The sun streamed into the room, hitting Japheth squarely on his face. Since when did the sun get to his bedroom so brilliantly? Then he felt it – no, her. He felt her weight in his side, where he had tucked her to sleep the previous night. Ah, Japheth sighed and closed his eyes again, last night. He had no words to describe last night. Jasmine was a phenomenal woman. The things she did he had never imagined them possible with any woman. And of all the impossible things that happened, he had spent the night!
Just then, he felt the vibration of his phone. What he saw on the screen made him wince: one call and message each missed. From the same contact. That was disastrous. As if it wasn’t enough, a call came through from that same contact. He glanced wistfully at Jasmine sleeping by his side. Slowly, he extricated himself and headed to her bathroom where he answered the call.
“Where have you been, Japheth?” No ‘Good morning’. Straight GPS location. Japheth sighed.
“Good morning to you, too. I slept over at a friend’s house. Why?” Japheth asked a bit too impatiently.
“Japheth!” the caller shrieked. “You won’t speak that way to me. We need to discuss our engagement plans soon. The date is drawing…”
Japheth groaned audibly. That engagement. No, it wasn’t a grand ceremony: he was just meeting her parents. By ‘her’, he meant Rietta, the girl he’d been dating only a few months. “I’ll see you soon, Rietta.”
“Be more romantic, my love.”
Japheth closed his eyes and whispered, as if under duress, “My love.” He heard soft scuffles and ended the call. When he got to the hall where Jasmine had been sleeping, he found her awake and was packing up the clothes they had strewn around. How long had she been awake? Did she hear any of the conversation? How much of anything should he explain? Before he could say anything, Jasmine declared, “There’s a spare toothbrush in the bathroom. You may freshen up now, or you may leave.” She didn’t look at his face.
Instantly, Japheth began to feel guilty. He tried to grab her but she moved quickly away. “Jasmine…”, he ventured.
“What?” she shot back. “What are you going to say to me now? That you’ll marry me now?”
Japheth was speechless. But… “Jasmine, wait. Let’s not make it too personal here. We’ve known each other for five years. We’ve had this attraction for each other for a while. We’re two consensual adults. Yesterday we had amazing sex. What wrong have I done?”
Jasmine stared at him like he had just said the great Buddha was a Chinese communist. Finally, she exhaled as if she had given up. “Just go, okay? Last night didn’t mean anything.”
“At least let me explain…”
“Is it relevant? Don’t touch me. Just go.” As he made to leave, Jasmine whispered, “After last night…” and whimpered. Japheth tried again, “Jas… it’s not what you think.” Jasmine just shook her head and stood aside to let him dress up and leave. It was already difficult as it was.
Without saying any word to her, Japheth dressed up and exited his newfound love nest. His stay had been shorter than he anticipated.
An hour later, he was at Rietta’s residence. She welcomed him with a cold stare. After the night he spent with Jasmine, he had begun to wonder exactly what he saw in Rietta. She was the exact opposite of Jasmine: whereas Jasmine was warm and giving, compassionate and selfless, and willing to listen to him, Rietta was frigid in all the senses of the word, even in bed. Japheth shook his head. The charade must end soon.
Japheth did not take a seat. He had a relationship to build. “Rietta…” That was as far as he could go. Rietta literally slammed into him and they landed on the love seat in her hall. She began kissing him viciously, biting and pulling his lower lip. The stark reminder of where he had just come from made him to gently disengage from Rietta in spite of the rising response: he was a man after all.
“Rietta, let’s cut the act, okay? You and I know this isn’t working. We have tried, I have tried to make things better between us. We’re forcing it, Rietta. I know you know you don’t love me.” The shock on her face was almost comic and had it not been the seriousness of the matter, Japheth would have laughed. He forged on. “I’ve seen the texts between you and Roman. It’s Roman, isn’t it?” He didn’t wait for a response. “Let’s break the news to our families when we meet them. Rietta?”
Rietta was stunned into speechlessness. How Japheth had known about Roman she had no idea but he was right. They were forcing things between them which wasn’t healthy for the future at all. Roman understood her on levels she had felt no one would, and she had been unkind to Japheth (who was also a victim like she was) simply because she wanted to drive him to break up with her. If he had, she would have been happy with Roman, and her family would have had no choice but to part with the inheritance her great-grandmother had willed to her with the caveat: she was to marry the great-grandson of the man with whom she was in love but could not marry because of class stratification. If they had continued with the farce, Rietta was sure they both would have been very unhappy and ended up cheating on each other. She sighed, got up and straightened her attire. They had reached the end of their rope.
“May I go, Rietta?” Japheth ventured.
“Sure. We’re done here. Let me have her number.” When he hesitated, she said, “Oh come on, I want to make things right.”
Japheth shook his head. “No. You might make things worse.” With that, Japheth walked out of the house, not once glancing back. In less than no time, he was back at Jasmine’s. He hadn’t meant last night to be a one-night stand but the beginning of new things. The one loose end had tied itself up quite neatly. He could now focus on things that truly mattered to him.
At the door of Jasmine’s house, Japheth said a short prayer. He felt a chill in his heart, unsure of how Jasmine would welcome him in the light of how that morning ended. He took a deep breath and knocked. Once. Twice. Jasmine opened the door on his second knock. He pushed his way into her room before she could shut him out and blurted, “We broke up, okay? She doesn’t love me; I don’t love her. We’re done. I want to be with you, Jasmine. Only you.”
Jasmine looked blank. “You don’t love who?”
“Rietta. Her name is Rietta. Look, it doesn’t matter anymore. We broke up. I want to be with you,” Japheth declared, reaching for Jasmine’s hand. She drew back, an eyebrow up.
“How can I be sure you’re being real?”
Japheth sighed and rubbed his face twice. “You can never be sure, Mine Jas. It’s just my word and your gut. Rietta and I were together because of our families. She loves another man, and I love you, Jas. We made love; awesome. But there’s more to you than just that. If you don’t believe me, if you tell me you don’t want me, I’ll go. But remember I love you, maybe I always will.”
Jasmine sighed. This was difficult. She had overheard him tell another woman he loved her. Yet he said they weren’t in love? Jasmine couldn’t risk getting hurt in the end. She shook her head. “Japheth, I think I have feelings for you too. But, in the light of things, I suggest we remain friends. Yes, something happened between us. Maybe something’s still happening between us. Let’s not rush it. What did you say last night? ‘A day at a time’?” Jasmine cocked her head and smiled.
Japheth enfolded her in a close, warm embrace. He was, for once, following his heart.
