Taking A Chance On Love
Tyrone: Are you free to talk David?
David Bondze-Mbir (DBM): Yes please. How are you doing?
Tyrone: I’m good. Thank you
DBM: What’s on your mind?
Tyrone: I am a married man. We’ve been together for 20 years. We met on KNUST campus. I remember my whole world changing when she first walked into our lecture hall and sat right next to me. She asked of my name and our first conversation started. We’ve been talking every single day since then.
DBM: ‘Been together’, meaning married for?
Tyrone: Yes
DBM: Good for you!
Tyrone: Lately, I’ve been developing affection and care towards someone else.
DBM: Who?
Tyrone: A very good friend of mine.
DBM: Does your wife know her?
Tyrone: No
DBM: How did you first meet?
Tyrone: It’s a him
DBM: A man?
Tyrone: A man.
DBM: I see.
Tyrone: Are you surprised?
DBM: Nope! It’s a subject I find delight in discussing.
Tyrone: We’ve not done anything physical yet but we’ve established the fact that there is this intense chemistry between us. My emotions have been completely caught off-guard. At first, I thought something was wrong with my marriage.
DBM: Is something wrong with your marriage?
Tyrone: No.
DBM: Are you a homosexual?
Tyrone: If you had asked me this question last year, I would have said no. Now, I don’t have a clear answer to that question.
DBM: Have you been with, or been attracted to the same sex before?
Tyrone: This is my first time experiencing such a romantic connection towards a man. So, no.
DBM: Have you been with any other woman since you married your wife?
Tyrone: No, but I had been dating women prior to my wife and I making a serious commitment to one another.
DBM: So, for 20 years, you’ve not known any other woman or person but your wife?
Tyrone: Precisely.
DBM: Okay! I commend you on that. Well done!
Tyrone: Thanks.
DBM: Is your friend single?
Tyrone: Yes, divorced.
DBM: Do you have any childhood recollection of you ever being overly, fond of a boy or man?
Tyrone: I had a science teacher in JS 1 that I thought was beautiful in a funny way. I liked the way he dressed and how his trousers fit his back cheeks tightly.
DBM: Are you homophobic?
Tyrone: I used to be. I had issues with anyone who identified as gay. Probably because I was indirectly battling an internal struggle, I wasn’t aware of.
DBM: What kind of ‘struggle’?
Tyrone: I wouldn’t call it a struggle per se. I don’t know, Dave. I can’t explain.
DBM: Let’s go on an imaginary excursion
Tyrone: Okay. Where to?
DBM: The beach. We’re feeling the salty taste of the air. We can feel the wind on our cheeks. Are you feeling it?
Tyrone: I am, yes.
DBM: We’ve been given four hours with nothing to do but to relax and enjoy the sound of the waves crashing so hard onto the shore. How is the feeling like?
Tyrone: Calming. I feel happy where I am
DBM: Good! We hear men and women breaking out into the sun by the sea. You open your eyes. What/who are you looking at?
Tyrone: I see all the people and can touch their excitement
DBM: Where is your attention focused at this moment, while staring at the people walking on the beach?
Tyrone: I’m checking both the men and women out.
DBM: Which of the sexes is your attention more drawn to?
Tyrone: I like the ladies in their bikinis. I like the shirtless men in shape and in wet shorts.
DBM: Which gender are you gravitating towards, sexually?
Tyrone: Both
DBM: You wouldn’t mind tapping both asses?
Tyrone: I would tap that of the ladies I am attracted to first, and then explore with the men who find me attractive.
DBM: Is it a maybe sort of, exploration or a definite tap?
Tyrone: The men?
DBM: Yeah!
Tyrone: Definite tap.
DBM: Still on the beach…
Tyrone: I’m here
DBM: You’re not married in this scenario. Your wife shows up as a single woman, walking her dog. Whatever feelings you think you feel towards her surfaces in your heart. The very good male friend you’re developing affection and care towards is jogging shirtless in see-through soaked shorts. Whatever you think you feel for him is on your mind’s eye. Who are you going to approach and invite home?
Tyrone: Invite home for what?
DBM: Knowing you, knowing me; dinner, maybe sex; waking up next to in bed the following morning.
Tyrone: I can’t take both?
DBM: No! The option is to take one home for today.
Tyrone: And I can take the other home the next?
DBM: Maybe, yeah!
Tyrone: I will take the guy home first.
DBM: Why?
Tyrone: My desire to want to explore with him is a living, breathing something that I cannot explain. It doesn’t mean I don’t love my wife. I do, though our marital sex life isn’t that active anymore. Being with this guy may allow me to have more sex.
DBM: I know you love your wife. You don’t have to explain yourself. The attraction you feel towards the guy, is it only sexual?
Tyrone: No. I want his love. I want his affection. I want his friendship. But I want to experience pleasure without always having to be in control, like when I am with a woman. I want to connect with him in a sexual way and still feel masculine. Am I a bad person for feeling the way I feel?
DBM: There are people who are not ready to have or accept a new definition of yourself. They would probably be the ones to judge you. I don’t judge you. You’re coming into this part of your identity because another person awakened it someway, somehow. It doesn’t make you a bad person. It doesn’t make you any lesser of a human. There is no shame in noticing someone other than your wife. Do you want my honest opinion?
Tyrone: That’s why I am here, Dave.
DBM: If whatever feelings you’re developing towards this man is starting to seep heavily into your thoughts, then I would admonish you to consider bringing it to your wife’s attention. You need to tell her the truth so she can be in the known, but most importantly, help you share this concern. If you can do this, it will be a tell on your character: that you are honest and true. That you have courage and enough humility to be weak.
Tyrone: I can’t tell my wife about this, sorry.
DBM: Why not?
Tyrone: Dave, I can’t. It will destroy her trust in me. It will be the beginning of the end for my marriage.
DBM: Then you’re not willing to do the work that it takes to keep a marriage healthy, transparent and vulnerable.
Tyrone: I’m willing to do the work, but I can’t tell her something like this.
DBM: How do you stay true to your wife while, at the same time, feeding another affection developing elsewhere?
Tyrone: I don’t want to deny myself the feelings he’s bringing out of me.
Image Credit: PNW Production







