When her two years were up, Nii was morose about losing Susan. She was more sanguine, however, and promised to come back to Ghana as soon as she could.

“Promise and swear to call me when you return,” Nii demanded.

“I promise and swear,” she said.

And now, she was back—older and not in quite the same frame of mind as before. Nii would be around twenty-six now, and when Susan opened her hotel room door to him, she saw that some of his boyishness had gone. He had a neatly trimmed beard now, and his body seemed more solid—more like a man’s than a boy’s. They embraced each other for a while.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he told her. “Come, let’s talk.”

They sat together on the sofa. Nii explained that he hadn’t done anything with his BA in political science. In fact, it had been worthless to him, and he had been through a rough patch of unemployment before getting into “information technology,” as he put it.

“Oh, that’s great!” she exclaimed. “And you look like you’re doing very well. Those clothes you’re wearing are an upgrade! Oh, my God, you’re even handsomer than before.”

He laughed. “Thanks, my love. And what about you? How is work?”

Susan was still teaching at BU. Her oldest daughter had had a baby.

“You look so good,” he said softly. “Can I kiss you?”

They kissed for a long time, and then Nii told Susan to hang on tight while he lifted her and carried her to the bed.

Nii Kwei seemed to Susan to have more finesse than she remembered—at least at the start. But after several minutes, some of the old roughness returned with something new besides. He talked dirty, which she had never heard from him before, and he mixed English with Ga, producing a steamy, heady mix of brutally erotic language. She was transported to an intense high, only hazily aware that she was shrieking and crying and begging him to do it harder and faster, which he did until they had migrated across the bed to the edge of the other side. He pulled them both back from the brink before they fell off.

When both were spent, Nii went to sleep for a while. She watched him and relished the glossy blackness of his skin, which both absorbed and reflected light. He stirred and pulled her close, so he was behind her and she fitted into the concavity of his body.

“Your hair is lighter these days,” he said.

She chuckled. “You mean grayer?”

“No, I didn’t mean that.” He kissed her. “I like it. Can I have some?”

She lifted her head to look at him. “Really?”

“Yes, yes. That’s what I want. I know someone who can make a bracelet from it. I will wear it and you’ll be with me all the time.”

“How weird and sweet,” she said. “Okay, but just a little bit. I’m not exactly blessed with flowing tresses.”