Saturday, June 22, 2013

Short Story - I Was Not the Type For Dele

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Anna met Dele... I feel like that could be the beginning and the end of my story. Anna met Dele. Have you ever met someone who singularly divides your life into two? The time before and the time after him.

I met Dele. It was not a dramatic moment, it wasn't romantic. We shared a cab from the airport. I arrived Nnamdi Azikwe Airport Abuja late one evening from Calabar. It was my first time in Abuja. I tried bargaining with the cabs i saw, they were ready to charge me a head and a foot to Gwarimpa that was when he showed up, he was going in my direction and suggested we share a cab.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Short Story - No Other Woman

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Ironically, James only went to the party because his wife had insisted that he honour Tony’s invitation. Tony was celebrating his latest promotion at work.  So he’d gone. And joked around with Tony and the guys. And had a couple of beers.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

A Toxic Romance - The Beautiful Truth

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Now I’m looking in the mirror. I’ve been standing here for about ten minutes; staring into the glass. I do not recognize the image in it. I’m serious. The face; my face, it looks familiar but it cannot possibly be me. Can it? What’s wrong?

Well, my hair is disheveled but I did just get out of bed so that’s not it. My skin is blotchy. Well, that’s from all the comfort food I’ve been snacking on intermittently these days. My eyes are swollen. Now I don’t know if that’s because I haven’t been sleeping well or because I’ve been crying often. Hmmm...

Friday, June 14, 2013

Love's Pain - Part 2

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“Lolu” I knew he was sleeping but I was hoping I could wake him up before my favorite ice-cream place closed. “Lolu” I repeated while pushing him a little harder.

“Hmm” he says while rubbing his eyes as if to rub the sleep away. “Are you ok?”

“Ololufe mi, my love.”

“Ahh... oya what do you want?” he said just like the man I married who knew me well enough to know that I wanted something.

Friday, June 7, 2013

A Lesson Learned From A Frenemy

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“He’s cheating Tolani, I am telling you” Seke screams.

“What? No oh Bolaji won’t do that to me.” I say while trying to assure myself also that my husband of less than two years could not possibly be cheating on me.

“Answer me now, what time does he come home?”

I don’t even know why she’s screaming. I can hardly get my thoughts together.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Love's Pain - Part 1

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“I’ll never let you go, oh noooo,” sings Faith Evans, “Every day I thank the Lord for you, I feel so blessed”. I remember vividly that was the song Lolu and I danced to on our wedding day. “I wished upon a star and it came true” I sing as tears start to find their way down my face. How could I possibly hurt the man who made all my dreams come true? If I chose to confess, I would have peace of mind but my marriage would be shattered. We were happy, we WERE happy, WE WERE HAPPY, I think as the thoughts are now stained by a reminder of my sins and lies.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Not A Groupie - A Sweet Short Story

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I was just standing there on the side lines waiting for the actual doors to open up for this so called concert Bisola dragged me to. I was never into Nigerian music too much, just the occasional popular ones that I’d randomly see tweets about. Every now and then, I get curious enough to google the current slangs and it almost always ends up being from a Nigerian song.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Shakara Ologe Ni - A Funny Short Story

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By Tofarati,

As Sharon walked into the lobby of the lecture theatre, arrogance oozed out of every pore of her being as if she had dipped herself in a pool of it before coming to school. She didn’t bother to greet any of her colleagues who stood chatting in different groups around the room. She brought out her phone (a Blackberry Torch1) and began to dial nosily.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Adventures of a Miss! Episode 12

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I was still in shock in the kitchen and didn’t know what I was going to do. I might as well make my exit now before I am thoroughly embarrassed. Bolaji opened the door and went after Muhammad and since I could not hear what they were saying from the kitchen, I quickly ran upstairs. I grabbed my things, came back down hoping they were still outside so that I would be able to make a break for it through the back door.

Bolaji: “Where are you going?” he startled me because I didn’t see him in the corner of the dining room. “I’m going home” Shit I just remembered my car was still at Semi’s place. “I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t hear what Muhammad said to you so no need to act innocent.”

