THE LOVE TANK 3

THE LOVE TANK

Episode 3

Written By: Lizzy Oyebola Oyekunle

I felt a kind of tickling movement on my cheek.

With a frown etched on my forehead, I tried to slap whatever was disturbing me off as I tried to get some sleep for a few minutes more

I rolled in my bed severally.

I had spent over two hours interceding on behalf of Debbie and Dan.

I just couldn’t give up and conclude that the end of their marriage had come! I couldn’t imagine that!

I got married almost three years before she got married and I was living like a newly wedded bride with the love of my life so, what could have gone wrong with theirs? What?

I rolled to my side again as I groaned in pain!

My heart was very heavy and my head ached

I felt the tickling movement near my earlobe and I tried to slap again when a hand seized mine gently but firmly

“You are under arrest!” I heard the voice and I rolled to my side as I threw my legs in the air in a defensive manner

“I still want to sleep dear” I said

“Aren’t you going to see your hubby off to the gate?” He asked and I sat up immediately

I saw him all dressed up and I frowned

“Where are you going to again?” I asked and he smiled as he pulled me close to himself.

“My wife must have forgotten that I said I would be going for a conference this morning” He said and I folded my arms and kept frowning

“Today is Saturday! I was thinking you were actually going to make me my breakfast in bed” I said again and he smiled as he placed a quick peck on my lips

“I am sorry love. I have to be on my way” He said and moved to the dressing table as he adjusted his tie.

“Do I look good?” He asked as he ran a comb through his hair.

“Yeah” I answered coldly and he turned to look at me and smiled

“By the way, you didn’t have a very nice night. Did you?” He asked but I was not in the mood to answer him at all.

I was not happy that he disturbed my sleep, didn’t make me my breakfast in bed and still saw me looking angry and didn’t bother asking.

“Darling” He called out, turning to look at me as he put his laptop in his bag.

“I slept well” I said curtly and returned back into the duvet

“I was worried about you as you turned here and there last night. I kept on getting worried about you”

As he spoke, I just didn’t want to listen!

“Thanks” I answered again and he moved to the door.

“Dear, so have a nice day in bed while I go to work. What should I get on my way coming?” He asked and my heart dropped to my bottom

“Nothing!” I said, almost angrily

“Is this how this guy will just disappear without trying to find out what is wrong with me?” I thought to myself as my lips shook in the anger.

I heard the door opened and then closed.

No hug, no peck, nothing?!

Oh my God!

I pulled the pillow over my face and tried to prevent the tears from escaping my eyes but the tears were disobedient.

Soon, I sat down with my back resting against a pillow and started crying.

“Zoe, what’s up with you? Why are you crying?” I asked myself but I cried the more.

I started thinking of what had happened to me the previous day and how Debbie had walked me out of her house which was the very first encounter of failure that I had ever had in my counselling profession.

I remembered how I had gisted my husband the whole issue when I got home but instead of sympathizing with me for the embarrassment, he only sighed and said it will be well.

“When did I become this emotional?” I asked myself as I heaved and swallowed in my tears again.

I heard some footsteps at the door and quickly covered my face with the duvet.

Could those be my children?

Why would they be awake this early?

The door opened and then closed and a hand pulled at the duvet

It was Zack!

“Leave me alone” I said, trying to hold in my sobs

“Just let me see your face before I go out my baby girl” He said and I forcefully held the duvet over myself the more.

“Please” He pleaded

“No” I refuted

“Please honey”

“No!”

He bent over me and found my ear.

“Zoe is a good girl hiya hiya o. She’s a beauty and a wifey, hiya hiya o….” He continued and although it worked magically on me, I decided to stay still.

He started tickling me at my sides and I didn’t know when I sat up immediately and threw off the duvet as I laughed so loudly

“Leave me alone. Leave me” I said on but I definitely didn’t mean that he should leave me but he stopped abruptly

I looked at him and he looked into my face. Shock was written all over his face.

