She Left Me When I Stopped Driving Her Around
Back in 2022, I relocated from Takoradi to Kumasi for work. While in Kumasi, a colleague of mine took a keen interest in me and asked if I was dating. I told him no, and he said he had noticed that I was a decent guy. “A man like you deserves a good woman,” he said with an excited smile on his face. I agreed with him and joked, “Well, do you know any good woman who is single and looking for a man like me?”......CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE>>>>>
We all laughed, and then with a serious expression he said, “Yes, that’s why we are having this talk. I know a young woman who will be perfect for you. You will like her, trust me.”
He was right. I liked her from the very moment I spoke to her. At the time, she was in school while studying as a part-time teacher at a private school. During those early conversations, she opened up to me about all the ways she had been hurt by men in the past. One of the men was in the military while the other one was an Assemblyman.
“I am afraid to love again after my experience with these men. So if I am going to give you a chance, I need to know that you won’t leave me the way those other men did.”
I assured her that I was going nowhere. “I am not just looking for a girlfriend, Nana Akua. I want to settle down. So if you are ready, we can study each other for marriage.”
She said she was ready. I was happy to hear that because I was more than ready to take that step.
It took a while before I went to her place for the first time. Honestly, I expected to live in a “hencoop” considering she was a student. Besides, she always referred to her place as a hostel. When I finally went there I was taken aback by what I saw.
She had a semi-furnished apartment a single-room apartment on her own. In there were two wardrobes. One was full of good clothing, and another was filled with shoes and bags. Her kitchen was a whole vibe. She had a coffee maker, a double-door fridge with a dispenser, a microwave, huge cooking utensils, a small dining set, a stove, and more. She also had a 32-inch TV.
The first thought that came to mind when I saw the room was, “She must be from a wealthy family to live like this as a student.”
I asked her a lot of questions and found out that her mother has a small farm at Sefwi, and her father was barely in the picture. “once in a while my mother helps me with the bills, but most of the time I hustle to put myself through school and pay my rent.”
Considering her financial situation, I was concerned that she lived more luxuriously than the average student. When I asked her about it, she said she had bought many of the items while dating the Assemblyman because they were close to getting married. That explanation made sense, but I still wasn’t fully convinced.
Above her TV, I noticed two portraits—one of her and another of a fair-skinned man. When I asked who he was, she said he was her “spiritual father” who lived abroad. But the way the portraits were hung side by side didn’t resemble a pastor-daughter relationship. The man didn’t even look like a pastor. Still, I let it slide.
After the first visit, I started going there when I was on night shifts. I don’t own a car but I use the company car when I am on duty. So I would drive there bearing gifts. Those were beautiful moments.
I remember one Christmas when she told me she was craving fufu with chicken soup. She asked me to send her money to buy a live chicken. The amount she quoted was a bit much but I didn’t complain. I had tasted her food and I knew she was an excellent cook. That was all that mattered. I told myself I had found a good wife in the making, especially, knowing the kind of delicacies she could whip up.
However, as time went on I started seeing her for who she truly was. I noticed she had a strong preference for men with cars. She liked to call me at odd hours to pick her up from a place, or take her somewhere to do stuff. It didn’t matter if the timing was an inconvenience for me.
During another Christmas season, her siblings visited her from out of town. That year, my company gave us our Christmas allocation. I gave her half of what I received—a 5kg bag of rice, a litre of oil, five cans of sardines, five cans of tomato paste, three cans of Exeter corned beef, packs of drinks, and bottled water.
She kept saying, “Thank you so much. You know how these kids are going through my food as if it doesn’t cost money to buy them.”
However, her attitude changed when I stopped using the company car to run favours for her. I remember one evening she asked me to take her and her siblings to the mall. I wasn’t on duty that night, meaning I had no access to the company car. When I declined, she was visibly upset.
As the days went by, I had less access to the car so I could no longer use it to pick her up or do stuff for her. This woman started withdrawing from me at this point. Eventually, she bluntly told me she was no longer interested in the relationship, and asked me to leave her alone.
I was disappointed, but what could have I done? I had to count my losses and move on.
Two years passed in silence. Then during Christmas of the second year, she had a conversation with my friend’s wife. The same friend who introduced us. She admitted she made a huge mistake letting me go. This realization came when my friend sent his wife the annual allocation we receive at work. Seeing the volume of goodies, she started reminiscing how well I treated her. Thus, her regret set in.
My friend relayed the message to me, and I felt I should give her another chance. The moment I reached out to her, she responded. There was no awkwardness or discomfort. We fell right back into old patterns and picked up where we left off.
I thought she had changed, but she hadn’t. She continued asking for favours because of where I worked. I too was so blinded by love that I gave in to some of her demands.
By then, she had relocated to a bigger apartment, completed school, and started her national service.
Coincidentally, she was in the same building as my friend and three other colleagues from work. I didn’t tell her this though.
One day, we went on a date, and I asked her; “Why did you leave me hanging the way you did two years ago?”
“I am sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you but I met a guy online who lived abroad. And I started a relationship with him. It’s all over now though. That guy nearly ruined my life,” she confessed.
I appreciated her honesty while wondering if that relationship was responsible for her new and expensive apartment. I noticed that her possessions had almost tripled. She now had three wardrobes, a new bed, and several other additions.
One evening, I arrived at work earlier than I should have. So I stood by the entrance, talking with colleagues who had just finished their night shifts. That was when I saw her in the front seat of a Benz, at exactly 6:07 a.m.
Our eyes met. She saw that I had seen her.
Silent Beads, it’s been seven months since that incident, and she has never called or texted me. This was someone who used to text me every morning to check up on me.
After that encounter, my colleagues who lived in her building finally opened up. They told me she had been hosting other men in her apartment all along. “We kept quiet because we didn’t want to be snitches.”
Looking back, the signs were there but I was just too slow to see them. What I don’t understand is why a woman who complained bitterly that men always left her would jerk around a man who was ready to marry her.
– Michael