meant for each other Sophie.”

That’s what he said then, and that’s exactly what he tossed away. I reminded him about it and his response was curt.

“It’s the dynamics, Sophie. People change stations. Who am I not to?”

I called our mutual friend, Lisa about Ed leaving me. She stayed quiet on the line for a while. Actually, Lisa had hinted that eventuality three times in the last one month but I never took her seriously. Ed and I were like the sun and a sole planet in the universe. I was that planet! I loved him helplessly and he knew when to shine his light on me, good enough to make me bloom.

“You warned me, Lisa!” I said. “I am too blind…”

Lisa was still quiet. I wanted her to say something to console me but she kept her end of the line chillingly hushed! I thought she would hang up on me, probably siding with Ed to leave me. I was about to hang up when I heard her sob on the other end of the line.

For the next long minutes of my phone credit we were crying.

When I met her the next day at a Café in town she had Tasha in tow. Tasha was a mouthpiece. Tall, half white; the other had a mixture of three different breeds. Asia, Arab and Africa. All the best of four continents were merged in her making. Tasha was beautiful and she knew it; and so she used it to get whatever goodies she wanted in men, the only drawback was that she perpetually in need! But given her mouth and what me and Sophie had to discuss, Lisa asked her to take a hike coz we had something to talk about.

Tasha didn’t want to leave, she needed hot news and she knew there was some in between me and Lisa. She took a long while staring between the two of us before resigning to leave. There was disappointment written all over her face.

“OK. If I must go, I must go!” she said, “Call me when you are done.”

And she left with a slow but heavy swagger, well-knowing that the next table had a bunch of males who had nothing much to talk about but gawk around the room at girls and size them.

“If she’ll ever settle down….” Lisa said, following Tasha with a stare.

“Give her time.”

“And money.”

We broke into laughter. But that was the truth. If Tasha got that kind of man of immense wealth, she’d would really thinking of settling down into a strict family life. They would both be writing; Lisa writing shopping budgets, the man writing the cheques.

“For sometime,” I added. Lisa broke into a new hearty laughter.

“What happened to the good old days, when life was simple and plain? Waking up in the morning to till good old land, milk every lactating cow dry and much later get going down to the stream to fetch water by the pot? When there were no towns to spoil brats like Tasha…”

“No Towns?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Without a town, no Tasha, darling. You don’t know the girl is of intercontinental sperm? She couldn’t have been without the convenience of towns.”

Good Lord.

She said that! My chest was burning for laughter release, I couldn’t hold it and it burst out, way too loud that made heads turn to us. A glass rocked on our and tripped on its saucer and fell crushingly onto the floor below, spewing its contents and crashing into splinters, all at once. Around the corner of the exit, Tasha’s head popped, carrying a big grin.

“I heard that, girlfriends! But it’s okay. I will get you all one day, fair and square.” She pulled her head back and - probably walked away….

Lisa didn’t stop her funnies. We went on and I giggled most of the date, eating and drinking and laughing all the more. Time just flew by, joyfully until the next table of gents was reduced to three and they came and stood over us. How so brave!

“Hey, we would like dates!” said one.

His face was boyish, but his demeanor was not. Large on the shoulders, looking like a building pillar, he was strong…. Lisa’s eyes were on his, looked but she still managed to step on my foot. I knew she was 100% taken by him. The boy was extremely beautiful; and his voice, gong-hard. He didn’t smile and he looked down on us like he had to get a good answer to his request. Oops, I thought, God still makes such gorgeous boys…..

But so funny that you walk up a woman and ask for a group date, I thought silently. Lisa was laughing inwardly until I asked the man back….

“Are you their boss?” She exploded unto herself helplessly, leaving the men too in a stitch of laughter. The restaurant room was turning to be too small for the company.

Whatever happened, they sat around and we went ahead with a five-some. Hours upon hours elapsed, with laughter filing most of the speech spaces. Lisa rejoined us and toger, the six or us ended up running around town most of that evening, having fun in clubs and in parking lots. I enjoyed the parking lots more since the air was good and everyone was in the mood for humor and even more humor; the laughter was too much and, I bet we needed a belly doctor to remove our laughter lines. We pained….

“And now you have a new date tomorrow in St. Francis,” added Lisa much later when we were alone.

“Join the club, Sophie” said Tasha, “who fits the first slot, St. Francis or homely Ed?”

“Who’s Ed?” I asked, “you must have been good in History, Tasha. Ed is only history. OK?

“OK! Though strange.”

And with that, a new page opened up. Girls, don’t let our brothers to hurt you. You do have some pride reserve somewhere deep within. Get back in there and take a good dig. Life should she so sweet!