He sighs and holds his head in his laps and for a second I thought I heard crying so I went closer to him and tried to lift his head from his palm. “Bolaji, I am sorry, I swear I was going to tell you right before Muhammad rang the bell; I swear.”

He just kept staring at me, I wasn’t sure who he was angrier with, Muhammad or me but he was angry, very angry. “Toke, after all I have done for you, I honestly can’t believe it. Where you sleeping with him while we were dating?”

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Adventures of a Miss!! Episode 11

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I might as well tell him now, I mean since we are both on this honesty road it might make things a little easier. Will the fact that Bolaji slept with Zainab aver 8 years ago matter when comparing it to the fact that just a couple of months ago I was still out with Muhammad?

At the time, I didn’t think Bolaji was taking me serious though, I thought I was just the poor girl he was dating that he knew he could impress easily till he found daddy’s business partner daughter to marry. I am so confused, I don’t want to lose Bolaji, and it’s not because of the money. In the past, I had to keep my emotions bagged up because I thought he would eventually dump me but I realized once I let all my feelings for him manifest, it was the most amazing thing.

Me: “I have something to tell you but like you said you have to listen and not try to fight me as well. So a couple of months ago…”

Who the hell is knocking at the door at this time and interrupting a conversation that took all of the liver in me to bring up? Bolaji gets up and walks past me to see who is at the door but I couldn’t hear who it was since I was in the kitchen. I walk closer to where I could see without been noticed after I heard shouting and surprisingly it is Muhammad.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

The Wife Diaries - Episode Five

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“You could start from the beginning.” I urged her quietly.

“You know us Nigerians, everything is black and white. You’re either bad or good, and we don’t allow room for anything else.” She looked up and wiped her face. “I guess I’m bad here, in my own little nollywood movie. I’m the bad girl, the harlot, the whore.”

She laughed a little, which quickly became a cry “I’m a mess girl, a big mess..I thought this was over, but it never was... I’ve been pretending this whole time.”

“Pretending?”

“Mm-hmm.” she nodded, “remember that time Uncle Sunny was staying at the house?”

I nodded, grimacing. “What about that devil?”

My hackles began to rise. This was someone that had hurt Nkem, and till this day I was ready to beat the lights out of him if I ever laid eyes on him. Unfortunately he died five years ago, still I would dig up his body and kill him again if I could.

“I tried blanking that memory out and telling myself it didn’t happen over these years but, it’s affecting me! It always affected me.” She held my hand tighter as she continued.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

The Wife Diaries - Episode Four

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“Nkem, what’s going on? it’s 3 am in the morning. Is everything okay?” I got up from the bed and was now pacing the room.

“I’ll tell you when I get there, please. I..I can’t talk right now,” she hiccuped.

“Is Nick with you?”

“No..”

“Okay, I’ll tell them to open the gate for you.”

At this my husband sat up quickly from bed and looked at me with confusion written all over his face.

“She’s coming here?” He asked as soon as I hung up.

“Yeah. She was crying and Nick’s not with her.”

“Um…okay…so how long is she staying for?”

“I don’t know! I couldn’t ask her that, she was crying!” I snapped at him. I was a little taken back by his question, you’d think he would be more concerned about her welfare than how long she was staying with us.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Adventures of a Miss!! Episode 10

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Bolaji: “Please promise me you’ll listen before fighting me, Toke, please.” He looks sincere but this is not the time to be deceived because of looks. I want to hear what he has to say and I just hope he’s not getting ready to tell me a load of bull crap.

Me: “Bolaji I said I am listening” I emphasized the listening so he knows all I want to proceed from his mouth is an explanation for why he was kissing Zainab. “I promise I won’t fight you, I’ll only listen but you better be ready to answer any subsequent questions I may have”. I walk over the bar stools that lead into the kitchen and take a seat.

Bolaji: “Ok, Zainab and I met 8 years ago in London; it was during my final year in Uni. We met at a club you know, her friend was dating a good friend of mine at the time and it was his birthday. I bought her a couple of drinks and the short story is that we had sex that night and it continued for about 6 months until I moved back to Nigeria after graduation.

