As the young man walked away, I looked at my friend, Enitan, and winked,
“Please help me arrange these invitation cards, I will be back soon.”
We stepped outside the church and he began,
“My name is Daniel Adebayo. I have been attending this church for about two months now and I have been observing you. Let me start by saying that you have one of the most beautiful smiles I have seen. Seriously, I look forward to seeing that smile every Sunday.”
I blushed. In my head where I wrote the qualities I needed in a man, I ticked the box for “Sweet tongue”. His rating is increasing. Oh! I already ticked off the Tall, Dark and Handsome boxes plus the Yoruba box too. This guy is on the fast lane though. He continued,
“I have been trying to say hi but my liver has been cutting. I do not know if I am qualified enough to talk to you.”
Humble box ticked.
“But today, as I was just about to step out of church, I decided this had to be done. I asked myself the worst thing that would happen. It is either you say no or you smile and say not interested but I will never know unless I try. In a nutshell, I just want to get to know you better. Let me know if I should step back a little just in case your response is a slap”. We both laughed.
Courageous, intelligent and sense of humour boxes were ticked off. Wow. In a space of three minutes, this guy has already ticked off almost half of my list. Good going. My interest is already piqued.
“Daniel, you flatter me. My name is Damilola Coker. It is a pleasure to meet you. Why don’t we exchange contacts and probably get to see some time? It will be a pleasure getting to know you too”.
“Oh, I was thinking we could hang out today and talk a little, but it looks like you have other plans. There is no problem at all if you say so.”
You know, the idea is to show as much interest and still be a little uninterested all at once. I knew he wanted us to hang out immediately maybe, but if I had agreed, I would have seemed too desperate and made it look like I had no plans and I am an “anywhere belle face” kind of person. I had to show some level of sophistication.
He whipped out his iPhone 15. Oh my! The guy is sophisticated too. I called out my number and asked him to dial it so I could save his number since my phone was inside my purse inside the church. We shook hands and he promised to call later and then, I went inside the church. I rushed to Enitan and told her to help me go and check out the car he came to church with. Enitan, my 2i/c, she understands perfectly well. She rushed out of church located Daniel and came back whistling,
“Babe, na Prado bobo carry o”
I smiled and ticked off the “good ride” box. I am already impressed enough. I don’t think I need to do any further analysis. Oh well, let’s see how he keeps up with conversation. But there was already this sweetness in my belly. I was too excited and could not wait to start conversing with him. I was already trying out how “Damilola Adebayo” will sound and well, it did not sound bad at all.
It was not as though I had other plans after service; I only wanted to go and see a movie and have myself some good Coldstone Ice cream, but like I said earlier, I needed to play “not desperate,” so, I drove lonely to the Palms to watch my movie and take my ice cream. My phone rang and Truecaller popped up “Daniel Adebayo” as the caller. My heart skipped a beat as I picked up the call, it was on hands-free since I was the only one in my car
“Hello Daniel. How are you doing?”
“I am doing fine. I just got home and decided to call you and find out if your after service plan is going well.”
“Hahaha. I am still on my way from church. Heading to the cinema now.”
“For real? You should have told me. I would have come along. Which cinema are you going to so I can meet you up there. That is if you do not mind?”
My face lit up.
“Oh. I am headed to The Palms. No, I don’t mind. How soon will you be there? Because I am almost there”
“In about 20 minutes, my place is around the corner”
“Okay. I will be waiting in my car. Just beep me when you get there”.
You know that smile on your face when you feel like everything is working way better that you planned for them to. That was the smile on my face as I ended the call. I drove into The Palms and found a parking space. I took out my makeup purse and did a touch up on my face. Can’t be looking like someone that fries dodo when I know this guy’s eyes will mostly be on my face for the next few hours. I was just getting done when he called that he was around. I asked that we meet at the Box Office on the Cinema floor. When I saw him, I still gave my firm handshake. Can’t go hugging and looking like someone that has not seen boy before. We checked out the movie schedule and decided to settle for The Hobbit. He brought out his ATM card to pay for the tickets, the attendant told him it declined. He looked at me and apologized and asked that I permit him to go and withdraw cash. I smiled and asked him not to worry that I would pay. I paid with cash. It was just 14,000 Naira. No big deal.
During the movie, we were having a good time. He chipped in one question after another and stayed warm. He was a good conversationalist and that is one of my strongest points of attraction with guys. I love guys who pull very good conversations and I love to have them around. So far, Daniel was scoring more points than any guy I have met in recent times and considered for marriage. He has ticked off about 85% of my checklist and I guess it was still counting.
When the movie was over, we proceeded to Coldstone and I ordered for my three scoops as usual. I asked Daniel which he wanted he smiled,
“Too much sugar. Ice cream is for ladies. Moreover, this my ATM card issue just embarrassed me. Don’t want to put you through much pressure. I appreciate what you already did with the movies and I don’t want to be taking advantage of that.”
I smiled. I appreciated his humble persona. “But I am not complaining. Please go ahead and order. I will take care of it”.