Men want to be like him, women want to be with him. Ebuka Okeke was a specimen of perfection, at least in the things people claimed were important. He had money, he was handsome, and he was popular. He was the personal fitness trainer, barber, and fashion stylist to the Executive Governor of Enugu State.

If you viewed Ebuka’s life as an outsider, you would call him blessed, not just because of his financial status and affluence, but because he always succeeded at everything he did. From graduating as the best student in his primary school, up till he obtained his Masters in Business Administration; to getting a business grant from the Tony Elumelu Foundation to start his business, it would seem that everything Ebuka touched turned to gold.

Ebuka owned the biggest unisex beauty salon and gym in Enugu State. He recorded hundreds of clients daily, with a staff strength of forty people working for him at Ebuka’s Beauty and Fitness home.

As he sat by his desk with a smile, musing about the business expansion plan he had just concluded with his senior team members, you would assume that he was happy, but the truth was that he couldn’t find it in him to be happy anymore.

For a while, he had been forcing it. Trying to appear like he had life figured out, and everything was perfect, keeping up the appearance of a satisfied life. However, times like now, when he stayed back alone in his office or room, he sighed. Starting a restaurant arm as a way of expanding the business, was not going to dull the ache of loneliness this time.

Success had always been Ebuka’s strategy, whenever he felt alone, or afraid. Even as a child, no one needed to tell him to pick up his books and study his educational materials. This kept him top of his class, and gave him friends. In business, his solution was expansion; adding a new arm to the business, buying the next building to create an extension arm, but none of that was working anymore.

The plan to start this restaurant didn’t even make him excited, the work didn’t distract him. What he wanted more than anything was a wife.

God was also clear on the matter, he had said that the next important assignment for Ebuka was to get married and start a family. The only challenge was who to marry!

Women flocked around him, he had options. However, too many options  confused him, especially because he didn’t want to make his father’s mistake. In fact, his biggest prayer has always been not to marry a woman like his mother. She left when he was only five years old, because his father lost his job a few years after Ebuka was born. According to his father, she had refused to have a child after Ebuka because she didn’t want another liability to tie her down if things didn’t look better for him. They got married because she loved that he had a good government job. He married her because she was beautiful and all his friends wanted her. It didn’t work out. Their motives had both been wrong. 

Growing up, Ebuka watched his father navigate life as a lonely man. He refused to marry again, so Ebuka didn’t have a mother or  siblings, and this made him lonely too. At 34 years, despite all his success, he was still lonely.

The intercom from his secretary distracted him from his thoughts.

“Sir, the chef you invited for a meeting wants to confirm if she should come by 4pm today.” Chinelo said.

Ebuka mused for a few seconds, then replied.

“I am going home early, tell her to come tomorrow by noon. Thanks.” he said, then rose to go and do an inspection across all the departments before leaving.

However, before he could end the call, Chinelo said “Aunty Gladys is here, she is coming into your office now.”

Ebuka looked up to see Gladys strutting in elegantly, full of smiles. He smiled back at her, then went to the fridge to get a drink. With Gladys here, he knew he was neither going to be able to do his rounds nor go home anytime soon. She loved to talk, he loved to listen to her.

“Is my sister the chef you just cancelled on?” Gladys asked, sitting on Ebuka’s executive chair and putting her legs on the table as though she owned the place.

“I believe she is the one, since that is the only person we are considering for the role.” Ebuka said, and Gladys smiled, loving the assurance.

“You won’t regret it. Ada Grace is the best person for the job, cooking is a ministry to her. Besides, you will be helping me out. She just asked to borrow money that I know she can never return, and I am not about to become her sponsor. She needs to make her own money.”

Ebuka smiled. “In one breath, you are the loving sister. In another, you are the unkind one.”

Gladys rolled her eyes.

“Just because I don’t want her and her son to leech on me, doesn’t make me unkind. I am ensuring she gets a job here, that’s enough.”

Ebuka laughed. Gladys was the bluntest person he had ever met. She always said things as she meant them, but she was also a kind person, despite the facade she put up as a hard girl. If it was someone else that proposed that he hired someone without putting out a notice to recruit properly, he would have turned it down. However, Gladys would never mess up his business just to favour her family. They had met in senior secondary school and had been best friends since then, even though he was three years older and two classes ahead of her. It was her older sister, Ada, that was in his class, but they rarely ever spoke. 

There were times when Ebuka considered asking Gladys out to start a relationship with him, but there was always some other guy for her, or some other girl for him. Beyond that, he also never felt a deep attraction. It was simply friendship.

“I am getting married.” Gladys said, and it hit him like a brick, so out of the blue.

“What?” Ebuka said, before he could think of a better answer.

“We all cannot be fine with staying single forever. Since you are blind towards me as a woman, and have refused to see me, I am grateful another man has.” Gladys said, as she put her leg away from his table and took the drink he placed on it.

“You wanted me to marry you?” Ebuka asked, surprised about her statement. Gladys had always treated him like one of her girlfriends.

“Not anymore. I have moved on from you, as you can clearly see the ring on my finger.” she said and raised her hands for him to see.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Ebuka queried, observing the beautiful ring.

“I know you won’t ask me if God doesn’t tell you.”

“But I have dated many girls, who…”

Gladys didn’t let him finish.

“Girls who you couldn’t marry. Girls who didn’t work out for you. I would rather be the one for you, not just one of the girls you were trying out, while figuring out who God has for you.”

Ebuka smiled.

“I would rather you were with the one that God wants you to be with. Are you with him? Is that who you agreed to marry?” he asked, ignoring her own observation about him.

Gladys rolled her eyes, and rose.

“You are too deep. This is why I hate telling you important things.”

Ebuka smiled.

“Gladys, marriage is important. It requires deepness.”

“Well, I am thirty one, my biological clock is ticking. I need to marry and I have found a man who is deep enough to want me forever. There is no way I am saying no to that.”

“I am thirty four, my biological clock is ticking too. Yet, I am committed and willing to wait, till…”

Gladys rolled her eyes, and Ebuka stopped talking. He knew she was irritated.

“I came here for a celebration, and not a lecture. You had your chance to be the right man for me, but you never took it.”

“Maybe because I don’t  remember you ever being single.” Ebuka said, irritated too.

“What does it matter? Do you honestly think I wouldn’t have left whoever I was with for you?”

Ebuka sighed frustratedly, wondering how the conversation escalated to this point.

“Congratulations Gladys!” he finally mustered, but she simply glowered and left.

‘What exactly does she want from me?’ He thought, then waved it away. It was Gladys. She always had something to be angry about, but would feel better soon.