The Red Lipstick

Hello.
Thanks for stopping by. This is ‘The Red Lipstick’ series that has been following the life of two close friends as they find love and all its accompanying drama. Do read Episode 1 and Episode 2 to catch up on the story so far.

It is written by @deolaaa and myself.
This is Episode 3. Enjoy.
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Reni and Tolu both got back from the hospital and fell into the couch, tired and bemused.

It had been such a bewildering month for both of them and with the doctor confirming the pregnancy, they could finally plan on a next step.

“You have to tell segun”, Reni blurted out. “Since he is the father he has every right to know he has got his life in you before you do anything stupid”, she added.

“I have called him up a couple of times and he’s been ignoring me. There’s very little I can do to change his mind”, tolu responded.

“I’m really glad you have been by my side all this while and I feel bad for not listening to you at the onset of all this wahala” she added.

Deep down, Reni had more worrying issues, she had seen Muyiwa off to the airport 8days ago. They had made solemn promises to try as much as possible to keep their relationship and not to just blame ‘Long distance’ and then break-up.

Muyiwa seemed keen on this and said, “I have never met anyone like you and I would be stupid to let you go, I would do all I can to get you with me as soon as possible” along with some deep hugs and kisses as they bade each other goodbye. Reni believed him. Apart from the fact that he was a man of his words, she could see the sincerity in his eyes.

Eight days on and he had only sent a text saying “arrived safely, yet to settle, once I do, will call. Miss you R. XoXo”. She missed him, she was lonely, she yearned for his arms where she could just feel secure.

She had faith.

She needed tonnes of it. She had not been able to tell Tolu how Muyiwa’s being away affected her because of the pregnancy issue.

“RENI…..RENI…RENI..”, she finally snapped out of her trance to see her best friend shouting her name and handing her phone over to her.

It was ringing.

“Or are you cheating too? With a private number calling you?” Tolu said sarcastically with a semi-smile.

“Hello”, reni answered and as soon as the voice answered even tolu could feel the relief from reni all the way across the room. It was definitely Muyiwa.

He finally called.
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Reni couldn’t sleep all night as she wondered what else could have gone wrong in the last couple of months.

Firstly, tolu aborted the baby. “If Segun won’t take the baby, and Deji is also a twat, why should I put myself through torture, for Nothing?”, she said. So she had followed her when the baby was 7weeks and they had it aborted.

The procedure was easy. Apart from the slight pain she felt when she walked, nothing gave her abortion away.

Reni was laying her bed one day when her phone rang. She was startled to see Segun as the caller.

He had not spoken to any of them since the incidence. Many thoughts raced through her mind. She picked the call and heard the familiar croaky “hello” at the other end.

After exchanging pleasantries, Segun said “I miss her and if she’s ready to just admit her wrongs and promises to do right by me and be honest with me, we can work things out”.

“Who?”, Reni asked foolishly.

That was an unnecessary question, she thought. But then, she was too surprised to think straight.

He laughed, getting the sarcastic tone of her question and just before he hung up, said “be kind enough to deliver my message”.

On another day, this would have been a welcome move but the whole pregnancy debacle had made things a bit difficult.

As soon as tolu got back, reni told her what segun had said and how he sounded sincere.

Tolu called him up and they decided to go have lunch and just chat. This time though, she was going to tell him EVERYTHING.

Meanwhile, Reni had been going through her own problems as well. The distance between her and muyiwa and his apparent lack of time to talk to her and be there for her had her going bunkers.

She was lonely.

She went to the supermarket that evening to get her pad and some chocolates that she had been craving all week. She suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder, turned round and in her amazement, she saw Diran, Her EX.

For all the pain he had put her through, she thought she’d be angry but alas, she was happy to see him and they chatted, had a few laughs and exchanged numbers and he promised to call her soon.

She went home, praying muyiwa will call her but as expected he didn’t and all week he sent one text.

“One flimsy text?!?”, she thought loudly to herself.

She was beginning to get tired of the situation and just at that point in time, her phone rang and it was Diran.
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It had been 4 weeks since she and diran had been hanging out albeit intermittently. She felt bad every time they did as she couldn’t tell muyiwa, but his apparent disillusion made this an easy choice for her. She still loved muyiwa dearly and didn’t want to hurt him but she was bored and found diran a happy person she could chill with.

She had gotten over him.

Or so she thought until he dropped her off one night and in between their conversation he leaned in and planted a kiss on her lips. “I have a boyfriend, I cannot be doing this”, she said as dropped from his car with a faint goodbye.

Unfortunately, Muyiwa called that very night. She had barely come to terms with all the emotions ‘that’ kiss had her feeling and he sensed something was wrong. After a little while, she told him she kissed someone earlier and she was sorry but she couldn’t lie to him. He would have been pissed but her honesty toned that down and he ignored it and had a long chat with her, knowing his incommunicado had been partly to blame for her longing to be with someone.

As soon as the conversation ended, muyiwa could barely think properly. He loved reni so much and didn’t want her to feel guilty for something that he might be the cause off.

He pondered ALL NIGHT LONG.

Reni woke up the next morning and saw a text on her phone
“I love you way too much to see you hurting and lonely, cannot guarantee I would be able to always be there for you. I feel its best we move on and you find someone that will be there for you at ALL times. You remain my little sweetie. Xoxo”.

It was from Muyiwa.

She could have sworn she fainted and came back to life.

For one reason or the other, she just knew she didn’t want to have the relationship Back. She had to face the fact that long distance wasn’t working between them.

She cried for weeks and Tolu who was still recovering herself had to comfort her. They were both miserable.
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Meanwhile tolu had gone to see segun and they had lunch and discussed the happenings of the last 5months.
She went on and on about how she only kissed the other guy and was sorry for all her mistakes, but she was also pained that it took him this long to finally talk to her.

“I feel like you never trusted me”, she said.

“I was really angry with you and wanted to clear my….” But before he could finish she interrupted and said “I got pregnant and I’m 100% certain it was yours”.

He wanted to smile but then the ‘was’ hit him and he asked “what happened to the baby?”

She said “I wasn’t sure what to do with it and since you never responded I had to abort it”.

He just stood up and walked out and didn’t say a word to her.

He had had enough. He couldn’t cope with this. It was too much.

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So there they were, Lost, lonely, without men in their lives.

And they couldn’t blame anyone for it this time.

They only had themselves now.

“No more guys”, Tolu said as she pulled her friend’s cheek.

“Yes. No more”, Reni muttered, staring into space.

A few weeks later, she was over muyiwa, they still exchanged text messages every now and then and he even called but she knew she was ready to move on. She loved him but had to let him go.

And just then, diran popped into her head again and flashes of that night came back.

She had kissed him back that day, liked it but wouldn’t admit to herself until now.

He called for the 13th time and she didn’t pick up but her resolve couldn’t last any longer.

He had something about him she couldn’t refuse.

She ran a lot through her mind if he was worth going back to?

If she could deal with another heartbreak yet again?

I’ll break his heart this time around, she thought. It’s going to be really unserious and I’ll have my revenge for what he did to me the last time.

“I’ll go for it”, she told Tolu in a determined voice.
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What do you do if you were in either Reni’s or Tolu’s shoes?

Do leave feedback for us using the comment box.

Don’t forget that The Red Lipstick continues next wednesday.

Cheers.