Fiction: Faint hearted lover (a young woman’s tale)

On returning home from abroad where I had gone for my Masters, I landed a well paying job. In two years I had built a nice house and bought my dream car! Along the way I fell in love with a very fine-looking and caring man. He was a humble school bus driver, and an academic dwarf as he always called people with mini-education. But I loved him and I was so proud of him despite our education and financial gap. Jim was very gentle, romantic and God-fearing; his only problem was he had low self esteem, he never believed that someone as beautiful, affluent, and young as me could love him. At first, I found this flattering. As days went by, he developed some domineering habits. He suspected all male friends of mine to be ‘lining’ me. Whenever I delayed from work, he accused me of having been out with ‘men of my class’. I spent a lot of time convincing him that he is the only one for me. “Honey I left all other guys for you, you are the one I love,” I would assure him from time to time. A flicker of a smile would appear on his face but soon be devoured by a giant disbelief in his heart. He couldn’t relax and enjoy his life; he was always on the look out, thinking everyman I talked to was asking me out or something ; he did all the wrong things in the name of shielding me from other men. My meetings with business associates had to be kept a secret from him always! I even informed my superiors at work about how jealous my man is, and asked them not to call me at home. One day, he set his friend, a gorgeous and loaded hunk, to come and ‘tempt’ me. He gave him my contacts, and other information that could simplify the task. Richard was a serial womaniser, so he obliged without a problem. He was more than willing to embark on what he called an escapade. He called me. We talked and after a couple of days, I decided to meet him, out of boredom though. First he pulled his game through, but later confessed the whole truth, he told me, he was sent by Jim to tempt me and that somewhere along the way he fell in love with me. I’ve never been so infuriated in my whole life! How could he go this far? That was the straw that broke the camel’s back! In a cool and collected manner I told him, it’s over! I dumped him and his wicked buddy with a bang and moved on. martin.bishop18@yahoo.com