And no, I didn’t plan to sound that soft.
Femi’s Story
It started with a voice note I almost didn’t send.
You know the kind, your finger hovers over the mic button for too long, your heart is busy overthinking, and every sentence in your head suddenly sounds cringe. That was me. Sitting in my kitchen, frying plantain and listening to a playlist she sent me two nights before.
We’d met a few weeks earlier, slid into each other’s DMs after reacting to the same meme thread. First, it was “you’re funny.” Then it became, “What song are you listening to right now?” One voice note turned into five-minute rants. One meme turned into late-night voice messages where we’d talk about our parents, our exes, our future travel plans, and why we both secretly love Nigerian wedding hashtags.
But something shifted that day. I hadn’t heard from her in 48 hours, and I found myself checking if she’d posted. My ego said, “Don’t text her first.” My chest said, “You miss her voice.” My heart? It just hit record.
“Hey. Just checking in. You crossed my mind while I was frying plantain, and I smiled. That’s it.”
That was the voice note.
Nothing romantic. Just… warm.
She replied that night with a laugh in her voice and a message that started with, “I thought of you too. But I didn’t want to be the first to say it.” We ended up exchanging voice notes for an hour. Somewhere between her describing how she makes her own pancakes and me admitting I still sleep with socks on, I felt it.
Like… it.
That soft, unexpected, “wait, could this be something?” feeling.
A week later, I sent her a Lovebox card. It had a voice note attached to it, just like our first one. I said, “I know we’re still figuring this out. But I wanted you to have something to replay on the days I can’t call.”
She messaged me crying. Not because the card was dramatic. But because she said no one had ever sent her something that intentional before.
That’s when I knew.
Now, we’re six months in. We still send cards weekly. Still send voice notes on days when texts feel too flat. Still say “thinking of you” like it’s our love language. Sometimes, all it takes is 19 seconds and a little softness.
Pressing send was the scariest part. But it was also the start of something real.
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