AN ABH LOVE STORY

I had seen him three times before we finally spoke. The first time was at the ABH Bonfire, when he was far from lucid and dancing around like an idiot. I was not impressed. The second time, it was at a Liquid Network Meeting, and he had suddenly seemed to acquire a lot of sense overnight. He was articulate, sensible and smart. He was dressed casually, with his aṣẹ́wó shorts making me witness his toned thighs and legs in all their glory. I was still not very convinced, because all is vanity after all. But the third time was the charm. He had actually stood up for me. We were at Prestige and after I had waited for ages, some guy who came later than me tried to place his order. This descendant of Adam quickly went, “It’s the lady’s turn”. After briefly scanning my immediate perimeter through the corner of my eyes, I realized that I was in fact the “lady” in question. Thank God for melanin because my cheeks were most certainly on fire. And that was the day I finally said my first words to him, “Thank you”.

They say it only takes a moment. And I tell you, that was most certainly my moment, our moment. Two words that marked the beginning of several shy waves, then Hellos, then brief conversations, and finally a longer conversation that ended with an exchange of numbers. Olúwamúrewá, his name was, or Múrí, like his gees called him. I liked to call his name in full, or Múrewá when I was in a hurry to speak. Like his name, he brought favour and joy to my life. Our conversations were light sometimes, intense on other times, but always refreshing and exciting. Múrewá was a hilarious young man, and made me laugh until I was gasping for air everytime we met. He also knew everything about everything and while that initially was intimidating, I eventually got so much pleasure from teasing him about his wide expanse of knowledge.

While I was studying Medicine and in 400 level, Múrewá was in the 500 level Physiotherapy class. He was fairly popular among his peers and had held some leadership position in the Association of Physiotherapy Students. My friend, Cynthia, said she’d known him because she went for ABH Bonfires before we crossed and he always got drunk and then danced like he was performing in a circus, without fail. His consistency sure was admirable.

Love is indeed a beautiful thing. We progressed from friends to lovers in no time and while he didn’t officially ask me to date him, his kiss on that Wednesday night definitely sealed it in for us. We became inseparable and his roommate was almost replaced by me. At first, I felt bad for always making his roommate leave the room when I came around, but soon, I went past caring and even told Múrewá to advise him to go find love too. My man and I had found interprofessional romance and we had no plans to let go of it.

I told Múrewá we had to hold off on sex because our relationship was new and to my surprise, he accepted without so much as a protest. He had also been patient with me despite my repeated attempts to annoy him because I was curious about what he was like when he was mad. He never raised his voice at me, or said insulting words to me. I was in love with the perfect human being and we were compatible in every way, until we weren’t…

You see, Múrewá liked to party, and I was the exact opposite. He was at every bonfire, every Homecoming, every get-together. If you heard loud music in someone’s room in G-block, best believe my boyfriend was there. If you saw guys, and did not see my boyfriend lining up to buy alcohol from Wúrà, just know Múrewá had either come and gone, or he was on his way. He knew about every single happening event in Alexander Brown Hall, and his influence extended beyond UCH. I never could figure out how he got to know about all these parties but somehow he knew. And he had taken it upon himself to honour every single invitation he got.

At first, I had no problems with his partying. He was an adult and that was what he enjoyed doing. I also loved swimming and watching Kdramas and he never complained about my own hobbies, so I saw no reason why I should be bothered. The problem came when I decided to try to “have fun” with him. This boyfriend of mine, had been talking about attending his association’s dinner for a while and I had agreed to be his date. However, I told him I would leave early, while he of course, would wait till the end of the event and for the after party that would follow.

Our dinner date started out perfectly. He was dressed to the nines in a spectacular three-piece blue striped suit, adorned with elegant accessories, and his hairstyle was one I had never seen him wear before. He simply looked scrumptious. I had also had the most beautiful white dress sewn by one of the most talented fashion designers in ABH. She was in the 2k19 class and had picked out the gorgeous style for me. Cynthia had also lent me silver accessories to go with my dress and by the time she finished my makeup, even I knew that Múrewá would have his jaw on the ground when he saw me. So I was not surprised when he looked too stunned to speak, and kept showering me with compliments the entire journey to the event. Well, he did not know there was more to come. In addition to the jewelry, Cynthia had also lent me a sexy and skimpy dress that was fitting for an after-party, alongside a million tips for surviving the night. I was ready to surprise my man at the afterparty. Little did I know that I would in fact, be surprised.

To be continued….