HOW NERDS FALL IN LOVE

‘Havila’ was an exotic location that opened recently on our street. To Grey, she felt like her little street didn’t deserve it, it was way too glam for the potholes that were at every ten meters, some so large, it felt impossible for cars to survive. 

Yet, this was Nigeria, there were always ways to survive. A street led directly to Havila, a pass through the potholes of Grey’s street, Havila serving as a midway. 

This is why David, the guy she met online, had asked them to meet there. She had made a comment about a book on a book club, and he attacked her on her ideologies. It was an onslaught, a messy one where everyone left them to it for three hours before he came to her DM with the statement, ‘If you agree with person, you go die?!’

She had replied to his message with an emoji, and then he had sent another, and she sent another and that was how they had an emoji war before she typed, ‘why do you like trouble?!’. It didn’t take long before she saved his number, perusing through his status once in a while and saying nothing while he kept a vivid watch on every of her status with an intent to drag her on it. 

The day before, he had asked on his status if someone had a copy of a book he was having a hard time finding.  Grey had the hardcopy, and although she avoided most of any thing that concerned him, she couldn’t ignore a book request. Someone had to appreciate her collection on her shelf.

‘I have the hardcopy’, she told him, and that was how he made arrangements on getting it with a collateral of five thousand naira till he returned it. 

The ice cream and meat pie sat in front of them, a grim smile on Grey's face, the red paperback placed in the middle, her keys to her side while David kept typing on his phone. He hadn’t ordered for anything. 

Grey coughed, and he looked at her, kept his phone on the table and looked at the book.

‘They said this is one of her worst books’

‘Excuse me!’, her eyes squinting at him, like Havila had a power outage. 

‘It’s one of her worst books. I have read the critics’

‘You haven’t even read the book’, her eyes rolled as she picked her keys and gave him a snide look. 

‘I have read three of her books'

‘Have you read this book?’, she pointed at it, her index finger rubbing the edge. 

‘No. But I hav-'

‘It is not the same thing!’

He looked at her with dull eyes, like he knew something she would never know. ‘How many of her books have you read?’

‘Two!’, she hated that arrogant look he had on him.

‘Two? She has fifteen books-and I have read seven’, he smirked at her. 

‘So?’, she kept her eyes on the book

‘So you argue on the group because you can’

She gritted at him, ‘Because you say rubbish, that’s why’

‘Where is the rubbish?’, he winged his arm and a glint of excitement flashed on those dull eyes, his crisp white collar looking blunt as he kept his hands on the table. ‘It’s true, Gretha was just a strong-headed feminist that got what was coming to her’.

‘How would you know that, you read just seven chapters!’

‘Because the book was rubbish’

‘You’re a misogynist. You can’t seem to see anything else’

He sneered and bluffed at her, ‘That’s what ladies say when someone tells them the truth. That’s what Andrea was trying to her, that she was being unreasonable. She wouldn’t have died if she had listened to Andrea’

‘Andrea was seeking to control her’

‘He was trying to protect her’, he used the tip of his finger to hit the sheen round table. 

‘She didn’t need him to protect her, she could protect herself’

He sighed and made a face at her before saying, ‘oh well, we saw how that went’.

‘I don’t understand how you read the book, that book was rated among the top 100 books for the summer of 2020’

‘Oh please, they rate books for a lot of reasons, it doesn’t include sensibility most of the time’

She looked at him for a moment that he had to ask her why.

‘You! I wonder how your girlfriend lives with you’

‘Why?’, he grinned at her, his black eyes glinting and his jaw set. He wasn’t that bad in the look department, Grey thought of her first impression of him, but with that square position he assumed, it was hard not to see that he could be someone's fantasy, but not hers’. ‘Do you want to be my girlfriend?’

‘Me?! I would poison you!’, she looked outside, noting the sun was setting down and then she looked back at him with a firm determination. 

‘Because I argue too much?’

‘We hardly see eye to eye on anything!’

‘And so?’

‘And so?!’, not knowing what exactly he was pointing out. 

‘Because we don’t see eye to eye on subjects matter on books doesn’t make me a good boyfriend?’.

Her mouth drew a thin line as she looked at him, ‘It is not only on book matters’.

‘Don’t act as if you don’t like argument more than me'

‘Your own is too muchhhhh!’, she grabbed her book. 

‘Where are you taking that to?’

‘Home! You don’t deserve it’ 

‘I paid transport all the way from work to come get it, and you are telling me I don’t deserve it?’

‘You just said it’s the worst’, she gave him an even look, ‘and this is my favorite book’

He had this laid back look as he smirked at her, ‘Then you have a terrible taste in books’. 

She stood up to leave, ‘I agree, go and find the book by yourself’, she turned to leave as he stood up hurriedly and blocked her way, his hands outstretched to the book. 

‘I am just stating what I think’

‘Guy you’re –you think too much’

He smiled at her warmly, ‘So do you’ and then he looked at her, ‘that’s why I like you’. He coughed and smile, ‘and  because we both like Sophia’s Carlson books’. 

He is cute, Grey thought and then she sat down, more because his voice was intent on making her believe he liked her. 

‘You and your girlfriend would have some kind of relationship’. 

He smiled at her. 

He is cute, Grey thought once more.