We weren’t dating, as a matter of fact I think she had someone she was talking to at the time, but with us it was strictly for the physical. I had no intention of dating her; as a matter of fact I had no intention of being with anyone at the time. Fast forward to 3 years ago when Muhammad found me on Facebook, we met up chatted about life and then he showed me a picture of his new bride of barely a month and it turns out to be Zainab. I didn’t tell him immediately that Zainab and I had a fling in the past because I didn’t want to destroy their home and I was not sure what stories Zainab might have told him.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

The Wife Diaries - Episode Three

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I shrieked, pulled the trench coat tightly over my breasts and took the stairs up, two or three at a time. I flung open our bedroom door and ran straight to the bed to hide under the sheets until the humming in my ears ceased. I was so embarrassed!

As I lay under the covers basking in my utter humiliation, feeling sorry for myself and wondering what my husband was thinking, I heard the door crack open slowly.

“Babe..?” My husband said quietly from the door. “You okay?”

I shook my head and brought it up to look at him. He was standing just inside the door, a worried expression with a slight hint of amusement sat on his face. He peered at me curiously and his lips shook as he tried to bite back a laugh.

I sank back under the covers and cringed.

I felt the bed sink low as he came to sit next to me and rub my side through the covers.

“So um…care to explain what just happened down there?”

“No…” I whined.

“well, Felix thinks you’re hot…”

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Adventures of a Miss!! Episode 9

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I’m all sorts of confused right now, ok let me run this through my head again. Ok, Bolaji saw Zainab and Kola kissing, asked her why she was kissing another man. Yes that happened; I rub my head while trying to remember exactly what I saw. Then Zainab started crying begging Bolaji but she was calling him baby. Then she asked Kola to leave, tried to kiss Bolaji but he resisted after the kiss had gone on for about 10 seconds.

He asked her gently to stop and said they would talk later because Muhammad was inside the house. I am not sure what to make of this scenario; there are two things that are baffling me. Why is Zainab calling my fiancée baby and why does she think she can kiss him? It means that they have definitely kissed before. My mind is painting me so many pictures of Bolaji and Zainab in every compromising situation and it just gets me more and more upset.

Ok, I’ll run through it one more time; Ok I was hiding trying to text Dele while watching Semi explain to him that I had a family emergency. Zainab walks in with Kola, I figured it won’t be long before she runs into Muhammad. I’m walking back towards the house when I hear Bolaji ask Zainab why she’s kissing Kola, then they end up kissing. This is what I have been doing in my head for the past hour while watching Bolaji and his interactions with Zainab.

Friday, April 19, 2013

The Wife Diaries - Episode One

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"What do you want?" I asked him.

I was kneeling on the edge of the bed, sitting back on my heels, watching him. I cocked my head to the side in a 'I'm listening' pose. He sat back against the headboard, looking at me from under his eye-lids, shirtless in his boxers. I watched his lips as he licked them and watched the muscles in his arms flex as he put his hands behind his head. Still watching me.

"What do you want?" He asked me, jutting his chin in my direction.

I didn't answer.

"Come here"

I crawled in between his legs and sat back on my heels again. He smiled and looked at my body.

"I like what you're wearing" His voice changed, telling me of what was to come if I let it.

"Thanks. It's the one you got for me, remember?"

"I remember," He looked at my breasts spilling over the top of the peach negligee I wore and licked his lips again, this time slower.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Adventures of a Miss!! Episode 5

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It's been two days since the proposal and I can't still get Zainab off my mind. Honestly, how can another man's wife be on my mind more than the man I’m supposedly about to marry. I've ignored her numerous texts and calls since the proposal, mostly because I know it's impossible for me to agree to her proposal, now that Bolaji has stepped up and proposed to me. I really thought we still had about a year of seriously dating before he would propose but I thank God it happened earlier because it means my search is over.

I'm meeting with Tayo and Semi tonight for dinner and drinks after work. Ever since I told them about the proposal, all they want to do is sit and talk wedding plans. The real question here is if I should be planning a wedding because I am not sure there will be one.

“Let me seeee" I hear screaming as I walk into the restaurant, the same one Bolaji had proposed two days earlier. Tayo was already sitting at a table and Semi was nowhere to be found. I walked in with a huge smile on my face and extended my left hand for her to see the ring.