“You were crying?” He asked, sadly and I fell on his chest and nodded

“Why?” He asked again

“When I thought you didn’t love me again” I said babyishly and he pushed me back a bit, his hands holding my neck

“Why would you think so?” He asked, still shocked and I placed my head on his chest again

“You didn’t make me my breakfast in bed” I said and he rubbed my earlobes and raised my head

“See your breakfast laid beside you my darling. Its Pancake and Tea” He said and I looked at him with my mouth suspended as I saw the well covered tray just under my beside lamp

“When did you bring this in?” I asked, feeling ashamed

“Just now darling. I wanted to see your reaction if I didn’t make it for you this morning and really I realized you felt hurt when I didn’t say anything about it. I didn’t know you will go all emotional about it at all. I had made it since and it was on the dining table. I feel bad for making my sweetilicious babylic angel cry” He hugged me tightly and I felt so warmly in love again

“But that’s not all” I said, my head moving again his chest

“What else Your royal majesty?” He asked and I smiled

All those names really make me feel great!

“Why did you reply coldly yesterday while I gisted you about Dan and Debbie?” I asked and he sighed deeply.

I raised my head and looked into his milky face

“You and I planned on having a personal evening together yesterday and really, I was waiting patiently for you. I had gone to bath, clean the room, ironed your clothes, sprayed everywhere beautifully but when you came, you didn’t even notice that.” He said

“Oh my! I am so sorry. I actually did notice it but I didn’t know I gave no compliment in that regard. Forgive me darling” I said as I tickled his cheeks

“Not only that dear.”

“Ah, what else?”

“Then, I was trying to play with you also but you were just moving away from me like I was asking for too much. I felt bad” He said and I opened my mouth in shock

“Darling, really! I didn’t notice that I pulled away from you. Why didn’t you voice out?” I asked and he shrugged

“Why would I voice out when the first thing you said as you moved into the room was ‘Let me come and shower, eat and sleep’ and you yawned. Ehn?” He said again and I smiled as I held his hand

“Darling, indeed, marriage is a place where a look can crush and a word can crush! I never intended you to stay off me even though I was very tired and discouraged. Oh my, I am sorry” I said again and gave him a large embrace.

After a while, he looked into my face and smiled

“Dear, I am awed by your humility and communication skills” He said and I looked into his face to understand what he meant

“What do you mean by that?” I wanted to know

“In a relationship like ours, with your exposure and your achievements, I have always been awed by the way you tell me that you feel sad or jealous or embarrassed or disturbed by a particular thing I do to you. Your pride never gets in the way” He said and I smiled

“My sweetheart, that is what I teach everyone who cares to listen to me at all. You can’t enter marriage with your pride alert on because it will be headed for disaster! Pride is never wrong! It knows all things, it never says sorry!” I said and my husband smiled broadly

“That’s my counsellor! Madam the counsellor! The counsellor my wife!” He chanted on as he tickled me while I enjoyed myself on and on, laughing with joy.

“The same goes for you darling! You treat me with so much love and care and I feel so beautiful and loved!”

“Hmmm, tell me something” He said and pouted his lips slightly, pushing his neck towards me as if I was telling him a super story tale

“The Bible says I am yours and you are mine! Your body is mine and mine is yours. I am just paraphrasing now o…but you have never claimed to own me before. You ask for my permission humbly before any encounter and when I deny you sometimes, you tell me humbly how bad you felt. I am touched by this act of yours darling and I am so glad that it was you!” I said and my husband covered his face

“I am blushing” He said and I started laughing with glee

My Saturday had been revived again

“The best decision I made in my entire life was going on my knees to ask for your hands in marriage” He said and I danced on the bed as the latter sprang up under pressure

“I love you so much Zack” I said as my heart was overwhelmed within me

“I love you to the moon and back darling Zoe” he replied, looking into my eyes with all sincerity and honesty

I sat up and placed the tray on my laps.

