‘Not much. But we did land up having sex, so there wasn’t that much talking.’
‘YOU HAD S—Hi, Welcome to Middle East Air business lounge, how may I direct your call?’
‘What?’ I blinked at Blessing, and he pointed to the headphones that he was wearing.
‘That is correct, open twenty-four hours a day.’ He pointed at me, and I think he mouthed something that looked like ‘Don’t you dare go’ when I took a step back. I stopped walking.
‘See you soon, sir. YOU ARE HAVING SEX WITH YOUR FAKE BOYFRIEND.’
‘We’ve only had sex twice,’ I defended myself. I felt like I was under attack. ‘Mind you, the one night,God, it was hot, the one night we also—’
‘Whoa, whoa, whoa! I don’t need all the ins and outs, so to speak.’ He folded his arms and seemed to regard me with real purpose. ‘There is one thing I know about sex for sure, though. When it comes to sex youshouldn’tbe having, once is too many and twice is never enough.’
I ran that line over in my head, trying to make sense of it.
‘It means that you probably shouldn’t have had it once, but now that you’ve had it twice, you’re just going to want more and more of it.’
‘I do want more.’
Blessing suddenly stiffened and looked over my shoulder. ‘Hello, welcome to Middle East Business Class Lounge. Can I see your boarding pass, please.’
I straightened and grabbed one of the complementary magazines and started flipping through it, trying to convey the message that I wasnothere talking about sex. Which I was. And I was sure it was written all over my face too. I was not good at hiding what was happening in my head at all, so I buried my head in the magazine even more.
The man handed his pass over and Blessing escorted him into the lounge. He returned moments later to continue the conversation.
‘Okay, so you’ve had sex twice and done something else one night that was very hot that shall remain unnamed. But under what circumstances did the sex occur?’
‘The first time was very unplanned. In a bathroom at my cousin’s wedding.’
He shook his head and tutted. ‘In a bathroom.’
‘It was more of a changing room, and I wasn’t bent over a toilet or anything . . .’ I paused and felt my cheeks get hot. ‘. . . I was perched on the vanity.’
‘And the second time?’ he asked.
I sighed when I thought about the second time. There were hardly any words in the universe to describe what the second time had been like. I had thoroughly run through my internal thesaurus but was yet to find a word that described with any level of accuracy what that night had been like. I touched my hands to my face; I could feel it getting hotter.
‘You’re so in love with him.’ Blessing slumped across the reception desk. ‘I’m jealous. He’s gorgeous!’
I started nodding my head. ‘I think I’m in love with him,’ I finally said.
‘You should tell him. Say it back. The guy went out on such a limb there, telling you how he felt.’
I smiled for a moment, and then my shoulders slumped. ‘But even if we are in love with each other, is that enough to make a relationship work? I’ve never been in a relationship that made it past the fourth date.’
‘Oh God, now you’re just depressing me. You think too much.’
‘What if—’
‘Oh my God, stop it!’ Blessing held his hand up. ‘You have two choices here – it’s not that complicated. Tell him you’re in love and give the relationship a real go. You’ve been fake dating for almost half a year already, so it’s not like you’re starting over. Or don’t.’
‘That’s your advice?’ I asked. I had expected more. ‘What would you do?’
‘I think if I never told him how I felt and gave the relationship a chance, I would regret it.’
I looked at the clock above Blessing’s head. It was almost time for my shift.
‘I have to go, but I’m not entirely sure that any of that was helpful.’
