As I lay in bed, Cheta entered the room and informed me that lunch was ready, with the kitchen as the messenger.
"I told them to bring it up to our room", Cheta said as he walked into the room,
"Why should we have lunch upstairs? We should eat downstairs," I said to him.
"Mom's not home, and I don't feel like going back downstairs," he said, as he sat down on the bed.
"Baby, are you sure this isn't about your sister?" I asked him.
"I just don't feel like having lunch downstairs. Please, stop making a big deal out of it," he replied
I decided to let it go as I wasn't ready to argue with Cheta. He climbed into bed with me and pulled me closer to himself.
"You know you still owe the gods", He whispered in my ear,
"I thought we had gone past that?", I said and laughed.
"No, we have not. Come here baby", he pulled me even closer to him, as I got closer to him, he held me and gently kissed me on the lips. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Cheta grumbled a little before getting up from the bed to answer it.
"Baby, lunch is here", he said, getting up from the bed,
"I'm coming. I'll join you", I said. Cheta walked out of the bedroom and I stretched before getting up from the bed.
Upon entering the living room, I discovered that lunch had been served in the dining area of Cheta's suite. Excited to partake in my favourite meal, I joined him at the table.
"Baby, did you tell them to make this?", as I served myself I asked Cheta.
"No, I have authority over the kitchen, it's mum that does", Cheta said,
"Okay, it's my favourite meal", I told him, as I sat down to eat,
"Yes, I know. Maybe it's Nneoma's doing, I don't know", he said, still eating.
I didn't say anything about it because I didn't want to get involved in Cheta's issue with his sister. I sat and enjoyed my meal, and I think I even overate. After finishing our lunch, we didn't return to the bedroom. Instead, we stayed in the living room and talked until we fell asleep. Cheta's mom had returned from her lunch with friends and went upstairs to her room to rest. Cheta and I went down for dinner and found his mom and sister Nneoma already at the table. After greeting them, I proceeded to eat dinner. The dining table was mostly quiet, except for Cheta's mom who was telling us about how her lunch with friends went.
After dinner with Cheta's mom and sister, we went upstairs feeling exhausted, so we went straight to bed. While we were cuddled up and almost falling asleep, Cheta told me that we would be going to his family church.
"Baby, we are going to church in the morning", he said, dozing off,
"Okay baby", I answered and dozed off.
Yes, I had packed a dress for church service because, in my house, it wasn't a normal thing to sit at home on a Sunday morning, so I knew that even if Cheta's mum wasn't a religious person, I was still going to make Cheta take me to church.
The next morning, Cheta got up early and woke me up to get ready for church. By 7:45 am, we were dressed and ready to have breakfast with Cheta's mother and Nneoma, so we went downstairs to join them. We left for church service after breakfast, church service was not the usual I was used to. Although I had attended a Catholic missionary university, I felt like a stranger at Cheta's family church, which was The Catholic Church. I realized that there were still many things about the church that I did not know. We greeted the Parish priest after the service and found him to be very welcoming. Although the Parish priest kindly offered us lunch, we had to decline politely, explaining that we were in a hurry. Upon arriving home, we noticed that lunch was being served at the dining table, but Cheta and I went straight to his room to change.
We were down for lunch and at the table, while we were having lunch, Cheta's mum said she was having some friends over for dinner that evening,
"What friends mum?", Cheta asked her,
"A few friends, you know them, Mrs Alex and Chief Mrs Mbah and someone from church..", she replied,
"Okay, do we have to get dressed?", Nneoma asks her mother,
"Just dressed for dinner, they are just here for dinner. Do you want anything special for dinner?", she asked us,
"I'm fine", I said,
"Me too..", Cheta said,
"Maybe they can add more options to the dessert menu, like cheesecake. I don't know.", Nneoma added,
"Okay, I'll talk to the head Chef.", she replied her,
"Thank you mum", Nneoma said,
During lunch, we discussed what to expect when Cheta's mother's friends arrived for dinner later that evening,
"You know how Mrs Alex used to always try to match-make you and her daughter, Ariel?", Nneoma asked,
"Why don't you know how to read the room? Why are so insensitive?", Cheta asks Nneoma, a little upset,
"What did I do now? I just asked a question.", Nneoma said,
"Cheta, it's fine, she was just trying to make conversation.", I said,
"Exactly. That's all I was doing", Nneoma said again,
"That's enough. We are going to finish lunch. Nneoma stop making Dinma uncomfortable, she is a guest here, my guest and you will make her feel comfortable", Cheta's mum said,
"I'm sorry mum. Dinma I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause any trouble", Nneoma said, looking at me.
Cheta grunts.
Following Nneoma's apology, everyone ate in silence. When we were done with lunch and I took my laptop to the poolside to write. I think I was feeling inspired at that time, I sat alone and I wrote, I just wanted to let everything out, I didn't even know when it got late, I had lost track of time. Cheta approached me at the poolside, gently touching my shoulder as if not to interrupt my writing.
