The Ugly First Date

It’s pouring, in torrents. She is standing at the edge of a boda boda shed where some of the raindrops are flashing on her second hand ankle leather boots she had obtained from the busy Nairobi streets one evening. She was not prepared for the rains that afternoon because it had been sunny all morning; it had taken her by surprise. Her recently blow-dried hair is dripping wet from the unkind showers that have been washing her up all the way from the matatu stage where she had alighted. She could have used a nylon paper bag to cover her precious natural African hair but that would leave her in a prison for four years if caught using one since the nylon paper bags had been banned for the last one month, furthermore she is usually a good girl, a law abiding citizen.

Malinda is already late for her date. She is finally going on a real date. Her studies had kept her busy, she barely had time for herself leave alone for the boys in her class who had been wooing her since the first year. Human medicine is one of the toughest courses (at least I hear so) that ever existed and only a few students get to graduate with a pass. Malinda was exceptional coz she had never failed even a single unit, she scored As and a few Bs once in a while. She was some sort of a genius and her classmates respected her. Her life revolved around class, her hostel room, library and church, occasionally coz she wasn’t much of a believer. Well, she believed there was some sort of mighty force up there that was holding things together on earth so that we wouldn’t be having human beings marrying animals but she never wanted to dig deeper. All she wanted was to be a doctor, which she is now.

This guy she had met at a conference she had attended in Rwanda was supposed to pick her up at exactly 2pm at the Junction. The guy was wealthy, and am talking Chris Kirubi wealthy. He didn’t have the looks but boy, his wallet was fat. He was Kenyan but he had established an empire in Rwanda. He was one of the established international business men in the country. Malinda had just graduated and was hunting for a job. She couldn’t afford rent and so she cohabited with her friends in a some small town around Kona. So, it’s already 2:30 and she is not at the place they were supposed to meet, coz the rains had derailed her. From the boda boda shed where she is taking a shelter, it will take her at most 30mins to the place she is to be picked. Ryan had offered to pick Malinda from her door step but she objected owing to the fact that the road leading to her place was rough and vehicles couldn’t pass there. Well, that was half way true but the main reason she didn’t want to be picked up by Ryan was because he was a little bit older for her and she feared the reaction from the “community”. She was 23 and Ryan was in his mid-30s (still single, lol).

Malinda is one of those beautiful women that you pass by in the streets and you feel compelled to just turn and take a second look just to confirm that she was real. Even without make up, which she neither put on nor knew how to, she was stunning. She was just a natural beauty. She did not need the fake eye lashes or the stick-on nails to make her feel better about herself. She was proud of how God had created her. Her dimples and her perfect smile climaxed it all. When she talked, even the birds of the air would marvel at her voice. Her English was well polished; she was a royal diadem, a princess in the kingdom only preserving herself for the future king to be.

The rain had already faded and she can finally continue with her journey to go meet Mr. Ryan. She takes the first bus that stops and is heading to Junction. She sits next to a ‘physically’ blessed woman who had occupied the whole of her seat and half of Malinda’s. Malinda doesn’t mind since she’s already late and she can’t risk waiting for another bus. She digs into her Gucci hand bag a friend of hers had given her as a present during her 21^st birthday, and gets her phone only to see 5missed calls and one message from Ryan..Hey, gorgeous, where are you at?… ‘am almost there’, she texts back. She doesn’t get a feedback and that doesn’t bother her. After all she is the one who is on the wrong here so she can’t complain much. She decides to at least fix her hair before she arrives. She takes out an afro comb and starts combing her dumb and somehow smelly hair. As she does that some of the droplets lands on a lady opposite her who in turn gives her a ‘ do that again and you will know who I am’ kind of a look. She doesn’t mind the lady either and she manages to fix her hair, it is not as good as it was but it is ok…she will explain everything to Ryan when they finally meet.

She finally arrives and it doesn’t take her long to notice Ryan who is standing across the street. He is wearing a new hugo boss coat, some ocean blue slim fit jeans that looked quite expensive and a cologne that could be smelled miles away. Ryan was leaning against his newly acquired Lamborghini, with a sexy smile and one would have thought he was a model posing for the new edition of celebrity magazine. Malinda on the other hand was slaying in a knee length, circular Ankara skirt and a fitting short sleeved, dark grey shiphon blouse that matched some of the floral patterns on her skirt. She had buttoned her blouse up to her bust leaving room for imagination. The three inch ankle boots she had won made her a little bit taller adding some charm in her walking style. Her hair was bouncing against her young glorious shoulders as she made her way across the street to meet her date.

