I got a new job in Accra and had only a few weeks to get accommodation. I didn’t know the terrain very well, so I was told to get an agent. I didn’t have the money for that, so I resorted to telling my new colleagues and people I knew to help me get a place. Finally, one colleague of mine told me she had seen someone move out of a house close to her place, so we should go and check it out.
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We met the landlord after work and told him we needed the place urgently. He asked if I was married, and I said no. He asked if I had a boyfriend who would be staying overnight, and I told him I didn’t have anyone of such nature. After answering all the questions, he told me someone had already enquired about the place a month ago, so he had to talk to the person first and see.
He took my number and said he was going to call me.
The next day, he asked me to come over for a discussion because he had agreed to give me the place. I was elated and even thanked him in advance. True to his words, he gave me the place. He wanted two years’ rent advance, but when I told him I was only starting a job and didn’t have that much, he agreed to collect a one-year advance.
He was very kind to me when I was moving in. He helped carry my things to my room, got people to clean up the space, and helped me arrange my things in the room. When I needed to buy something, he either went to buy it for me or sent someone to get it for me.
Right after I settled in, he came with a love proposal. I hadn’t been in the house for even a month. Out of respect, I told him I was in shock and needed time to process it. By the time I closed from work, he would have cooked something and would ask me to come to his place for dinner. I often said no, but one evening, he came to hold my hand and took me in to eat.
We talked over food. He said he had been married before and had two children who were living with their mother abroad. He told me how their marriage broke down and that he had wanted to settle again since the marriage broke down four years ago. “I’m a man who needs companionship. Just give me a chance.”
I tried using my age as an escape. “I’m only twenty-five. I’m not thinking about marriage now.” He said he could wait.
He could come to my room early in the morning when I had just woken up and was trying to get ready for work. One time, he wanted to watch me dress in front of him. I was angry and wanted to shout at him, but he was my landlord. I’d suffered to get a place and didn’t want to see my things outside the next day because I said no to a landlord.
He would buy me electricity prepaid credit when I hadn’t asked for it. He wouldn’t ask me for a water bill because, according to him, I was his wife. When he smelled food aroma from my room, he came to ask to eat with me. At night, he would ask if I needed company.
I thought if I brought a man home one day as my boyfriend, he would leave me alone, so I told my boss and he agreed to help. I was embarrassed to bring him into my problem, but that was all I could do and the two of us also had a good relationship.
He had this big black tinted car, the ones politicians use. After work, he drove me home and we stayed in the car for a while. I saw my landlord walking up and down trying to know who had parked in front of his house. When I stepped out of the car and hugged my boss, he saw us and quickly went in.
Immediately I got in, he came by. “Who was that?” I answered politely, “He’s someone I’m talking to. He says he wants to marry me, so we are talking.”
He went berserk. “What do you mean he wants to marry you? How about me? Didn’t I tell you the same thing? What does he have that I don’t have? And you brought him home knowing very well that I would be home? Are you trying to disrespect me?”
After talking harshly to me and I didn’t respond, he came to my room looking calm like a Catholic going for communion. He said sorry. He said I had become his world and he couldn’t stand to see another man around me. I was also very frank with him that I wanted a man I could begin life with, not someone who had started long ago with kids to prove his experience.
He asked, “So you mean you’re never going to give me a chance in your life after everything I’ve said and done?” I answered, “You’ve done a lot for me and I appreciate it, but love and marriage are more technical than just kindness. I can do everything for you but not date you.”
He left my room and closed the door gently. I felt bad, but I also felt happy for telling him my truth. He came back, opened my trap door, and threw a bundle of money on the floor. “Take it. That’s the remainder of your rent. Start looking for a new place to rent. And while you look for a place, I don’t want to see that man here again.”
When I went to work, I told my boss everything that happened. He laughed at me. He said he could take my landlord on, but it wasn’t worth it. Later, he said, “If you think he would be a bother to you, I have a place in my house you can move into for the meantime while you look for your own place.”
I thanked God and quickly started moving my things. My landlord was shocked to see me leave, but he couldn’t say a word. I thanked him for being kind and finally packed out.
I’ve been living with my boss for only a month. Last night, he came to knock on my door. “I’ve come to love you and can’t sleep without thinking about you,” he told me. I know it’s not right, but I can’t help it. Just a kiss.”
I live in the boys’ quarters, a few meters away from the main house where he lives. He’s married with two children. His wife isn’t around often. There’s an old woman who takes care of the kids, and the kids call me aunt and come to me in their free time.
I told him, “No, I can’t do that, but if my stay here is bothering you, I’m leaving very soon. Someone is helping me get a place.”
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Men Don’t Like It When Women Do The Paying
He left, but he hasn’t stopped worrying me. It’s tiring. I spend more time in a colleague’s house than mine because I don’t feel safe. What at all do men want that they can’t get from their wives? I’m just a girl looking for a place to lay my head, but see the troubles. Maybe I should have given in to my previous landlord and all this wouldn’t have happened.