Wilfully Married I

#wilfullymarried

Hello guys, so the chapter one of Wilfully Married is finally in now. I enjoyed writing it, though I have no idea how it’ll continue from here. Lol. I hope you enjoy reading and do let me know what you think of it after reading. You can connect with me on Facebook by clicking on this mimispassion. If you missed the prologue, you can find it here. Enjoy reading. Don’t forget that sharing is caring. 

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Esi, not this time around. There’s no way I’m allowing you to be away on new year eve. I am a man, and I have needs remember? Ewurasi knew she had crossed the line and worn his patience thin. He only called her Esi when he had had enough. But she wasn’t willing to back down just yet. But Kay, you promised to support me and be my number one fan all the days of my life, didn’t you?  Ewurasi asked with a pout.  Oh yea, I did, but I signed up to be your husband, not your business partner or investor whom you send emails and texts to and see once a while to preserve the relationship between you. He held Ewurasi by the shoulders and shaking her, said to her face calmly, “I am your husband, young lady, not a client“. He turned his back to her and said in almost a whisper, it’s been almost 3 months since I spent any quality time with you, my dear wife. Shouldn’t I at least be allowed to see the sun rays falling on your beautiful face with the rising of the sun and the new year? Is this the price I pay for marrying a beautiful, intelligent and ambitious woman? With that, he slumped onto the bed and held his head in his palms.

Ewurasi was fully aware that she had missed her husband as well and needed to make time for him, but he had to let her attend this very important meeting first. She had plans of making it up to him in the coming year. Reminding herself of her yearly goals, which needed this last meeting to be the icing on the cake of her successful year, she wasn’t going to allow her husband’s emotions to stand in her way. After all, he had managed well without her, so why not add just another day, just a little sacrifice on his part to allow her see her goals through and here he was complaining and being all emotional. She tried to be polite, but she couldn’t as she still hadn’t developed the stomach for emotions even after being married for 4 years.   Look, Kay, I understand where you are coming from, but you are supposed to love and support me and that means supporting my goals and plans, so you really need to sacrifice and allow me to end this year well. You and I  know how I become when I am unable to achieve my set goals and I’m pretty sure we both wouldn’t want to see that Ewura again. It’s just one evening and remember I’m even missing a whole 31st watch night service just to make it to this meeting. Even God understands so why are you being so difficult?

Even God understands? Oh! this lady has no feelings whatsoever, I really should have listened to my mom and friends and thought twice before going on with this marriage. Kay thought to himself.  Aren’t you going to say anything?  Well, it looks like you need some time to process it so I’ll leave you to it. You know where to find me when you’re ready to talk. Ewura muttered nonchalantly and walked out of the room toward the study.

On her way to the study, she paused momentarily at the door to the prayer room as she reflected on how long it had been since she had said an actual heartfelt prayer, aside from the premeditated and rehearsed ones she whispered every morning as she took her bath or drove to work. She wondered if God really understood like she had told Kay. Well, he surely understands right? Afterall, it’s His purpose I’m living and he knows what comes with this sort of mission. With that she walked away and let herself into the study. Her earlier guilt at how she was treating her husband fading away as her mind got to work actively again, devising plans and looking forward to the new year with renewed zeal to succeed. She smiled as she picked her favorite book from the coffee table where she had left it to go and speak to Kay about her impromptu meeting scheduled for the eve of the new year. I’m a strong woman, she thought to herself. Most women would have cowered and allowed their husbands to talk them out of their decision. But she had been able to stand her grounds and she knew she would win in the end, cause she always did. Before long, she was deeply absorbed in her favorite author Tsitsi Dangarembga’s new book: Nervous Conditions. She didn’t realize when she fell asleep on the couch.

