“Hello, Maa Aggie!” Damien greeted cheerfully as he arrived at Maa Aggie’s Jollof Spot. Another afternoon where he made his way to the town’s highly esteemed food joint after a busy day of work in school.

“Oh, hello, bra Damien!” Maa Agnes responded cheerfully, standing before the bowls of jollof rice always neatly arranged in the shop. “How are you, and how was work today?”

“Oh, it was cool. Just finished marking the last of my scripts.”

“Oh, that’s good, that’s good. You young teachers are really doing well ooo. Many of your kind don’t like coming to these parts of the country; they think life is nice only in Accra. But you’ve seen how nice it is here, right?”

Damien smiled and nodded as she dished out his food for him, already knowing what his order would be. “Oh yeah, Donkorkrom is a really cool place to be. Nice and quiet. No traffic. Very peaceful.”

“Oh yes, it is, it is. Peaceful place to be. It’s good that you’re settling here with us. You’re such a nice young man to have here. In fact, I should even…”

“Maame! Please, here’s the chicken!”

Maa Agnes’ speech was interrupted by the voice of her daughter, who brought in a tray full of chicken to supplement the fast diminishing pieces in the main tray.

“Ahh, good good, put them in,” she ordered. As Lily duly obeyed, she quipped to Damien, “Somebody and her name! I was just about to say that as you’re staying diɛɛ, I should give my daughter to you as a wife.”

“Eiii, Maa Aggie!” Damien laughed as Lily straightened up in surprise.

A manufactured surprise, obviously.

“Anaa Lily, you don’t like? Your best friend, ooo.”

“Maame!” Lily protested in amusement, although there was a glint in her eye when she looked at Damien, who grinned back at her. “He’s just my friend, that’s all.”

“Yoooo, mati, wai. It is these friend friend things that develop into other things ooo.”

The three of them laughed.

“Anyways, don’t mind me, Damien,” Maa Agnes said as she handed over the pack of food to Damien. “Me and my games. Enjoy the rest of your day!”

“Haha! You too, Maa Agnes! Bye, Lily!”

Lily waved at him and gave him a sly smirk as he moved away. He snickered to himself as he thought of Maa Agnes’ ‘offer’, and the mischievous grins he and Lily had exchanged.

Funny that Maa Agnes was offering her daughter to him as a wife, when he was already doing all sorts of things a husband ought to do with his wife, with her.

But even funnier was her belief, and the belief of everyone else including Lily, that he was staying in Donkorkrom for the foreseeable future.

***

As he alighted from the taxi at the junction and began walking to his place, holding his phone, he scrolled through his call list and pressed the number he was looking for before holding it to his ear.

Three rings in, and the person on the other side answered. “Yes, breda Damien!”

Damien laughed. The good old nickname Mrs. Doris McCarthy had christened him with.

“Hello, Mama, good afternoon ooo!”

“Yes, Damien. How are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m doing good ooo. I’m just coming from the school. I had to clear up a few things there, with the national service distins and all.”

“Ahhh, okay okay. Well, good to hear that. So you’re finally done with the service, right?”

“Finally ooo, finally. What a relief. Donkorkrom is a cool place, but I’ve missed Accra.”

“I know, my son, I know. Well, you’re getting ready to leave soon, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll return to Accra next week, hopefully. I’m making arrangements with one driver bi, but I’ll keep you informed on that.”

“Oh, good, good. That’s very good to hear. Please keep me in the know.”

“By all means, Maa, by all means.”

***

“Ei, sweet Lily.”

Lily, who was seated in the shop, busily checking something on her phone, looked up to see who it was.

Her lower lip curled in disgust as she looked at the guy outside the shop.

It was Skinto. That annoying guy who loved to move to every food seller in the town and beg for food with the claim that he’d pay later.

A claim he rarely ever actually fulfilled.

He had claimed to her a number of times that he had a thing for her, and that the Lord wanted her to say yes to him. He had further claimed that she was the missing ingredient to him becoming a mogul with worldwide fame, and all she had to do was say yes.

Of course, Lily was no dumbo, and she wasn’t falling for any of that balderdash. He was just as captivated by her body as many other guys were, that was all. And she was nowhere near interested.

