The Hi Five Orchestra musicians were busy on stage entertaining the students with their popular hit songs. There were a few students dancing on the floor. Others sat on their seats. They were listening to the music as they watched their colleagues dancing.
Esau was among the students who watched others dancing. Suddenly, he felt the urge to appear on the floor and join the others who were dancing.
He looked at the stunning lady who sat next to him and smiled. She smiled back at him when she noticed he too was dressed in jeans and a red t-shirt.
Esau understood her smile was an invitation to dance. He studied her face and saw she looked quite familiar. Where had he seen her?
He decided to strike when iron was still hot. If I don't seize this opportunity, Esau was thinking someone else would. Rising to his feet, he whispered into her ears, "Can I be your dancing partner this evening, my pretty..."
She smiled again, looked admiringly at his short black hair, and rose to her feet. Then she followed him to the floor, where they paused briefly and began dancing.
It was a nice slow dance. He held her by her waist and began feeling desire overwhelming him as her arms went round his neck. Her hands had a soft touch that turned him on.
They clung tightly to each other as they danced to the Lingala song. Then Esau began to talk, "Don't I know you? You seem to resemble someone I met many years back in primary school. May I know your name, please?"
He squeezed her tightly as he was talking. The music drowned his voice as his hands squeezed her large ass. She fidgeted.
She regarded him closely. She felt herself attracted to his fair complexion as their eyes locked and smiled at each other. She liked tall men, and she saw he was averagely built standing at six feet. And he seemed to be a fashionable man.
The young woman seemed to know what her dancing partner wanted. A burning light of appreciation and longing seemed to be glowing in her sexy eyes, the kind of light only in passionate women.
Esau's confidence rose when he saw the light in her eyes. He knew everything would go according to plan.
"Gloria Auma is my name. What's yours?" She said as she regarded his dark dazzling eyes.
He told her. And she giggled when she heard the name, "It's quite a nice one!"
"Yours is nice too. I knew a little girl called Gloria, a classmate at Braeburn International School."
"Braeburn!" Her eyes looked at him in surprise. "I was there too for the first two years before my parents took me to a school for Europeans in the Rift Valley."
"No wonder when I saw you the first time, I felt I had seen you somewhere before. I, too, was at Braeburn. You must be the little girl who was in my class for a few days and then moved to a different stream, don't you recall?" He wanted to know.
"Now, I can remember. In that class, there were only two black boys among the Europeans and Indians. You must have been one of the boys," she replied.
They laughed. Then she tried to find what to say but could not. Neither could Esau. And so they went on dancing until Esau remarked, "You dance as graceful and as beautiful as you look, Gloria. I wish I could always be dancing with you like this."
"Don't flatter me," she giggled once more and said, "I am not as beautiful as the other ladies here."
"Come on, Gloria. You know you are; yet you pretend you aren't. Or is it another way of saying my words bore you, you don't like them?"
"Not at all. I like everything about you. Perhaps I...I don't know what to say. I feel..." She tried to find suitable words to tell him.
But Esau had seen the writing on the wall. Like a motorist at the traffic lights, he had been shown the green light. He did not hesitate and was ready to proceed.
"Well, let me say it for you. Ever since that moment, I saw you walk into the hall, swaying your hips and curveous figure, I knew you had captured my soul and driven me mad with love. I love you, Gloria."
Again, she giggled when she heard those powerful words penetrate her small ears. It was the moment of reckoning for them as they realised that natural thing and feeling called love had clicked between them at first sight.
Their blood and body seemed meant for each other and needed to be fused into one; Esau reflected seriously as the dance went on. More talk followed later as they were seated in their chairs listening to music.
"Tell me something, Gloria. What are you going to study here?"
"Well, since I have been admitted for a degree in arts, I think I'll take political science, sociology, and philosophy. I find these interesting. I'll go for them."
"I think I'll study those three too," said Esau, who had no prior plans for choice of subjects.
In reality, he decided to take those subjects as a sure way of getting closer to Gloria. It was a sure bet of always seeing and meeting her during the lectures.
As the dance ended and the students dispersed to their halls of residence, Esau was sure he wanted to see her again.
"I'd like to see you again next time. How do I reach you?" He asked and went on, "Where have you been allocated to stay in the halls of residence?"
"I'm in Ngala Hall, room 308. You are always welcome to see me there."
"Thanks. I'm glad to hear that you also would love to see me again. I'm in Nyerere Hall, room 205," he told her, adding: "Let me escort you to your Hall."
They walked along University Way and reached St. Paul's Chapel. Then they went up the hill to the halls. At the Faculty of Architecture premises, they stopped.
"Well, so long, Gloria. I'd like to continue seeing you again."
"Aren't you coming to my room?" Gloria asked jokingly.
"No, my pretty... It's late, and we don't want to be treated as law breakers in our first week. Next time, I'll definitely come."
They parted ways. Esau went past the architecture building and reached his hall. He went up the flight of stairs, passed the long corridor, and reached his room.
Inside the room, he began to think of Gloria. What a beauty! He thought she was also interested in him, but he could not be exactly sure.
She was quite a beauty, and this worried him. She held a power over him. Everyone wanted a beautiful woman by his side, he reasoned, but if one was not careful, such a woman would exercise great control over him. Or even manipulate him. It was such manipulation and control that he feared. And did not want.
Women are difficult to understand, he was thinking, and I have to be very vigilant and careful with her. One could imagine he scored big on a woman's heart, Esau went on reasoning, yet be surprised later when it all turned out to be a pipe dream.
But Esau would have been more pleased and assured at that very moment had he known that Gloria was also thinking about him. She had been fascinated by him. But she had not wanted to expose her loving nature for fear of appearing too cheap or easygoing.
Even as she jumped onto her bed, she was sure he was the only man she was interested in the whole campus. They were freshers and probably the same age. And he appeared to be so loving and caring.
But would Esau always love her? She started wondering. Men could be quite slippery. And even tricky, she told herself. They could be in love with a woman today, and then the next day, they went running after another woman.
Some men, she observed, were only after taking women to the mattress. Once their lust was quenched, they dropped the women and went after others. Gloria lay in bed as she reflected on the new life she now found pursuing her.
She knew the life she now found herself was tricky and challenging. It was clear during the first week of orientation at the campus that many male students showed interest in her. But men could be interested in any lady in skirts, and she detested that.
The campus men, so the story went among the female students, could go for any woman in skirts. And she had feared falling in love with such a man. She had listened to gossip and even cheered her friends when they shared such views about men.
But as she thought of Esau that night, she wanted to believe he was a bit unique and different from the rest. The rank and file. It was unfair to lump all men in the same bandwagon. She reasoned in trying to defend him.
But why was she defending him when she knew so little about him? Then, realisation began to sink into her mind.
She had fallen in love with a man; the very thing she had feared when she heard the ladies' stories and gossip on the campus.