Page 74 of Two’s Better

“I don’t know. But I feel the same, you know? I feel exactly the same,” I admitted, leaning forward to press our foreheads together, my arms tightening even further around her. Her own arms came up to wrap around me, holding me just as tight. “But we’re going to be all right, because, above all, we have each other.” I pulled back a little to meet her eyes, my own dancing with mischief. “After all, two heads ...?”

She grinned, warm and bright and so fucking alive. “Are better than one.”

EPILOGUE

I looked out the bus window, bouncing my knee. I couldn’t wait to get back home to Ofure. My lips turned up automatically; calling it that—home—where Ofure was waiting for me, never failed to make my nerves all aflutter.

My phone began to ring. My smile widened when I saw “Mummy” flash across the screen.

“Ey!” I hailed dramatically, though I kept my voice respectfully low. “How’s my Able Mummy?”

“Uzezi, it’s too early to start with this your nonsense.”

“Ah, ah, mummy, it’s almost six o’clock.”

“Ehen. I hear you.”

“Digwo, mummy,” I said, laughing.

“Vredo, my darling. I’m sure you already know why I’m calling,” she said, launching right into it. I could burst with love for her, her excitement wiping away some of the exhaustion in my limbs, despite my feelings of accomplishment and fulfilment. “How was it? Your first day as a real businessman.” The way she said businessman, with the proud emphasis of a Nigerian mother made me laugh again.

“It’s literally an internship, mummy. I’m not quite an official businessman just yet.”

“Haven’t I taught you not to argue with your mother?”

I laughed again, then gave her a quick rundown of my day. I hadn’t done much; it had mostly been an introductory day, with me shadowing the junior architects, being shown the ropes of how their firm worked and what duties I’d be doing, what sort of projects they were looking forward to bidding for and how they expected me to participate, and that was basically it. And even though I’d made up my mind that this was what I wanted to do, finally being here, on the first day of my “nine-to-five”—as Ofure had taken to calling it—really cemented things for me. I couldn’t wait for the rest of the internship; couldn’t wait to finish this whole “plan” and start my life properly, Ofure by my side.

“Still,” my mother said when I finished, “I’m so, so proud of you, honey. I can’t believe my boy is all grown up.”

“Mummy,” I said playfully. “You dey burst my head, o.”

“Oya, let me stop before it gets too big.” We laughed. “How’s my future daughter-in-law?” I could imagine her winking conspiratorially as she asked.

I literally nearly sighed like a cartoon character with heart eyes. “She’s doing fine, mummy.”

Unsurprisingly, my parents, along with Ofure’s, were ecstatic when we officially told them we were dating. It wasn’t news to us that our mothers had always not-so-secretly been hoping and praying for this exact outcome; it used to be a big source of discomfort and irritation once upon a time, considering our feelings had been strictly platonic and we’d been sure that would never change. How the turns have tabled, eh? Ofure would have laughed at that reference. The thought made me smile. Damn, the guys were right. I really was disgustingly in love.

Once we’d broken the news, our mothers had been adamant it had everything to do with their prayers and nothing to do with what Ofure and I may or may not have discovered about ourselves. We let them have their win, obviously.

“That’s good. Have you booked your tickets to come home this Christmas? It feels like I’ve been saying this for ages; you know that the earlier you book it, the cheaper the tickets will be.”

“I know, I know. We’ll get right on it, mummy.”

“So, you haven’t booked it, then?” She sounded disapproving, as she should, because she’d only been reminding me to do so since she and the rest of our families had come in the summer for our graduations, spending two weeks with us before going back home.

I ducked my head sheepishly, even though she couldn’t see me. “I know, I know. I’ll do it tonight, mummy, I promise.”

“Okay, o,” she sing-songed, which told me she wasn’t really upset.

I grinned, looking up and quickly pushing the “stop” button when I noticed the bus was finally nearing home. Ofure. My heart skittered. “I’m getting off the bus now, mummy.”

“All right, my son. Your father sends all his love. Take care.”

“I love you both so much. You take care of yourselves, too.”

As I made my way to the familiar block of flats, I smiled at the memory of how our summer had been filled not only with multiple graduations, but practically back-to-back house warmings, with me and Ofure getting our own flat, Fiona moving into a bigger place with Tamara and Ezra, and Dayo and Prince moving in together—with, shockingly, each consecutive pairing doing so romantically. Turns out, as I’d kind of suspected, Prince wasn’t as straight as he’d thought, and Fiona, Tamara, and Ezra apparently weren’t as monogamous as they’d thought, though they were only interested in dating each other.

I swiped my fob and made my way to the lifts. Ofure and I had managed to snag a flat a few floors down from Fiona, Tamara, and Ezra, while Prince and Dayo had snagged one somewhere in the middle. Bernice had moved in with her culinary arts friends—and her queerplatonic girlfriend, after she and Hafsa had apparently worked out and agreed on what they wanted in a relationship—on the other side of the city from where we’d previously lived.