A Second Chance.

I am someone who loves to support my friends the best way I can, especially if they are entrepreneurs. I love to patronize my friends more than a random person.

I and Donald, with whom I had been friends since our university days, were having a random chat the day we decided to visit the tourist centre when he told me he was into 3D animations, T-shirts, nylon customization, and logo creation. I was very happy because for a while I had been looking for someone who would make my fashion brand a customised nylon to deliver the client's order.

I flipped my hair to the back while I asked him, "How do you charge? I would love to patronize you." With such a beautiful smile, he was so excited he would have the honour of making my brand nylon customization and T-shirt for me and my girls.

"Since I know you, I won't charge you so much since we are colleagues 8,000 for 12 units each including the print." It was quite expensive to me because I had initially asked a random person who also specializes in customization but then I decided to patronize him anyway, "Aren't you going to give me a discount?" I tried to persuade him if he could reduce the price for me: "I didn't charge you at all; I will give you a very good job; have no worries." I decided to just give him a trial, and so we closed the deal. He told me the day the nylons and shirts would be delivered, and I was looking forward to it.

Donald told me I was going to receive the goods by the end of a fortnight, and it's been over three weeks yet there are no signs of the goods approaching anytime soon. I decided to put a call across to him. "Hey Donald, what's popping? When am I receiving the goods? It's over a fortnight now."

"Oh, I'm sorry you get it by next week; there was a little delay in printing," he replied, ending the call with a chuckle.

At this point, I wasn't feeling happy about how everything was going, but then I decided to keep my cool, hoping that by the end of the week, my goods would arrive. At the end of the week, my goods didn't arrive, and everything I tried to reach Donald's number wouldn't go through.

I started to regret patronizing him. After another two weeks, my home rang and it was a random number calling, so I picked up and kept quiet for a moment. "Hello...Hello," a male's voice resounded from the speaker. "It's me, Amie, you'll get your goods today; it's on the way. I am very sorry for the delay." Donald was the last person I expected to call me, but then I was glad he finally reached out. "Oh, okay, I'll be expecting it," I reluctantly responded.

A few hours later, the goods arrived, and the worst of all happened: the nylon and the T-shirt were made of inferior quality, the colour looked faded, and the print on it wasn't what I was expecting.

I was so disappointed, and then I called him to tell him how bad his services were. First, he delayed the goods; now they were of poor quality, and that was the last time I patronized him. He kept making excuses as to why everything happened the way it did and that he would make it up for me the next time I patronized him. "Who will patronize you again?" I whispered under my breath.

Last year, I wanted to make another T-shirt as a gift for a friend, so I posted it online, asking for a referral. Then Donald reached out to me and said he would do it, but I was reluctant to give him a second chance. After much thought, I decided to give him a second chance since what happened the last time was now water under the bridge, and thankfully he gave me the best, and I was happy we made up for the last time.