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I looked at my best friend and saw the hurt that she didn’t want me to see. I leaned in closer to her and held her hand. “Do you want it fixed?”
“No. I hate him.” But her eyes were glistening, anger weakening.
I nodded, hearing her loud and clear. “Okay. Then we’ll fix it. Walk me through it.”
Aminah sighed. “Alright. So, um, we were talking by the bar when Osi came up to—”
“Osi? First Year Osi?!”
Osi Ummoh was the last guy that had got Aminah stressed—a theatre and lit student, as tall as he was vacuous, actor by study and actor by personality, presenting himself as the perfect boyfriend to Aminah and three other girls on campus simultaneously. He didn’t cheat but he was close enough to it to drive Aminah to distraction till the trance broke.
“Yes, Keeks, that Osi. So, we were right next to him, and I had planned on ignoring him, but then he was all, ‘Hey, Disney, looking good,’ and you know Disney was his nickname for me, right? Because he said I reminded him of a Disney Princess. Anyway, I rolled my eyes, yes, but I smiled a little, you know? Because Osi is still fine as hell. Then he was like, ‘I miss you. It would be good to catch up these days.’ And I was like, ‘What we gonna talk about? How you fucked up a good thing?’ and Osi was like, ‘Maybe.’ And then he smiled and walked away. That was it! Thatis all that happened. And then suddenly Kofi starts acting all weird, just moving mad awkward, and says, ‘What was that?’ And I said, ‘What was what?’—and he goes, ‘Aminah, are you serious right now?’ And then it’s time for his set to start and I come here and then the next thing I know he’s basically smashing Zuri Isak on top of his decks!” Aminah paused to take her breath and skip a look across me. “Okay, what? What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Um.” I folded my hands together on the table. “I just want to clarify that Kofi was there the entire time that this interaction occurred with Osi?”
Aminah looked less indignant. “Uh, yeah—”
“So, I just wanna break it down. Kofi was stood there as you flirted with your ex-boyfriend? Who didn’t acknowledge his existence? And you didn’t bother to introduce Kofi.”
Aminah swallowed. “When you put it that way it sounds bad but... we aren’t even technically together.”
“Uh-huh. So then why are you pissed that he’s flirting with Zuri right now?”
Aminah’s face fell. “Oh shit.”
“Do you want to be with him or not?”
“Obviously!”
“Who is it obvious to?”
Aminah’s lips parted to speak but nothing came out. I moved closer to her, squeezed her arm. “MiMi, Kofi has always been straight up about his feelings for you. He probably thought you guys were getting closer to getting to be a thing and then, well, you kind of mugged him off. Tell the truth, you knew talking to Osi would make him a little jealous, right?”
Aminah shrugged. “Yeah, but that’s our thing! He chases, I tease.”
“So maybe he’s tired of chasing. Maybe he thinks that this is just a game to you.”
“We talk every day! I even made him a cup of tea once!”
I nodded. “Oh yeah. That time he came round with your favorite Chinese food because you were working late on some coursework and he knew you were running on fumes.”
Aminah stared at me. “Whose side are you even on?”
I laughed and grabbed her shoulders, shook her a little. “Yours. Always yours. And that includes not letting you get in your own way and helping you accept that shit doesn’t have to be complicated to be real. Like, you already know you want to be with him—why do you think there has to be work involved to validate it, you know?”
Aminah rubbed her temple. “Wow, I am sobering up quickly. I’m gonna need a Timbuktu tequila shot after this. I hear you. I really do. I just feel like if there’s no work involved then he won’t appreciate me enough. I see how my dad takes my mum for granted sometimes. You should hear how he speaks about her. I mean he loves her, don’t get me wrong, but he’s always like, ‘She’s safe, she’s reliable, I can always count on her, she keeps the home running.’ As if she’s some kind of generator, expending energy to keep everyone else running. But what about her energy? I just feel like if Kofi has to put work in, he’s more likely to, like, cherish me. I want to be cherished.”
“Meenz. Kofi is obsessed with you. And besides, you cherish yourself. I cherish you. And if it turns out that he doesn’t treat you how you should be treated then you have the option to bounce him out your life. And I’ll kill him.”
“Thank you.”
“But you have to at least try. You have to take the risk.”
Aminah sniffed and dabbed the corners of her eyes with the edges of her palms. Excessive alcohol made her extremely emotional. “Shit. You really are good at this.”
I grinned. “I know, right? Being in a fake relationship that turned into an ill-fated real relationship gave me true insight.”
Aminah burst out laughing, which I found a little rude since I wasdoing some really deep, introspective, emotional reflection and unpacking. “Um, what’s funny?”
