Cheta's mum was so beautiful, if I didn't see the resemblance, I would have thought that Cheta had brought me to his sugar mummy's house. She was light-skinned, tall, and skinny, like her son, and she has a very beautiful pointed nose, Cheta looked a lot like his mum, he just didn't have her complexion. I got up to greet her and she hugged me like she had known for a long time (She was a hugger like her son) We sat down after she asked me if I wanted anything, I told her I was fine with the water because we had eaten breakfast before coming to the house, she turned to Cheta and asked why he would do that,
He said, "I didn't want to disturb you, mum".
"Don't mind him, I wouldn't have minded.", she turned back to me and said.
I smiled and apologized on our behalf.
"I like her.", she said to Cheta, smiling.
I could see Cheta grinning from ear to ear like a proud boyfriend. For the next 3 hours, we were chatting with Cheta's mum, or more or less I was chatting with Cheta's mum, and he was looking at us, smiling. We talked about everything, from Politics to Fashion to Media and when she found out that I was a writer and an actor, she promised to speak to her friend who was in the film industry on my behalf. She insisted we stayed for lunch, she had already instructed the chef to make something, and when it was time for lunch, we went to the dining room and there was a spread on the table that could feed 10 people.
While we were having lunch, she turned to me and said, "I always look forward to having people over at the house, it's only me most of the time, Cheta only comes to see me during the weekends, and his sisters. They have refused to visit Nigeria since their father was laid to rest."
"But mum you know you can always go and spend some time in the States", Cheta said to her.
"Do I always have to go and see them? And what's your excuse?", she replied.
We laughed and continued eating our lunch.
After lunch, we moved back to the living room and continued our conversation, this time she was asking the questions and I was answering, she asked me what state I was from, she asked about my family and when she heard I had lost my dad 6 years ago, she was so nice to me,
"I'm so sorry. How have you been? I know it hasn't been easy without him.", she said,
I smiled at her with tears in my eyes. Yes, I'm still emotional about losing my dad.
"I'm fine, It's difficult sometimes but I continue living that's what he would want.", I said.
Cheta held my hand to comfort me.
She asked me again, "How's your mum?"
"She is fine.", I answered.
We then moved to talk about other things.
Then we noticed she had started feeling sleepy but she didn't look like she was going to take a nap, it was Cheta that noticed how tired she was and said something about it,
"Mum, you should take a nap, you look exhausted", Cheta said to her,
"I'm fine, I'm not very sleepy. I know if I go to take a nap, you will leave with Dinma", she responded,
"I'll wait till you are up from your nap, Ma", I said to her.
It was only after that, that she agreed to go and lie down for a nap.
After she went up, Cheta turned to me and asked me how I was doing. That was the first time, he was asking me that since we got into the house but now and then he would hold my hand, not like I needed it or anything.
I smiled and said, "I'm fine, I like your mum".
"I told you, you would. Do you want to take a nap or do something else?", He asked me,
I said, "A tour maybe?"
"Okay, we should start outside the house", Cheta said.
We stepped out of the house and started the tour through the house, I'm not exaggerating when I say, it took us about an hour to go around the house, I mean there's a staff quarter at the back of the main building, and it had almost 20 rooms, I don't even want to talk about how many rooms were in the main building, but by the time we were done going round the house, I was exhausted and was ready to lie down. Cheta suggested we went to his suite, which we did, his suite had a living room and a very big bedroom as it should have, but we stayed in the living room and tried to watch a movie and instead fell asleep halfway through the movie, we only woke up when the intercom in his room started ringing.
The housekeeper was calling to tell us that dinner was ready, and Cheta's mum wanted us to join her in the dining area.
We got downstairs and Cheta's mum was already eating her dinner,
"I'm sorry I couldn't wait, I woke up very hungry.". she said to us.
Cheta pulled out a chair for me.
"That's fine mum", Cheta said.
"I see that I wasn't the only tired this afternoon.", she said,
"I took Nma on a tour of the house, and by the time we were done, we were both tired.", Cheta said.
She turned to me and said, "Nma, I hope you are not allergic to fish, I forgot the kitchen was making fish pepper soup for dinner but they can make something else for you"
I smiled and said, "It's fine ma, I'm not allergic and I love fish too".
"Oh! Thank God.", she said.
We continued eating dinner.
After dinner, we sat in the living room, drinking wine and chatting, then at about 8.00 pm, Cheta said we had to leave, she wanted us to stay longer but Cheta told her we had to get up early for church the next morning.
She turned to me and said, "You have to come and see me again, I'm sure you will make him come with you".
"I will ma'am, I promise", I said.
We got up and walked out of the house together and when we got to the car, she hugged me, and I thanked her for having me at her house for the day.
She said, "No, thank you for coming, I had a fun-filled day, I can't remember the last time I had people over at the house".
We got in the car and drove out of Cheta's family house, then I noticed that he took my hand and he was smiling as we drove out of the house. I could tell that Cheta was so happy and satisfied about the day we had with his mum at the house.
I turned to my smiling boyfriend and said, "Your mum is very cool and she is so beautiful".
"But I told you she was but you were bothering yourself about nothing in particular", he said.
I laughed and said, "Well, you won't blame me, I watched a lot of Nollywood films growing up and they have sort of shaped my mind on what mothers-in-law are like".
We both laughed.
We drove in silence for about 15 minutes and Cheta took my hand and kissed it and said, "Nma, I know you said it's too early for me to say that I love you but I do, I know how I feel and this is not infatuation."
At this point, I was almost tearing up. Yes, I'm an emotional wreck.
I turned to him and said, "Cheta, I'm scared. I don't want this to get messed up.".
"I know I can't promise you that it's going to be rosy but I can promise you one thing, I'm going to work at being the best man for you.", he said to me.
Now I was the one holding Cheta's hand so tight.
"I won't break your heart baby. I promise.", he added.
I turned to look at Cheta and kissed my wrist again. The rest of the drive home took almost an hour because of the traffic, we listened to the Nigerian afrobeat that was playing from his playlist but we didn't say anything more, I'm sure we both had a lot to think about. When we got to my house, Cheta got out of the car and opened the door for me (I mean that's a normal thing for him to do), he hugged me and told me he would call me when he got home. I went up to my apartment excited and confused at the same time but it was time to do something about all of this. Probably time to take things seriously. What do you think?
#firstmeeting #contemporary #romance #themom #love #nottheusuallovestory #lovestory #boymeetsgirl