IDOLS- Tasting Honey

Stop. Don’t read this episode without reading the prequel. Don’t do yourself that disfavour. 😁😁
 
Click https://adegbolagoodness.wordpress.com/2019/01/16/idols-who-is-this-ahdu/  to read the first part.

IDOLS
Episode two: Tasting Honey
“Good afternoon”
“Afternoon, brother” Her Lagosian instincts made her move her bag to her left hand since he was on her right and she held it close. She’d been at a vigil once and while she was ‘in the Spirit’, virtue had gone out of her. She suspected the lady with a forest green blouse and quick, jerky dance steps, who sat next to her. She should have known by the way the lady’s eyes darted that she was a sneaky person. She had to hitch a ride to the junction and trek most of the distance back home as sleepy and hungry as she was. After that sore sting, she would be more than ten times shy, even if it was with this church guy with a receding hairline. A receding hairline, what could that mean?
Abigail believed that every physical trait of a person could be linked to their character traits in one way or the other. Brief people were grounded in something. She had met short people who were grounded in the Lord, people who were grounded in evil, people who were grounded in knowledge. People with long hair thought they were Venus or something unbelievably beautiful and it didn’t matter if the hair wasn’t even theirs. A person with a pointed nose had to be a Nightingale. And in her books, people with receding hairlines were going to balk from situations just like their hairline, the regression of a man’s hairline indicated cowardice.
But it seemed she was wrong this time. No sooner had she stepped out of the Pastor’s office than this young man with a crisply starched lilac long sleeve shirt and a pair of black brogues double crossed her. The Pastor had barely even gone out of sight.
He chuckled. “My name is Olujimi Demetrius, let’s drop the brother” If there was anything he dreaded it was a zone. His experience with Tolani thought him avoid zones and be intentional.
“Oh, my name is-”
“Medad Abigail”
“Do you master every first timer’s name?”
“Actually no, I can’t even remember the other guy’s name” Demetrius said honestly.
“So it’s just the ladies, yeah?” She nodded suspiciously.
Demetrius laughed and raised his Bible. “I’m a child of God o. I don’t remember the other lady’s name either”
Abigail narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. She stopped walking and squarely faced Demetrius, who rejoiced inwardly to have her full attention. “So how come you know my full name? Am I being stalked?”
Demetrius smiled. “No, I’ve met you before”
Abigail rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right? one would think at least for the fact that we are within the church premises, a child of God, would not use the oldest, tackiest line in the book”
“Which book are we talking about here? And I’m not lying. You were an usher at the Youth convention, you led me to my seat on the first day of the convention. You wore a black shirt, black skirt, pink earrings, pink scarf and this pair of shoes” He pointed down.
Abigail gaped. “Now, I’m convinced I have a stalker. What else do you know?”
“Nothing else. I was hoping to see you thereafter but it’s a shame, you just disappeared. Then you show up right in my church. Isn’t God just awesome?”
“Hang on,” Abigail chuckled. “Was this why you shouted like that during the service?”
Demetrius felt embarrassed. She laughed. “I wish you were fairer in complexion, you’d be all red by now. And why were you so eager to meet me again? You don’t even know me.”
“Exactly.”
She splayed her hands. “What exactly are you affirming, sir?”
“I want to get to know you better Abigail, you know, I want to get closer to you”
She turned her face, a skeptical frown on it. “Okaayy,” She drawled. “You are not quite the man of protocols, are you? This is our first conversation and you’re already asking to get closer.”
“You don’t need to linger longer than necessary if you know what you want and the time is right.” He said with dramatic depth.
As she shook her head and smiled, she knew that Demetrius was a lot of things and definitely, a coward was nowhere on the list.
“For starters, can I walk you to the junction?” Demetrius offered.
“Like you’re not already doing that?”
Demetrius smiled. “Just trying to go by protocols, you know. So tell me about yourself”
“There you are jumping rungs again, that’s a first date question.”
“And who said this isn’t our first date?”
“You cant be serious. Anyway, I’m Abigail Medad, like you already know. I hail from Borno state but I’ve lived all my life in Lagos. I’m the third of four children, the only girl. I’m an architect and I love porridge more than I do human beings”
Demetrius laughed. “Does that include me?”
“Are you a human being? What else is there to tell? I’m in Ibadan cos the company I work with decided to toss me to this ancient overrated town”
“Wow, mean much. I think Ibadan gets less credit than it deserves. This is the biggest city in West Africa, please put some respect on this city’s name.”
“Oh, please” She waved him off. “I can count on one hand the amount of roofs I’ve seen that are not sheets of dusty, rusted Aluminium.”
