Tales from Naij - Part 2

My stress level was starting to become entirely too high. Other than dragging myself to work, I would just sit in my room and think about how unhappy I was…in every aspect of my life. I don’t think I’ve ever been this broke before. I mean I had money to get by but I didn’t really…if that makes any sense. My boyfriend wasn’t that “comfortable” so it’s not like I could really get money from him. I was just tired of everything. One night, Nicole called me and was like there’s someone she wants me to meet and she’s on her way over with him in a few minutes so I should look sexy. I wasn’t really in the mood, but I was like whatever. I didn’t really dress sexy. I had a maxi dress on and I didn’t bother brushing my hair. Few minutes later they came and I went outside to meet them. He was this older man, maybe mid 50's. We chatted for a bit outside. There was just something about him that seemed so weird…maybe cos he was around my dad’s age. He gave me some money for a cab to come see him at his hotel the next day, as he was in town for a few days. After they left, Nicole called me and was like I shouldn’t mess this up cos he has A LOT of money. He had just won some political seat in house of assembly but was dealing with some issues, had houses all over, good connections, etc etc. She said he said he liked me and that he sensed I needed to be “rescued” or helped in some way (perhaps cos I didn’t brush my hair?).  It all sounded good but having to deal with what came with all that was all I could think of.

I went to see him the next day. I purposely went in the afternoon and said I was going to my parents’ house for the weekend just so I’d have an excuse to leave early. We sat and talked in his room and he repeatedly kept telling me how he wanted to take care of me as he kissed my neck and rubbed up on my arm. I guess he could tell I was very tensed and uncomfortable so he thought he would help by giving me a massage. I kept moving around and playing on my phone to avoid all the touchy feeliness going on. I told him about myself and he said he would help me and would send me a ticket to come to his state to see him. I was like ok cool, in my mind I was like umm negative. He wanted me to stay with him for the night, but I had my excuse ready and ran up out of there. Nothing happened that day, didn’t get any money, but we talked enough to each other for him to ask for my account number before I left, which I didn’t really expect him to use since I didn’t put out.

He called me almost everyday till he left town. Always wanting to see me or asking how I was. I always gave an excuse that I was at my dad’s house or sick. Talking to him reminded me of talking to my dad. He was just so fatherly and it just made me feel very weird when he’d try to talk sexually. Once, while I was talking to him at Nicole’s house, she took the phone and started telling him how I was broke and needed to buy so much stuff for my apartment. He was like “oh my baby, you should have told me, you know I don’t want you to suffer.”

The next day he sent me 40,000 naira to which he said to take care of myself. I was pretty happy about that actually. Nicole said it was ok for now but that I should better open your mouth and start asking for stuff and be willing to make him feel special so I could get more next time.  Every once in a while he’d randomly send me credit for my phones also. When I wanted to travel to see my boyfriend at the time, I asked him to pay for my ticket (of course he thought I was going to see my mom) and he did. He was supposed to come to my city a few times but for one reason or the other he couldn’t. He was always busy, going from state to state, out with the President and stuff so his schedule was never favorable, which was cool with me actually. He wanted me to come visit him which I was soooo not into doing even though Nicole thought it was a great idea, but I always made excuses. I haven’t seen him again since the first day but we talk a lot. I plan to keep him around but hopefully from afar because he has a lot of connections that would benefit me very soon.