0
0
I took a deep breath.
I had the tattoo all right, but it was on my butt.
Esohe had simply forgotten where on my body she had seen it.
Esohe and I were close in age, so it was no real wonder that we went to the same places. And yet, I was surprised to see her at the club. Whenever I walked into a crowded room, my eyes would do a quick sweep. I would see where the bar was, which section was the VIP, check for anyone I knew, and spot the sexiest girls in the room.
Esohe was a head above most girls, so she was easy to spot. But the girl could also move. God hadn’t blessed her with obvious hips, but she knew how to move what little He had given her. Her whole body was twisting. The dress she wore was silver and shone against her dark skin, and it was short, all the better to flaunt her long legs. I stood and watched from the bar as guy after guy tried to slip in behind her, to better enjoy the art of her moving hips, but she would simply twist away from them.
I only meant to check on her. She was my uncle’s girl, and she wasn’t even my type. I bought her a drink. She would have been a little thirsty after all that dancing. I had to squeeze myself through the masses of people. Half the drink had swirled out of the glass by the time I got to her.
‘Bambi! ’ Her voice was breathless, husky. I handed her the drink. ‘Thank you.’
‘My pleasure.’
She drank and handed the glass back to me. I put it on a handy table. She had started dancing again. It was only natural that I join her. She didn’t turn away from me. Instead, she began to twerk. I let her do her thing. It was just dancing. She wasn’t even the type of girl I was attracted to. Her breasts were like apples, and a man didn’t feel good unless he could hold on to watermelon sized goods. But she wasn’t wearing a bra, and it made me feel a little light-headed.
I hadn’t come alone. I had arrived with a friend, but we both knew how it was. I glimpsed him now and again, and he would give me a thumbs-up. He didn’t know who Esohe was. There had been no reason to ever mention her. After a while, I saw he had also found a girl to keep him busy. I returned his luck with a thumbs-up of my own.
I had not planned to spend my whole time with her. I figured I would dance with her once, maybe twice or three times, and then I would move on to another woman. But things don’t always work out the way you plan them. We left the club together. I took her to a hotel close by.
Were there moments when I felt guilty? Yes. But the sum of those moments was not enough to hold me back. And besides, she wasn’t Uncle Folu’s wife. She was free to sleep with whomever she wanted to sleep with. My phone rang a couple of times — the woman I was dating at the time was clearly looking for me. But despite her generous body, she was not able to move as expertly as Esohe did, and so she was far from my mind.
That night was about Esohe and me.
Excerpted from the novella‘The Baby Is Mine’, by Oyinkan Braithwaite, Published in 2021 by Narrative Landscape Press
