style="font-size:15px;"> “Or maybe it means I truly am over it and I have no desire to rehash an embarrassing chapter in my life.”
Tatum kept quiet. She knew her best friend well enough to know which topics got her back up. As darling as Tumi was, there were some parts of her life she simply refused to discuss in a rational way.
In the end Tumi decided on a pair of high-waisted, tailored navy pants which fitted her so snugly and made her butt look so good it was sinful, combined with a deep-red blouse with ruffles cascading down the front.
Tumi finished off the outfit with small studs and a pair of killer Luella gladiators, which were oh so hot because of their black colour and bright-red soles.
She looked herself over and approved of what she saw. The outfit was probably a bit too dressy for drinks, but she was a career woman on the go, a woman who couldn’t be expected to rush home to change for some unimportant meeting – or at least that’s what she wanted it to seem like.
Although, looking at her reflection, she couldn’t help but see the vulnerability she tried so hard to hide on a daily basis. She quickly pulled herself together and went off to meet a ghost from her past that had never stopped haunting her. A man she definitely did not want to see.
She couldn’t help but think back to when things had been different and they had still been students.
Tumi had hoped her second conversation with Mandi would involve a whole lot more words, but it hadn’t been so. She’d had a whole speech planned. But standing next to his hunched figure, as he looked critically at some or other ancient text, she began to think it was a bad idea to try and extend an olive branch.
“Do you want me to hand your part of our assignment in for you?”
“Sure.”
It was not going well. Why wouldn’t he say anything more than the bare minimum?
“I think you’re bloody rude,” she had suddenly blurted out.
And then he’d done something completely unexpected. He had laughed out loud. A husky, soft laugh that revealed dimples he surely had worked very hard to disguise. Tumi had immediately been taken aback. She found herself mesmerised by the beauty of him, and almost breathless with the desire to touch him.
When she next spoke, she didn’t sound like herself at all.
“What’s so funny?”
“You’ve a lot to say to me, Tumi. And you seem determined to drag it out for both of us. Just spit it out.”
And as if she’d been waiting for his permission, she let him have it.
“Well . . . I think you’re rude. You walk around here like you’re the shit, like the sun rises and sets on your chiselled torso only. You speak to no one unless a question is asked of you. You treat your fellow students with indifference and when they try to change that, you treat them with disdain.”
“That all?”
“I think you should try and be a bit nicer and friendlier, because although some of us may be beneath you, there might come a day when you need a friend.”
He seemed to consider seriously what she’d said, though not with shame and regret, as she’d hoped.
“Do you want to be my friend, Tumi?”
That question had taken her by surprise. She didn’t know how to respond. Was that why he got to her so much? Did she secretly wish they could be friends? And how the hell had he seen through her?
If she were honest with herself, she’d admit that his indifference offended and unnerved her. She was, much to her chagrin, quite intrigued by him.
“Well, I’m not one to impose myself on people who don’t want me around,” she had said, making sure she didn’t seem too eager to accept his concealed offer.
“I want you around,” he had replied quietly, not altogether meeting her gaze but listening intently for her response.
Before she could manage an answer, he was looking so deeply into her eyes that she thought she was going to collapse right where she stood.
“Really? I mean, uhm, that’s to say, why?”
And in the midst of her confusion, before she could even process what was happening, he had kissed her. So thoroughly, so completely, so familiarly.
There had been no prelude to the more intimate part of the kiss; there had been no careful coaxing or hesitant approach. He’d just stood up from where he sat, wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her till all the breath in her lungs was out. And even then he did not stop.
She had to remind herself to breathe because she was becoming light-headed. It seemed like an eternity, probably more like five minutes, before he stopped.
And while she recovered, a small smile formed on her lips.
“I’ll see you after class,” he’d said quickly before rushing off.
It had been decided in that instant, Tumi thought as she pulled up in the parking lot. He’d wanted her for himself. He’d decided she was his. He’d claimed her, and before she could protest, before she could make any feminist proclamations, she had been his. In every single way that a woman could belong to a man.
A whirlwind in her life. The same whirlwind that now threatened to throw everything into turmoil.
* * *
As soon as she entered the restaurant, she knew where Mandi was sitting. It was as if some vibration made her acutely attuned to his whereabouts. Or maybe she’d inhaled too much of her own Coco Chanel.
He looked so different, yet also so similar to the young man he had been, only now he was a fully grown man of the world. He had that same ease about himself, the same self-assured elegance that set him apart from the rest of the crowd.
He was looking intently at a glass of what seemed like expensive liquor. She was surprised by that. Mandi had always been a man of simple tastes; he detested any unnecessary opulence, although that might have changed, given his recent status and success.
He was wearing a crisp white shirt and fitted jeans that were too dark to be blue and too light to be navy. A beautiful golden watch was his only accessory. And goodness, was he beautiful!
Tumi quickly took another look at herself in her compact mirror. She still had the same huge dark eyes, attributed to her Swati background on her father’s side. Her braids were tied back and her caramel skin was flawless as always. There was absolutely nothing she could do to change how she looked now. She had to be confident in herself and get this meeting over and done with.
She carefully made her way towards him, making sure to appear calm, composed and unmoved.
“Mandi.”
It was a pity her croaky voice refused to cooperate! She couldn’t afford to let him know how much he unnerved her.
“Tum.” He stood up with the elegance of a panther. It seemed he was doing the cool act very well,
