THREE DAYS TO VALENTINE.

Nkem was thinking about browsing through  Konga or Amazon for the perfect Val's gift for Lawrence

She thought of Colognes,but the long line of perfumes in his wardrobe told her not to bother.
Maybe a shirt then, she thought as she brought out another of his  shirts from the laundry bag.

A quick glance at her watch told her it was 1:42pm.
Her lunch break was almost over
Crap!There was no time to get her MOI-MOI.She thought to herself.
She barely had enough time to get back to the office.

"The things I do for love" She said out-loud inside Lawrence's empty bedroom, as she placed the last shirt inside his wardrobe.

"Bae!" he'd said on the phone.
"Please could you swing by the laundry for me on your way to lunch?"

He always sounded sexy each time he spoke to her in his..."office voice"
She couldn't deny she was crazy about him. They'd only been together for 4 months but she knew there was something special about him.


"No problem BAE, she replied.
 To be fair, calling each other BAE (i.e Before Anyone Else)was her idea.She just loved it when they called each other that.
But having a spare key to his apartment was HIS idea.

"We're in a serious relationship......" he said as he handed her the keys
"......Shouldn't you have it?"
She smiled and took it from him.

That was Three weeks ago.

So there she was, dropping off her boyfriend's laundry at his house.when something in the wardrobe caught her eye.
She barely even saw it.

As more or less a second resident of this house, she had a near photographic-memory of just about every object within the premises.
So anything remotely out of place was spotted....QUICKLY.

It was a small black box, hiding behind one of the Cologne-bottles.

A cuff links case?She wondered.
But she knew the location of every cuff links box in the house.Besides she was pretty sure that box wasn't there the day before.

She carefully brought it out and stared at it.What could it be?

Something about this box was off
Seconds before she opened the box she heard a strange voice in her head say
"Its probably nothing.Biko, Valentine is 3 days away.Trouble no good."

She opened the box.

It was an engagement ring.
And a very beautiful one at that.

She held her breath.
Now, she knew enough about Gold, to know that what she was holding in her hand, was quite expensive.
It was the sort of Ring Nkem's Friend Sele would call an "S.M"Ring.
"An SM or Social Media Ring.....", Sele would say.
"....is the sort of ring that gets you followers on Twitter and Instagram,"

"Here's how you do it" Sele  would say with a mischievous look on her face,

"Just take a picture of the ring, post it on twitter...and BOOM! You're a celeb!!!"

Nkem"s heart rate slowly began to rise.
The entire room seemed to have vanished..Everything else around her became a blur.In that moment nothing else existed except the ring in her hand.
Yep! she thought, this was definitely an SM ring.

Her heart-beat  was racing.
In fact it was slowly approaching the road safety speed limit.
She forgot all about her job and the Moi-Moi she'd missed.

She slowly sat on the bed.
Was this a joke? was she dreaming? and more importantly,....was the ring for her?


She sat there in silence
It wasn't a joke, she thought.too expensive to be one
She wasn't dreaming.
 Now more importantly who was the ring for? She'd love to assume that the ring was for her but she couldn't be sure.They'd only been dating for about four months.
Wasn't it too soon?

Hian! soon ke? Sele would've said.
"Dey dere dey dull! Some people propose after 2 weeks sef"

Nkem sat on the bed, thinking it through.
"Was I ready to settle down?"she said out loud.
Four months isn't a lot of time to decide if you want to settle down with someone but, clearly it was for Lawrence.

She didn't doubt that she was crazy about Lawrence but, was she ready?

Before she could stop herself, she started dialing Sele's number. The phone rang for a bit then;

SELE*(yawning sound)babe, whats up?

NKEM*Sorry, were you sleeping?

SELE*My dear,how I go do?I never get work nau!whats up?

NKEM*Babe, ...I was arranging Lawrence's  Laundry stuff

SELE*ah-ah?you didn't go to work?

NKEM* no, I'm on my lunch break, I just came to his house to drop off his laundry

SELE* Ehen???

NKEM* And  I discovered what looks like a very expensive engagement ring.

SELE*aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!

Nkem holds the phone away from her ear as the shrieking voice of her best-friend continues.

SELE*aaaaaaah!!!babe(excited) is it gold, silver, platinum?

NKEM*Its gold na

SELE*aaaaaaah!!!!His not there abi?

NKEM*He's at work

SELE*Ok, just keep it back and act normal, he clearly wants to propose to you on val's day which is three days away.

NKEM* Abi?

SELE* Ehen na!! So just act normal,you hear?
chai!!Nkem wan marry o!how we go do the bridal train?

PHONE BEEPS

NKEM*Babe, I go talk to you later.he's calling.

PHONE BEEPS

SELE*Ok-ok!!Remeber, Act normal.

NKEM* No wahala.

Switches to his call


NKEM*(Cheerfully)Bae!!! whats up my darling?

LAWRENCE*Awesome babe!hey are you still in the house?

NKEM*Yes love.

LAWRENCE* Good,can you help me go to the wardrobe,behind one of the cologne bottles you'll see a box.
My colleague begged me help him order a good engagement ring for his girlfriend.
He wants to propose to her on Val's DAY isn't that romantic?
They've been dating for almost two years.He wants to throw her a surprise party. Bae, we're  going.
What do you think I should wear.....???
hello??.......hello????? Bae, are you still there.....???? hello?



Life is a choice my friend
So choose wisely
Enough Said.