The Unexpected

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It was their third year anniversary of being together as boyfriend and girlfriend and Monica was getting ready to go have lunch with James, her boyfriend. James had made her take the day off from work because according to him, that day was just for the two of them and he didn’t want any of them getting distracted by anything else. He had even made her promise not to come to lunch with her phone just to make sure she knew how serious he was about them not getting distracted by anyone or anything.

When Monica was done getting dressed and fixing her makeup, she had called James on the phone to come pick her up before dropping it on her table, that was the last time she planned on using that phone for that day.

Fifteen minutes later and James had pulled up in his car. He had quickly gotten out of his car to go open the door for Monica to get in, a gesture she found funny and couldn’t help but laugh. He usually doesn’t do stuff like this and she knew he was just being funny.

Lunch had been amazing. James had decided to take her to one of the fanciest restaurants in town and Monica just couldn’t help but notice the extra excitement he had on his face all through their way there and even as they left the restaurant. She could swear he wasn’t this excited during their first two anniversaries but didn’t think much about it.

Their next destination according to James was the cinema and much to Monica’s excitement, James had promised they would see the sequel of one of Monica’s favorite movies, if only she knew that they would never get to the cinema then maybe she wouldn’t have been that excited.

Few minutes into the drive on their way to the cinema, they got pulled over by the police. Everyone knows the police were after one thing, collecting bribe. They must be bribed even if your papers are complete and up to date, so Monica had not been surprised when James pulled out a one thousand naira note and offered it to the police man but what happened next had been shocking.

The police man had refused the money and had instead requested for his papers. He took about five minutes going through the documents before asking him if he was the owner of the car, a question James had answered yes to.

“Can you step out of the car please” the officer said to James who immediately asked if there was a problem.

“Will you step down from this vehicle!?” The officer repeated himself, this time with a harsh tone.

“Is there a problem?” Monica asked as the officer pointed his rifle at James who got down from his car, confused at what was happening.

“You think we don’t know criminals like you? You will rot in prison” The officer said to James as he asked his colleague to frisk him.

The whole thing was beginning to get serious as the officer also asked for James to be handcuffed, a request that had prompted Monica to come out of the car and ask what her man did wrong to deserve such treatment.

“He’s going nowhere, it’s either you arrest us both or he goes no where” she said, facing the officer who gave the order.

“Madam look at your man, doesn’t he look like a criminal?” the officer said.

“He doesn’t.” Monica replied without even looking at James.

“Madam, I said look at him.” The officer repeated himself and Monica glanced at James only to stop in-between sentence. Kneeling on one kneel and holding a ring on his hand was no other person but James.

“Will you marry me?” He asked a shocked Monica, the officers grinning foolishly from ear to ear. James had hired them to help spice up his proposal a little bit.

“Madam say yes naaa..” one of them said as Monica struggled to let out the words from her mouth, she still was trying to process the whole thing but still managed to mutter the words “yes, yes I will marry you.”