Josh is the most charming man I have ever seen, his eyes are dark and mesmerizing, thick black eyes brows that almost met in the middle of his forehead, pink lips with a wide smile, and warm skin with almond-like complexion. It was just a profile picture, wondered what he’d look like in person.

We met a few weeks after our long-distance chats on Facebook, I will always look forward to his morning texts every morning and late-night romantic calls, his voice is soothing. “I am dying to meet you, Siyona,” Josh spoke up while we were on a call, I was feeling quite unsure, I had never taken online dating seriously, because most starts and ends there, “but possibly not this I thought”, out of curiosity, I agreed to meet, if not because he has asked, I would have asked before he did.

It has been a month since we met, I was in Abuja but I’d be back home for Christmas in Jos my hometown where Josh lived. It was on a Friday, and at 6 am I took an early bus from Abuja to Jos. I and Josh agreed to meet that same Friday. On my way to Jos, I found myself scrolling through his Facebook profile, eagerly and a little bit nervous, hoping he was as promising as he looks on social media.

After a few hours, I reached Jos city by 11 am, Josh had already been in the park, 30 minutes earlier. As soon as I set down my large Louis Vuitton traveling bag, my phone rang, it was Josh“Good timing” I said to him. “What are you wearing”?, he asked hurriedly, “I am wearing a brown sleeveless blouse and blue jeans” My voice was husky and I felt the sweat trickling down on my skin, I quickly took a deep breath.

Meanwhile, a familiar voice called my name closely behind me, it was Josh, immediately I turned I met the most beautiful man in the world, graced with the cutest smile. He had on an Ankara wear, with sunglasses perched on his forehead. We shared a long, silent hug, and that was like the beginning of our love story.

Josh and I spent so much time together during the holidays, going on dates, and falling in love every day. Josh visited my family house in Jos, and I couldn’t visit his, he was staying alone away from his family for work, he works as a resident, in one of the hospitals in town, he would always tell me that visiting his parents wasn’t a big deal, so I was okay with it, hoping I would meet them someday as he promised. Josh bought expensive gifts for me, I had no reason to doubt him at all.

“Who is that” I asked Josh, glancing at his new profile picture, it’s a woman and it wasn’t me, it was his ex-girlfriend, he had told me about her even before we met. I returned to Abuja after the Easter holiday, for my full-term accounting job at a bank. I tried calling Josh but he ignored all my calls. Later that day we chatted and he agreed to change the profile picture and assured me that he had nothing to do with his ex-girlfriend, Salome.

The next day, immediately after I logged into my Facebook app, Josh’s profile picture popped up, and it was still Salome, a stunning brown skin girl, her face had an oval contouring with a cute dimple smile. I quickly confronted Josh again, and this time around he was defensive and angry.

After our argument, Josh snubbed all my messages and calls, ghosted me for weeks, and still had Salome as his profile picture, to make matters worse, he would gaslight me, accusing me of talking to other guys. Until he sent me a document on Facebook one Sunday evening, we hadn’t spoken for a while, I clicked on the document, and boom it was his wedding invitation card with Salome, there was a sudden knot in my stomach, sweat trickling down my skin and my eyes were teary.

Josh has been lying and flirting with me since the first day we started chatting online, he played me and I just realized that. I felt heartbroken, that was exactly what Rasheed did to me after dating for 5 years, I later discovered that he had been married for 3 years with a child. Despite how I felt I congratulated him and of course, attended the wedding.