Co-Shared (2)

Kev would ask intentional questions about you, he never assumed he knew this detail or that, he would ask, and you'd readily divulge every detail because nobody had ever been that intentional about you.
You would name your first book "Infallible: a story about my father " and the fact that Kev loved your manuscript fuelled an urgency to publish the story.

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Weeks after the "Aunty smile now" episode, you found out croaky-voice was everywhere, the darling of everyone around. Kevin was his name, and he came often to your office to gist with Nimi, your colleague, during breaks and closing hours. Nimi is a stunning woman with a clean dark-skin that she wore with such a graceful gait, you could almost fall off a cliff watching her. Whenever Kevin came to your office, he made efforts to ensure you were a part of every conversation, and he would smile knowingly in your direction like he broke a code you both secretly shared.
Gradually, you both eased into a beautiful friendship and you would find out that Kev was the friend to have, one who was so deliberate about relationships. He set an alarm to remember to call his mom; he scheduled texts to send to Ada (his very cheeky girlfriend that you would later meet,) and a time-table of which friend to chat up which month. You once asked him why he was so deliberate and he told you he lost his father four years ago, and his biggest regret was that his father did not get to know how much he was loved and respected.
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Why is Kevin taking up all of your story? This is your story, Taina's story.
You forgot to call your mom today, and the thought of it leaves you unsettled, you want to hear her voice every day as though nothing else matters. Your mom is the most fearless woman you have ever met, you tell yourself that if you are ever half as strong as she is, you'll be fine all your life. She's the type of woman who takes on life with a fierce hopefulness, sometimes you find it alarming. People say you took after your mom’s fierceness, and you laugh because you think that is very incorrect; you are the most annoying coward you know, and you're so unlike Olubu, your mother. Last year, you almost lost your precious dad, you hate the memory of it all, your father accepting defeat, your mother talking in ways you had never heard before.
 Your life has been a grand sum of stories; the good, the bad, and the ugly, and you want to tell it all, maybe name it "Tatiana's Gala..."

TO BE CONTINUED...