Chapter 1
Thelma slapped Ego on her face, causing illusion stars to fly out of her eyes in millions. The assailant quickly picked a knife from the tub in Morris’ kitchen to design her victim’s face, but Morris pushed her away.
“I’d rather leave my invisible scars on you,” Thelma fumed. She would rather die than walk away from Morris’ life like a coward.
“My love for Morris is not worth a slap or scar.” Ego, not giving a fig, quickly returned the slap. Morris snatched the knife out of Thelma’s hands.
“Sorry, I don’t love you anymore. Relax, I will settle you,” Morris separated the two women.
Morris ditched Thelma who has supported him through thick and thin, as Ego’s beauty swept him off his feet like an angry ocean current. He proposed to marry Ego who actually did not love him.
After completing his university education, he went under the tutelage of Chief Chukwudimma, his uncle who was an importer of electronic gadgets. After two years, he gave him fifty million naira to start his own importation business.
With money came a new lifestyle and new thinking, and he quickly broke up with his fiancée, Thelma. The profile of his ideal girl changed as girls perched on him because he had become a successful importer of electronic gadgets.
Morris was so passionate about soccer that he had a lawn where people played and watched football. Football players stormed Morris’ lawn daily as the fitness craze swept through the town.
There in his lawn the god of love heard his wishes, Ego appeared. “This is the idol, the big picture to have as a wife.” He was enamoured immediately.
Ego was tender, smooth-skinned and the epitome of beauty. Ego’s shape was like the figure eight. Carrying Ego with his car and not his palms was a worst case scenario to Morris.
“What is my name?” Morris mistakenly asked Ego his own name instead of hers while meticulously approaching her the first time.
Ego’s brothers were always close to her or watching her from the distance in the lawn with many young men. Morris had no choice than to become close friends of Ego’s brothers and friends. After a while he stopped collecting fees from them whenever they came to the lawn to play.
Morris was a professional first aider. When Theo, Ego’s elder brother sustained a fracture on the lawn while playing, Morris treated him. The radiographer who ran an X-ray on Theo’s leg commended Morris. Ego’s mother, Doris, was graceful to him.
One day after playing on the lawn, Morris invited Ego, Theo and Uchenna to a banquet. He placed three different dishes on his dining table where they gathered.
Morris served Theo rice and beans with chicken. It was his favourite. Uchenna received fried plantain and fresh tomato stew. Ego salivated before hers arrived for she perceived the aroma of breadfruit with fresh fish stew, the food she could die for.
Long before then Morris had unobtrusively asked them one after the other what their favourite foods were. Then he had gone ahead to prepare them.
“Who told you our favourite meals?” Ego asked in surprise.
“Interest makes me to remember things,” Morris answered.
“What are you interested in?” Ego asked the second time.
Morris ignored her and her eyes dwelt on the dishes. Though they summoned courage to eat the food, they also looked around to see who cooked it. Ego naturally disliked meals cooked by a bachelor. She was the last to taste hers.
“This is delicious! You cooked it?” A stream of saliva dribbled on to Ego’s food. Morris observed the involuntary action. She was humbled.
“I cooked the meals myself,” Morris smiled in response to what he observed.
“Who taught you how to cook?” Ego asked, unbelieving.
“My mum,” Morris replied with his shoulders up.
“I wish to cook like you someday” Theo cut in.
“But you can only boil water, dear. Isn’t that part of cooking?” Ego teased him.
“I guess your fiancée cooked these meals” Ego poked at Morris some more.
“I cooked the meals myself. Period,” Morris said.
“We didn’t have a girl in my family. The only time someone cooked for me was during my degree exams. Truly my ex-girlfriend, Thelma, was of great help to me. She even paid my school fees sometime.” Morris explained.
“What made her an ex-girlfriend?” Ego asked with some interest.
“We broke up a few months ago.”
“Why?” Ego asked, leaning forward on her seat. She was curious to know Morris’ relationship status.
“Nothing... I have a high test of beauty for a wife.”
“Someone as cute as you is okay for me,” Morris winked romantically at her. Their eyes met and lingered then.
“Oh my God, what did you just say?” Ego shook her head and shouted in mock dismay.
She spanked Morris who moved backwards with a smirk on his face. He tried to land mock blows on her in reprisal. There was sugar in Morris and Ego’s eyeballs.
Ego wished that Morris told her this in secret. Theo and Uchenna watched her reaction through corner of their eyes. Over the applause, Ego felt like scratching her pointed nose. In truth, Morris’ words were music to her soul.
She quickly switched to ‘hard-to-get’ mode, so that her brothers would not perceive her intention to date Morris.
“You’re not serious! Please don’t flatter me,” Ego smiled after a few seconds.
Having spoken his mind, Morris was relieved. He was pleased with what he saw on Ego brothers’ faces.
“Well, I suppose you know what you want,” Theo suggested.
“Yea, that’s why I made my intention known to you guys,” Morris pushed on.
“Sure,” Morris affirmed and Ego leered. She pried for more words of interest or commitment from him, not wanting to seem cheap to her brothers.
“I love Ego,” Morris said solemnly.
“Are you listening to yourself? Ego is just eighteen years!” Theo said with a grin.
“Theo, you know that these days in Nigeria, bachelors look for very young girls to marry. They ignore their mates who are matured to handle family challenges,” Uchenna explained.
“Ego still has a lot before her. She has no tertiary education even as both of us have none,” Theo cut in.
In the course of further discussion, Morris accepted to sponsor Ego’s education. She planned to study Law and Diplomacy in the university.
“I don’t feel anything for Morris, but if he proposes, I will accept. I will take pregnancy inhibiting pills until after six years when we must have graduated. I will divorce him and marry a man I love.” Ego kept this thought secret.
