Zen’s Profile:
Age: 27
About me: I love people, even though I’m a slight introvert. I’m a relationship manager at BTG bank, and like to think that I carry a bit of my job description into my everyday life. I have a blog where I share my unique experiences.
Relationship status: it’s complicated
Religion: part time Christian (mostly because I can’t seem to stop sinning.)
Favourite thing to do: sleep and cook.
Catya’s Profile:
Football age:25
Real age: 30
About me: two things you should know; I live on Instagram because I am working onbeing an Instagram influencer. I also hope to make it on reality TV someday.
Relationship status: feminist
Religion: my dad was a pastor, I’m not.
Favourite thing to do: be on Instagram.
Zen
I step out of the Uber and adjust my crop top, so I am still decently covered. All of a sudden I
feel unsure of my choice of clothing – the description of this gathering was a “casual picnic
reunion”, so I opted for jeans and a crop top, but I have no doubt I will be underdressed. My
natural hair is in a bun at the top of my head, and I’m wearing my favourite sunflower earrings
that dangle to the nape of my neck.
I look around briefly, before I head towards the address we were given.
My phone rings at that moment and I dig in my handbag for it. The caller ID shows Catya. I
grimace inwardly. My relationship with Catya is a complicated one but somehow we seem to
always be in and out of each others’ lives. Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like
without Catya, maybe less drama?
“Hey,” I say, strolling through the parking lot.
“Where are you?” She asks, in her raspy voice.
She nearly sounds like a man, except for the faint lilt in her tone that turns her raspy voice to a
husky one that men often find sexy and endearing.
“Outside, walking in now. You?”
I scan the parking lot for her flashy red Range Rover sports 2018, that she’s never bothered to
tell me how she was able to afford it.
Three years as a relationship manager in BTG, I still haven’t saved enough to afford that kind of
ride. Or maybe, like she says, I’m too busy paying off my families numerous bills to actually
spend on myself.
“I’m like 5 minutes out,” she says. I hear the music in her background. “Should we meet outside
or inside?”
“I’ll meet you inside,” I say, hastily. No, I do not want to be seen with you, Cat.
Cat
I smile when I hear how fast she is to turn down my offer of meeting outside. Of course, typical
Zen, always worried about image, her reputation, her this or that.
Someday soon, she will want to be seen with me.
I’m not sure why Zen and I have hung on to the threads of our friendship. It seemed like it wouldn’t last, when we first reconnected during NYSC. But somehow, she kept popping up in
my life and I kept indulging her…or is it me that I was indulging?
I like her…kinda. I like her moralistic crusade, she is so different from me that I actually like
being around her. I’m not sure whether she likes me and frankly what do I care? I am a woman with a mission, I
cannot afford to care about whether I am liked or not.
I hang up the phone and wait for the red light to turn green so I can move.
The reunion should be a sight for sore eyes. I wonder who’s coming. I haven’t really kept in touch with the people from University. Not after I wanted to forget
everything and move on. Perhaps that’s why I love being around Zen, she is the faintest connection to my past, especially
because she didn’t know me so well back in school.
I am not good with people. It doesn’t help that I have a personality people often call brash, but I
was not always like this. I had to make myself into this person.
The red light moves to green and I move.
A part of me is dreading this reunion, because of him, but another part of me is anticipating it,
like a dog salivating for a meal.
I turn left and enter the parking lot of the park.
I sit in my car for a few more minutes, retouching my makeup.
Reunion, here we come.
