Daisy is getting dressed to go
for dinner, it’s her birthday and she is meeting with some of her girlfriends
and friends from work they are going to a new Brazilian restaurant which is
rumoured to be West London’s must go to location. Her phone rings she tries to
reach it but it’s too late as it stops ringing once she gets to it, she looks
at the caller ID and the number is unfamiliar. But then it starts to ring again
and she picks up and says “hello” after two seconds of silence she hears a
familiar voice say “Merry Christmas” and she bursts into laughter and Henry
joins her in the laughter and after what seemed like five seconds of laughter
he says “ Happy Birthday stranger”.
It had always been like Henry to
say “Happy New Year” on Easter
Sunday and say “Happy Hanukah” on
Valentines Day. Daisy sits on her
bed and she is pleased that after all this while she still finds his alternative
jokes highly amusing, she says “thank you stranger”. It has been five years
since they both talked, they had promised to remain friends but that never
happened. They both now even live in different countries. After what happened
five years ago one would think the conversation would be awkward but before ten
minutes they had summarised what had gone on in the last five years of their
life’s. She got her dream job in London as a magazine fashion editor and he is
working for one of the oil companies back in Nigeria and recently got a
promotion. He loves his job because he gets to travel a lot, but he starts study
leave in three months as he has been accepted to do his MBA at the University
of Chicago Booth School of Business. She tells him that she met her Idol R-Kelly
last year at a concert and was even able to steal a picture with him.
Then the inevitable discussion of
their love life comes up, he says that since they stopped talking he did not
get into anything serious for two years and was quite the player. He had
eventually gone into two pretty serious relationships, which eventually ran
their course, but he is now in love with a lady called Stella. Stella had been
his dentist for the last year and there was an attraction between them but he
only asked her for a first date around valentines day and it has since
blossomed into a solid relationship, although still in the early stages he had
a really good feeling like he had finally found his soul mate in Stella. The
big problem is that in three months he is relocating from Lagos to Chicago and
he does not know if they can go the distance for two years till he returns, but
he hopes so cause he feels that she is the one and if things go his way after
his MBA he plans to get married to her.
Daisy tells Henry she just split
with her boyfriend of four years after refusing his marriage proposal. He
bursts out laughing saying “poor guy, Daisy will anyone ever be good enough for
you?”. Daisy is silent and he
immediately apologises that that was uncalled for him to say that, she says
“its okay Henry no need to apologize, to be honest you may be right something
is wrong with me I tell you Kevin is the perfect guy every mother wishes her
daughter brought home”. Then Henry says “so why did you refuse his proposal?”
Daisy goes on to tell him about her Kevin who also resides in London and works
in Information Technology, they started off so well and at some point she
admits that she thought she was in love with him. She says the last year had
been like a Déjà vu doing the same thing, nothing was exciting anymore and all
she had left for him was admiration and respect but the fireworks were long gone
and she knew she could not commit to that forever. Daisy tells Henry that she felt very bad for doing that to
Kevin but she feels in the long run he will be happy she said no, when he meets
someone and feels things that he never felt with her. Henry is silent and Daisy
says “Henry I am really happy for you hope everything works out with Stella”.
Daisy had never dated Henry they
were just very close friends, but that changed after one mad drunken night. They
were both single at the time, they had gone drinking after going to see a movie
together but they broke tradition of their friendship and woke up the next
morning in the same bed in an awkward situation. Things never remained the same
and to make matters worse they could not put it behind them and act like it
never happened because Henry told her he always had strong feelings for her and
she on the other hand did not feel the same way. Everything changed, they
started talking less and eventually completely stopped, he moved from London to
Lagos and it was easy to stay out of each other life’s, as he did not even have
a Facebook account. That is why this
phone call was the last thing Daisy had expected on her twenty fifth birthday.
Henry says he was in London for the week and was now in the airport on his way
back to Lagos and he never forgot her birthday and decided to try her number
and luckily for him she had the same number. “Henry I am happy you called, and
I am sorry that we...” he stops her “Daisy I have to go now the plane is
boarding, it was lovely talking you I wish you all the best in life and hope
you find what you want in love someday” she says “Bye Henry” and he hangs up.
She smiles as she is putting on her make up, that phone call has to be mother
natures way of letting her know a new chapter in her life is about to start and
she is finally free of the past.
On her way to dinner as she is
locking her door, she hears a voice say “hello” and she turns and sees a
charming, talk dark handsome man smiling at her. She says “hello” and he starts
walking towards her as she is walking towards her car. He tells her he is her
new neighbour and his name is Stephen she says, “Welcome to the neighbourhood,
I am Daisy”. He asks where she is going and she tells him it is her birthday
that she is going for dinner with friends, he says “Happy Birthday Daisy why
did you not invite me, or does your boyfriend not approve of you having male
friends?”. Daisy laughs and says she does not have a boyfriend and he says “I
do not have a girlfriend too so that’s good to know”. Daisy opens her car door and tells him
she will see him another time as she is running late. Stephen says to Daisy “ I
look forward to seeing you everyday, moving to this neighbourhood must be the
best decision I have made in my life”. Daisy smiles at him, shakes her head
closes her car door and starts the engine.
The end!
