Is this Love – Episode 34

IS THIS LOVE – Episode 34

A story by Kennedy C Katongo

 

SHE LOOKS BEAUTIFUL

“I won’t lie – I never liked him. The dude was broke and pretended to be someone he wasn’t. What guarantee can he give that his now ready for marriage? A job? That’s a lame excuse. There is more to being ready for marriage than getting a job mummy. What happens when his 60 and jobless….” I said as I began to laugh out loud to the thought of what I had just said.

“You can be really evil at times do you know that?” She glared at me for a couple of seconds and went to the kitchen.

“You know am telling the truth right?” I said as I followed her behind.

“Am mad at you because you saw all that in him and never bothered to tell me about it when I was dating him!” She said with a blat. I seemed kind of confused that she would have wanted me to warn her about what I thought her man was like – how would I have done that.

“You know that’s ridiculously stupid right? You were in love. You have fallen for him and closed your senses. How was I to convince you that your dear beloved was some dude with impersonation issues? That would have been wrong.” I told her. I was almost laughing but tried my hardest not to.

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Once my cousin and I were done preparing lunch, I ate up, took a shower and in no times was off to visit my aunty in Northmead. I didn’t know if I was supposed to update Chileshe since he knew the time and place where we were supposed to meet later on.

While I was on the bus, I was engaged into a conversation by a young man who sat next to me. At first I avoided him but he continued to tap my hand till I removed my headsets, ‘Oil and Water’ was the track I had been listening to. The concept of how the two can never mix but find a way to co-exist together is what got me hooked to the song. To me it was about different people with different backgrounds and lifestyles coming together to make a family and follow the same path.

With a strong annoyed gaze I looked at him, “Can I help you?” I asked.

“Am really sorry to disturb you. It’s just that I couldn’t help it, you dropped your purse.” He said, his words came out sharp, dipped in fear.

“Am so sorry. Forgive my manners.”

“It’s okay. You don’t need to apologize. I totally understand. Rough day and you probably just trying to zone out on the world for some minutes.” This time around, he spoke normally – if that was his normal voice.

“I felt bad at how I had answered him when all he was trying to do was help me out. Now I sat there not knowing what to do next, putting on my headsets seemed like the wrong with to do. So I carefully placed them in my bag together with my purse.

The bus reached Northmead and I dropped off, I finally felt the shame fade away as I crossed the road. Am certain I was the topic after leaving. Anyway, I decided to text Chileshe and alarm him that I was in Northmead already and he was to let me know once he was there as well.

@@ @@ CHILESHE @@ @@

‘Let me know when you at the market.’ That was Matimba’s message. All my papers were ready and will packed in an envelope. The only thing that remained was for me to bath. There was like 2 more hours to go.

Bathing for guys wasn’t a big deal, it was one soap – one water and I was out of the bathroom.

The difficult part came when picking clothes. I was certain about being casual but I just didn’t want to over do it. That day I wasted an hour of my time ironing different shirts and jeans , one after another I tried them on and took them off. Because of time, I finally settled on a black Jean, A grey top that had some kind of Chinese style on the chest – simple but nice, to finish it up was a pair of black and white converse. My roll-on and spray were on check, teeth clean and off I went. It wasn’t very far, so there was no need for me to take a bus, I just had to jump a few roads and in about 20minutes I was at Northmead market. I didn’t know which side she would be coming from, so from the church I began to walk up the road to the filling station as I called her.

“Hello, you’ve reached?” She asked me.

“Yes I have. Am actually heading to the filling station right now. Where are you?” I asked her.

“I will be there in a second. And please order a pizza, large with extra meet. I don’t want the mushroom one. It’s your treat.” She said in less than a second.

In the background I could hear kids calling her. All I said was ‘sure thing’ at least I was able to afford such things compared to the time I was in school. Wish I could have told her that mushroom never has meat on it.

I arrived there, glad enough there was space, a free table near the window. It wasn’t a bad view. I placed an order and got a bottle of water for myself. It wasn’t optional, after this treat I was going to be low on cash. So getting water was a calculated move.

Matimba arrived at the same time as the pizza, she just entered and my order number was called.

“What drink would you like?” I asked her.

“Am not sure, no carbonated though.” She said as she began to make herself comfortable. It wasn’t every day that I had seen her in street clothes especially for her figure. Matimba wasn’t fat, maybe a bit chubby, she wasn’t slim either but just in between there and she had the perfect height. She had a black light skinny jean that was reaped on both sides of the legs. Then she had some trendy sports wear for shoes. I wasn’t a shoe freak for obvious reasons but I knew expensive when I saw it. Then a top that had mixed colours but matched well with the shoes. Then she had those big headsets. The ones that cross over your head. She looked so beautiful such that the men who were present kept stealing glances at her. This use to happen a lot with Lydia and I kind of got used to the whole thing.

The only noncarbonated drinks they had was Embe and Purejoy. I was already aware that she didn’t like Purejoy for reasons best known to herself so I got her a bottle of Water and an Embe drink.

@@ @@ MATIMBA @@ @@

I took a deep breath as I sat down. Immediately I noticed how some of the male species were looking at me. That never bottled me, I had learned to might my own business, that was the shortcut to happiness.

Chileshe kept looking back to were I sat, he would smile. I guess that was a way of him marking his territory. Guys and their egos…

 

To be continued…