me, thought Tumi. Never mind that she would’ve ordered the same thing anyway. She couldn’t even begin to wonder how he knew what her favourite drink was. Or maybe he assumed she still didn’t drink and had ordered the likeliest choice.
“I’ve upset you.”
“No, you haven’t, but seeing that I’m now twenty-eight, I can order my own drink.”
“My apologies. I only meant to be civil.”
He didn’t seem the least bit sorry to Tumi. Then again, she was probably picking a petty fight just to get a reaction out of him. It would make her feel better if he didn’t look so unaffected by her presence. She looked good, for Christ’s sake! But she supposed that when a man had had affairs with countless gorgeous socialites, he wouldn’t be affected by little old her.
“So I’m here, against my will. What do you want?”
She really didn’t mean to sound so rude. She hadn’t known she would be so angry until she laid eyes on his perfect and infuriating form.
“Just to talk.”
“About what?”
“Us.”
“That was over a long time ago.”
“I know you’d like to believe that. You’ve certainly acted like I don’t exist these past few years. But you should know by now that I’m not the kind of man you can discard and forget at will.”
He certainly didn’t waste any time spewing up his nonsense! Was this tactic the latest in the player handbook?
“I beg your pardon! You make it sound as if I wronged you.” She wouldn’t let him get away with turning the tables on her and actually implying that she’d played any detrimental part in their relationship.
“That’s hardly relevant now, is it? Please sit, you’re causing a scene.”
She looked around the restaurant and saw that she was indeed doing that.
Tumi sat down and tried her best to drink the delicious daiquiri he’d ordered for her, but it wouldn’t go down her tightly constricted throat. He was doing it again, toying with her emotions so masterfully. Mandi was the same heartless bastard he’d always been, she thought.
“You look beautiful, Tum. More than I’d hoped.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“And you seem to have developed quite a venomous tongue.”
“Or maybe you simply never knew me at all.”
“Maybe.”
He almost looked saddened by that. Tumi couldn’t understand why this conversation was going the way it was. She’d expected a few excuses to explain his horrible behaviour, but he was acting like the aggrieved party.
Before she could probe this point, he changed the subject.
“How’s your mother?”
“She’s fine.”
“And work?”
“Why are you back here, Mandi?”
“I got the job at the African News Network.”
“I know that! You could be based anywhere in the country, on the continent even, but you chose to come to Cape Town, where I live, where we’ll surely run into each other as our jobs are related.”
“This is my home too. Don’t act as if I planned my return to ruin your life.”
“Didn’t you? It was really nice seeing you again, Mandi, but I must go.”
“We’re not done with our drinks.”
“I think we are,” she said, getting up and walking away as fast as her feet could take her.
Tumi prayed she wouldn’t burst into tears and make a complete fool of herself. She couldn’t believe that some part of her had hoped he’d take responsibility for what he’d done and maybe apologise for breaking her heart.
But it was clear he wasn’t capable of that kind of respect. Mandi was obviously bored and needed some amusement while in Cape Town. Well, he could forget about her; she was no one’s distraction!
* * *
By the time Tumi arrived back at her flat, she was seething.
Mandi had a damn nerve to think he could waltz back into her life and act as if nothing had ever happened between them.
As she took off her heels and plonked down on the bed, she couldn’t help but remember the day when everything had turned sour between them. The day Mandi had ruined everything.
They had been dating for a year. Since the afternoon when he’d kissed her out of the blue, they had simply fallen into a relationship. One that Tumi never would have imagined herself having.
Though Mandi continued being closed off most of the time, though he remained reluctant to share anything about his past, he became the best and sweetest part of her life.
He began picking her up from res in the mornings. They would walk together, she babbling on about everything and nothing, and he seemingly enthralled by anything she had to say. He’d made her feel like the most important thing in his life. He’d been attentive and thoughtful, finding ways to make her day easier or just leaving her little notes written with his own brand of straightforward sweetness.
The other students wondered about the strange pairing. The bookworm who was always laughing and sharing a joke with everyone else, and the solitary intellectual who was sexier than any man deserved to be. But it worked for them.
During that time, Tumi had been the happiest she’d ever been in her life. She remembered how they would sneak off to a deserted part of the campus where they would sit talking and teasing each other. In the end they’d done everything but make love, something which was only due to her fear of being caught and expelled for public indecency.
Mandi was one of the most free-spirited people she’d ever met. He did what he wanted whenever he wanted to do it. He spoke to people who interested him and saw no point in conversing with anyone else. He studied hard but let go in the most surprising ways when they went out. It seemed he couldn’t get enough of her.
But it had all been a lie.
A year to the day after they’d made their relationship official, Tumi took Mandi to meet her mother in Khayelitsha. Margareta seemed to be thrilled to find that her daughter had met a good, intelligent boy who was dedicated to his studies and treated her with respect.
It had always been difficult to pinpoint Mandi’s origins. He wasn’t straightforward Xhosa or Zulu or any other culture. But he was distinctly township, streetwise and smooth. Tumi had worried about this, thinking her mother wouldn’t accept him as her boyfriend.
Margareta made no secret of the fact that she didn’t think the local boys were good
