Valentine for my love, Anita

Valentine is fast approaching and in a few days’ time streets and restaurants will be donned in red.  The anticipation is unmentionable and anxiety is slowly hitting the nooks. My lady friend Anita is a stressed lady in the office today. She has not decided on which dress to wear on this very day she holds in high regard. She tells me she’s been to Woolworths, Prada and Ankarasha stores and still has not settled on one specific dress. It is not the prices that has not made her settle on any yet, she has money, it is about finding the right texture, material, the right tone of color, the length of the dress and the design it bears. Anita takes cloth line labels very seriously and considering the occasion, it has to be a popular one. It must be associated with a celebrity. A Gaga, Kardashian or at the lowest possible a Lupita’s resent wear.

Anita’s previous Valentine didn’t go so well. She was a clandestine to a legislator who for obvious reasons didn’t show up at their usual hotel after being cornered by his wife (and forced) into a matrimonial duty, as un-regrettably later explained. On that fateful night Anita was forced to sleep alone (in her valentines dress) in a wide erotically spread bed praying and hopping that her love eventually shows up. Even in the middle of the night, or at worst in the morning before she would have to be forced to walk (alone) in a red dress on her way back home. 

The embarrassment and disappointment taught Anita a lesson, a lesson not to be a clandestine. The break up was a bad one, but this time round, it will be worse. That is if she discovers her Valentine’s dilemma and plan. Awiko is broke and Anita does not know this. Yesterday at the pub he mentioned something like having a low profile Valentine. The kind where you have a candle lit dinner at her house and a long rest later for the night. Being mid February and considering he had paid his younger siblings fee just a week ago, Awiko doesn’t have much to spare on luxury.

Friday the 14th also falls on a week day and Awiko won’t be able excuse himself from work considering the pile he has on the in-tray. This is contrary to Anita’s expectation since to her; the whole day is already an off-duty-day. Her most valued document currently is her leave letter. She drafted it way back and has revised it so many times and now it’s only awaiting submission. It will be approved definitely. I pity her. I am really sorry for her yet there is nothing I can do to lower her fairy expectations.

I said this Valentine will be hurtful to Anita. A great expectation versus low expectation is just but a nip of her troubles. Awiko has not been so faithful to Anita. In our boy-talk last night at the pub he mentioned something typical of him, a student at the university who is also expecting to share in his Valentine revelry. Awiko’s day-plan for this cherry day, Friday 14, therefore involves dashing to the flouriest to get two bouquets; one for Anita and the other for his side dish. In the evening he will have to leave work and dash again to the hostel to pick the secret girl and treat her to a dinner in a secret hotel before a brief privy romantic indulgence as is any lady’s expectation for the day.

To some of my friends at the pub, this is a generous idea; hitting two birds in a single sling. To me, it is ungodly and I loathe it. I hate cheating, and I hate cheating lovers. I picture Anita dressing so early in the morning, waiting for hours alone in the house till evening and into the night for him to come. I picture the tired and sorry face Awiko wears on and imagine him hurling curses at his boss for making him work late even on such an important day. I feel his smell of a young lady’s cunt and a mixture of scented condom as he moves to hug and kiss my innocent Anita, a lady I have admired and wished for a Valentine ever since I joined this company.

So as Anita gambles on the exact dress to wear, and weather to buy it or wait for Awiko to surprise her with his choice, I pity her. If only she knew, if only I could tell her are the lines that keep hovering over my cupid struck heart. I say this time it will be worst for Anita not only because of the disappointment she will get after all her preparations or because of the fact that she only comes as a second option in Awiko’s life, but because she will eventually know what happened. Someone will eventually yap and the pain of waiting for the whole circle all over again will crush her to rabbles.