Demetrius chewed on his lower lip and decided to change the subject. “Do you have any other interests asides Architecture? Like dance, fashion designing, catering or something?”
“You’ve not told me anything about yourself.”
“That’s cos there isn’t much to tell actually”
“Shady people say that a lot. Remember Ranti of Rumour Has It?”
Demetrius blinked. “Wait, what? I don’t watch Nigerian stuff”
“You’re one of those proud non-patriotic people, yeah?”
“Well, I’m an only child, I’m from Osun. Proudly an ex UI student. I’m a Medical Laboratory scientist”
“So you’re one of those people who deal with freshly voided shit” Abigail laughed.
“That’s not a nice way to put it” Demetrius tried to be serious but he ended up laughing with her.
“Here we are at the junction.” Abigail announced. “See you around”
****
Abigail got home to meet the Collins at the table, treating themselves to a sumptuous meal of Amala and efo riro. From her five years of knowing the family of five, she knew that to be the Sunday afternoon usual. Her belly growled.
“Eka san ma, eka san sir” She genuflected as she greeted the couple.
“Welcome my dear” Peju replied. “How was the church you went to? Are you going to be scouting next Sunday or you’ve found a resting place?”
“I think Ive found what I need.”
“Oh, great. You’re very lucky o, it took Paige and I about two months to find the right church when we moved into this community. That was about eight Sundays of jumping from one church to the other, but once we got to RTC, we knew we had found home.” Mr. Collins sipped from his glass of pineapple juice when he was done talking.
Abigail smiled. She loved this family. She remembered how she met Peju about six years back when she was still in the university. By then, Peju was only engaged to David and since then, they had been her spiritual leaders. They got married and then John and Aanu came at once as a set of twins, after two years, Sharon came.
As Abigail ate her lunch, talk went round the table, but she was removed from it, her mind was elsewhere. Who was this Demetrius guy? He even had the nerve to ask for her number, of course she didn’t give him. Not because she didn’t want to but she told herself that a babe had to play the babe. His guts fascinated her.
Snap out of it Abigail. That a guy came to church and had a Bible in hand doesn’t make him a saint or the suitable suitor. Who even said he’s a suitor? Don’t feed your mind with assumptions o. But that guy smelled really nice men and his groomed nails. Gosh! Abigail! Jesus, come and save your pikin o, it would seem like I’m falling for this guy.
“Abbie, what do you think of the present condition of the nation? Just the other day a colleague of mine was telling me that it would only take a couple of years before almost all the doctors in the nation would have taken off in search of greener pastures. Can I blame them? Even I would not mind going abroad to practice. If you look at it, we have very little facilities around here and that’s really bad for a person who seeks to broaden her knowledge, even worse for those who are interested in research”
“Ye- yeah, that’s very true”
“But then again, I cant just take off and head wherever I want, for one, I must know if the Lord would have me go there, and then secondly, I’m a family woman” Peju shrugged and bit a thick roll of ponmo with much effort.
“True,”
“Is everything okay? You seem distracted” David directed his words at Abigail.
“Who? me? I’m fine actually. Just some thoughts distracting me.”
Neither of them pushed. There was a pause.
“Apparently, there’s this guy who has shown interest in me, in church”
“Just in one service? Whos this guy?”
“Pardon me, I’m getting ahead of myself. He probably just made an overture at being a friend”
“If a guy is interested in you, you will know” Peju stated.
Abigail shrugged before David spoke. “Which responsible Christian man makes passes at the first meeting?”
“Apparently, he knew me from the convention” She went on to tell them all he said as she cleared the table.
She did the dishes while Peju cleared up the kitchen.
“I just think he seemed really sincere” Abigial said.
“Trust me, if a player chooses to play sincere, he would come across as just that. My point is, you can’t bank on just your emotions, they could be deceitful and subject to manipulation. Another thing I want you to carefully do is to assume nothing. For all we know he might just be a really outgoing guy who’s trying to be friendly so don’t get your emotions clogged up just yet. And most importantly, pray about him. Let God tell you what’s in for you or not, then let this knowledge guide you”
“Yeah, thank you. Come to think of it, you never told me of how uncle David toasted you” She said as she rinsed the dishes, then she wiped them with a napkin and arranged them on the dish rack.
Peju shut her eyes, took a step back and had a good laugh. “David? My husband didn’t have any game o, he didn’t woo me sef”
“Heeyyyyy!” David hollered from the dining. “No backbiting o”
“He was just a regular UCHCF guy to me until he upped and proposed.”
