Dede and Kola Set Boundaries After the Kissing Saga
Tension hung heavy in the air as Kola finally admitted his fault. βI messed up, I know I did,β he confessed, his voice weighed down with regret. βIf thereβs anything I can do to make it right, God knows Iβm willing to take it slow and put in the time. At that moment, I just wasnβt thinking.β
Dede, however, met his remorse with a mixture of honesty and firmness. βThatβs why Iβll always have love for you,β she said. βYouβre human, yes. But would I have kissed you? No. You wanted what you wanted.β
Kola didnβt try to deflect. βI feel worse for doing thisβ¦ itβs not on you, itβs on me.β
βExactly,β Dede replied without hesitation. βItβs 100% on you, not me.β
Still clinging to hope, Kola tried to look ahead: βI just hope we can get around this eventually.β
But Dede wasnβt quick to soften. βGet around it? As in pick up from where we stopped?β she asked.
Kola nodded. βThings were good beforeβ¦β
Her response came in the form of a mocking tuneββWhat was the reason?β she sang, signaling her skepticism.
Kola attempted to understand. βI know when you do thisβitβs your way of coping, your mechanism.β
But Dede pushed back. βThereβs no mechanism. Iβm just pessimistic. I always think of the worst-case scenario. And yes, I thought about this. Did I ever feel like it wouldnβt happen? Maybe. But thenβ¦β
Kola leaned in with a promise, but Dede cut him short with the memory of how it unfolded. βIt took less than five minutes. We were dancing, laughing, then a hugβ¦ and suddenly Iβm upstairs asking myself, oh my God, what just happened? What did you expect? That weβd kumbaya our way out of it?β
Kola shook his head. βNo.β
βExactly,β she said, her tone softening but resolute. βItβs okay, but listenβ I know what I want. Maybe not always, but I definitely know what I donβt want. And this? This is not it. I can never be in a place where somebody else has been before. Things canβt be the same anymore.β
The conversation closed not with reconciliation, but with the clarity of a line drawnβDede had forgiven Kola, but forgiveness, she made clear, didnβt mean a return to what once was.