Toyosi and Emeka

The smell of fried plantain wafted into the room and roused him from sleep. Fried plantain and beans with onion and crayfish, he could already picture it mounded on one of Toyosi's yellow ceramic plates, the steam rising slowly from the dark yellow and brown hunks of food. His mouth watered and he sat up on the bed, rubbing his eyes, he could hear her moving about in the kitchen, the clanking and scraping of stainless steel cutlery on ceramic. He got out of bed and pulled his t-shirt over his head ,it had managed to find its way onto the green sewing machine in the far corner of the room and he had had to untangle it from the red thread Toyosi was working with . He groaned as he stretched before walking towards the kitchen
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She hated frying plantain, she hated frying anything really. Something always ended up burnt and tiny droplets of hot oil always sizzled and splattered on her arms, sometimes her face.But Emeka like fried plantain, so she endured the stinging pain of hot oil splashes and the frustration of throwing out the occasionally burnt batch. She enjoyed cooking the beans however, the slow boiling, spicing and stirring worked fine for her. The food was finally done and she served it on her favorite yellow and black ceramic plates. She licked some oil off her fingers and was washing her hands at the sink when she felt a hand on the small of her back. It startled her, making her jump. She turned around to find Emeka standing close with a wide grin plastered on his oddly beautiful face.
"Whats the matter, did I startle you?" he asked jokingly, leaning in to give her a kiss.
"Yes you did," she said playfully punching his shoulder "I didn't hear you come in."
"This smells really good," he stood over the pot of beans on the stove with a fork in his hand,
"Don't do that," Toyosi said grabbing the fork from him before he could violate her pot with it, "I already put some for you on a plate."
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They ate huddled together on the couch, the news was on and the presenter was constantly tugging at his powder blue tie as he read out the latest headlines. Another strike was being declared by the university staff union.
"Na wa o," Toyosi said frowning slightly "the poor students are the ones that will now suffer for it."
"Well, hopefully it wont be in vain," Emeka said in response "if the senate improves on university funding, then..." he left his sentence unfinished, assuming she would figure out what he was not saying. He did that often and she almost always figured it out right.
"I understand the reason for the strike, but does it ever work? Are their demands ever me-"
she was cut off by the melodious ring tone of a mobile phone, accompanied by the buzzing sound of the phone vibrating against the wooden surface of the table beside her.
"Its your phone" she said reaching towards the table where both their phones sat
"Who is it?" he asked. She was silent for a moment after she checked the caller ID. "Who?" he asked again.
"Its your wife." she said pursing her lips and handing him the phone with an expression resembling one of discontent. He took it from her and threw it on the red couch at the opposite end of the room, he gave her a small somewhat apologetic smile and filled his mouth with a forkful of food.