“Mike, as he later introduced himself was a very successful businessman and he was flattered to be chatted up by me. I was a fresh graduate but looking for a salaried job was the furtherest thing on my mind. Even as an undergraduate, I’d built a very impressive clientèle of men who found my type of beauty alluring.

He’d decided to re-decorate his living room and I’d recommended the carpenter I’ve used for decades. He  was quite impressed by the end products and asked me over for a preview. The couch was particularly impressive and as we both bounced on it, playfully toying with the idea of testing it for comfort, the doorbell shrieked.

What could be going on? Have the security men been tied up? Killed even? “Help!” I shrieked a voice I recognised so well, “Candy, open the door! It’s me, Ronke. I was out of bed like a shot. What demon could possess her to leave her house at this hour of the night.

That he led a complete separate life from his wife’s, that they had their own areas of the sprawling house they lived in because he couldn’t get over the fact that his wife cheated. As a matter of face, he said he had his suspicion the affair was not over yet.

Why are today’s young women so carried away with having fun and experimenting with sex that they scarcely give a thought to getting married?  Those that are lucky to walk down the aisle do it haphazardly. The slightest marital problems they have, their bags are packed, ready to look for greener pastures by eagerly joining their footloose and fancy free friends.

“I told him I was fine. That I didn’t live that far and that I’d often seen myself home from Lizzy’s house at hours later than this.  But he wouldn’t back down. `You can’t be too careful’, he insisted, finishing his beer. He then hugged Lizzy goodnight and followed me out of the door. 

Peace was scared to stay in the house all alone at night, so the husband begged Farida to take her n. She would run the business by day but come to Farida’s at night, just to sleep.  Unfortunately, Farida;s boys quarters were occupied as well as the guest room.

“How was it”, I asked awkwardly. “Great,” he said. ‘Can we do it again this week?’ Lured by money, I agreed. I was just glad it was over. Three days later, I saw him again and this time, it was easier.  I got to know him better, he started coming to my house.

“Ajoke is pregnant,” she said bursting into tears. I guessed it was bad enough that her husband got Ajoke pregnant whilst she was in their home parading as his close relation but for her to be pregnant again less than a year after her first son must have sent Vivian round the bend. I said as little as possible. Let her work through her hurt before I gave her whatever advice I could.

As she left the consulting room, we arranged to meet up and exchanged numbers. I really don’t often look forward to these “do you remember when” moments and seldom hook up with past acquaintances I meet up casually but was pleased when Thelma got in touch, she was having a little get-together at her place and invited me over. I was glad to take up her offer.

I wanted to know how things were with his wife and he told me they stayed together that long because of their daughter. That it was time for him to move on. A lot of my friends, especially the ones at the club were skeptical about our relationship because of the short time between the end of Kayode’s marriage and the start of our relationship.

“My second marriage lasted 14 years, and our only child was born after a year of our getting married. We were happy for the first eight years, but he was always away on business, and had just discovered the joy of playing golf – so most of his spare time went into his new-found game.

A suave gentleman with a good job and a nice to-die-for pad, he believed it wouldn’t be an effort to meet a partner when he was good and ready to settle down. He recently hit 40, and a dad to an adorable son whose mother doesn’t want to get married! “I couldn’t really believe it when she told me”, Joseph said, scandalised. “I was too old for her? Too old?

MUSTAPHA and Adun had been married for over 15 years and had four children when Adun said she began to notice personality changes in her husband. Mustapha, a seasoned banker, got a plum general manager’s job in a relatively new merchant bank some few years ago and since then, money problems became a thing of the past.

KOLAPO who is a very close relative, is not your usual run-of-the mill bum. A brilliant mechanical engineer, he has a well paid job and, until recently, didn’t give a boot about putting down roots. By age 38, he’d had more relationships than he’d had clean clothes and most of them with women a reputable professional wouldn’t be seen dead with.