UNMARRIED... SO? Part 9

 

>>>

It had been two whole days and Clinton had not heard back from Lulu. Two days! He was going crazy. Every thing was happening so fast and so --- his phone rang and he rushed to check it. 

It could be Lulu. 

It wasn't. 

"Hello mum", he answered grudgingly, 

"Chiemelie what is wrong with you?"

He did not realize how enraged he was until he heard that question. He hung up and kept pacing in his living room. 

What was wrong with him? 

What was wrong with his father? 

What was the obsession with wanting to control his life? 

He tried to call Lulu again.

Still no answer. 

She had simply walked away from him that day, ignoring him and everything he tried to say to her. He had followed her to her car outside and watched her drive off after a final look at him from her windscreen. 

He had driven out afterwards, not bothering to return inside to his father and/or that stranger next to him. 

How dare they!!??

How dare they try to ruin the one beautiful thing he had going for himself!? 

>>>

OLUCHI'S POV

"Maybe I was just overthinking, maybe I took it too fast, maybe I ---"

I could not fight the sobs now as I sat across from Dr. Winifred. 

"Have you answered his calls?" She asked. 

"No. I don't think there's anything left to be said."

"What if he has an explanation?"

"An explanation? Dr. A whole fiancée! An explanation for a marriage-in-view?"

"Oluchi, some things aren't always so black and white. No matter how much we want them to be, I suggest you listen to what Clinton has to say."

She held my hands while I sobbed. 

The drive home was silent. I didn't play any music or listen to Charlotte Dobre's Stories. I just wanted to hear nothing. 

I felt so hurt. So played. I finally opened myself up to someone and this is what I get? 

But something was not quite adding up. 

Clinton always sounded short and dismissive when talking about his parents. There may be some tension there. 

What if Dr. Wini is right? Should I give him a chance to explain? 

I pulled into my driveway and made a mental note to pick up the phone when next he called, but --- it looked like I would not need to wait that long, because just as I got out of my car, there he was. 

Leaning against his car. 

In my driveway. 

He looked up at the sound of my car and we locked eyes. 

Unspoken emotions communicated with zero words. 

He looked good. But his eyes looked tired. Pleading. He looked like he'd been waiting for a while. 

We both stood as if rooted to our spots, but when I moved, I walked away from him and headed to the entrance. 

He stood confused, silently seeking permission to approach me. After I opened the door, I turned around. 

"Neither of us will survive this while standing outside."

I said, motioning for him to come in. 

This was his first time inside my penthouse. He knew the address from the day he had my car driven to me when he took me to that booth for the 'proposal'. 

My mind started racing through all the memories. I did not want to believe that he was doing that with two different people, that his mind was on someone else while he was with me, that everything he did and said to me may or may not have been lies or ---- I needed to sit down. 

He stood in the doorway and only followed me into the living room when I moved. 

We both waited for the other to speak.

I was not even angry,

I was hurt.

I felt deceived and betrayed. 

But the man standing here did not look like someone who would do that to me. 

"Lulu--", he spoke finally. Almost a question. 

"Where do I start?"

I closed my eyes and said the prayer of comfort, and yet again, a wash of calm flooded over me. 

I motioned for him to sit, pulled out two bottles of water, offered him one and sat on the ottoman directly opposite from him.

Interrogation mode. 

"How about from the beginning."

He started with how much he believed his parents loved him when he was a kid, making sure he was involved in many activities and trips, the best schools and holiday locations any child could dream of. 

But in his teenage/young adult years, he realized that he did not have an opinion or a choice in matters that concerned him. Not his choice of school, course of study or even extracurricular activities. Nothing was his ro decide. 

His parents made all the decisions, especially his dad. 

"---and by the time I graduated with the MBA, it was almost natural that I worked at his company. He's still CEO but I carry most of the work. And it's not even what I want to do with my life. Sometimes I don't even remember who I am or what I like, outside of their demands. It was as though he wanted to make me into a replica of himself, while still using me to boost his ego... "

Pause. 

I asked. 

"Was anything about us REAL or were you just trying to prove to yourself that you could do something without them?"

"Baby, everything about us was real. Lulu, you were -- you ARE the one thing, the one person that was truly mine.."

Pause. I said nothing so he continued. 

"When they returned to Nigeria, I went to see them, that was the day they introduced me to Carol."

"Wait.. You and Carol are actually a thing?"

"No.. Not at all. I promise. He practically declared that day that Carol was the lady I was going to marry. I was meeting her for the first time. I got in a fight with them, I even said some things I couldn't take back and I walked away... I had never seen Carol in my llife until that day and not again until few days ago at that event. I don't have her number, we don't talk. We are literally strangers."

"--so, that day. At the kayaking place, when you---where we poured out our hearts, you knew about the 'Betrothal' and didn't tell me. What was the plan? To get me to be with you and show your father than you are now man enough to make your own decisions?"

He stuttered.. 

I started feeling angry all over again. 

"No, tell me. What was the plan? To never tell me? What were we going to do? Elope?? Oh my goodness... "

"Lulu.. I did not think about all of that. I just wanted to be with you.. "

"No.. You just wanted to have a part of you life that you could actually control. You know maybe you are not so different from your dad afterall.. You both want to control the same person. And I was just..collateral damage. "

I walked away into my room and shut the door. Screaming. 

