Naomi loved attention from a young age. Maybe it was the fact that she was born in a large family and felt like she wasn’t attended to as much. Or maybe it was just a habit that she had cultivated as the years passed. She carried it on with her, from high school when she would get in trouble all the time, to university where she would openly crave attention from people. The thing is, she did get all this attention. Everyone loved her and everyone wanted to be associated with her.
While Naomi was in university, she had met this guy. He was everything she ever wanted and it looked like they were couple goals. They spent most of their time together and even chose their classes together. However, two years down the line they broke up because he had allegedly found that she was cheating. At the time it was merely a rumour that went around the campus. They had been together for so long that once they broke up none of them knew where to start. They soon realized that while they had spent so much time together, they forgot to make other friends. This meant that they had to start from scratch, and eventually, they managed to do so. Naomi was enjoying her single life in university. In fact, she found that more and more men were interested in her, and she loved it.
When she started working, she carried this attention-seeking trait with her. Men from all departments would nearly fight to take her out. It was one of those traits that you observe from far that she had carried with her for a while. Naomi, however, was very discreet. It was hard to tell exactly what was going on in her life. She was very friendly with everyone so knowing which one was her lover was quite hard. However, there was one man who everyone suspected was the one. Most times they would leave the office together at the end of the day, and no one knew where they went. It soon became clear that they were together because he started to visit her in her office quite often. One by one, all the other men in her life started to disappear.
One day Naomi confided in someone that she was in two relationships, and like most secrets, this one stopped being one as soon as it was shared. The person spread the rumour and within a week everyone knew about it. In fact, her office boyfriend had even tried to confront her, but because he had no evidence he decided to let it go. They were back together within no time.
About a month later, and specifically on Valentine’s Day, a huge bouquet of flowers had been delivered to the office. It was accompanied by wine and chocolates. There was also a note attached as to whom it belonged to. When Naomi got the gift, however, she didn’t seem too excited. It was as though she was hiding something. She was hiding the flowers in a cupboard in the office when her boyfriend walked in.
“Whose flowers are those?” He asked.
She had been caught red-handed and she thought that there was no running away from this one.
“Hi, actually they’re for a colleague. I’ve been asked to put them away quickly so that they can be a surprise.” She responded quickly. However, it was her eyes that betrayed her, because she looked extremely suspicious.
The man went ahead to kiss her on the forehead, and then he noticed a piece of paper on the ground. It was clear that this note had dropped from the basket of flowers. The man picked up the paper.
“Looks like you dropped something here,” he said.
“Yeah, uhh…” She said hesitantly.
He opened the piece of paper and read it out loud, “Dear Naomi…I love you not just today but every single day.”
“It’s not like that. He’s just an admirer…” she responded.
“An admirer, who loves you not just today but every day?” He said angrily.
He was so angry that he stormed off with that piece of paper, and she didn’t see the need of following him.
One afternoon, months after this incident, Naomi got a text from him asking if they could meet and work things out. She was quite excited, seeing as she had ended things with the other man. They organized a day, place and time. It was one of her favourite restaurants and this made her think that they would reconcile and get back together. That day, she left work pretty early so that she could be in time for the date. She went home and changed her dress to a red sequin one with a high slit and a low cleavage. She looked beautiful.
She drove to the restaurant and despite all the traffic, she was on time. She called him to ask him where he was, and he directed her to the booth at the end of the restaurant. When she walked in she saw him. He was seated with someone else who was facing the other direction. She wondered who the other man could be.
When she reached, he stood up and moved a little bit closer to her and hugged her.
“Hi, I would like you to meet my friend from campus, Tom,” He said smiling wickedly.
When she turned to say hi, she realized that he was her Tom. She tried playing it cool by saying hi to him and acting as though she knew nothing but soon discovered that her secret had been discovered.
“Hello Tom, nice to meet you,” she responded.
“Nice to meet me? Tell him the truth. Tell him we’ve been together for two years,” he said.
She walked out of the restaurant seeing as they had caused commotion and people were starting to stare.
“You liar! Get the hell out of here,” she heard as she was leaving.
She started to cry when she realized that she had trapped herself.
Here are more stories from The Singlehood Series:
The Singlehood Series: I found the other woman driving my car
The Singlehood Series: The shy office guy turned out to be a possessive lover
I Caused A Scene At A Party Because I Couldn’t Take My Boyfriend’s Cheating Anymore
I Found Out He Was Cheating Because He Double Booked Us To Visit Him One Particular Weekend
He Found Out His Girlfriend Was Cheating While He Was At A Concert
