Marriage: The Bonding Ritual
Daniel dragged his feet across the room. He wasn’t surprised by the silence that greeted him, neither was the pile of dirty clothes lying aimlessly in his room a concern. He promised himself he will get to them tomorrow.
He wasn’t a disorderly person, in fact, he was quite the opposite. He grew up to become the last child of his parents. Surrounded by three loving sisters, who raised him to be a well-mannered young man. Of course, his parents trained him better, only that, they were hardly around.
He basically grew up around the girls and though it has its bad days, he sure does enjoy the perks that comes with being the only boy in the family. He helped out with dishes, laundry, and maintenance of little things around the house. He grew up learning and knowing the worth of a woman.
Sophia tagged herself the luckiest woman alive when Daniel knelt down in a classy restaurant outside of Lagos, asking for her hand in marriage. She moved into his house shortly after the proposal and things were rosy and fun for the first month.
It all started with a canceled date night, due to his business meetings and sometimes exhaustion from a very stressful day. He always promises to make it up to her, but things begin to turn sour in their relationship. Most times she complains, and he always comes with the excuse of being busy at work and trying to put food on their table.
He started having excuses to hang out more with his friends just to escape from her nagging. He stays out late either at work or has a fun weekend with his friends. He got home to an empty house one weekend and was met with a note from Sophia asking that they call off their wedding plans.
He called to reason with her and all she could say sounded like nagging to him. At first, he felt hurt, and then he gradually became distant to everything. Always distracted at work, and staying up all night reminiscing about his days with Sophia.
He slumped on the bed, going through his phone and swiping at pictures of them together. Each picture has a beautiful memory attached to it. He flipped back to his messages and read through all their previous chat. Soon, he got to the bad part where he started canceling on dates, announcing late about his late night at work. And flimsy excuses he gave just to hang out with his friends.
He strolled through his contact and put her contact on a call. Praying silently that she picks up. On the fourth ring, she picked and he begged them to talk. She agrees they meet at Derios, their first venue of the date.
He met her sitting already and he felt his heart race faster as he saw her face beam with a smile. His words stuck on his lips and he had to compose himself.
“Sophia, the past few weeks have been hell without you and I can’t imagine myself existing without you”. He started.
” Memories of the night outside, gazing at the stars while we both talked about our dreams. Or the cold days we dance In the rain, giggling like little kids that have found happiness in a new toy”.
“Seeing us drifting apart breaks me into pieces and it also makes me know that I love you more than I let on. I know I’ve been detached from my feelings but I promise to make it up to you this time”.
“I guess I got cold feet before our wedding, but now I’m sure that marriage isn’t about being husband and wife alone. It is also about the bond we are going to create that will last more than a lifetime”.
She pulled him closer and kissed him on the lips, and whispered. ” I love you.” to him. He grabs her hand and they both walk out to watch the stars and talk about how to make things better.