Zee's Diary: Fellowship

 

It was Christmas day, and I decided to spend it by myself. Usually, I'd go down to Lagos to spend the holiday with my parents, but this time was different. My mother was already pestering me to get married. Malik had decided to stay put in the UK, as he had already gotten married and had three beautiful children. 

Mother was literally bored of being alone. She already had plans of weaning my children for me, even if it would take her moving over to Abuja to stay with me. She loved children so much. 

Anyway, I decided to spend Christmas away from her because I was not ready to have a sad holiday. Besides, I still had Pillow Talks to attend to each evening.

Well, Frank, my sweet neighbour, was also staying for the holidays. We usually travel down to see our folks, but this time, we both noticed that none of us was making any moves. So, we decided to celebrate it together.

Frank had just broken up with his violent girlfriend. I didn't like her. She was rude, arrogant, disrespectful and just all over the place. Remember the day he saved me from that monster, George, and I had to stay in his place? She came over, unannounced, and if not for Frank's agility, she would've beaten me up to a pulp.

Anyway, we spent Christmas and New Year together. We had been neighbors for about three-five years.

It was one of the best Christmas celebrations since I lost Esosa. I miss him everyday, but I hate to talk about it.

We drove to a meat market on the morning of Christmas Eve. I was one woman who didn't know that a meat market existed in Abuja. Frank laughed so hard upon realizing that I used to get meat from the supermarket all the time. We got cow meat and goat meat, and off we went! 

Back at home, we contemplated on whose kitchen to cook the food. Then, I realized that his kitchen was two times bigger than mine. So we prepared the food at his apartment. He joined me in cooking and mehnnn! This guy knew the right proportion of seasoning to salt to use in seasoning the meat. We agreed to divide the work so we could be done with it in time. So, I decided to season, boil and fry the cow meat while he made peppersoup with the goat meat we got.

Evening came, and we relaxed with bowls of yam and delicious goat meat peppersoup. It was a very lovely day for me. I had gotten sick of cooking and eating alone. This felt new all of a sudden. I was glad I stayed back, instead of going to Lagos to cook food for the whole street.

Anyway, I left my house before Frank came looking for me the next morning. I went to the market to get tomatoes and pepper to cook stew and jollof rice. Don't judge me. Frank insisted on paying for everything. It didn't sit right with me, so I let him handle the meat while I handled the tomatoes. I had a bag of rice in my kitchen. 

Altogether, Christmas that year was fun. I got to know Frank better. We became friends, and not just regular neighbors who were on good terms. We went to several concerts I never considered meaningful, karaoke nights, etc. I had real fun! Frank wasn't a boring guy after all. He was just a guy who had to work from home to make ends meet.