PLAYING HARD TO GET COULD BE COSTLY

Mabel is young. She is pretty. She has got a great job and like bees to honey, every man desires her. In fact, she gets marriage proposals like the air she breathes. But that was in my prime, she states. Then, I was between 24 and 25 years old and I had the world at my feet and I thought I could easily get a man whenever I was set for marriage. Ironically, I clocked 34 years two weeks ago and I am still as single as a tailor’s needle.

The last proposal was on my 26th birthday when harry, a young lecturer proposed to me. I knew he wanted me badly and was always talking about life together. He had an aged mother who wanted him married. So imagine the pressure on me. My answer was always: I need time. Not that I didn’t like him, I was also in love but how can I agree to a proposal from a guy so cheaply?

I thought l should play hard –to-get a bit and allow him know that he had other contenders. How wrong I was. By the time I kept him waiting for six months, he stopped coming and calling. Initially, I thought it was a joke but when it was almost a year and I saw a friend of his, I knew the game was up. Harry got married to anther woman. His friend told me that he thought I didn’t love him and had to get married. Though I am still pretty, I am frantically searching for a mate.

Henrietta is 42. She is an architect and works in a federal ministry in Abuja. To think that I served here, worked here and still single is unbelievable, she says. I have lost count of the many suitors I had when I was a youth corps member. They came in droves and I was scared. There was this particular guy who was ready to marry me before I ended my service but I was scared.

I was just 23, pretty and had not known the world. I told him to give me time, which he did. Along the line, another guy came but he was richer and ready to take me abroad for further studies. I thought of my mother (a widow) and how she would feel if I left her. So, I just played a fast one on him collected his gifts and refused his offer. I almost ended up as a second wife to an army general during the military era. I got landed property, cars and foreign trips from him, he was quite generous and was ready to marry me but my problem was his wife. She threatened to kill me if I attempted marrying her husband and I decided being a mistress.

Maybe the period of nursing the man and meeting his needs saw me growing older. I had no time for younger suitors and realized that I was in my early 30s. then, I tried making myself available to other men but I had already been tagged General’s wife and none wanted me. Though alive, I have called off the affair with him (heard he is sating a youth corps member) and I have resorted to getting a good husband from the church I now attend.