By Kuukua Dzigbordi Yomekpe. Photo by Siphumeze Khunday

“Welcome.” I said as I flashed my award-winning smile and pulled out a chair for her at the table where my friend, Chioma, and I were seated.
Chioma, worn out and a bit cranky from our long day in the lab, said, “What did you say your name was again?”
“Amaka,” she answered before I could roll my eyes at Chioma.

“We’re all tired,” I said, trying to look apologetic. “Mr. Oware works us to death in our morning BioChem lab. Then we barely get through lunch before Mrs. Nyame drills us in Physics.”
“Thursdays are just all around torturous!” Chioma chimed in, regaining some of her usual bubbly energy.
“Come, I think we should show her around as Prof requested,” I whispered to Chioma. Something about Amaka’s eyes had caught my attention, and I didn’t want to be left alone with her. Chioma reluctantly unfolded her long, lean, dancer’s body from the couch, straightened her dress, and picked up her backpack.

“Ok, I’m up, let’s go!” she ordered.
“So where are you from?” I asked Amaka, as we made our way to the exit “Nsukka, about sixty kilometers from here,” she replied.
“Why do you want to transfer?” I asked.
Chioma looked at me.
“I thought a few minutes ago you said you were tired and couldn’t wait to get to bed! Where did you get this sudden energy?”
“Well yeah, I did, and I still do, but we have a visitor to our campus,” I said, avoiding both pairs of eyes. We left the cafeteria and headed down the first-floor hallway .
“We should start in our department,” Chioma suggested.
I ignored her and turned to Amaka, “What’s your thesis on” I asked, “ … or haven’t you decided yet?
I’m doing mine on the tsetse fly, which causes… ”. For some reason, my mind went blank. “…Trypanosomiasis,” Amaka chimed in looking me the eye. “That’s surreal! she added, “I am too.”
She smiled, still looking straight into my eyes. “Ei! What is this?” Chioma said, cutting through our private moment.
“Nothing!” We both chimed, as we broke the magnetic field that had held our eyes.

After we had shown Amaka around the department, we went up to the 5th floor to show her the labs and ran into Ranni just as she leaving for the day. “I’m famished!” she wailed. Ranni liked to exaggerate. “Yeah, I suppose I could eat!” I replied. “But where are my manners? Ranni, meet Amaka, she’s a prospective student,” I added.

“Why don’t we all go to Madame Onyeka’s? It’s late enough.” Chioma suggested. “Yeah, if we leave now we should be there just when the first batch of fufu comes out before those
Upper Six boys take all the best parts of the goat.” Ranni was infamous for dating younger men and frequently leaving in her wake a series of, shall we say, unresolved circumstances that erupted at the most inconvenient of times. We all knew it wasn’t really true that the goat meat would all be gone if we delayed. But the Upper Six boys might be!
“Amaka, do you eat goat? Fufu?” I asked, resuming our locked-eye relationship. “Yes, I do. I love them.”
“Yella!” Ranni shouted pointing to the door, calling on her Arabic ancestry as she sometimes did when she got excited.

“Dinner was great last night, wasn’t it, ladies?” Ranni asked the next morning as we walked to class. “I like the new student!” I declared emphatically.
“Correction, prospective student! And of course you would!” Chioma retorted. “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, searching their faces, but they both suddenly found the
ground at their feet deeply engrossing.

“See you later then!” I split off and headed towards the cafeteria, still perplexed. Later, as I checked my email and drew up my timetable for the week, I wondered if the girls knew….
I almost fell over when I saw an email from Amaka: “My father’s driver can’t pick me up until Saturday morning. Do you think you could suggest some things to do around here? Are you free
tomorrow?” I couldn’t get my fingers to type fast enough. I knew just the thing! I would invite her to come hang out with Chioma and me at our usual power lunch at the lab. Chioma and I subscribed to the idea that powering through four days of thesis research and then taking three whole days off was more efficient than doing a bit each day. I wrote back instantly. She responded just as quickly, and it was settled. I kept my fingers crossed that Chioma would not be upset with me.

“Hi! Good to see you again,” I said, approaching her. I was alone. “Unfortunately, Chioma bailed on me,” I explained. “Not because of me, is it?” Amaka asked.
“Don’t be silly!” She had to run an errand for her part-time job, that’s all. She can’t always make it. “I hope you didn’t eat already,” I said, searching her face.
“No, I could eat.” She met my eyes. We got our trays of avocado sandwiches and Fanta and walked to my favorite spot in the canteen. As I sat down, I suddenly realized I was glad Chioma hadn’t been able to come.

As we chatted at the table, we found we had quite a bit in common. Cancer in our families, recent deaths, divorced parents, half siblings…. and she had a sense of humour when delivering even the most depressing of stories, which I loved. I explained to her what we usually did in our lunch and lab sessions. Even though she was not a student at our school yet, I could get her into the lab with Chioma’s ID number. Soon we were upstairs in our lab coats, busy titrating and calibrating test tubes and flasks. We decided to work individually on one of my recent experiments, take a break after two hours. and compare results.