Not that it would count for anything if she strangely was interested in him; Maa Agnes despised the living daylight out of him and sacked him whenever he came around. She would rather lick roadkill off the road than accept any kind of proposal for Lily’s hand in marriage from him.

She eyed him up and down, punctuated it with a big, loud ‘MTCHEWWW’ and went back to looking at her phone.

“Oh, Lily. You are still doing this to me? I’ve told you oooo. This is not the real me ooo. It’s you that will unlock the real me. Look, just give me a chance, okay? Give me a chance. I promise you, your life will never be the same again. I’ll take you to Dubai, Doha, Maldives…”

Lily rolled her eyes and shook her head. This same old nonsense all over again.

“Look, Mister Man,” she answered cheekily, “if you’re here to buy food, and I mean actually buy food with money in your hand, then please tell me, so I can attend to you. Otherwise, my mother is coming, and I don’t think you’ll want to face her right now.”

“Oh, Lily, please. Please just give me a chance. Eh, see, when you give me the chance, Maa Agnes herself will see the light. And as for her, I’ll build her a world-class jollof restaurant! She’ll become the greatest seller of jollof in the whole world!”

Lily burst into laughter. Yeah, this clown’s ridiculous ramblings made for good entertainment sometimes. “Hahahaha! Ajeeeei! Good one there, Skinto. Good one. Unfortunately, the answer is no. Now please, there’s a customer coming. Lemme attend to her please.” She got up and went to attend to the customer that had just walked to the front of the shop.

“Lily, please, please, I beg you…”

“Herh, what are you doing here? Will you get out of here! Foolish man! Wo kwasia, wati!”

The presence of Maa Agnes, and her fury at seeing him, was enough to get Skinto moving as quickly from the shop as possible.

Lily shook her head as she dished out the jollof for the customer. Such a joker! He thinks I have time for him. Apuutor! He thinks I was born yesterday that he can be talking all that rubbish. Kai! I know it’s just my body he wants, and that one too, he’ll never get. I’ll rather lick chicken faeces than let that guy touch me in any way.

A sly smile then parted her lips.

Besides, who needs this idiot when I’ve got an amazing boyfriend in Damien?

Yep, Damien was the perfect one for her. She might have been pretending to be just a friend to the handsome young teacher who had landed in Donkorkrom before her mother and everyone else, but make no mistake about it, she was in love with him. He was everything she wanted in a boyfriend.

Sweet. Caring. Respectful. Concerned about every other aspect of her life. An encourager. All that and more.

And he had shown all of that within the first three months of them getting to know each other. What a guy!

No wonder it hadn’t taken her too long to come to a decision to let him in to her secret garden.

And funny enough, he had gotten even nicer and more loving towards her after the first time they had sex. Quite a far cry from most guys who would treat you with scorn and dump you after tasting the forbidden fruit, right?

Sure, she knew it was wrong, and she sometimes felt pretty uncomfortable when sermons and mini-sermons on sexual purity were raised in church. But it was way too sweet to cut out of her life. Not every girl was lucky enough to have a boyfriend who treated her well and gave her the most spine-tingling of bedroom memories.

Especially girls like her who had been blessed with bodies that made men drool with utmost lust and desire. It was nothing short of delightful to have a guy like Damien; he made it clear on many occasions that as much as he loved playing with her body, he loved her as a person as well.

And he showed it.

Six months of them dating, and she couldn’t be more excited about the future. Damien had already hinted to her that he would be making his interest in her known to the family. With the way Maa Agnes was already cracking jokes about giving her to him as a wife, Lily knew this piece of news would be the most pleasant of surprises for her mother.

Yep, I’ve got myself an amazing boyfriend, she thought to herself as she secured the customer’s pack with a rubber band. One who treats me well and takes me to the moon with that sweet, sweet anaconda of his. God, I love that boy! I can’t wait to let the family know about this. I really can’t! Maame will be sooo delighted! I know she’ll probably insult me for the denying I’ve been denying, but who cares? It’ll be so awesome!

Hmmmm, oh Lily. If only you knew that this boy is lying to you. She’s gonna have quite a shocker as we move along…