This is the continuation of this story and in case you stumbled on this, you might want to read the first part. (Click Here To Read Part One) Demola and I continued talking after the party and I soon forgot about Temmy. As a matter of fact, things went so smoothly that we started dating in a matter of days, I thought there was no point prolonging the inevitable, afterall, we were in love.

I had to leave Ibadan where I was staying to go for National Youth service and I thought this would dampen things but I was wrong, we grew closer and the more time I spent with him, the more I was convinced that he was the one. He even came to visit my family at some point and they all teased me about when my ‘friend’ and I will get married but I ignored them. That was why I was surprised when I enlisted my friend’s help one day to transfer some money to his account and she made a big deal of it. “you are sending money to him?” she yelled. “Babe abeg, will you transfer it or not? I don’t have time for your wahala today, is it a crime to send money to one’s boyfriend?” I quickly countered. “ so, you are not even borrowing him, is he not working? Why you go dey dash man money, please tell me this is the first time, ehn?” she continued. “Don’t worry about the transfer anymore, biko” I ended the conversation abruptly. It got me thinking though, this was not the first, second, third or fourth time I’d be sending money to him but I thought nothing of it, he usually just asked and I sent it. I had this mentality that both parties are meant to sacrifice for each other. I had never collected a dime from him before because I was forming ‘independent’ woman but I decided to test him.

And so, I carried my small bag and travelled to spend the weekend with him, I had planned to just ask him for Tfare when I was leaving just to see his reaction, but something else caught my attention. He had this gold chain he always wore which I found to be really cute so I demanded for it stylishly. “Big head, come and dash me this your chain na” I asked while casually stroking the said chain. Brethen, just like that, uncle changed face o, he stood up like someone possessed and started yelling “can’t you see something and keep quiet? Must you ask me to dash you everything?” It was on the tip of my tongue to remind him that I had never asked for anything before then but he walked out of the room before I could utter a word. I barely heard him mutter that he needed some air and was going to take a walk.  I just lay there, too stunned to react to this new development, I had started wishing I didn’t ask, started wondering if I sounded too materialistic, started blaming myself for ruining a weekend that was going smoothly enough. I rolled over on the bed to pick the TV remote and find some channel to tune out my worries when I felt something by my feet, I discovered that demola had left his two phones in the room and I gently pushed it aside with my feet till it hit me, “he left his phones” I said out loud and quickly hushed myself. Don’t judge me please, I don’t usually snoop but he left the phones there na, what was I supposed to do? Leave it? I scrambled to pick the phones up and realized one was password protected, I typed in few random stuff, even my own name but it didn’t work (Like he’d be dumb enough to use my name as his password). Fortunately, the other was a small Nokia phone so I naturally unlocked and went straight for the messages. I immediately saw a series of messages from one number, messages that looked innocent enough. The basic “happy new week, have a wonderful day, wish you the best at work today” kind of message, except they all ended with “love, temmy” (strike two)

I immediately had a flashback of Temmy from the wedding and I instantly knew she was the one who sent the texts. Something began to boil inside me and the more I thought about it, the more I was feeling like a ‘sidechic’. Demola came back about two hours later and I was calm enough to confront him rationally. As soon as he stepped in, I took the direct approach and said “you left your phone, I read your messages” He wasn’t even phased, you have to give the guy credit, he wasn’t the least bit upset. He merely shrugged and replied “and so?” Two could play this game, I thought, so I continued gently “Who’s Temmy? She sent a lot of messages to you”. He hesitated a bit before explaining that Temmy was just a very good friend, he said they had some kind of history, they both liked each other some years back but didn’t date because her father forbade her from marrying someone from his state. They decided to remain friends and that was it, she had since moved on. “ Babe, I am serious about you and I am sorry I yelled the other time, i just had a lot of things on my mind and overreacted” he concluded. I looked at him smile and momentarily forgot about temmy, he didn’t act like someone who had anything to hide and deep down, I trusted him completely.

I got back to my Place of primary assignment and life continued peacefully. Every lady knows that once you’re dating someone, you naturally become an FBI agent on social media. I was following Demola’s sisters on Instagram and would enthusiastically like their pictures.  So, just like every other stalking day on IG, I stumbled on a picture of  Demola’s sister and saw a comment beneath it. The comment read “My beautiful in-law” to which she replied “iyawo wa” (strike three). I instantly checked the lady’s profile and the name appeared like a nemesis, her handle was ‘Temmy****’. I suddenly became very weak, dropped my phone and stared into space for what seemed like an eternity before planning my next move. Hey reader, be a darling and check out the concluding part.