"Are you okay, baby?", he asked me,
I turned back to look at him, "Yes baby, I was just really inspired to write", I told him,
"I woke up and didn't find you in bed, so I came down to look for you", he said, touching my neck,
"So you are saying you missed me?", I asked, smiling,
Cheta turned and faced me, then leaned down to kiss me.
"Baby, it's time to get ready for dinner", Cheta said, as he picked up my laptop,
"Yes, that's true, I almost forgot about that", I said.
I got up. Cheta and I walked back to his suite to get ready for dinner with his mother's friends. I picked out a colourful floral dress, and put my hair in a bun and a flat slipper, not that I'm bragging but I look very beautiful without any makeup on my face, so I didn't need to put on makeup, I only put on lip-gloss. I was using the new perfume I had gotten earlier that week when Cheta walked into the room after I had gotten dressed, all my boyfriend could do was whistle because he was speechless,
"I don't know what to say, except that I'm a very lucky man," Cheta remarked, holding me from behind,
"If you don't let me go, we might not make it to dinner", I said, smiling,
"You know this...and you smell so nice baby", he said, still holding me,
"Let's go Chetachukwu Chike", I said again,
"Okay, let's go, baby...", he said, letting go of my waist and taking my hand.
We walked out of the suite and downstairs to join the others for dinner. When we were walking down the stairs, Cheta took my hand and kissed my palm. The house was lit up, I think they had turned on all the lights in the house. Coming down the stairs I already heard one of Cheta's mum's friends asking where was and I heard his mum telling her that he was probably in his room and he would be down soon. We got downstairs and Cheta still holding my hand, we walked over to greet his mum's friends that were in the living room. Cheta introduced me to them as his girlfriend and I got to meet all of them including Mrs Alex, she even came with her daughter, Ariel, she didn't look soo bad but it was obvious Cheta didn't have eyes for her and Mrs Alex also looked disappointed finding out that I was Cheta's girlfriend. We sat in the living room and talked while we were waiting for the table to be set, the whole time Ariel was trying to get Cheta's attention but he was instead talking to me to get away from her, it was funny to watch. When the table was set, we all went over to the dining table, and honestly, it looked like it was a wedding buffet. After we sat down and started eating, Mrs Alex asked Cheta how we met, Cheta smiled, looked at me and narrated the story again, then he turned to me smiling and said,
"I love telling this story every time", he kissed my hand.
I saw Ariel and her mother eyeballing me. Dinner went on smoothly, then Cheta's mum added,
"Dinma is an actress and a writer", Cheta's mum said,
Chief Mrs Mba turned to me and asked me if I had written anything yet,
"Yes ma'am, I have written a series of scripts that have been in the cinema and on TV too", I told her.
"Yes, Dinma is working on a script for a film she wants to sell to Netflix, I was going through the proposal and it was beautifully put down", Cheta said, smiling like a proud boyfriend.
"That's good, I'll love to see the proposal too. I'm interested in investing too", Mrs Mba said.
"Thank you, ma'am, I'll send the proposal to you".
Then out of nowhere, Mrs Alex blurted out, "Ariel just started a cosmetic line", everyone turned to look at her, wondering why we needed that information,
"I'm sorry but will this not be the 7th or 10th time Ariel is starting up a new business and it always fails?", Nneoma asked Ariel and her mother,
"I think it's the 8th one now but who knows it might not be a total failure like the others", Cheta added.
I had to pinch Cheta a little for saying that, I felt bad for Mrs Mba, she only wanted the best for her daughter who was probably just a spoilt brat. After dinner, the older women moved to the living room to continue their usual gossip, and then Cheta and I snuck away to the poolside to get away from every other person. We just sat at the pool, holding each other and listening to our heartbeats. 'We are a little corny sometimes'. We were so lost that we didn't even know when Nneoma walked to the pool.
"So this is where you both disappeared to and left me with Ariel", Nneoma said.
We laughed.
"I didn't have the strength to have another forced conversation, so I dragged Dinma out here. Where is she now?", Cheta asked her.
"I left her in the living room, told her I was going to get something", She said.
Then Nneoma turned to me and said, "Dinma, I owe you an apology, I'm sorry for bullying you, I don't know I just can't help it, it just happens, even my friends are tired of me but I'm working on being better.", she said to me,
"It's fine, I have tough skin".
Then she turned to Cheta and said, "You know I started going to therapy.". Then she went to tell us how therapy was going. We talked for another 30 minutes and then we went back into the house. When we got in the house, Ariel and her mum were leaving, so we bade them goodbye and said we were going to bed because it was already getting late. We went in and after a night bath, I fell asleep in Cheta's arms, I was exhausted from the activities of the day. But it was a good day for me.