You confirm the eguisi soup tastes delicious, when you put a little on your palm and wipe it with your tongue. You nod approvingly ,it is exactly the way Moses likes it_not oily and not spicy.

You believe this dinner will reconcile the quarrel you both had before he left for his exhausting lecturing job at the state university. As you watched him, his tie not properly knotted and his thick afro hair not combed, you wished you had not checked his phone while he sang terribly to the song being played on the radio that morning.

But you couldn’t help it when the phone beeped and curiosity made you picked it up without thinking. You saw the WhatsApp message that will pollute the peaceful atmosphere that morning at the top screen. A message from Ugo, with a red love emoji beside it, says “Goodmorning, sir..." but you don’t know his password and so can’t read the rest of it. Moses walks out of the toilet and stopped singing,he saw your glaring face before his phone on your hand and snatched it from you.

“Who is Ugo?”

You could have let it go but you recalled Moses sighed and turned away from you when you kissed his hand and face last night. Moses did not respond,he continued with massaging the cream on his black legs, something that has become a habit.

“Moses, I’m talking to you” you repeated, yelling this time.

He didn’t say a word and then,you nagged and nagged and watched him wriggle out of his towel and into his work clothes,as if he wanted to escape from a burning building.

“you will come back to this house” you shouted after him and you heard him bang the door in response.

You cried, you wished he has said something at least. Quiet response to your nagging makes you feel defeated and you fear he knows this weakness of yours.

But the eguisi soup will fix everything. A good meal for dinner, ending with sex,had always fix such fights in the past and it will fix this too. You blinked away the thought that he had refused sex last night. Moses comes back to meet dinner set on the dinning table. The lights are turned off and candles are its substitute.

“go shower and let’s eat” you appear from the kitchen,holding a bottle of red wine. Your red lip gloss makes your teeth whiter as you speak "you can tell me all about work then".

Moses turns to go to the room,too surprise or exhausted to ask why you have done this after what happened in the morning,but he changes his mind.

“Ugo is my boyfriend”

You look at him and repeat his word “boyfriend?”

“Ugo is my student. I love him...” Moses continues, calmly as if making it sound that way will make you understand

“Him” you repeat the pronoun

Moses understands and nods his head twice like a fallen lizard before saying “Ugo is a boy”.

“Moses” your hands are on his cheek “go and shower and come down for dinner. You’re a married man,not gay”.

You smile without showing your teeth and settle on a chair, your arms folded across your breast. You know he’s staring at you and only turn to look when you hear his footsteps walking away.