Red Flag District S2.

KUNLE’S P.O.V:

Weddings made people sentimental.

I had forgotten that.

Not because I had become cynical about marriage. Quite the opposite. I liked being married.

Most days, I preferred it to the alternative. There was something deeply inefficient about dating that I did not miss. The endless interpretation.

What does this mean?

Where is this going?

Should I call?

Should I not call?

Is she upset?

Why is she saying “nothing” when clearly something has happened?

Marriage removed at least some of that uncertainty. At least, mine had. Adaora and I knew each other. There was comfort in that.

History.

Rhythm.

The kind of familiarity that meant I did not have to ask how she took her coffee or whether she wanted the air conditioner colder.

I knew her.

She knew me.

That mattered.

So when I stood beside Tunde at the altar and watched him lose all his usual composure because Lamide had entered the chapel, I understood why everybody was emotional.

I was happy for him.

Genuinely.

I also knew there would come a day when he would stop staring at Lamide like this every time she entered a room.

That was not a bad thing.

People liked to talk about the beginning of love as though maintaining the intensity of the beginning was the goal.

It was not.

Nobody could live there permanently.

Real life required bills.

Children.

Sickness.

Deadlines.

Family.

School fees.

Plumbing.

Traffic.

There was a kind of love that came after fascination.

Quieter.

Less cinematic.

More useful.

This is what marriage was supposed to become.

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