My head was spinning from all the information I had just heard. 

Clinton called my name but I was too upset to respond. 

THREE HOURS LATER. 

>>>

I stepped out of the room and saw Clinton standing in my kitchen. Takeaway packs on the counter. 

How and why was he still here? 

"What are you doing?"

He hesitated-- 

"I, uhm -- figured you might be hungry when you came out, so I ordered some food. I didn't know what you'd like, so I got rice, pasta, some small chops and some fries"..

His voice wasn't steady and he was rambling. 

I was calmer. And I found myself walking towards the island, sitting on the high chair. 

I picked the plate of pasta. 

"Thank you", I said without looking at his face. 

"You are welcome." 

He sat. We ate in silence for what felt like forever until I spoke up. 

"Why did you stay back?"

He looked at my face. His eyes looked sad but determined. 

"I couldn't leave, Lulu. I'm not going to leave until this is sorted. I cannot lose you. I will not lose you, not if I have anything to do about it."

The gentle resolve.

The thoughtful gesture.

The effort.

His kind eyes, and the way he was almost fidgeting in his chair tugged at my heart. 

Realization hit me like a slap in the face. I was in love with this man. Oh my goodness. I knew I liked him. A lot.

But, I was deeply desperately in love with this man. 

And I have pitched, met with and closed big advertising and corporate deals with Fortune 500 companies but THIS.. THIS was the scariest thing I have ever felt. 

"Clinton ---"

"Lulu ---"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I said that you and your father were the same. I was angry, and I felt like a pawn in your game of choice and power."

"No.. You were never a pawn. But you were right. I WAS trying to control one aspect of my life to give me a semblance of identity outside of him. I just didn't know that was what I was doing. I had some time to think when you were inside. And it looks like I really did turn out to be the version of my father I hated the most."

I held his hands.. 

"No, you didn't. You are not like him. You did not impose anything on anyone and definitely not me. You, Clinton, are an amazing man. You just need to find yourself away from this. From this shadow"

He held my hands right back. 

"I'm sorry, Lulu. I did not mean to hurt you or embarrass you that day. He caught me completely off guard and I was cornered. I can't imagine what you have been through these past few days."

"I know now. I was hurt. I felt deceived and betrayed. I was finally starting to open up myself to someone and--- let's just say I was ready to rebuild my walls."

"It was torture, not being able to talk to you. To hear your voice. It took everything in me to come here today, I was certain you would kick me out for sure. But you didn't. Oluchi, you really are the best part of me.. I don't want to lose this. I don't want to lose us."

We silently stared at each other before I broke the silence and untangled our hands. 

"If your father hadn't done what he did, what did you really want to be?"

A smile crept unto his face. 

He opened his phone and showed me a folder in his gallery. 

It was filled with sketches of buildings, different kinds, I could barely understand it but it was so beautiful. 

"I wanted to be an architect. I spent hours drawing and creating sketches of buildings,bridges and all that. He used to toss them away and say it was 'a hobby I would get over'"

"You did all of those?"

"I picked it up the day after you agreed to be my girlfriend. I started working on returning to my authentic self, not the version my father created. You inspire me, Lulu. More than you know."

I squeezed his hand. 

"You are capable of so much. You just need to step out of the known into the unknown."

"You are right. Totally right."

He pulled me unto his lap and hugged me tight. I hugged him back. I felt him melt into my arms, like a heavy weight left his shoulders. 

"Thank you, Lulu. For the gift of you."

I stroked his hair in response and rubbed his back tenderly. 

He pulled away and looked at me.. 

"There's one more thing I need to tell you..."

My heart pounded.. 

"These past few days made me realize how much you mean to me. Nothing and no one else mattered to me and all I could think about was you. Oluchi..." 

Exhaled... 

"Clinton--"

"Lulu, I love you. I know we've never said this or --- we were taking it slowly but, I am insanely in love with you. You intoxicate me with your presence, and when you are not here, thoughts of you get me through the day. The last few days, I was like an animal in a drought... You own my heart, Lulu.. And I don't wan it back."

I felt the tear roll down my cheek but his thumb wiped it before it dropped. 

"It's crazy because I love you Clinton. Nothing and no one could have told me this would happen without getting a bomp in the head from me.. But you. Here.. When I walked out of that room and saw you in my kitchen... It was.. Normal. I wasn't threatened or afraid. Even though I was mad at everything.. All I wanted was you. You are my safety, Clinton. My shade on a hot day, and I don't want to go back into the sun."

He pressed a kiss on my forehead and led me to the couch. 

"Does this mean I'm forgiven?"

I laughed. 

"On one condition... "

"Anything, baby... Anything"

"You need to talk to your parents."

"Babe---"

"We all have family trouble, baby... You know I do, and now I know you do too..but we can't run away from it and forever live in 'what ifs'. I'm not saying agree with them. But if you want to prove that you are now a man with an identity, it starts with facing them."

He sighed. 

"Don't worry, I'll go with you. "

He nodded and pulled me close to himself as though a second apart from him was truly torture. 

It's fine, I was not complaining. 

Dr. Winifred was right, not everything is black and white. 

>>>

Author's Note: 

It looks like these two unmarried folks seem to have their 'status' issue sorted. But... There's still one thing left to do. 

Catch the final part on the next upload!