Delay Plus Denial

As I sit and wait for my flight back to Lagos, I scan through the myriad faces trying to locate a familiar one.

You see, the flight had been initially scheduled for 3:30pm, only for me to get a text the previous day from the airline saying the flight had been rescheduled for 7:25pm. I wonder if anyone can imagine how angry I was at this delay. Not only would I be spending hours at the departing airport waiting for the blaidy flight because I had to be there early enough to avoid traffic, but I also had to worry about the cut throat charges of the cab people for taking a cab from MM2 to the island by that time of the night….tchuuueeeewww.

Anyway, as I scan the faces looking for a familiar one I can have a conversation with while I wait, I see a couple of familiar ones but not of people I knew on a personal level or had spoken to before. I heave a resigned sigh and wondered. How do my friends do it? They are at the airport, meet people (strangers) and then become fast friends with them. How do they start up conversations with these people and who makes the first move? As I sit and wonder about this, flight departures are being announced, people are standing and heading for boarding and I still haven’t found someone to talk to and the place is emptying out pretty fast.

Just across from me sits this Oyibo with a very attractive lady that I presume is his wife or girlfriend (she has a wedding band on) and he has just been staring at me. I run my hand across my face wondering if I have something on it, pull out my compact from my purse to confirm. You just can never tell. I ignore the oyibo and continue my perusal.

Two men are standing behind me having a discussion about Virign Nigeria. I wasn’t following their conversation but what catches my attention is when one said “It has been disvirgined”. Hunh…. My thoughts do a 360^o to them trying to catch snippets of their gist so I can understand what would elicit such discussion. The guy continues “ Yes, virgin Nigeria has been disvirgined.” His partner laughs and says “ Some people de call them ‘ashewo’ airline.” Then it hits me, they must be talking about the sell off and name change of Virgin Nigeria to Air Nigeria. I hiss and do a 180^o reversal as this is the least of my worries besides the gist wasn’t interesting sef.

I start my scan all over again as more people have walked in and are sitting. Some people are standing as the waiting lounge was packed with different kinds of people: tall, short, beautiful, not beautiful, dark, fair, oyibos, chinkos, old, young, reserved, rowdy and loud: all sorts of people and then I spot him.

He is wearing a yellow snug tee that fits perfectly with tout rippling muscles ( what my friends and I call ‘moss-kool-s’) with dark blue jeans.

Bobo is cute with earphones plugged into his ears. He is also scanning the crowd as more people get up to leave as another flight departure is being called. Bobo looks very bored as he has his hands on his chin, oblivious of Sisi checking him out. A smile spreads widely across my face.

Bobo picks a call and talks with someone. An absolutely fantastic smile just spreads slowly across his face and just as slowly, mine fades. Who can he be talking to, to elicit such smile? Certainly not a wife as I noticed he didn’t have a band on when he had his hands on his chin…NoNoNo…Please not a girlfriend. Well, girlfriends can be displaced. Such are the evil thoughts that go through my mind as I watch him have his conversation. Then his call ends and Bobo catches me scoping him and like a rat that has just spot the cat, I take my eyes off him, heart pounding like a fast beating drum. Cautiously, I look back and was assaulted with his lethal smile and he is standing and seem to be walking towards me. “OMG, OMG, OMG”.. he can’t be coming over to talk to me. My heart is not only drumming but is behaving like a wild orchestra was going on. His walks turns to serious slow motion like you see in western movies where a hot babe passes and this cute/or not cute guy checks her out with eyes almost popping out of its sockets. He is walking really slow and looking at me at intervals. I can see this through my side eye as I have turned my face the other way pretending total disinterest. Next thing, he is changing direction to the toilet. “Ah, Ah?”..I am fully focused on him now. He is meant to be walking towards me not the toilet.

“ok, maybe it is just nerves as he is trying to compose himself before he comes over, after all, na fine babe im wan come talk to”. I try to console myself as I wait for him to come out. He walks out and walks back to his sit.

I am totally devastated and utterly disappointed, and then I hear “This is a boarding call for all aero passengers for flight AJ318 to Lagos. All passengers are requested to proceed for boarding.”

Upset, I get up, pick up my hand luggage to proceed for boarding and think to myself “ Tchueeeww..he is not even fine sef upclose and not that tall…tchueeew…nonsense.”