Chronicles Of HOPE- 33

LOVE IN A HOPELESS PLACE.

I have my sister's permission to modify her story. So, I'm going to call her Vanessa.

It was towards the end of her service year (2006) that she met him.  They had been in the same CDS group for so long but he never struck her as anyone important. He was one of those random guys that thought they were too hot  for the world. Always trying to sweet talk every girl at the same time, and of course having their way with the majority of them. 

He was also too popular so it was impossible for them to be friends. My sister was/is a low key, hearts and flowers, dinner for two person. She is also painfully gorgeous. The kind of girl you would desperately try to find a fault in if you had a conversation with her because she seemed flawless, the total package. Superman had his kryptonite. She would later find that this person she didn't hold in the highest of esteems, was hers.

Once, he hit her accidentally and said sorry and she marvelled at how tall he was. She might have mumbled a comment but he didn't hear it and since neither of them were particularly interested in themselves, that episode was forgotten in seconds. 

Then, one day ..it happened. It was during the weekend. A Sunday. There was a meeting for all corpers and attendance was mandatory. As people struggled on the queue, shunting and all, he (let's call him Femi) maintained composure. It was very ordinary, but somehow, looking at him that day, he gloried in something she wanted to be a part of ..needed to be a part of. Perhaps  she was looking through her Sunday lens.

 She loved Sundays and everything looked so perfect on Sundays. But, he wasn't the only one there. There was just a certain sophistication and vulnerability to his look, she knew she would paint him perfectly if she had a chance, even though she had never painted a day in her life.
So ..she took matters into her own hands. She was going to make him the one. None of her admirers had ever stirred up what she felt that day, just looking at him. 

He was in front of her on the queue, so when it was time  for her to fill her details on the attendance sheet, she stole his contact information. She was going to call him. She didn't ..not immediately.
She toyed with the idea of calling him for a while before she decided to say hello to him in real life, so that at least if she later called him, she would be able to introduce herself as the girl that said hello to him earlier in the day. And that's just what she did.
Fast forward..

They became really amazing friends. She knew she loved him. He acted like he loved her. Everything was fine. But they weren't dating. She later decided to ask him if he was seeing someone and he told her that he was in a serious relationship. Two weeks later, he proposed to his girlfriend.
Vee was distressed. Of course he hadn't promised her anything. She just wished he has stopped her from feeling the things she was feeling. She wanted to cut off communication with him, so she won't be one of those girls that wanted other people's men. He pleaded incessantly.

 He didn't want to lose the friendship, it meant a lot to him and all that. She decided to try to keep her feelings aside and resuscitate the friendship. She would later find out that it was a wrong move. They ended up having sex in the middle of watching a movie. They had become so comfortable with themselves ,she had managed to convince herself that  they could stay in a room together without letting lust take over. She claimed to have tried to stop him (love you sis!), but he was a bit persistent and she caved in, because she had imagined it a million times already. 

Of course they both felt bad almost immediately after. She was now the girl that was being cheated with. She got angry with herself of course, but lucky for her, service was now over. She didn't have to keep seeing him at CDs. She got a volunteer job in Morocco and had been contemplating taking the offer. She was 25 years old. 4 failed relationships and a bleeding heart after, she decided that a change of environment would be good for her. She would just focus on other things..

*    *    *
Being a third world country too, Morocco was not much different from home, but the distance was good for her and she was serving as a health care practitioner ..a nurse. She was helping children and according to her, it was fulfilling. She soon almost forgot that she had been running away from painful memories. And then one day, as the volunteers were grouped into teams for the week's brainstorming challenge, she saw that she had been paired with Okafor.

 There was one other guy in the group, but Okafor was in her group. He had been Femi's roommate back in the day and probably knew what had transpired between them. She suddenly felt very embarrassed but as professionals, they exchanged pleasantries and started to brainstorm. Their group came second place that week and he told her that he wanted to see her again.
Now, Okafor was really beautiful according to her (I've seen him. He's fine!), but something was stopping her from getting close to him. Wouldn't it be awkward if they became too close and then later in life, they'd be all loved up and then run into Femi? 

Well, Okafor wasn't having all that. He knew what he wanted. He saw past all the guilt and the stories and somehow decided that no other woman was as good for him as my sister Vanessa was. Their love story was not complicated like many stories now are. They found each other spiritually, physically, emotionally and mentally compatible. By the end of their volunteer year, he had proposed to her. What more can I say? Baby number 3 is on the way. They found love in a hopeless place. Neither of them were desperate, but they found it, and haven't let go since then. I wish them more love than is fathomable.