I was sitting at home, snuggled on the sofa with my girlfriend Lucy when my phone buzzed. Reaching over, I picked it up and saw a message from Emmy - that girl I'd met a couple of weeks ago on campus. She'd been a bit weird, slightly overly friendly. I'd felt like she was studying me, like an interesting insect. She'd invited me for a coffee around the corner to chat, and having nothing else to do I'd agreed. They'd talked about a few things, but mostly him. She asked a lot of questions about where I came from, my family, and some strangely probing questions about a history of family illnesses. I told her, truthfully, that there were none I knew of. My family generally lived long lives. She seemed very pleased by that for some reason. Yeah, definitely weird. I finished my drink quickly and made my excuses to leave.

Catching up with Lucy later I told her about the encounter. "Be nice," she'd chided, "she's new in the country, right? So she's not used to the culture and is just looking to make a friend."

Well, here she was, texting now.... funny, I didn't remember giving her my number... but I must have done and forgotten.

The text read: "Heeeeey 💖 sorry to bother you, but could you help 🙏🙏 I got a box delivered downstairs but heavy for me to carry 🫠😭. I'm only just around the corner from you, would you mind coming to give me help with it 💪💪💪???? 🥺🙏🙏😽"

"Woah..." I exclaimed, holding the phone out to show Lucy.

"That's the girl from the coffee shop the other week? You didn't say you'd given her your number."

"Yeah. I guess I must have done," I said, confused but suddenly wary of Lucy thinking something was up.

"This is the first time she's messaged me though," I made a show of trying to scroll the conversation to show there was nothing there. "Weird that she's asking for help now..."

"Well not if she does need help," Lucy pointed out. "Are you going to go help, oh knight in shining armour?"

I smiled at her teasing.

"You sure you won't get jealous if I'm not back right away?"

Her eyes narrowed.

"mmm, and why wouldn't you come back straight away?"

"Well maybe there's dragons, or monsters. Or it's a really heavy box and I need to rest on every floor... or" I smirked at her "what if she and I fall desperately in love and I never return?"

"Pfffff" she snorted. "Then I'm keeping your laptop."

We laughed together, the teasing continuing until I had pulled on my jacket, an old one I hadn't worn in months, and stepped out the door.

I messaged: "Sure I'll help, where are you exactly?"

The reply was almost immediate, a dropped pin location placed at the back entrance to an apartment block, nestled down a side street away from the main road. Weird...

Walking toward Emmy's apartment building, I slipped my phone into my jacket pocket and felt a rough foil-wrapped packet in there. Pulling it out, I stared at the condoms - left over from early in my relationship with Lucy when we still used them. Suddenly I felt weird about visiting an attractive girl I'd just met with condoms in my pocket. What if she saw? What if she got the wrong idea?

I was just considering throwing them away when I looked up and spotted her standing next to the door, which was propped open with a large cardboard box that looked genuinely heavy.

She was muttering something to herself: "Ngomba imbuto ze, agomba kundira imbere..."