In between sundays

Closeness

Yeahh, it’s another day.

And somehow, today doesn’t feel lonely at all.

Even if most of our talking happens on the phone, it still fills something in me. Whatever this thing is becoming… it’s starting to mean something.

These days, I wake up with energy.

I’ll do my chores, arrange myself, and head to the shop.

We talked all through the midnight the kind of long, warm conversation that makes sleep feel unnecessary.

He told me he’d be going to a woman’s place at Ikeja for an installation, so I already prepared my mind. I knew he’d be busy. I knew I wouldn’t get much of him today.

But my phone buzzed, and my heart just… burst open.

We were on voice call, talking about his work, laughing over small things. Then he suddenly asked a question, and I told him the truth that I didn’t really know him that much.

I said I wanted to know him more.

He didn’t even hesitate.

He said for me to really know him, I’d have to be close to him.

Then I asked, “How am I supposed to do that?”

And he said it slowly, like he wanted each word to sink into me:

“Be free with me.

Tell me your pains.

Tell me everything happening around you.

Be close to me.”

I just sat there, holding my phone, feeling something warm and dangerous in my chest. He was only using intensifiers for me, and when he called me a scholar, I teased him and asked if he meant “sholar.” We laughed about it until he corrected himself “scholar.”

Later in the evening, he texted again, asking if I was sleeping.

I said no, and asked if he even sleeps at all.

He said he does.

Then he told me with full confidence that I should be sleeping 10 hours every day.

I was amazed.

In this era?

Only a dead person sleeps that long.

I told him only someone with no work can do that. I might not have a job yet, but I can’t sleep that much. This is my time to rise, not sleep away my chances.

And the sweetest part?

He told me twice not once that if I want to sleep any day, I should make sure I tell him good night.

Like he wants to be the last person I talk to before I close my eyes.

Final Note:

Maybe closeness isn’t always loud. Maybe it’s in long midnight calls, in small corrections, in teasing over words, and in someone wanting to be the last person you talk to before you sleep. Maybe this is how something begins slowly, gently, before you even realise your heart has already moved.

#TheGirlAfterTheFirstGirl #ChapterSeven #SlowBurn #AlmostLove #SoftMoments #VirtualCloseness #MidnightConversations #EmotionalGirl #HeartInProgress #StoryOfUs #GentleBeginnings #NigerianStories #RomanceDiary #NewChapter