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We dated for nine years but when the time came, all those years together with reason crumbled before our very eyes. What mattered at that time was emotions and feelings and not love.
For a bond as strong as ours to go bust over a seemingly simple misunderstanding that tore through our relationship, testifies to the impermanence of life.
We were christened ‘natural love birds’ by friends who were repeatedly surprised by the way we did things together.
When it came to the weekend movie night at the Silverbird Cinema at the Accra Mall, we attended together. We also visited the Korle Gonno beach wearing the same t-shirt.
The bond was thick that it was impossible to see through us and if you attempted to read the love that existed between us, all you see is nothing. But the penny dropped when I lost my job, three months after we had outlined plans for our wedding. We had a plan to buy this ¢4500 wedding ring from a shop in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
We took the decision when my account was healthy and the company I was then working with, was making significant breakthroughs in its line of work. But this was to change after I lost my job to the three-year energy crisis Ghana was plunged into, from 2012 to mid-2016. The company incurred huge debt as a result of the energy crisis that the best way out was to sell it.
The American company folded up and the owners sold the assets and went back to their country. I became jobless and hours of hunting for a new job yielded no success.
With my active income gone, I explained to Abena the need to reconsider some of the decisions we took when I had enough resources on me, but she never budged. I thought she would be considerate instead, she talked about how embarrassed she would look in front of her friends after she had told them about the initial arrangement.
I thought she would be considerate instead, she talked about how embarrassed she would look in front of her friends after she had told them about the initial extravagant arrangement.
It was difficult for me as she pummeled me with one embarrassing statement after the other and I felt I hadn’t known her for long. I thought she was joking but I was wrong.
I had researched on this ¢1,500 ring sold in Accra, but just when I opened my mouth to tell her about it, I heard the door slammed behind me. I turned and realised she had disappeared.
Well, that moment appeared to be the last time we both met since she refused to pick my calls and directed her siblings to tell me she didn’t want to see me anymore.
My heart contracted at the thought of losing her because she meant everything to me and we had dated for long. It was too much for me at a time I was faced with one calamity after the other.
But I’m back on my feet with a job that pays more than the earlier one. I’m now driving the latest Range Rover Evoque and she does wave at me whenever I drive past her in the neighbourhood.
Last night she sent me a message for the first time since our botched marriage five years ago, saying she missed me and would want to meet me to discuss why she acted the way she did.
And yes this morning she sent me another message that has got my head spinning. "Hi my dear, hope you slept well? I miss you and want you to know that.
Please reply. Signed Abena with love," the message read. What do I tell her or how do I reply her? Please help me. My name is Ishmael.
