Unreserved apology

I was lying down in my room, trying to take a short nap. It was during examination period, and it was in my culture to sleep in the afternoon, after school, to enable me to wake up at night to read. My roommate hadn't returned from school.

During this period, I do everything under the dictate of time. I have the scheduled time for sleeping, reading, eating, and going to school for the examination, and the cycle continues. Whenever I overstressed my body, it could be difficult for me to get everything done on time. One of the challenges that I faced was the difficulty of falling asleep during the day in some instances. In such instances, my system would be awake but too tired to assimilate any reading, but when it gets to the night that my system is ready to assimilate, then sleeping creeps in.

On this fateful afternoon, I was facing the same challenges. I forced myself to close my eyes while lying under the blanket, with the expectation that I would fall asleep at any moment. I was halfway to the sleeping world when I heard a knock on my door. The knock brought me back to the real world immediately. It was as if a red iron pierced through my heart. I was upset. I knew that the person wasn't my roommate because, if he were, he would quietly open the door with his key and enter the room without disturbing me.

I didn't respond to the knocking immediately. I was thinking that my silence would send the person away.

After about two more knocks, I dragged myself out of the bed and went to open the door. I met a lady standing by the door with a handbag hung on her shoulder. With her beautiful face and curvy figure, I knew that she had come to visit my roommate.

My roommate was a loverboy on campus. He changed women at will. It got to the point that his escapades with women were affecting me. Some days that I would be rushing home to either sleep or get a task done, I would meet him with his girlfriends. I wasn't finding it convenient at all. Each time I complained, he would promise to adjust and turn a new leaf. He never did. I began to hate the woman that he was flirting with. Some of them would greet me with respect, as per my in-law or whatever, but I would keep mum to their greetings.

When I saw the lady standing at the door, all these experiences with my roommate's girlfriends flashed through my mind. I asked her who she was looking for, and he responded that he came to see my roommate. I hissed and jammed the door at her face and went back to lie down.

About an hour later, my roommate returned from his examination, and he entered the room with this girl. The girl was looking at me for most of her stay before she took her leave after about twenty minutes. While she was in the room, I noticed that her conversation with my roommate was formal. There wasn't any sign of a romantic relationship existing between the duo. After sitting for a while and rejecting the water that my roommate offered her, she reminded him of the book she came for. My roommate searched his mini-library and handed the book to her.

She took her leave immediately. She greeted me with a smile before going.

My roommate escorted her, and when he returned, I greeted him sarcastically. Whenever I greeted him that way, he knew that it was a sign of my displeasure with his uncontrolled appetite for women.

My roommate laughed before explaining who the lady was to me.

The lady was his junior colleague in his department. She needed a particular textbook to provide a solution to an assignment, and someone directed her to come and borrow one from my roommate. She was living not far from us, and that was why she decided to come and collect it that afternoon at home. She came at the exact time that my roommate told her to come, only to receive the embarrassing treatment from me.

She hung around, waiting for my roommate. She didn't tell my roommate anything, and she didn't display any sign of disappointment towards me when they entered.

After getting the details of who she was, I wasn't happy with what I did. I assumed wrongly and acted based on my assumption.

I collected her number from my roommate and called her immediately. I begged her to allow me to have a talk with her the following day, to which she agreed.

I met her as planned, and I sincerely apologized to her. I didn't want to tell her the underlying reasons for my actions. That would have degraded the personality of my roommate. I came up with some reasons instead. However, I registered my unreserved apologies to her. She accepted my apologies, and we became friends. She happened to be one of the best friends that I ever made until this moment.

My encounter with her taught me to always be patient and access issues critically before making an assumption and acting on such an assumption. I also learned that possessing a forgiving heart is a virtue, and it is very vital for good interpersonal relationships. She is still a good friend, whom I adore greatly.

Posted using Neoxian City