He went looking for her but his highflying beauty with astounding curves was gone. She left with Jim the hunk with the looks of a pop icon. She escaped to a pad out of town. It was an only cure for her heartaches. Stephen had pressed his own self-destruction button. He knew one thing for sure their relationship was on edge. In fact, it is irretrievably broken. She was a goner and left him empty as before. It was his fault. The temptress came flashing her boobs and he fell for it. He strolled down the street in front of her house livid and filled with venom. He could see in his mind’s eye Susan coiling her adorability in the arms of the hunk. He was desperately jealous.

Susan sat distant away from Jim as they sat in the bar over some drink. She was in animal print dress with a plunging neckline, which revealed her youthful-looking cleavage. Her looks set tongues wagging. She did not look like someone whose world was turned upside down by a love rat. Jim the stalker had trailed her for months but she ignored him. Her dream was to have a puppy love with Stephen but now she only sang soulful break-up ballads. ‘It must have been love, but it’s all over now. It must have been good I lost it somehow….’ She was cold to Jim though she accepted his date. Jim had splurged cash on her. He wanted a wild night out but she wanted a getaway from the pains. She believed Stephen when he told her he would look after her forever. He floated her on the cotton clouds but removed himself beneath her when she was not looking.

It was the third day and Susan had still not returned from her secret bolthole. It was out of character for her to stay away from him for that long. The little information he gleaned from a neighbour was not adequate. Jim came for her was all they told him. He was in limbo. None of Susan’s friends was keen to help. They were angry over the raunchy txt message from Brenda. The last moment he spent with Susan kept flashing like a flood. She came to his pad looking like catwalk queen. She was just like the temptress he first met at his mum’s shop. Reluctantly she joined him in his bed when he requested. They had steamy romantic scenes. Susan ripped off her cloths and she was in her black lacy bra and brief. He straddled her and fondled her silkily. She told him for the first time she love him with all her heart.

The light in her room was on finally when he got there. It was after he has made several trips there. He fluttered as he tapped gently on her door. There was no response. He persisted and her voice came ringing; ‘go away I don’t want to see you’. She told him it was over between them. He pleaded and asked her to give him a second chance. There was not another chance for him she screamed. ‘You are a love rat; go away’. He stood at the door pleading then his phone rang. It was from Brenda. He went ballistic. ‘I told you to leave me alone’. He yelled into the phone and hanged up. The phone ranged again and this time Susan heard it. ‘Go back to your hooker’

Stephen was so furious when Brenda was flirting heavily after she ensnared him to the Red Lobsters. Hangover is the wrath of palm fronds an elder once said. There was no need for his rage because he brought it upon himself. The stealth temptress had malicious intentions. She wanted to have a romp with him after their wild night out. Her dress was slashed to the thigh and her body language said it all. She wanted to cap the night with a sleep over in a luxury resort in town. That would be suicidal for Stephen because Susan would find out. He slithered out of the teeming café when the temptress went to the loo. He fled from the ominous peril. He passed Susan’s house to see her and that was the time he found out she was gone. He called but her phone was off. He decided to see her the next morning. The truth was Stephen was so committed to Susan but she thought otherwise.

In the early hours of the next morning, he was at Susan’s pad again and there was no sign of the leggy beauty. As he waited a car pulled up. A gentle looking chap popped out imposingly. He sauntered towards the house and he heard him talked to someone in the foyer. He was so full of himself. He came to the door and Susan let him in. He had stood behind the door for hours but Susan refused to open him. He felt like venting his fury on the imbecile but he kicked against the idea. It would drive Susan into his jagged arms. He heard a giggle as the door cracked in his face. He imagined Susan ripping her cloths and displaying her natural curves to the psychopathic stalker. He was raving mad.

Stephen felt like his life was in ruins. Susan refused to let him off for his treachery. The emissaries he sent returned with tales of woe. She wanted nil contact with him. Meanwhile she was always in the company of Jim who was so besotted with her. He often draped his arms around her curvy waist anytime they walked the streets. Stephen made series of emotional calls to Susan but she ignored all. He became an emotional wreck. He went into fit one evening and he was rushed to the Legon Hospital. The doctor who attended to him booked him for theatre next day after conducting series of test on him. ‘Nil by mouth’ the nurse wrote by his bedside as she attended to him. ‘Susan is toiling with my heart’ was the first statement he uttered when he went on admission. The nurse was bewildered but his mum who kept vigil at his bedside was not. She knew what to do to save her son.

She went to Susan and pleaded with her to visit Stephen. She was more than happy because she was excited to meet him. She carried things too far. All she wanted was to make him desirous. It blew in her face. Stephen became an emotional wreck. She went to the Legon hospital to see him. He was fast asleep and she kept the vigil at his bedside instead of his mum. At a point, she leaned over him and whispered ‘Stephen I love you’. She fell on his chest and shook him gently. Stephen woke up when he felt her woolly body on him. She cradled him in his arms when he came back to life. Flood of tears fell down Stephen’s cheek when he saw Susan by him. He was discharged from the hospital without the surgery.

Stephen had an amazing recovery. The medical staffs were baffled with his miraculous healing. The presence of Susan by his bedside was succour to his sick soul. Calamities they say act as a fibre that bind lovers together. It times of worries they draw strength from each other. It is not often the case though. Some lovers would only stick with you when it is cosy and rosy. When troubles come your way, they click the undo button. Stephens’s ailment brought Susan back to his arms. Brenda the failed stealth temptress jetted abroad and no one heard of her again.

Francis Kwaku Egu, UK kwakuhull@yahoo.com kwakufrancis@blogspot.com