THREE

September 10,2020

M.J landed in Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Nigeria at about 4:30GMT. The arrival procedure was pretty standard. She retrieved her luggage in the baggage claim  and headed to the customs clearance area. The customs officer was an overzealous man, he checked every single bag. She managed to flash him a smile after the check was done. She rolled her trolley towards a phone booth and called herself a cab. No one had come to pick her up, she had no one, not since the accident. She took in the atmosphere around her, Nigeria had changed since she last remembered. The sun bit down on her skin and she knew Clara had been right, she should have used some sunscreen. She ran through her purse and took out her sunglasses. She decided to go have a cold drink while she waited for her cab to arrive. She watched families reunite at the arrival section and she could not but ache at her loneliness. She found a booth in a café and ordered a chilled glass of margarita.
It amused her that she had chased success for so long hoping it would fill the huge void that she always had in her heart and now that she was actually very successful, it was still there. That void, always tugging at her heart. M.J was by all means a successful woman, she owned an international event planning business and was a very successful blogger. She blogged on family, health and lifestyle mostly. Her net worth was huge, very much so in fact. She had to get a new phone, she mentally checked off her to-do list as she sipped some of her margarita. She wondered what Henri was doing right now. Henri was her French boyfriend, well ex-boyfriend and almost fiance. They had met when M.J moved to New York. She met him while taking some culinary classes at an institute in Manhattan. She had some problems with the caterers that worked under her, when they were not buying substandard ingredients, they were making bad food. She had decided to take the culinary class and even if she had to make the food for the events she planned herself, she didn’t mind but by God, her clients were going to get the best service there was to offer.
She attended the class with her friend Clara. Clara wanted to spice up her cuisine and maybe come up with a few recipes for use at home for her husband, Mark. She was unlike Clara in so many ways, driven, ambitious, not the settling type and sometimes she wondered how they became friends in the first place. They took their place at one of the tables in the room along with about 30 other students. Spread in front of them were several ingredients for French cuisine. There was fennel, fleur de sel, lavender, marjoram, rosemary, sage, tarragon and a fleet of ingredients that she could not identify. She engaged in small talk with Clara and some of the other students while they waited for their teacher.
When a hush fell in the class, she knew that the teacher had walked in. She turned around and came face to face with Henri. He was very attractive, heck he looked like he belonged on the cover of a GQ magazine. He was about 6’3 with jet black hair styled in a way that made him look like he just rolled out of bed. She wondered if he had actually just rolled out of bed and if there had been a woman with him in that bed. She frowned at the thought of that. She watched him roll up the sleeve of his perfectly fitted shirt. He was muscular, not in the over the top way like a body builder but he was definitely a man who kept in shape. He had an exotic look that was non-american. She figured he was Italian or Spanish or something like that. Well, she was close to the truth. It was not until he spoke that she knew he was French. “Hi, everyone, J’mappelle Henri”, he said in a thick accent drawing her out of her growing wanton thoughts.
She looked up to find him staring at her and she could feel herself blush except she was black and couldn’t exactly in the real sense of it, blush. The attraction was instant. He had everyone introduce themselves and when it was her turn, he walked up to her in four long strides. “And you, belle?” My name is Moje, she told him. She chuckled as he rolled the name on his tongue trying to figure out a way to pronounce it correctly. She could feel eyes burning a hole through her dress from the room. She didn’t blame the women, if Henri was talking seductively to some other woman the way he was right now, she would probably have scratched her eyes out. Everything went pretty fast from there.
After the class, he offered to take her out to dinner sometime. They exchanged numbers much to Clara’s delight. They started dating a few weeks later. Their relationship was filled with passion, Henri loved her and he never missed out on her opportunity to show her, to show the world. He took her to the Anne Frank Center one time. She had been so engrossed in the exhibitions and the tour guide’s description of the special events in the life of Anne Frank up until her death that she didn’t notice Henri had been staring at her the whole time. Suddenly like a man possessed, he scooped her up and twirled her around. “Je t’aime completement”, “I love you completely Moje, he shouted pronouncing her name incorrectly but she didn’t mind. She just laughed as he kept saying the words over and over. They were led out of the gallery by the security guards a few minutes after. They both laughed uncontrollably for a long time before he kissed her. She kissed him back with the same force he had kissed her. He loved her and she loved him back.
Henri proposed to her after two years together. It was a proposal every girl dreamed of. Henri had rented a beautiful yacht, invited a couple of friends over for the intimate proposal. He called her that night while she finished up some plans for a client’s wedding. He told her he had a surprise for her and he would pick her up by 7pm. “Wear something fancy ma mie, he said. She loved it when he called her that. M.J styled her afro hair and decided to wear her red strapless bodycon topped off with gold heels.
“Damn, you are beautiful ma mie” he said to her later that day when he came to pick her up. He had her blindfolded as he led her to the yacht. When she couldn’t walk properly in her heels, he carried her, only setting her down when they got to the yacht. He removed her blindfold and the sight that greeted her was so beautiful, she thought she was in heaven. Several white roses led up the yacht. The yacht had been designed in African prints so beautiful in the light that she wanted to kiss him senseless for his thoughtfulness. Their friends stood at the end of the yacht, champagne in their glasses while 2face’s ‘african queen’ played in the background. Henri got down on one knee and only then did realization dawn on her.
“Ma mie” he began, “when I saw you that day in my class wearing that infamous blue dress, I knew I wanted you to be ma belle. You are happiness and happiness is you, there is no one else I would rather spend my life with… At this point, she started crying and they weren’t tears of joy. She knew she couldn’t marry him, she couldn’t start a life with him if she didn’t settle her past. “Ma mie, why are you crying?” he stood up as he kissed away her tears. “Henri…I can’t…I can’t marry you.” she could hardly get the words out. “Is this too much? ma mie I love you”, he said, breaking her heart. At this point, everyone had somehow disappeared to give them some privacy.
“I’m moving back to Nigeria” she said unable to look him in the eye. She ran from him then. That night she cried herself to sleep.
She drew herself out of her thoughts as a uniformed man informed her that her cab was ready. The driver helped put her luggage in the trunk of the car. As they drove into the city, M.J let the breeze welcome her to the land that had given her so little and yet taken so much from her.

Author's note*
In my mind, Zoe Saldana is M. J and Oliver Martinez is Henri.  This is a very special book to me so pretty please vote and make your comments. They are very much welcome. Thanks wattpadders😚