The Forbidden Fruit

Episode 22

Jide pushed down the feeling of unease that had crawled into him at the waves of fury emanating from his wife. He stood upas well, and towering over his slightly shorter wife gave him a certain feeling of control over the tense situation.Jide held his hands up in pacification. “Calm down, Pat. I’m not trying to make you look like a fool. It’s just utterly ridiculous that you would think I was sleeping with Nancy.”“I didn’t say you were.” Patricia snapped.Jide threw up his hands. “How am I supposed to keep track of this conversation when you’re not making sense? One minute I’m sleeping with my secretary, the next minute I’m not…”“I didn’t say you were sleeping with that secretary. It’s the other one.”Jide frowned.“The one with the long hair, long legs and fingers as slippery as soap. Did you think the oh-my-lawd-i-spilled-stew-on-you-sir episode didn’t ring any alarms in my head?”Jide gaped at his wife. He was tempted to laugh again, but he remembered her reaction when he laughed about Nancy, and swallowed his amusement. His wife was barking up the wrong tree and he felt a sneaking relief that she did not know about Anita Bankole.“Florence?” he said, his voice heavy with disbelief and sarcasm. “You think I’m sleeping with Florence?”Patricia folded her arms and glared at her husband. “Have I been speaking Chinese?”“Sweetheart…” Jide took a step towards his wife, but she stopped him with an outstretched arm and a pointed look. He raised his arms in surrender and backed off. “Look, Patricia, you have this all wrong. I am not sleeping with Florence. Heck, where did you get that idea from?”Since he was being honest, Jide’s protest rang with the claim of truth and even Patricia heard it. She hesitated for a moment, scowling.“Look, you’re not fooling me.” She insisted.“Your late hours at the office, always mentioning her when you talk about your day, referring to her by her first name and then bringing her food home…. Seriously, do you consider me an idiot?”This time, Jide laughed. “Yes, but you’re my own idiot.” Patricia’s eyes gleamed with fresh anger, but he walked towards her and before she could stop him, pulled her into an embrace. “I understand you’re jealous, but listen baby, I swear I am not sleeping with Florence Iheanacho.”Patricia pulled back, confused. She wrestled with her intuition, which had told her Jide was definitely cheating on her.

Now she looked up at him, her emotions intotal disarray as she recognised the truth in his eyes. Had she just been overtaken by a fit of jealousy?Jide pulled her close again, glad he had a truth he could pacify his wife with. “She has a fairly bright mind, which is why I converse with her more than I do with my own secretary. And the stewed meat I brought home the other day was gifted to me by her, for being a good customer. No wonder it disappeared.

You this jealous woman, what did you do with it?” Jide leaned back and cupped Patricia’s face in his hands, keeping his expression earnest. A jolt of relief went through him as he saw her face soften. [b]“I would never sleep with asecretary, c’mon Patricia. It’s me, Jide.”Patricia brought out what she had been toying with in her pocket. It was Jide’s phone. “But why is your password changed? Jide, we don’t do that..”Jide thought quickly. “Sweetie, I updated my phone software the other day, and a lotof stuff got scrambled. I’m just yet to change the default password.” He droppedhis voice to a murmur, moving his lips close to hers. “You have to trust me, babe…”Patricia felt the usual panic as Jide movedin for a kiss, and it dampened her anger. She pushed back. “Fine. Whatever. This is not the end of this.” She slid away from him and stalked into the bathroom, closingthe door loudly behind her.Jide stood in the middle of the bedroom, frowning. Usually, when his wife rebuffed his attempts at being intimate, he would get annoyed and upset.

This time, however, his annoyance was mixed with relief. He was glad he had managed to avert a crisis. Even though Florence Iheanacho had been used as a scapegoat and he felt his wife still harboured some suspicions, it was better than her knowing about Anita Bankole. He muttered thanks to whatever deity protected adulterous husbands, glad the incident had ended as it had. For the first time ever, he was glad his wife had developed a dislike for s-x. Besides, if Patricia had given in to his persuasion and allowed him to s£duce her,what energy would he have used to satisfyher? His libido meter was at zero- Anita had exhausted him already.Jide crawled into bed, mentally and physically exhausted. Before he finally drifted off to sleep, Florence Iheanacho crossed his mind, and he chuckled drowsily.Why would he ever sleep with the long-haired secretary?** **Florence woke up from sleep suddenly, flustered and confused.She knew she had been having a dream but the details were fuzzy. What had woken her up was a pain in her arm, whereFelicia had pinched her hard.She glared at her roommate, who was glaring right back from the other side of the mattress they were sharing.“Felicia, why did you pinch me na? Was I snoring again? Can’t you just tap or shake me awake?”Felicia hissed. “If it was snoring, it will be good sef. I was woken up by your m0an!ng and groaning. Shebi you were claiming you don’t like your boss, but you want to wake the whole neighbourhood with his name you kept m0an!ng over and over. Biko, put your dream volume on silent. Some of us need to sleep a holy sleep!”Florence’s face went warm as her annoyedroommate turned over and resumed her sleep. She lay back on her pillow, remembering details of her dream. Jide had played a major role in her PG-rated fantasy and she remembered he had been shirtless…Florence swallowed another m0an and tried to empty her mind of thoughts of her boss.Despite her protests to Felicia, deep in her mind, she knew what she wanted.She wanted Jide Babalola.