At one point I made a connection with Idris Elba. Not the Idris from the movies, not the ass-kicking hunk that we all know and I love, I know you my people, your eyebrows were raised. It was Idris all the same. My Idris was from Senegal, Covid held him hostage in my country and I planned on holding him hostage in my heart… a girl has got to dream ka chi chii.
In those days of social distancing, we were stuck in our homes, trapped in our own thoughts and our gadgets became our closest companions. That is how I found myself on Tinder. “Tinder is for connections and for passing time..” I remember a friend telling me. Ko I didn’t have anything to lose. I put my 3 best selfies, wrote on my bio that I loved adventures… in retrospect, that was a dangerous statement. Idris swiped right and it was a MATCH!
”So, Miss, you like adventures?” he was smart about his pick up line. It’s always weird to start a conversation with a stranger but he was smart. “Is that you on your bio?” I asked. We hit it off and had fire chats. Ndakatoona ndaenda kunoita muroora ku Senegal. Agh the delulu was hilarious!
The chats made it from Tinder to WhatsApp, one of the sure signs that you can hold down a conversation! Without getting into details, we chatted, flirted and I built our life together in my big head, I even researched on the country and the language (Wolof). I would learn Wolof phrases and “Mangi thiat ni nala guiss” him all the time. Oh!that is Wolof for saying, “I can’t wait to meet you.” The video calls happened and he sure looked like his photos, he had an actual Idris physique…wozodei?
Idris delayed the meet up because he was on Ramadan, he wanted to finish that up and we would meet during Eid or was it on Eid Mubarak Day, I can’t quite remember.
Tell me why on the first meet up he asked if I wanted to confirm the rumors said about West African men?! Scam!