1991- SEPTEMBER 12TH
To Nonye and Ikenna, they had been dating since the moment they set eyes on each other two Christmases ago, but they officially started dating 13th February 1990 and they were nothing other than sure that they loved each other. Ikenna asked Nonye to be his girlfriend because he wanted her to be his on Valentine’s day, he didn’t want some Canadian lad trying to win his soul mate on Valentine’s day, he couldn’t stand the thought of Nonye in some Caucasian guy’s arms or any one arms at all.
Nonye and Ikenna were both home in Lagos for the summer holiday, Ikenna was now in his final year and Nonye was in her second year in the University. They had spent almost every single day of the holiday with each other to the dismay of both their friends, whether it was an eatery, the beach or even on picnics, but this time Ikenna invited Nonye to his father’s house, he said he was going to cook for her. Nonye laughed hard when she heard this because she did not believe Ikenna could cook to save his life. But she was going to go, and even though the food might be insipid, she would pretend like it was good and eat it, she didn’t even think of the regular visits she might have to take to the toilet. She loved him that much.
As she got there that evening, Ikenna had lit candles so the dining room was quite dim, and slow romantic songs filled the atmosphere. It felt so perfect; they drank wine and talked and talked, and laughed and talked. Food eventually escaped their memory when Nonye sank into Ikenna’s loving arms.