Bleeding (1)

John's profile picture on the dating-focused social networking service site was modest, he had about six different, carefully-selected shots, uploaded on his profile. Any lady that gave it a second look would find it attractive- if there was any of such. There was, Flora is!

“Hey, can we be friends, prince charming! Lol”

That was the first flattering message he got from the site. For more than 6 months that he had joined the dating platform he had been the one initiating conversation, most of which were never replied. Any notification he got from a lady were usually system-generated messages.

Receiving the teaser from a lady got his blood rushing and he quickly replied.

“Hey beauty queen, I'm all yours. Beep me”

He sent her his number and she replied with hers almost immediately. John spent the night frantically punching his phone and chatting till the wee hours of the morning. He was spent by the time he got to work but active enough to send in a piece that got him a thumbs up from his editor. Could this be what he had been waiting for?

Flora, as he got to know was a Youth Corps member serving in Enugu state. A graduate of Economics from University of Ilorin.

“Who's your favourite economic theorist?” John enquired on their first night on watsapp.

“I'll root for the Malthusian theorist... Thomas Robert Malthus” she replied.

“hmmm...that's fascinating. Why Malthus?” John asked as he rummaged through his brain for the little he knows of the Malthusian theory.

“The applicability and justification of his theory by economic events unfolding in Nigeria and other third world countries is a personal pleasure to me. Revolutionary theories are indeed resilient. They rarely die” she mused.

John was becoming increasingly fascinated with her depth of insight, even if he couldn't question its logic right-away.

“Have you any knowledge of Thomas Khun's theory of the structure of scientific revolution” he inquired.

“Yes I do. I've been intrigued by the dynamism in economic theories and I stumbled on Khun's thought on 'paradigm shift' that theories merely evolve from each other. No theory is a false, as the proponents of falsification principle will want to have us belief”

John was perplexed, he is vast and well read too, but you can't know it all. “This chic surely knows her onions” he thought to himself. This is the first time in a long while that she's having a long conversation that does not bother on romance and relationship with a lady. He must brush up his knowledge of history of scientific theories.

The chat went on for several hours everyday and in a month they were ready to meet, but Enugu was too far for him he wished she could come to Lagos. She seemed too paranoid about going to meet a guy.

“It will make more sense with you coming around than otherwise. If anything goes wrong it'll be fair to blame you at my place than people blaming me for coming over. John remember I don't know you yet”

'What are you expecting to go wrong? That I'll rape you or use you for rituals? And it's funny tou still don't know me by now?”

“Not so, but you know it's different. You can't even be sure you'll like me when you see me. I'm not tall o. You better see me first before you think of a toast or proposal. Don't break your own heart” she quipped.

They giggled and laughed on skype. The company of the two has been fun. Flora was beginning to love him, so do John but he knew the relationship wont work her way, it would work his way for a while, he had skeleton in his cupboard. She would bleed, he would bleed her, but it wont pain.

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