I was stunned. Yewande. After how many years? I didn't know whether to hug her or just be casual, even though my heart was running laps in my chest. It was like a door to my past had been flung open. The last time I saw this girl was the day I invited her to my dad's birthday. I remembered the betrayal I felt that night; her voice over the phone when she called me to apologize during my service year and how I told her to never call me again. All that was more than five years ago and in one fell swoop, it all came back. All these thoughts flooded my mind for a few seconds before I came back to reality.
"Yewande..." I uttered.
"Dimeji...is it really you?" she said. Her eyes were wide as saucers. I didn't know whether to hug her or play cool. I decided on the latter in order not to betray my feelings.
"Yewande..." The armless, plunging V-neck African print jumpsuit she wore adorned her beautiful curves. A sharp glint of light reflected off the pendant of her necklace and drew my eyes to the inviting bulge of her smooth cleavage. A nice shade of red stained her wet lips. I felt my heart strings tug.
"I see you guys have met. You did not even wait to be introduced," I heard Iffy say as she walked up to where we stood near the table.
"Wait...you mean she's your friend you wanted to introduce me to?" I asked in disbelief.
"DJ is the guy you were telling me about?" Yewande asked almost at the same time.
Iffy looked confused. "Dimeji? Yes, he's the one I told you about. Do you know him?" She kept looking back and forth between the two of us.
"Of course, I know him..."
"Wait a minute, you said her name was Olaide..." I blurted.
"Yes, her name is Olaide," Iffy replied. I turned to Yewande, who just smiled back.
"How do you know her?"
"We attended the same university back home in Nigeria. I was...she was like a sister to me," I said.
"Ahh," Iffy replied, her head nodding up and down with suspicious interest etched all over her face, "well then, it makes things easier for me. I'll let you two catch up," she smiled and left. I turned to Yewande.
"Olaide?" I asked, confused. Then it clicked. Her names was Olaide. Her middle name. I just didn't remember because she seldom used it and everyone called her Yewande back home. I led her back to our table. I pull out a chair for her and she sat down ever so elegantly.
It was true. She oozed class. I won't lie, I was slightly intimidated. This was a different Yewande from the one I knew so many years ago. She looked entirely different. Her aura portrayed more sophistication and style. She seemed more mature. I was tempted several times in the course of the night to caress her glowing skin, but I controlled myself. I did not know how she would react to me. Those old feelings I had buried long ago started to resurface.
Finally, the party began to wind down. Very satisfied guests started to leave. Yewande...Olaide...informed me she was calling it a night. I saw her off to the car park where an Uber ride waited. I opened the door for her.
"It was nice seeing you again Yewande," I said.
She smiled, and memories flooded back again.
"It was nice seeing you again too Dimeji," she responded.
I hesitated, then gave her a small hug. I felt the slightest of tenseness from her. I quickly took a step back and she got in.
"I hope to see you again sometimes...maybe catch up over coffee?"
She stared at me for a moment. "Maybe," she responded. I closed the door and watched the glow of the tail-lights as the car drove out of the parking lot. It was only then did I realize that I hadn't asked for her number.
A couple of days later, Iffy called me at work, demanding to know how it went with Olaide...Yetunde, I mean. I told her it went quite well. She kept pushing for more information, but I told her nothing out of the ordinary happened. I just explained that I knew her way back in university, and she was just a younger sister to me. She then asked me what I thought about her. I told her she did describe her perfectly, and she would make a good girlfriend for someone, but sadly that person was not me. Iffy yelled and hollered at me over the phone, saying she could not believe what I was telling her. She was literally carving an easy path to the girl's heart for me, and here I was balking at the opportunity. I didn't want to tell her about everything that had happened between us in the past, so I told her I was sorry, but not interested. I did not want to dwell on those memories any more than I already had in the past day or two. For the first time, Iffy cursed me out.
In all honesty, Yewande was the last person I expected to reappear from my past, and it threw me off balance a bit I must admit. She still had that cute baby face, but she seemed much more beautiful, refined, and poised. At least, those were the few things I could decipher in the few hours we spent at the party. She really did not talk much, only telling me she had been in Canada for about a year and was about halfway through her graduate program. Iffy was her course mate and they hung out together either in her parents' house or mostly at her apartment. She did not tell me where she stayed, and I did not want to push for more information, being that we just met after such a long time.
The following weekend, Charles and I decided to play a round or two of tennis. We had this "bet" going on between us where we each bet a hundred dollars on a game of three. Whoever won two games would put the hundred dollars into the pot. At the end of the year, we would then share the combined amount equally, regardless of who put in more money. We had these games every other Saturday depending on our schedule. That Saturday, I drove over to his place to pick him up for the game. When I got to his door, tennis racket in hand and bag slung over my shoulder, he told me the girls were on their way. They wanted to join us in the game. I saw no problem with that arrangement.
About ten minutes later, we heard a car pull up outside and then a loud horn. I followed Charles out of the house and stopped briefly in my tracks. Behind the wheel of the gleaming Ford Explorer was Iffy. Sitting beside her in the passenger seat was none other than Yewande. Iffy yelled my name and waved frantically. I greeted her back, telling her she looked swell behind the wheel of her ride. I said hi to Yewande, and she responded with a smile and small nod. The two girls bundled themselves to the back and we guys took the front seats, with Charles driving.
We arrived at the club about an hour later. At first, we paired up with we boys against the girls. It was soon evident that they did not know how to play as much as we did. After a while, Iffy complained about us cheating, and suggested we paired up guy-girl. She switched places with me, and Yewande became my partner.
At first we lost two serves. Then I strictly began to target Iffy with the ball. Charles knew what I was trying to do, but each time Iffy, being the strong-headed girl she was, wanted to do it her way. I let Yewande have a go at her as well, and soon she began to loosen up and have fun. Each time she ran after the ball, I caught glimpse of her white boy shorts under the tennis skirt she had on. She moved elegantly, and after about an hour or so, we finally called it a game. Yewande and I had won by two games to one. She squealed in delight and gave me a hug, which caught me a bit by surprise. The way she jumped up and down as she hugged me, I almost saw that little girl of so many years ago. That brief body contact triggered my mind, and I wanted to hold her even closer. I quickly cleared my mind and dropped my hand which I realized I had rested on her lower back just above her skirt.