“All done!” she yelled out from the front of the lab right before the timer began buzzing. “Yeah, right!” I retorted looking for an excuse to keep working.
“Yeah really. Come see for yourself.” I went over, and to my surprise, she had solved the problem I had been having trouble with for a week.
“Seriously? How did you do it? As she explained, I struggled to keep my eyes on the flask and buret. When she had finished, she asked, “What do you and Chioma usually do after this?”
I hesitated. “It depends on what we each have going on.” “What do you have going on?” she asked. It sounded almost … flirtatious. “Nothing. This is it.” I said, honestly enough. I hadn’t given any thought to what I might do afterwards. “Do you want to see a movie or something?” she asked. “That would be nice. I don’t get to do that very often.”

“Anything in particular you want to see?” I shrugged. “I don’t know what’s showing. You choose.” “Great. But let’s get dinner first. There’s something I’d like to see in town, but it doesn’t start until 7.” “Sure, what would you like to eat?” After about fifteen minutes of roaming the main strip of shops and restaurants in the centre of town, we settled on an Indian place. Over dinner, we talked some more. My jokes about the cute waiter took our conversation in a different direction. “So what’s your type?” I asked after she had disagreed with me about the waiter. She smiled, and very soon, we were sharing our dating history with each other. What we liked, our pet peeves, our non-negotiables, as I like to call them. I felt so comfortable with her that I shared things most of my friends didn’t even know. “I’ve always wanted to kiss a woman,” she volunteered a few sentences into the conversation on fantasies.

“Oh?” I was slightly shocked. Had she said this only because I told her I had dated a woman? “Well then, why haven’t you?” I challenged. “The situation just hasn’t presented itself,’ she said coyly, adding, “I’m not usually the initiator.” “Hmmm…” I looked away. Was that was an invitation? We didn’t speak for a few moments while we finished eating. On the way to the cinema, we talked about other things. She told me how she had woken up the night before at the relative’s house where she was staying and heard rats scrabbling around. She hated rats more than anything and was worried she would not sleep properly tonight. What else could I do? I offered her my couch for the night. She was being picked up the next morning. It was just a matter of calling and giving her driver the new address. “Are you sure?” she asked for the third time. “No, I’ve changed my mind since the last time you asked.” She playfully smacked my arm.
“Let’s hurry before we miss the start of the movie,” I said, pretending to glance at my watch.

“Goodnight.” I said to Amaka. She had finally accepted my offer to stay the night. “Goodnight,” she answered. “Are you warm enough?” I asked. “Yeah, for now…. Then she added, “ I’ll crawl in bed with you if I get cold.”

“Ah, sure, okay. Just make sure to crawl in on the other side. I’m stuck in my ways about where I sleep,” I said, then wanted to bite my tongue. Had I sounded cold? I summoned my courage. “Amaka, are you attracted to me?” “Isn’t that obvious?” she replied.

“Well…I wasn’t too sure,” I said. “So do you just want to crawl into bed with me now?” I added, laughing. “Yes.” As I scooted over for her to climb in, I realized that I had given up my favorite place on the bed without even thinking about it. “Are you sure?” she asked, pointing to where she was now lying. “Uh-huh.” “Are you comfortable? Do you feel seduced? Are you telling me the truth?” My insecurities took control of me. Was this right? “ I’m fine,” she said firmly. “No, I don’t feel seduced. I’m an adult, you know.” “And yes, I’m telling you the truth,” she added.

“May I kiss you?” I asked. The sound of my voice seemed like it was drowning in the sounds of the drum circle playing in my heart. She nodded and smiled at me. She was beautiful. I prayed neither of us would regret this in the morning. We kissed and held each other for most of the night, only stopping to lick and suck on breasts and grind on each other’s thighs. Had I had other virgins, she asked. I think I said a couple amybe. Later I checked. Yes, three. But none were like this. This comfort and lack of awkwardness was new. It was as if we had known each
other a long time. It felt as though she knew exactly how to touch me, hold me, kiss me.

It didn’t seem that a first timer could know this much, yet here she was, two hours later, still awake, kissing me, switching briefly to pull her locs out of our faces. She was gorgeous. Even though we both stayed fully clothed the whole time, the skin on my body tingled all night long. Her long lithe body moved effortlessly next to mine as if it was meant to be there.
“Goodnight.” I said, as I nibbled on her ear.

“Mmmm…Goodnight,” she responded, curling further into the spoon I had created for her. I fell asleep holding her. We woke up exhausted but without regret. It was beautiful. We were beautiful together. I wondered if I could ever share this with Chioma and Ranni. Would they feel betrayed? Would Amaka feel betrayed?
I kissed her before I opened the door for her to walk down to the waiting car. “I hope you get accepted and we get to hang out,” I said, feeling shy for the first time. “Please don’t
feel obliged to call me though.” I didn’t know what else to say. I wasn’t looking for a relationship, not now at least. I’d had an amazing time with her, but I didn’t want her to feel any pressure. After all, she had just wanted to kiss a woman, not marry one. I kissed her one last time and made her promise to let me know me when she got back in Nsukka. “You can check it off your list,” I joked with her as she descended the stairs. “It’s not as easy as that!” She turned around and winked. “Safe travels,” I said, prolonging our goodbye. “Thank you. I hope you don’t fall asleep at work.”
“Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.”
I resisted the urge to look out the window after I heard the front door slam shut.