Funke had thought a lot about how her dinner with Toni was going to end, and it certainly wasn't close to how the dinner actually ended.
Toni just broke up with her.
Toni, the love of her life, soulmate, best friend, and future life partner, just ended their over ten years relationship because he thinks he's gay.
Sitting on her dinner table and replaying her conversation with Toni while staring at his empty seat was all she could do right now. She glanced at her plate, which was almost empty and consoled her already murdered appetite.
"I have something to tell you" was what Toni said immediately they sat down at their dinner table in the most fancy Benin restaurant they could find.
"You didn't say anything on the way here or at my apartment before we left." If she was being really honest, she was expecting something like that but not so early in the year. Oh God, is he about to propose?
A waiter came to take their order, and a perplexed Funke ordered for she and Toni. She always ordered for him on every date they went for.
"I don't know what is wrong with me and I don't want to hold you back because of my own fucked up life. You deserve better Arike, and I'm mentally not there right now. You might have noticed I haven't really been around lately but it's way bigger than what you can take right now"
He was breaking up with her.
Funke said nothing.
"Arike" Toni said. She hated that name as a teenager because it sounded so local and annoying. On one of their first dates as secondary students, she told him all her names and He kept repeating Arike because she said she hated it.
"I love the name, I wish I was named Arike. Stop taking such a beautiful name for granted, " he had said. He looked at her and smiled. She couldn't explain what she felt anytime she saw him smile, so she smiled back, and from that day, she was Arike only to Toni and Funke to the rest of the world.
He made her love it so much that she made it her first name. She officially hated that name again.
"Don't call me that." she could feel the tears that were threatening to burst out.
"Babe,I'm just taking a break, okay? I still love you, but i just need to think and get my shit together. " Toni watched Funke from where he sat as she silently picked her food that the waiter had kindly dropped. She said nothing.
"Say something, please," he pleaded.
"What do you want me to say, Toni? We've been through worse, just tell me what's wrong, and we'll solve it together. " she wanted so much to wake up from this nightmare that was reality.
"I think I'm gay Abike." Toni tried so much to not look at her, but he eventually did, and what he saw made him look away once more.
Funke opened her mouth to say something, but nothing seemed to be coming out.
"I know it's a lot to take in, but I just realised it too." Anybody with two eyes would have seen how uncomfortable Toni was, but funke's eyes were blinded with tears.
"You're Gay, you do realise this is Nigeria and not some fairytale land or fucking America because you're not making any sense right now" She just couldn't understand how he was gay living in a country where homosexuality was illegal and very much frowned on.
"I don't expect you to understand Funke." his hands were on his face now. He hated having to do this to her.
"Well, seeing that we've been dating for ten years now and you haven't been gay all this time and finally when I'm expecting a proposal you come up with this bullshit I don't even want to understand" Funke was getting frustrated now and it was messing up her appetite.
Toni looked at Funke. The conversation wasn't going anywhere, and he was already drained and just needed to lie down. He stood and started to leave their table. Funke replayed how she would have loved to react at his departure, considering that she had just watched his departing ass for some time before staring a long time at the food she no longer had any appetite for.
with tears in her eyes, she snapped out of her trance and saw a man across the restaurant like two tables away kneel in front of his date and pull out a ring box. She wanted to start crying all over again. Great, I'm imagining things now. Funke thought to herself.
With wide eyes, she also watched as the lady he was proposing to completely ignore his proposal, told him off, and walked out. What Irony. She would gladly exchange places with the lady if she were given the chance.
"This is definitely not my imagination," funke said out loud to herself. She watched the man alone on his table. Everyone else had lost interest in the drama and were focused on their own dates, simply chatting, laughing, and minding their business. She felt sorry for the awestruck, handsome young man.
The next thing she knew, she was walking towards a rejected man's table. This restaurant was bad luck when it came to love.