SEVEN

Dave was still wide awake. The time was 5:00am. He ran a warm bath as his emotions were becoming to make him feel uncomfortable and hot at the same time.

After taking his bath, he felt a lot better and was preparing to sleep, before he heard another knock on his door. He was surprised what would make Lindsey to knock on his door that early in the morning. He only smirked and shrugged as he went for the door.

Opening the door, he was surprised to see Tani. She was the African American lady, the agent’s girlfriend who had given him his room keys when he had first packed in.

“Hi Dave. Sorry for the inconveniences.” She began, with her head tilted to the right as she started.

“No problem.” He said at once wishing she could just go straight to the point.

“You weren’t back at home on time last night. I wanted to inform you that your rent is gonna expire in two days’ time. Barnes had told me to inform you. He travelled and won’t be back till tomorrow.”

Dave’s eyes were taking records of the light makeup and heavy lip gloss that she applied on her face as his fixed gaze on her was very intense and embarrassing. 

She was one of the most beautiful black ladies in the yard, and she spoke very fluent English. It was even evident she spoke better the natives themselves.

He looked lost as though the news of his rent nerved him or he was rather at how much her beauty arrested him.

Tapping him lightly on the shoulder, she waved at his face.

 “Hope all is well. Or do I have shit on my face? You’ve been staring intently at me while I spoke but still you haven’t responded to me.”

Dave smiled embarrassingly.

“I’ll see to that. Thanks Tani for the reminder.”

He said at once as he attempted to close the door.

Tani raised her right hand in another wave and whispered a ‘goodbye’ before the door was banged on her face. She just wished she had not said anything wrong to attract such a cold reaction from him.  

Entering back into his room, his sleep was ruined. It was already morning, but he felt he needed more sleep after coming back late from the cinema the previous night. 

He was now feeling bad that he didn’t invite Lindsey to the movie outing, but still made an excuse as she always closed from work very late and would be too tired to join him even if he had bothered.

His mind drifted back to the day they had first met.

On the first day they had met. He had barely settled in from the long journey from Newcastle, before hearing a knock from the door.  

The time was 9:30pm on that day, not too far in the night, he was scared, being his first time, yet he decided to take the risk and go for the door. He was tired, but still didn’t have a choice. 

As he reached for the door handle and swayed the door open, he saw the back of the lady who was already turning to leave.

“Hey!” he spoke out.

“Hi!” she replied. Now facing him, she continued. 

“Sorry if I was being a pest. I’m Lindsey.” 

She stretched out her hands in an anticipated handshake. Dave received her hands and the corners of his mouth were lifted up in return to her smile which revealed the dimples in her face.

“I’m Dave, nice to meet you.”

He inspected her purple hair. It looked weird. He then continued.

“I believe you stay in one of the rooms?” she nodded and motioned to one of the rooms with the number ‘306’.

“That’s my room.”

“Okay Lindsey. Can we talk better tomorrow? I’m very tired at the moment. Thanks a lot for saying hi.”

“Sure, have a wonderful night. Sleep well.”      

Dave thought about their first meeting and for a moment he was glad that he was not left completely alone. He wanted to think if it was wise for him to have asked Lindsey out instead.

But he didn’t blame himself. It wasn’t his fault he had feelings for Julie. He only saw her as a friend. 

And he never gave such thoughts a chance, as she too never discussed about her relationship status whenever he tried to get her to speak about it. 

Sometimes, he felt that anytime he asked, it reminded her of a hurtful past she didn’t want anyone to know about.

“Can we save this discussion for another time? Are you going to spoil our wonderful time with questions about my love life?”

Noticing that he always posed a red flag in front a bull with his incessant questions, he decided to let her be. And enjoy the friendship without intruding too much into her personal affairs.

Taking back his phone, he went through another folder, which contained pictures that where downloaded online. 

Pictures of Julie were strewn in this section as though they were not having a fracas. He didn’t delete them even with the conflict between them.

The first time they had started speaking, he was like her fan. He used to always d******d almost every picture she uploaded online.

As he glanced through all the pictures, he took his time to playfully zoom in and out, with his main focus at the unique milk colour of her teeth. 

In his eyes, it was as though a sparking star was visible at the edges of her teeth.

Her smile was very seductive and whenever she pouted in a picture, it’d be very tempting to kiss her through the phone …sometimes he wondered if others felt the same way he felt whenever he looked at her pictures. 

He wondered if her refusal to date him was because of a boyfriend she had and didn’t make mention to him about.

He had tried on many occasions in the past to ask of her relationship status, but restrained after he read a relationship post in a chat group of how terrible it is for a guy to ask a lady if she was in a relationship. 

The post further encouraged guys not to be discouraged but put in frantic efforts to ask a lady out if they are sure about how they feel about her. This is because asking a lady if she has a boyfriend puts them on the defensive, making them look unattractive as they always love to go on dates even if they are in a relationship. 

They were lots of offensive and humorous comments, as some opposed and supported the update of the writer. 

He now thought of his current situation with Julie and wondered if it would ever go back to the former state of how lovely they used to be together as friends.

He had misunderstood the obvious signs that came from her.

The way she laughed comfortably with him, the long video calls they both had, the long night chats and the way she was all over him at the airport as though they were couples walking down the aisle about to be joined together in matrimony, which gave him some rays of hope. 

Then, he loved how it made him feel to be seen in public with such a beautiful girl in and out, even though he was yet not sure of where it was leading them; if he was meant to be friends with she or she was giving him a cue with her gestures to persuade him into asking her for a date. 

He couldn’t deny the fact that he was scared; scared of the fact that he had never asked any girl out even during his days at high school. His friends were all in relationships, as most of them had more than one girl they were dating. 

Some of them even had multiple breakups and had another girl in the following month; it was as though they never cared about their exes. But there he was in their midst, the only ‘virgin guy’ as they sometimes called him in mockery.

He was also scared because of the stories he had read online, the movies he had watched and the experiences his friends had shared to him about ladies that had rejected them and how it made them feel on most of such scenarios. 

The feelings he had got to know were sometimes difficult to deal with more than break up, and he wouldn’t want to ever see himself in such a situation…and at the end, lose his friend as it was visible in many of such cases.  

He also thought of her wanting him to be a man and lead the way, as it is said by most people he had interacted with, that ladies don’t like asking a guy out as they are sometimes mistaken to be loosed and most times not taken serious, looked down and in many cases they are left heartbroken at the end, especially if the guy doesn’t return such intimate feelings.

He now looked at their current separation. How they had gone a few weeks without communicating to each and wondered if he had done wrong by telling her of how he felt about her or she was fed up of their friendship and was only waiting for a little chance to part ways with him.

He wished a day would come when he would understand everything. But for now, he clambered onto his bed and squeezed his pillow in his arms, wishing to be overtaken by sleep.