SHORT STORY | THE GAME OF HEARTS

Each time she walked past my office door our eyes meet and I would feel sparks! I don’t know what she always felt but I felt sparks. Few times we greeted, hers was served with lots of lovely tones. Is this just for me or is it who she is? Those thoughts would usually play on my mind. Whatever I was feeling, I knew I was falling! If it was love I was falling into, I couldn’t tell but there was something I found myself falling into.

She had just the exact spec I had always desired, tall, slim, a mix of blond and chocolate skin, white eyes against my red hot eyes, straight nose pointing right to her feet and a well relaxed long natural hair made into doughnut…. That was just killing! Her smiles get me signing the wrong documents because I don’t see documents, I just see her face. She always smells nice but work ethics would never allow me to tell her!

There has always been one problem! Would it be she wanted me but can’t make it so obvious because she is a woman? Mama had reminded me she needs another daughter and maybe I was going to make her one. Maybe I was going to be a man this afternoon and spill it all out! I looked back at the standing mirror to ensure I looked smart enough to fit into the moment. With some silent practices, I was going to do it for the first time! You get what I meant? I was going to get a woman for myself all by myself without trying to play her into making it obvious to me. I was going to defeat that fear of “no”.

It was my first time in her office, she works in a different department and so we would stay a month without seeing if we want it so. My heart was skipping, I had forgotten everything I practised and that feeling of a boy who is just waking up in the classroom to have the teacher ask him “what is the answer?” got me! Well, she saved me from embarrassing myself and she kick-started a discussion.

I was not paying so much attention to the words more than I paid to her moving lips; the way it moved and synced with her smile and then I couldn’t hold it anymore “isn’t this God so wonderful?” I exclaimed

“You mean?” She asked me surprised

“Have anyone truly described your beauty?” I asked, my audacity was increasing

“Oh… Yea! Someone knows how to do that so well…” She smiled

Those words shocked me rather, was I going to have any competition? I was a bit distracted with thoughts and her voice brought me back “you know you look handsome right?” My God! I felt goose pimple all over me, her last word kept reechoing in my head and I thought to myself “George, you have made it in life!”

In a flash, I had seen our wedding! Whoever was that competitor, I had determined to play the “Game of Hearts” and win my woman! I had lost to them before but not anymore. What an honourable thing it would be, to defeat the incumbent and become the oga at the top? I had seen our wedding, my white suit, her gown specially ordered from France. It was a destination wedding, with dope pictures ready to paint our social media wall for the next year!

Still reminiscing the moments in my imagination I was brought back by her words. I didn’t hear what she said but it sure didn’t sound nice… I was not sure what it was but she needed to say it again. “Could you say that again?” I tasked her and she wore that killing smile to repeat those heartbreaking words

“I have been thinking if you could be my husband’s best man on our wedding day! I’ve been looking at you for a while and I convinced him before telling you…”

The moment went dead, those fantasies disappeared, the head went black and I looked around, looked at her again asking with a tone that showed confusion “you mean me?”

“Sure! You’ll like him… He loves you already and he is an ardent reader of your dailies…” She was still smiling.

Wait a minute! Was it her plan to kill me before my time? I said nothing, I held myself like that baby who hit his head on the floor but wants to pretend he is a man. With hurried steps, I was back to my office sweating profusely in a room fortified with air-conditioner. My tie was already out of my neck, I was unbuttoning my shirt when Ike walked in

“George, are you okay?” he asked with very concerned looks “why are you undressing?”

“Am I undressing?” I looked at myself, I was really undressing and I never realized it “You know what Ike? I need to go home, tell your boss I am not feeling strong…” Ike kept staring at me as I took my briefcase, took my tie and started walking out of office. He was still staring at me as though I am a new result of human evolution. Maybe he didn’t understand, I turned back and said to him “Ike, you may never know how it feels to lose the GAME OF HEARTS.”

4 years later, Ike is still confused, mama is still calling and I am still single.

*fiction

~George O.N