One only gets what they don’t want

By ERIC MARIWA

A deserted house met Simone. It looked as if the last occupant was in a hurry to leave. The sofa set cushions had been thrown about, the TV was still on. And the tap in the kitchen was still running. Suzzane was nowhere near the house. There was eerie silence.

“He moved around the room and saw a note left on top of the TV set,”

“Dear Simone,” it read. “After a lot of soul-searching and deep reflection, I have decided to move on. I couldn’t bear hearing more about your other life.”

It was unsigned, but of course, he knew Suzanne wrote it.

A bachelor, I could feel the hollowness that Simone felt from the reaction of his brother. From my own subjectivity, I knew that a man engaging a woman was a sure sign of wanting to take things to another level. It was a sign of commitment, of wanting a future with the woman.

Double check

What else do women want?  I know I cannot.  From what Sam said, Suzanne’s friends had made her feel that Simone was a serial, unrepentant womaniser. The kind of stories one hears from a friend of a friend and which you need to double check. If not, one, I believe, would have to weigh all that they hear against the reality. 

One. Simone had taken the step that many men my age fear to take; marriage. How many women are in relationships that are headed nowhere and keep hanging on hoping that something will give in?

A rogue bachelor, I knew I was stringing along many women. Each one of them possibly imagines they are the right one. That might not be the case, but that is the cruelty (some call it irony) of life: what you want you don’t get, what you don’t want, you get in plenty. Simone needed commitment from one woman, he got rejection while here I was in need of no commitment and getting it in tonnes. 

My fear was that like all jilted lovers, I included, Simone would despise women and most probably, end up single and dejected forever. His was a heart-wrenching experience. “We have done all we could to offer support to him… he seems to have taken it all in his stride though he looks a little destructed at times, but he is in great shape then we ever feared.”

“So what happened to Suzanne?” I asked Sam sheepishly.

“Still single and searching.”

Apparently, after reaching out to her for a solution, Simone decided to apply the breaks three months later and get on with life. Unfortunately, that was about the time that it dawned on Suzanne that Simone was honest. But it was too late. Beyond salvage.