Shout-Out to my Ex [✓]

Seven

Cover art by Kehinde Owoeye

"Hey, girl" Uzo called in a sing-song voice as she stepped into Tilewa's office.

"Oh my God! Uzo!" Tilewa squealed excitedly, jumping from her seat and bolting into her friends waiting arms. "What are you doing here?"

"Surprising you" her friend beamed looking down at her.

"My God!" Tilewa gushed in excitement as she went back to her seat. Uzo sat across from her.

"So," Uzo started, with a comical look. "Eno and I planned to surprise you."

"Eno? Where is Eno?" Tilewa said, attempting to stand up and craning her neck to see if their notoriously mischievous friend was lurking in the passageway waiting to prank her.

"Relax, she went to pick Emmanuella from the daycare. She'll drop her off with her dad before she comes, don't worry. And yeah, we'll be spending the weekend at your place."

Tilewa smiled as the image of her close friend's adorable 2-year-old daughter popped in her mind. Eno, Uzo and Tilewa had been friends during their university days. The three of them had been thick as thieves and once you saw one it was clear that the two others were nearby. Uzo had always been quite the guy-magnet, with her 5'11 frame, curvy body, full lips and ebony skin while Eno was the mother hen of the pack, was an inch taller than Tilewa with yellow butterscotch skin; she had added some weight after delivering her first and only child and was now thicker than she was back in the day.

Even after leaving school, they had maintained their bond, however working-class life and all its rigours added to everyone's busy schedule and had caused their relationship to be over calls and texts alone for the past 3 months. The last time Tilewa had seen them was when she and Jerry had hung out with their whole squad two weeks after he proposed.

Tilewa reminisced that fateful day at the water park. It had been going pretty well up till it was time for lunch. Uzo and Jerry had started arguing and arguing until they ruined the mood and the appetites of everyone present.

Unfortunately, when paired up with her friends, especially Uzo, Jerry was never himself. In fact, he always made it a point of duty to expressly air his dislike for Uzo whenever Tilewa brought up any issue about her. Whenever they linked up, both of them always seemed to get into one argument or the other and Jerry who was as stubborn as a brick wall, never, ever, conceded. Sometimes even when he was wrong, he would justify his position with fallible logic and Tilewa always ended up serving as a mediator between him and Uzo. Uzo was twice as stubborn. She was a lawyer and always loved to school him from an intellectual viewpoint. Jerry was fully aware of this fact and never let himself be beaten. He pushed every argument to the end, never accepting Uzo's viewpoint and whenever they were done, everyone was always worn out.

"You're thinking about him ba?"

Tilewa gave a sad smile in response.

"C'mon, let's get out of here. Tell Sinclair you're clocking out early," Uzo urged.

That was another thing about Uzo. She could compel a fish out of the water if she wanted to. She had this convincing and encouraging nature that made people do things they would rather not do and she was extremely good at it. After bidding farewell to Sinclair, both ladies made their way out and were off to Tilewa's place at Surulere. playing a game of 'remember when?'

"Do you remember that time when I made you and Eno come with me to Iya Sade's pepper soup spot?" Uzo asked, laughing at the memory.

Tilewa cringed in recollection. They had moved from pepper soup to small stout and had gotten really wasted that night. Although the memory was a blur in Tilewa's head, Uzo had been sure to feel them in on the blanks and was always willing to narrate how much they made fools of themselves on that fateful night.