My husband opened the dish for me and stirred my tea

“Don’t you think that is why we are still having a very superb marriage?” He asked and I smiled

“Because we speak our love languages right?” I asked and he snapped his hand in the air

“That’s right! I read that book by Gary Chapman while in school. I guess what I read followed me into marriage then” He said and laughed

“That book is explicit! It is practical!” I exclaimed as the pancake filled my mouth

“Wait a minute. Don’t you think that that is exactly the problem with Dan and Debbie? That they both aren’t speaking each other’s love languages and then their something is empty…chai…Something Tank…” He tried to remember and I smiled

“Their love tank dearie. Their love tank is empty! Exactly my thoughts too. I am just asking for the Holy Spirit to give me the wisdom that I need to introduce that to them” I said as I raised the cup to my lips and sipped some very sizzling milky tea

“Why not buy them the book?” Zack asked and I laughed

“If Dan reads ten pages in a month, Debbie reads one!” I said and we both laughed

“That’s true! They don’t read that much” He said

“God will teach me what to do” I said and I saw my husband taking the tray off my laps

“Dear, what is the matter?” I asked, feigning ignorance

“I want to top my love tank. Its almost empty” He said and I beat his back playfully

“You are obviously not serious dearie. You said you were going for a conference, didn’t you?” I asked and he shook his head, frowning a bit

“I can go late dear” He said and I shook my head

“Chai! Is that a good attribute at all oko mi?” I asked and I saw him looking like a depraved child

“Ok o..let me go and have my bath first and I will be back” I said and he smiled brightly as I stood up and walked into the bathroom

“It is going to be great today, Jesus Christ is already here and the Holy Ghost is already here” My husband sang on and on

“Zack! Chai!” I exclaimed as I released the water from the shower over me

I felt so fulfilled that he had filled my love tank with his acts of service and beautiful words of affirmation and I was about to reciprocate that love

Hmmmmm….Love is indeed reciprocal!

**************
He turned the ignition key and I smiled at the children seated at the back seat. They waved at me.

They had suddenly woken up and decided that they wanted to go with their dad.

“I love you dearie” My husband said again

“Nine!” Emmy, my first boy said and I wondered what he meant.

“I love you too dearie. Take care of yourself.” I said.

“Let me tell you something” He said and I bent my head close to the window

He pecked my cheek and my children clapped more in like a gossiping manner

“Seven!” Elijah, my second son exclaimed

“What is that?” My husband asked them, turning to look at them

“You said I love you nine times already just to walk from the sitting room to the park. Choi!” Emmy exclaimed, shaking his head inconsistently. My husband and I laughed

“And then you kissed mummy seven times already dad. Is that your hobby? Another choi!” Elijah, my second son asked. His face was full of inquisitiveness and we burst out laughing again.

They exchanged looks as my husband and I gave each other a thunderous ‘high five’

“Would you like it if we wake you up every morning with our screams and shouts, with me beating mummy and mummy calling me stupid?” Zack asked them and they suddenly frowned

“No!” The echoed almost together with vibe

“So, leave my husband and I alone oooo” I said and shook my tongue at them as I pecked my husband again

“Don’t disturb my Zack for me o you these boys” I said and they raised their noses at me. I laughed.

“I love you dear” Zack said again

“Ten!” They both screamed again as Zack sped off the compound through the gate, laughing hysterically

“I love you too” I screamed after them

“Eleven!” I heard my babies scream back at me and I couldn’t help but laugh till tears filled my eyes and I felt so fulfilled, so loved and so beautiful once again.

As I walked back into the house, I remembered the Simpsons!

I sighed again as I looked up to the sky

“Lord, restore their love and teach me how best to go about the reconciliatory ministry dear Saviour!” I prayed

 

 

 

 

WATCH OUT FOR 4

I hope you are enjoying the series.

Please do and the Lord will minister to you in Jesus’ Name.

God bless you and thanks for reading.