Kay had thought over the conversation he had with his wife that evening. He couldn’t wrap his mind around what was happening. He so wanted to believe it was just him being selfish and keeping his wife from attending a meeting that had the potential of improving her life and his as well. But the more sense he tried to make out of it, the less successful he got. They were living comfortably in a 5 bedroom storey in Trasacco with state of the art technological devices embedded everywhere in the house and had 2 Toyota V8 Landcruiser cars and 1 2016 Mercedes-Benz GLC-class SUV at their disposal, thanks to both of them, though more credit had to go to his hardworking wife. She had trained several people who could easily meet the client and still make a good impression and get her business. So he just couldn’t understand why she was being adamant about attending the meeting. He thought back to what his mom had told him on his wedding night, Kay, you have chosen a God-fearing woman whose dreams go beyond the skies, it’s now up to you to keep her God-fearing or her success will become a bone of contention that could threaten your marriage. He had thought Maame was just overreacting. But over the past four years, he had watched his wife’s relationship with God fall to the rocks as she rose to the pinnacle of success. Now their early morning prayers as a couple was a thing of the past, as he has usually done it alone over the past year.

Credit: sheltertwo.com

He was still asleep or in the shower when she left the house and he was mostly asleep by the time she returned. Their chats late into the night and playful pillow fights had all ceased a few months after their marriage as his ambitious wife got caught up in her ambitions. To her, marriage was just another goal she had succeeded at achieving and she didn’t celebrate one success for too long so she had moved on. She always managed to cook for him and leave them in the fridge for him to warm when hungry, but sometimes a man needed a freshly cooked meal. He had tolerated it because he loved his wife. In their courtship days, he had been afraid he was putting in too much effort but had dismissed it with the thought that, she was now warming up to being deeply loved and pursued by someone who didn’t just feel interested in her just for her beauty, wit, and ambitious nature.Yet now, he feared he had been wrong all along and maybe Josh had been right in saying she had no emotions.

“Oh wretched man that I am, who shall save me?”, the apostle Paul’s words came to him. Just then, a picture of the day God confirmed his marriage to her quickly flashed in his mind and left him a little calmer than he had been a few minutes ago.  He knew deep down that this was God’s will for him and he was to love his wife, but it was hard. Before he knew it, he was on his knees asking God for wisdom to deal with the issues he was facing. Some men had to deal with their wives infidelity, yet he had to deal with playing second fiddle to his wife’s career and unfortunately, there weren’t many people with that experience to share. After praying, he felt a strong urge to show his wife more love and lovingly discuss issues with her and seek to help her address the insecurity of the future that kept here working non-stop.

With a resolution to continue loving, he went downstairs to speak to his wife. He knew where exactly to find her. She had insisted on getting a house that came complete with a study and a prayer room. The study had now become her second official favorite place in the house, not even the kitchen came close to competing. He opened the door slowly and entered, and saw her asleep on the couch with Nervous Conditions lying on her chest. He stood admiring her beautiful and innocent sleeping face and wished the tigress within her could be tamed to be as innocent and calm when she was awake. He took her hand in his and placed a kiss on it, she stirred and slept again. They had both had a long week so he knew she must be tired. He held on to her hand for the next 30 minutes, fantasizing how their marriage could have been if they had gone according to his expectations. He thought of how different things looked now, how different they were from all the expectations he had about marrying a highly intelligent and ambitious lady.

After 4 years, he had thought there would be a little version of him running around, but apparently, it wasn’t in his princess’s plan, she had some things to get done and be in place before children came in. As he rubbed her hands, particularly the ring on her finger, he prayed for more wisdom to handle this jewel that God had handed to him to be a caretaker of. Ewurasi was indeed a jewel, a precious stone from God’s very own mine. He loved her just because she was Ewurasi, with all her flaws and strengths and was glad that she was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. Even with all her fake fights and strict nature, he knew she was soft inside. Like a porcupine that could hurt on the outside, but could be deeply hurt on the inside.

After all these years, he was still determined to find out how to make that soft inside show more, so the hard-core nature could go into hiding. He would allow her to go for the meeting but on condition that he went with her. After all, she made her clients understand that her husband was her partner so most of them knew she could easily walk into a meeting with her husband, though they all hoped it wouldn’t actually happen. Settled in his heart about his decision, he gently lifted his most prized jewel and carried her upstairs and tucked her into bed with a kiss on the forehead. He returned to the study to complete the second episode of the story series he was running on his blog: things we do for love was gradually gaining the most popular position among his posts.

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To read the previous episode, click here.