UNTITLED

I was contacted recently by an acquaintance from the days of yore. 

You see, she used to be my friend; then she beCame an acquaintance. When she called me, I was open-minded hearing from her. Reminisced about the good old early 20s mayhem and brouhaha. She said she found me on facebook. I had not checked her profile or anyThing, so I had no clue what she looked like now, or what she was up to. 

I chatted away, her response to my chatter seemed someWhat forced. She said she was "proud" of me kept saying I taught her how to hustle, implying that I contributed to where she was. She said she lived in Staten Island and she still did her importation business. I was happy for her, she was doing well.  

So, I probed excitedly; asking for more details about her life. She said she had a job("well, it pays the bills"), she had a daughter("oh, I am not married by the way; it's just one of those things"). Now, I actually started listening. The laughter was hollow, the gaiety seemed forced. I heard defeat, regret, resignation. 

I started to remember her...

This was the (then) girl who slept with the guy who was wooing me at the time. I dumped two of them, immediately; and moved on. I remember the night I told her to leave my place, she was crying, pleading and asking me to remember the friendship. I told her, if the "friendship" meant anyThing to you, you would not have done what you did. 

That was the day she dropped to an acquaintance and someOne I used to know.  

This was 2005.

She contacted me again in 2008. I was living in an overSized three bedRoom flat (which I loathed) at the time. I was happy to hear from her. All was forgiven and forgotten. I do not hold grudges. Aint nobody got time for that. 

At that time I was having some serious financial issues. I had made a N70m (approximately $35,000) investment in someThing that was meant to yield amazing reTurns and it completely fell through the cracks. This took me years to recover. Mentally, emotionally and financially. This experience taught me my most crucial business lesson.

When she came around at that time and saw what I was going through, she was mocking and condescending. I saw schadenfreude. It was awful. She did not come to support, she came to gloat. I saw the real her and it was ugly. I did not want to be around this. I would rather face my problems alone. 

Lesson number two about human nature.

I had forgotten all about her existence, until recently when she made contact. After chatting and reminiscing and the call had ended, I went to her facebook profile. I did not like what I saw. She was a single-mother receptionist at a Jewish community centre. This was someOne that worked in a bank here in Nigeria. 

I remember that part of the phone conversation where she said I taught her how to hustle. Er, after looking at her profile; that was obviously bull waste. At this time, the image of her had not fully come clear in my head. So, I sent her a message asking a direct question about someThing from the past(listening intently and open-mindedly), she hedged, gave hollow laughter and vague patronising responses. Ah, the fakeness and insincerity.

Yes, I remember you now.

Blocked and deleted, immediately.