"Wow Toks, this ring is big oh. I didn’t get a chance to see it properly on Saturday at all” Tayo said while seriously examining the ring. “We all need to hang out with Bolaji so we can get to know him very well” she added.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Long Awaited Wedding Night by TJ Benson

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144…That was the number of ceiling boards in Martin’s room. He had spent the last 2041 seconds counting the 144 asbestos ceiling boards of his elegantly furnished bedroom. While his newly wedded wife lay beside him seemingly a thousand miles away…

His friends had warned him, his elder brother and even his father had hinted something to that effect- these things didn’t always turnout right not in this era anyway. But he had made a solemn promise with Onome when they were 16 to wait until after marriage.

His father was initially proud of him. Such discipline, his father said, was what made a man a man. But after he graduated from the polytechnic and got a job, his father began to worry if his son was really a man. Weren’t they engaged to be married? Hadn’t they been faithful to each other for the past 10 years? Then what was the problem? The poking and prodding ad been relayed through his mother and eventually ended up in uncomfortable confrontations from his father. He solved the problem by moving out of their home.

Then there was the issue of peer pressure. Some of his acquaintances had been disgusted at what they believed to be his childish decision. “What would I be doing with a hot pastor’s daughter for 10years!” they cried. She had not been spared either. Her fellow female choir members had warned, “life is not a fairytale and you don’t even know whether he is impotent sef.” Sometimes, they would exchange the stories and laugh off the tension and even find more strength in themselves in the process.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Chioma Nnani - Forever There For You [Author Interview]

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Chioma Nnani is the author of Forever There For You, a Christian Fiction novel. She describes herself as a blood-washed, feisty, passionate God-chaser, born to tell stories, and very creatively too. She says she often shoots from the hip – mainly because she's still trying to pass classes in ‘tact and diplomacy’.

She holds a Law (LLB) degree from the University of Kent, Canterbury (in England). Of her stories, Chioma confesses they are character-driven, and she will obsessively look up, build, mix and match psychological profiles to get exactly the personality that will best deliver her message and touch her characters. She is a people-watcher, and draws writing inspiration from those around her, and their reactions to events. Enjoy our interview...

What inspires you to write?
This is going to sound really clichéd but I’m inspired by God, events, and people. Sometimes, I’ll get up really early because I have to write, so I can’t sleep. This would normally be between 1 and 3am – that time when you’re sleeping, but you’re not really sleeping. When I look back at some stuff that readers claim constitute some of my best work, I find that they tend to be the ones I’ve written during such periods.

Again, sometimes I’ll be reading the Bible, or listening to a pastor, or even praying, and I’ll get an idea that could range from really simple to pretty outrageous. I’ll jot it down, knowing fully well I’ll return to it later.
Also, sometimes I’ll be in the middle of a conversation with someone, or even hear something in passing that strikes me. I’ll park it in my mind, to be revisited at night, or even days, weeks, or months later. With some statements I hear, I just know that they will form the basis of future material.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Bring Back My Husband To Me By Bubblinna

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I wake slowly to the strains of ’Marry You’ by Bruno Mars set off by the alarm. As I search for the offending machine, a clear thought penetrates my sleep-fogged mind; Wedding! Just then my hand connects with the phone. I hit the stop button and break out in a wide grin.

Today is March 16th 2016 and it is my wedding day. I am going to be married to my sweetheart, Lionel. The thought of him makes me blush, ahh; the things we did in dreamland not so long ago. There is a throbbing at the apex of my thighs and I feel heat spread through me; this usually happens when I think of the things I want to do to and with him.

”Patience, girl. You’ll have him for the rest of your life to do with as you please starting tonight.” I tell myself. That is enough to reassure me.

Smiling, I lean over to turn on the bedside lamp at the far end of the bed and my hand touches a wet patch. Quickly, I turn on the light and a puzzled look steals across my face. There on the undisturbed part of the bed is a wet patch which looks as though one sat on it with wet shorts. I throw a glance at the door; the bolt is still drawn across. My hand goes to my butt which feels really dry.