“I’ll get it,” Obiora said.
His mother was already standing up. “No, no, you sit down. You just got back home, for God’s sake, you need to rest.”
“Mummy,” Obiora groaned. “It’s just the door.”
“Do as I say, young man.”
Obiora laughed, but dutifully resumed his seat.
He stood at the sound of his brothers’ voices before they came into the sitting room. Their wives were at work, and since it was summer, Obinna’s daughter was out of school but currently visiting her other grandparents. Since Obinna and Obioma worked for their father, it was easy to get the day off. The entire extended family planned to reconvene the following night to properly welcome Obiora back home. Obiora’s heart felt full at the thought; you’d think he’d been in the hospital or won a prestigious award or something with all the fanfare.
“Brother!” Obioma said, his grin wide and infectious as he practically yanked Obiora into a tight hug, thumping him hard on the back. “I missed you!”
“Leave some hugs for the rest of us,” Obinna grumbled. Obiora laughed.
He hugged him as well. Obinna held him at arm’s length after the hug, his eyebrows furrowed.
Obiora rolled his eyes, but he was grinning. “Put the parental perusal away, Obinna, I already got a double dose of it when I got here.”
“Don’t mouth off while I’m here, young man,” his mother scolded, making him laugh.
“You look good,” Obinna said, completely ignoring Obiora’s comment.
Obiora blushed, and pulled away. “Yeah, yeah, okay.”
“Yeah, you do look good,” Obioma said, leering a little, sensing blood in the water.
Obiora blushed harder. “Shut the fuck up.”
“Language,” Obinna and his parents said at the same time; his brother by rote, while his parents’ reprimand was sharper.
“Sorry,” Obiora said sheepishly.
“Wait, wait, wait!” Obioma exclaimed, eyes wide with realisation, even as Obiora widened his eyes comically and tried to subtly shake his head. “Does this mean—did you—?”
“Uh—” Obinna tried to interject, sensing Obiora’s panic.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Ifeoma interrupted. “We know, Obiora.”
“Oh.” Obioma seemed to realise what he’d done. “Oops?”
Obiora sighed, though he felt a little relieved. “You told them?”
“Why are you looking at me?” Obioma said when Obiora narrowed in on him. “It could’ve been Obinna!”
“But it was you,” Obiora accused.
Obioma shrugged, a lazy grin stretching his mouth. “Yeah, okay, fine. You caught me. I can’t lie to mummy to save my life.”
“Oya, oya, all of you should sit down.” Even seated, Ifeoma still managed to look intimidating, her hands on her hips as she said, “Well. Obiora. Is there something you’d like to tell us?”
“I’m sorry, mummy, daddy,” Obiora began contritely. “I should’ve told you the truth about where I was going.”
Ifeoma immediately softened. “Oh, honey, don’t apologise. We understand.”
“You … do?” Obiora asked dubiously. He glanced at his brothers, but of course they were no help, staring back at him blankly. The worms.
“Your brothers explained,” his mother continued, and Obiora tried not to panic. What the fuck had they told his parents? He deliberately avoided looking at his father. “We should be the ones apologising.” Obiora’s head snapped up at that. His mother heaved a sigh. “We shouldn’t—that is, your father and I—we shouldn’t have put so much pressure on you to find a partner. We just want you to be happy, Obim, but obviously, we went about it the wrong way. If we’d done it correctly, perhaps you could have entrusted us with the truth about going for this, eh, bachelorette competition.”
