What do you do when your boyfriend asks that you return all the gifts he ever sent you?
Aisha was a lovely soul. Soft-spoken, and with a beautiful heart. She was never one to disappoint anyone. She was kind and with a sweet soul. When she found love, her friends couldn’t help but be excited for her. She deserved it. The universe was finally sending her back all the good things that she deserved.
Aisha and Hillary were both in university at the time, yet he went above and beyond to please her. He would finish school and take three matatus just to see her. Though he didn’t have much money, he made sure that they went on enough dates. He was a lovely man, but so are all men at the start of relationships.
The day he asked her out, they went on a picnic, overlooking a beautiful pond in Nairobi. He had ordered take-out and bought her flowers. He made sure to carry his guitar so that he could serenade her. Then, just as the sun was setting, he confessed his love.
“We have been going on dates for a month now, but now I want more. You are so beautiful and I love spending time with you. I want to be with you forever,” he said.
He then opened a box of cupcakes which each had a word on top – Will you be my girlfriend?
Aisha stood there and blushed, in a way that she couldn’t conceal. Then finally, she nodded in agreement and they embraced each other.
The relationship was rosy at first. It was date after date, and her friends watched in admiration wondering if they would ever get there. Hillary had proven to be good, and so far, Aisha had no complaints.
Then eventually Aisha noticed that the dates they would go on had reduced. Most times, they would spend time together only when a friend had invited them over to drink. They spent their weekends over-indulging in alcohol, and their weekdays regretting it. It was standard procedure.
One day, after Hillary had drunk himself silly and passed out, Aisha took his phone to call an Uber home. She was exhausted. She had to run errands and she needed to start on her project work the following day.
Something drew her to his text messages, and she was shocked beyond words. She went snooping, and well, she found what she was looking for.
There was a list of different girls, some proclaiming their love for him. She was drawn to this one girl Angela, who happened to be her close friend. Angela and Hilary had been flirting and he had asked her out on a date. She started crying, almost instantly. Then she woke up, went and threw the phone in Hillary’s face, and left. She blocked him everywhere.
It had been three weeks since they had last spoken. Aisha didn’t know what or who to believe anymore. If her friend could betray her in that way, who could she trust?
Aisha was at home one day when she received a call from a strange number. Since she had started to apply for internships, strange calls gave her some little excitement.
“Hello,” she said. When the person on the other end of the line answered she instantly knew that it was him.
“I’d like my things back. All the gifts I ever sent you. Someone somewhere might make better use of them,” he said.
She hang up on him, shocked. How petty could a human being be? How wasn’t he remorseful for all that he had done to her? For a while she stared at the phone, shocked, but knowing exactly what needed to be done – to reciprocate the pettiness.
She pulled an empty box from the pantry, stuffed it with old newspapers, wrapped it in some cute paper that had love hearts drawn on it, and called a rider. She wrote his name on a piece of paper and glued it to the box.
The rider came, and she sent the box to him. He informed her that he had arrived and delivered the box, and she paid for the fees.
She never heard from Hillary again. As for her friend Angela, well, that was the end of their friendship. She still sees them together sometimes, looking all lovey-dovey. It took a long time, but she thinks she is finally at peace
