My 30 minute affair with her...

Authors note: This is a response to Florentina Aranel's '30 Minute Love Affair'

Things at home were punishing, exhausting even. F and I were fighting pretty much about everything, every little speck of dust was contested and unlike previous battles, the fights were getting louder, angrier and more aggressive. That night it felt like we were about to explode into violence and  so I ran. I grabbed my car keys and drove as fast as could. I did not know where I was going but anywhere, anywhere but home would do, anywhere to be away from her voice, her scent, away from all of it! 

I had always fancied the new hotel downtown and so once I had regained some direction, I headed there and took my place at the back of the bar.
A bottle of the house wine later I felt a renewed sense of purpose running through my veins. 

Suddenly I was taut with intent - I wanted to be brave heck I felt brave, I didn't want to be the next Stephen, confined in a sad excuse of a marriage, completely ignorant of what it felt like to be happy. I was going to be bold and break free, I didn’t care about what Reverend Byaruhanga had said to us jana. All that maneno about staying true to our vows didn’t make sense anymore - I was going for it and so when I saw her…

When I saw her, when I saw her…….(Oh boy) 

I couldn’t have been any more spiked so I walked right towards her with the very definition of single mindedness - I wanted her that night, at that moment, that very instant. Without any thought I moved my hand from that soft spot on her neck, her chin... before resting it on her hand and asked her if we could get away - “Let’s get out of here”, I said. 

There was a pause, a delicate moment when all I could do was stare at her pretty eyes that seemed to cut her face with the utmost perfection - I was helpless and for all my mojo I couldn't find words to add to my request but then, but then without any words she obliged . 

So I led her across the dimly lit room to her car in the parking lot, my palms dripping with sweat as I held onto her like, like… like “familiar lovers”... (Aphrodite herself could not have cooked up a more perfect close to this humid night) 

When we had no more room to walk - I leaned in towards her, resigned to her charm, desperate for a taste. “You are beautiful, you know that?” - I remember mumbling before the forces gave way and our lips locked - for a moment I could not feel my body, I had been carried away to some place so high above the silkiest of cloud linings, down a rabbit hole at the source of fantasy…. ‘Wow.. wow’ 

I don’t know how long we stood there latched onto one other, grasping for breath but then I felt my phone go off… Like a school boy slapped back into reality, F’s ringtone woke me up from my dream. I had to go, I had to leave! “Meet me here tomorrow’ I asked… Tomorrow I swore… 

But then… (sighs).. Tomorrow did not happen, not in the way I had planned, not in the way I had dreamed on my drive back home with the frustration at the back of my tongue… F, F happened, F!!!