Ryan met Malinda with open arms, you would have thought he was waiting to hug his whole family. They embraced with their chests closely tight and they could feel each other’s heartbeat that lasted for about 20 seconds but seemed as eternity especially to our young lady who was not used to ‘these kind of stuff’.  ‘You are stunning, and beautiful, I can’t get my eyes off you’ says Ryan while holding both of her arms. ‘I ..i..umm, thank you…Ryan, and am sorry for keeping you’..she stumbles. It’s nothing, you are worth waiting for even for eternity sweetheart’, he says as he opens car door for her. Ryan is such a gentleman, his mother had taught him well, if not his mother then the world, the best teacher as they say.

Malinda had never seen anything like this in her entire 23 years under the sun. She was about to dine in a five star hotel, one of the best in the city. The place was beautiful for the lack of another term to express what her eyes were experiencing. She knew this guy was rich but she had not expected him to treat her in such a way. So they finished eating their meal at round 7 pm.

Time had flown so easily, they had spent adequate time knowing each other and so their conversation was full of queries as it happens in most first dates. The more they talked, the more they felt connected and the more their eye contact was consistent. They would pose and look at each other deep in the eye without many blinks and it seemed as if their eyes had invented some sort of a language only their hearts would understand.

Malinda had always believed in love at first sight but her friends always debated about the same. She is the kind of a girl who when she believes something, it was hard for one to make her believe otherwise. So, she liked Ryan for the first time she saw him and she was thrilled when he had approached her and commenced a conversation during a cocktail party on the last day of the conference where they had met. She was even more convinced that this guy was into her when he asked for her number and later on followed her up with texts and late night calls which lasted for hours.  Time passed and before they knew it, it was 9 o’clock.

Ryan offered to take her home but before then they would stop at his place for a few drinks. Malinda had already developed some trust with this guy and so she did not object and so off they went. Ryan did not live far from where they were and it only took them 20mins to his place since there was no traffic at that time of the night. He had a house in Nairobi where he would stay when he came to Kenya for business trip or when he visited his parents who were up country. The house was huge and it did not betray his sense of class. He always had an elderly woman who stayed there just to make sure the house did not attract uninvited guests.

He rings the door bell and the old Mrs. Lawrence comes to answer, she is a kind sweet lady and she jumps over Ryan to give him a warm welcome hug as if he was her own son. She immediately sees Malinda and you couldn’t deny the change of  her facial expression which meant she either didn’t like Malinda or she knew how things would end with these two love birds. As soon as they settle down on a comfortable couch that faces the fire place that seems to have never been used, Mrs. Lawrence leaves as it is her custom whenever Ryan comes in the house.

Ryan takes off his coat and hangs it on a coat hanger that is on the corridor as Malinda enjoys the beauty of the art wall hangings around the living room. Without saying a word, Ryan moves to the fire place to light a fire as Malinda watches and smiles at him once in a while and Ryan would in turn wink at her. When the fire is finally blazing, he goes to his in house bar counter and comes with two glasses half full of Roodeburg wine. He hands her one of the glasses as he carefully sits next to her. They are now so close that their bodies are touching and Malinda could not resist the sparkles of the chemistry that had developed between them. She takes the first sip of the drink and nods to Ryan in a suggestive way. Not that she is an expert wine kind of a girl but whatever she just tasted was good and refreshing. Ryan moves closer to her and their lips are now touching and they can smell each other’s breathe which they didn’t mind at all. in a few moments, she starts to feel woozy, she is now experiencing lightheadedness, but she fights it, she is a fighter and she is now struggling to stay awake but not for so long. She finally falls into his arms in surrender.

Malinda was woken up by a cold ocean breeze and the sound of young girls and boys playing childish games while chanting loudly on the beach. She struggles to open her eyes which are so painful, her head is banging with headache and is as heavy as a bag of sand. She finally manages to open her eyes and the strong day light almost sends her into permanent blindness. She is lying prostrate on her belly and she is in a white, transparent mini dress that barely covers her boobs. She has no shoes on, no hand bag, her hair is all over the place and full of the beach sand. She manages to rollover and sits down. She feels some warm liquid flowing along her backside of the neck. She forces her painful arm and she traces the flow at the back of her neck only to find out she had been hit and blood was oozing out uncontrollably. She can’t get what is happening to her now. She starts freaking out. Where is she? What has happened to her? Has she been kidnapped only to be left at the middle of nowhere?  Where is the Ryan guy? And above all, why her?

This is just the beginning. Subscribe and leave a comment. <3<3<3<3<3

 

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