February, 14th.

If you haven’t read the previous post, this might not make too much sense to you. You can catch up here: Don’t Tell Jim It’s Me.

Dear Reader,
Before I begin do know that I love you.

I don’t know how much I’m loving my best friend right now. All I wanted to do was to surprise her. Not in a bad way. But the kinda surprises that would make a person go like ‘aww‘. All she had to do was sit put and wait for me to tell her what I got her for Valentine’s. You wouldn’t believe what I went through today…

My African Bead and I were sitting at opposite ends of the dining table. This was just after we had lunch. I figured that was the best time to show her my gift to her for Valentine’s – this blog – and watch her as she goes on and on about how much I outdid myself and how lucky she is to have me as her bestie. If only you knew how quick she made me forget those dream filled thoughts.
I stood up slowly and majestically like how all great men do when their names are mentioned as the winners of prestigious awards and paused the cartoon she was watching on my laptop. I don’t know how many times she’d watch Disney’s Moana.
Anyway, before she could go all spartan on me for interrupting her in the middle of a Disney song I saved my neck by explaining to her that I wanted to show something to her over the Internet. She nodded her head to signal ‘go ahead‘ and I took to typing.

Here’s where everything went sideways! Before I hit enter, she was by my side; fingers on both hands interlocked and the most playful left to right sway I had ever seen. I chuckled and asked her what she was up to. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like the response that was about following. She took a step closer and let her arms trap me in what was supposed to be the tightest hug ever – she just didn’t have the strength to break any records so. Hearing her soft voice coming from underneath my chin get all emotional made me tear up. I made her know I love her too. “So now, let me show…” was all I could bring out before she interrupted saying “..wait wait wait, I want to tell you what I got for Valentine’s”

I gave her a nod ‘okay’. After all I was pretty certain she couldn’t top what I got her so I’d just save the news of the this new blog, the best, for the last. You wouldn’t believe what her gift to me was!! “Jim, I got us a blog!!!” Yhup, you read right my dear reader, a -insert word used to emphasise frustration here- blog!!!
I swallowed and managed to fake a smile. I had to think fast! I can’t tell her I got the same thing, not after she told me first. “Anyway, yeah Jim, what was it you wanted to say?”
“Urm, I, I wanted to tell you that I got you a pet dog for Valentine’s. I mean I know how much you love to play with Simba”

Yeah, yeah I know I lied and don’t worry I paid for it. After a few dozen ‘omigoshes’ she finally asked the question I had no answer to, “So where is it?!!” Folks, I advice you to never lie to the one person you want to keep around. They’d always make references to that day anytime you argue. “It’s still at the vet, they’re making sure everything is fine with her before releasing her to us.” Before I could stop it, my lie had landed us heading towards to Vet’s. The only reason I was still walking was that I was trying to figure out how to tell her it was all a lie and that I got her the same thing for Valentine’s. “Sweets, I lied. I lied about the dog. The thing is I also got us a blog for Valentine’s and I didn’t know what to say.” It’s not advisable to type out the words that came out of her mouth after I confessed so I’d have to pass. She stormed off rather very cutely and walked back to my place. (I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had locked me out of my own house)

I was in trouble and I knew it. I had to think quick. I stopped by the Achimota Retail Centre and bought a box of pizza. Tuesday blessed me with an additional pizza. It was one of the ‘buy one get one free’ days.
I found a teddy bear I could afford and checked out.

Mission: Complete.
Pacifier: Obtained.
Destination: Home,here I come.

My best friend seemed to have let it go and kept on digging into the pizza box while watching her cartoon.
It ended. And I was back behind my laptop. I logged into my WordPress account and hovered the mouse pointer over the ‘delete this site’ option. I decided to give myself the chance to look at the design and layout of my handiwork one last time before deleting it and going with my bestie’s. And so I did.

“When did I post this”, I thought to myself when I saw yesterday’s post. I clicked to open it and began reading as soon as the page loaded. Yhup, I was played. She knew all this time!! She knew what my present was and apparently she had already unwrapped her present. The annoying part of it all was that she couldn’t stop laughing. She laughed so hard she had to eat again because she laughed lunch away. She knew the dog present was fake yet she played it out so good. Her acting got her pizza and a teddy bear. Meanwhile, all I was left with was an empty wallet.
Figures huh?