Chapter 28
28
Wale_Memoir_Draft1.doc
Target word count: 10,000
Current word count: 12,062
Four weeks to go …
We go to Greenwich Park, where we perch under a tree with a view of a small lake and a few ducks swimming. Once we’re seated comfortably, I pull out my laptop and phone, mulling over how to make the best of this interview. With only four weeks to go until I have to submit my first draft, I need to make headway. Fast.
So far I’ve written more than forty pages, including how sensitive Wale was growing up and how he flourished in his charity job – two things the public would be surprised to learn about him. I’m planning to use my time with Fonzo to find out more about Wale’s teenage years and to pick his brains on some other misconceptions people may have of him.
Fonzo tries to get into a comfortable position. He resorts to hugging his knees. ‘Before we get started,’ he says, pulling the tongue of his Converse, ‘I just want to say I’m sorry to hear what happened with Kojo. That guy is the worst. Are you okay?’
I feel touched by Fonzo’s concern and I’m glad that Wale opened up to his best friend about it. ‘I’m better. Thank you for asking. You good to get started?’
‘Ready when you are.’
Fonzo paints a picture of his oldest childhood friend. He uses some of the words his parents did – sensitive, quiet. But he also talks about the silliness and the laughter that flowed when Wale was comfortable – playing FIFA or doing homework in Fonzo’s kitchen. He doesn’t mention anything about Wale’s caring experience. I guess he wants to respect his privacy.
‘So, at what point did he come out of his shell?’ I ask.
Fonzo refolds his white cotton socks, his long legs peppered with stray hairs. ‘Definitely secondary school,’ he says without missing a beat.
He tells me about a more cheeky, outgoing Wale who grew more confident after he got his teeth straightened. He was never one of the popular kids at the all-boys state school but, unlike Fonzo, he sought their validation.
‘Why is that?’ I ask with genuine curiosity.
Fonzo ponders. ‘I guess gaining the right type of respect boosted his confidence. Made him feel like a top dog.’
He then goes on to share a few anecdotes about the things they got up to both in and out of the classroom, including having a water-bomb fight, which saw their poor French teacher get caught up in the crossfire.
‘Sorry, I’m going off-topic,’ he says after laughing at the memory. He nods to my laptop. ‘Wale tells me you both drew up a list of things people assume about him. If you like I can share my two cents on a few?’
‘Good idea.’ I retrieve the document and turn my laptop around.
‘People assume that I’m scared to love,’ he says, reading aloud. I feel my cheeks blush. At the time, I wasn’t too sure if Wale had only said that to reassure me that he had always felt the same way I’d felt about him, even if he hadn’t vocalized it as openly. But then, Fonzo says, ‘You know about his ex-girlfriend, Cammie, right? Well, BC Wale wasn’t scared to love but AC Wale …’ His voice trails.
So , I got the AC Wale , I can’t help but think. ‘Tell me, what was BC Wale like?’
Fonzo takes off his glasses and cleans each lens on the hem of his shirt. ‘BC Wale was a sucker for love,’ he says. ‘You know those Black American romance movies? Yeah, he was obsessed with those. I think seeing Black love made him aspire to be in a long-term relationship.’
I smile. ‘Yeah, he told me he watched The Best Man parts one and two, like, twenty times.’
‘Do you know how he met Cammie?’
‘Yeah, in the library.’
Wale had told me how Cammie would usually study in the quiet section, which made it difficult to go speak to her in person – unless he was prepared for a potential public rejection. Apparently, he wasn’t as confident as he is now. So, on the way to the toilets he dropped her a handwritten note. She later dropped one back and the rest was history.
‘He really liked her, Temi. And I mean really liked her to the point he was calling me, like, every day to tell me about her. Okay, maybe not every day, but you know what I mean.’
‘It’s so hard to believe that Wale didn’t have the courage to speak to her,’ I say. ‘The other day, he told me he felt he wasn’t in her league.’
Fonzo stares at me. ‘Temi, the Wale you see today isn’t the Wale back then.’ He sighs. ‘He’s going to hate me for this.’ But still, he pulls out his phone and swipes a few times before handing it to me.
The second my eyes land on the screen, my brows quirk. It’s as though I’m looking at one of those ‘before they were famous’ pictures. Gone are the tattoos, the beard, the muscles. Wale was slim – but not as slim as Kojo had said. He was still handsome; he just didn’t have that swag.
‘Okay, I’ve got a visual image.’ I hand Fonzo his phone back.
‘Wale was besotted. He couldn’t believe his luck. I think he felt it was a privilege to be with her, so he did everything he could to make her happy. But Cammie liked the finer things in life. And Wale didn’t have money like that. Still, he did what he could to make her happy, to make them work. He surprised her with gifts, took her to fancy restaurants. He was so in love with her, Temi, he even introduced her to his parents.’
My shock must have shown on my face because Fonzo says, ‘Yeah. That was a massive deal for him.’
‘This is going to sound strange, Fonzo, but I never really got the full story of what led to their break-up. Wale said it made him angry just thinking about it. He said she made him feel like nothing.’
At the time, I didn’t pry. After all, we had agreed to take things slow, and so I had to respect our decision. In truth, though, I had agreed to go at his pace, which was a lot slower than I’d have liked. He will tell me when he ’ s ready , I thought. ‘We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,’ I would say. I didn’t want to do anything that would push him away or make him have doubts about going exclusive, especially as when we first started talking he’d told me he wasn’t actively looking for a relationship. And so, if it meant shying away from asking the deep, important questions, that was what I was going to do.
But if Fonzo is saying that ‘AC Wale’ is scared to love, then something must have happened in their relationship. Something major.
Now Fonzo looks visibly torn over how much he should share while also respecting Wale’s boundaries. He reads aloud again: ‘People assume that I’m a cheater.’ And when his eyes ping back to me, he adds, ‘How ironic.’