It was 4:50 am on Monday morning, and I was on my bed. My mind was a maze of confusion and chaos, all centered around how the weekend had gone.

Spending all that time with Marilyn.

Truth was, Sunday evening was pretty interesting, getting to know her and all that. Interesting to know that she came from a wealthy family and had so much at her disposal. Interesting to know she already lived the life I wanna live with Ellie.

But… I was so uncomfortable with this feeling.

This feeling of… fondness.

Yeah. I could feel this growing fondness in my heart towards her.

And I did not like it.

Where in the world was it coming from? Fine, she may have been the cutest and prettiest young thing my eyes had fallen upon since leaving my beautiful Ellie back in Accra. But… she was not my beautiful Ellie!

I turned onto my side and frowned. The battle in my brain was ongoing.

Ever heard that Native American fable about two wolves fighting inside you? Yeah, I could feel them snapping and growling at each other within.

And in the midst of their bloody duel, they had a lot to say to me.

Number One said: this is not right. You need to give her some distance. Remember you’re married; you shouldn’t be letting other women so much access into your personal space. Forget about the fact that she’s adorable and all, she’s not your wife! Stop letting her in. Draw that line in the sand!

And Number Two? Oh, come on, Richie! There’s nothing wrong with letting her in. It’s not like you wanna sleep with her or anything, is it? No! She’s just a sweet honey who enjoys your company. What the hell is wrong with that? Don’t stress yourself out, Richie, it’s much ado over nothing.

Yeah. It was intense.

And as right as the former wolf was, the latter’s speech sounded too enticing and on point. I certainly had no intentions of sleeping with her. It was just a nice, innocent friendship. Surely nothing was gonna go south. Surely these feelings would just fade away…

Right?

***

“I should probably avoid her when I see her. Yeah, that’s it, I’ll avoid her as much as I can from now on,” I said to myself as I doused myself with my beloved Tom Ford Ombre Leather, ready for our first appearance at the site where the fish farm would be run.

Even as I made that declaration to myself, I felt an internal resistance to that statement. Wolf number 2 did not agree and was making it clear.

I sighed as I stared at myself in the mirror and shook my head, muttering some weird stuff as I put the perfume bottle down.

As I stepped out and made my way for breakfast, I heard the door next to my room open.

Uh-oh. That’s probably Marilyn. Please don’t let it be her, I silently prayed, hoping I heard the wrong door, or that her attention would be fixated somewhere else…

“Hey, Richie!”

That prayer didn’t work out.

I turned to see her, wrapped in her morning coat with her hair messed up, with an adorable smile on her face.

The sharp burn in my tummy returned. Man, she looked so sweet!

I waved to her. “Hey, Marilyn!”

“Ready for another day of learning about fishes and stuff?”

I stifled a laugh. She made it sound so basic. “Yeah. We’re going to the site for this week.”

“Oh cool. Where’s it located?”

“It’s at Aboadze. Like an hour away from here.”

“Oh cool, cool. So are you driving there?”

“By myself? Nahh, there’s a bus taking us out there.”

“Oh okay. Well, I’ll just be lazing about a bit. Have yourself a lovely day! And remember to teach me everything you learn!”

I nodded as I turned back to make my way to the restaurant for breakfast.

Chale, I was torn!

I knew all too well how wrong this feeling was. Yet it felt… sweet.

Honestly, she looked ridiculously adorable as she stood there. Looking sleepy yet high-spirited. The sweetest being in Takoradi that morning. I couldn’t deny how beautiful that sight was. That kind of “I just wanna hold you in my arms” kind of sight.

And the fact that she was excited to see me… for some reason, it gave me this warm, fuzzy feeling. That sweet sensation. It was the sweetest of vibes.

Yet… I knew this was wrong. It didn’t matter how I felt. It didn’t matter how sweet and cute Marilyn was…

She was not Mrs. Eleanor Acquah.

***

“But chale, fish farming isn’t a small thing ooo. I remember reading some article bi, it said you’ll need between 400k to 1 million Ghana cedis to start these sort of things successfully. It’s not easy ooo. The Mr. Ahmed guy really dey force.”

“No joke oo. I’ve worked for some foreigners before, and you know they dunno what they’re about, but this one, you can see he does.”

“I like the look of the water supply and drainage system. That will help us paaa.”

“Oh yes, yes! That Gary guy I worked for, he slacked paa with that. The way we suffered; diseases came and killed all the tilapia we reared.”

“Ah, Sammy, is the government involved in any way in this project?”

“I dunno oo…”

As we made our way back from Aboadze, my ears weren’t deaf to the many conversations ongoing on the bus. The farm heads, the management, and everyone was busily discussing the day’s affairs. We checked out the farm location and all the equipment and systems put in place, and it was pretty satisfying.

Seated next to Mr. Kumah on the bus, I took out my phone to check for any messages I might have missed.

There was a missed call from Eleanor.

Okay, I’ll need to call her back, I thought as I noted it. Lemme quickly check WhatsApp, then I’ll call her.

I moved to WhatsApp, checking my messages.

There was a message from Marilyn: Hey handsome, hope your day’s going well. Remember you owe me lessons on what you learned! 😊😊

Butterflies? Yeah, they rose up with a passion in my belly.

A sudden flame of excitement flared up within me.

Suddenly, calling Eleanor didn’t seem so important. She could wait.

Time to let Marilyn in on everything that went down at the farm.

***

“So chale, he’s made mistakes before. That’s why he’s so particular about the smallest things. He said one of his earliest attempts at fish farming went south because he forgot one basic thing: fumigating the pond against fungi. So you can imagine how badly that affected the fingerlings he brought in.”

“Oh my! Must have been a disaster.”

“Oh, it was. It really was. But chale, he’s really learned from all those errors. All the more reason why I trust his plan. He’s got a lot of scars of failure on him, but chale, it’s clear they’ve led him to cross every t and dot every i before execution. The man is as thorough as can be.”

Marilyn nodded, seated in that cross-legged position on her bed as she watched me.

It had been about four hours in there, just talking with her. After the chat on WhatsApp and dinner, I went straight to her room, and I basically went from telling her all I know about aquaculture to the origins of my love for aquaculture. Considering how much I can talk about the subject, it’s not exactly surprising I spent that long.

“You know it’s been really cute watching you speak with so much passion about this aquaculture thing?” she commented.

I stared at her. “Oh really?”

“Uh-huh. You know, there’s something about watching a man speak so passionately about the ambition that drives him that’s so charming to the sight of a woman.”

“Oh wow! Interesting. You’re dropping quotables now, aren’t you?”

She laughed out loud. “No, silly. I’m just dropping facts any woman would tell you.”

“Well noted. I’m keeping mental notes of all you’ve said and keeping that passion ever blazing.”

“Good!” she laughed. Then she went silent for a few seconds, staring at me before smiling and reaching over to rub my arm.

“You know, I’m really glad to know you,” she stated. “You’re such an awesome guy. So smart and funny and ambitious… you’re a complete package. You’re special.”

As she passed her hand up and down my arm, still maintaining that beaming smile on her face, there was one thought on my mind.

“I’m sure glad to know you too, Marilyn. You’re a really sweet girl.”

Hmmm, I dunno what to say right now. Mr. Acquah is certainly moving in a pretty dangerous route…