“Just like that?” Abigail quizzed.
“Well, he’s right there. You could ask him.”
“Uncle David abeg tell me it’s not true”
David joined them in the kitchen. “See, we are very straight forward in the kingdom. When Jesus was proposing to us did he come with flowers and poem? No.”
“You just tripped yourself, uncle. Jesus toasted us. In my father’s house there are many mansions… I go to prepare a place for you… Come unto me and I will give you rest… Can you feel those lines? He waited for me, patiently, lovingly, calling out repeatedly. What better way to woo a bride? You spoke of flowers, Jesus gave hi-”
“Enough oh!” David stopped Abigail.
“1-0” Peju stuck out her tongue at David and gave Abigail a hi-five.
“I didn’t like Dave then, there was this other guy, Doje that I was already falling for. The guy was a charmer. I have to give him that.”
“Yeah, a charmer with a family in Agbor but that was the part Paige didn’t know then.” David supplied, flossing his teeth.
“By family you mean father and mother?” Abigail asked as she leaned against the cold blue wall.
Peju chuckled. “Father and mother ke? He meant wife and children”
“Children? Chai! Men!” Abigail mouthed.
“That’s besides the point, you people should not start with men today”
“Anyways, I presented Doje and Dave before God and I knew who God wanted wasn’t who I wanted.” She shrugged. “I struggled initially but I learned to trust God over my feelings. By the time I said yes to him I still didn’t feel anything for him and I told him.”
“So at what point did you fall in love with him?” Abigail needed to know.
Peju turned her head this way and that. “Was there a particular point? I started enjoying his company and companionable silence and then gradually something started opening up in me to him.”
“I’m sorry about how this might sound,” She apologized upfront, straitening against the wall. “Were you sexually attracted to him?”
“Initially no but I wasn’t averse to him either. Then as we got closer I became drawn to all of him. It was akin to curiosity, but it was something deeper, I wanted to know more and more of this guy. I wanted to explore his mind, soul and body”
David coughed. “Now, let me turn the question on you, Abbie. Are you attracted to this Demetrius guy?”
“Well, it’s still too early to say but I’m fascinated by him and we totally skipped the awkward phase. For a first conversation we had a good start off. I think that counts for something”
“I see,” David observed. “But then, if there’s something to pick from our story, it’s the fact that feelings are too fickle to be put in the driver’s seat of our lives.”
“We are not undermining the importance of attraction in a relationship but what God has to say has to come first. If he’s the one leading, he would plant love in your hearts. He’s love himself. But we have to trust him, totally.”
Abigail smiled. She would pray about Demetrius and be ready to hear and obey whatever God would say. While she was in Lagos, many a brother approached her but each time she wanted to pray about them, especially those ones she had a thing for, she felt a reluctance that stemmed from the knowing in the depth of her Spirit. Maybe this eagerness to present Demetrius before God was a good thing.
She nodded. “Thank you very much Aunty Peju and Uncle. I’m really grateful”
“She’s Paige not Peju” David said, teasing his wife with his eyes.
“Olapeju l’oruko mi! ” (Olapeju is my name) She stated firmly. “I’m proud to be Yoruba, omo o’odua”
“Nope, omo Olorun” (Child of God) David smiled.
She hissed. “Oya come and be going. What are you doing in the kitchen sef?”
“Ehn eh, shebi you will still come and beg me to assist you in the kitchen. Kosi problem.” (No problem) He said as he exited the kitchen but not before he grabbed a piece of fried chicken from a plate atop the counter. Peju screamed.
“I love you too, Paige” He replied in his patronizing, annoying tone.
Abigail smiled as she prepared the sudsy water she would use to mop the floor. Just then she heard Sharon’s cry from the backyard where the children where playing.
“Mummy come and tell Aanu to give me my toy!”
Peju sighed. “Aanu, are you a baby? What are you doing with your sister’s toy?”
“Mummy I didn’t take it o, she’s lying” Aanu responded.
Peju left the kitchen to resolve the squabble between her children and it was then Abbie’s phone beeped in her pocket.
It was an Instagram DM from @deme_jimi. She rolled her eyes and pushed the phone back into her pocket. She had many DMs she’d ignored. This one too could join the heap. She continued mopping and then realization hit her. Deme Jimi. Olujimi Demetrius. She stopped and brought out her phone.
-If Mohammed’s number won’t come to the mountain, then mountain might as well, fish him out on IG. Ah, that’s far more lame than it sounded in my head-
Abigail dropped her phone and smiled. This Demetrius guy is something.
 
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See you next week. 😁❤