Missteps – Chapter Sixty Six

Thozama Mqikela
@Mightyzama

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Oh my gosh, I didn’t know where to look, I was so embarrassed, I slowly walked over to my chair and said to Mfundo thank you for the flowers, they are beautiful. The person at the door was none other than Cindy, shit dammit I was screwed. Mfundi could not even look at her in the eyes, he mumbled a “Hi” which Cindy replied to cheerfully. Mfundo walked out, I started working well at least acted like I was working, Cindy asked “is that how we got this account back? Lesedi are you fucking Mfundo?” and I thought the cubicles were bad, I said “of course not, I am married for goodness sakes” she looked at me angrily then said “is that why you didn’t want me to date him, because you wanted him for yourself?” the girl was pissed, I tried everything to deny it but she wouldn’t budge, she had seen what she saw and was convinced that Mfundo and I were having an affair, what made matters worse was the fact that she had thought that we had gotten this account because she played hard ball only to be smacked in her face by the realization that it was because I was banging Mfundo and that is how we got the account back, she said she was too angry to talk to me or even look at me right now and would go out and come back later I should cover for her I was not being asked I was being told to cover for her, I said okay. I sat there feeling so bad for what had just happened, I couldn’t even focus on work, my mind was all over the place, what if Cindy told Andiswa, I could get into serious trouble, even lose my job, what the hell had I done? How could I be so careless and stupid, I was so mad at myself.

My landline rang it was my husband, he said he was just checking if I got to work safe, he said he thinks we should move from where we stay he had already found us a place in Midrand, we will be moving the following week in the meantime we staying at my parent’s place, wait what? Don’t I have a say in this? I asked him, he said we were not safe at that place. Midrand? Really? We might as well be staying in Pretoria that place is far I complained, my husband was getting impatient with my whining he snapped at me “far from what Lesedi? Are you going to walk there? I am trying to protect you, weren’t you the one screaming and shouting at me that I’m not protecting you and when I do you give me hell, what do you want Lesedi please tell me what it is that you want because right now you are being impossible”. Haaibo, where did that come from? I said it’s fine we will do whatever he wants we always do anyway and he snorted back “if you brought solutions instead of complaining then maybe we would do what you want.” Damn he was in a bad mood. I asked him what did he take from that man that had come to our complex last night because clearly whatever it was it was very important to him, he snapped at me and said that is not something that I should discuss with him over the phone. I said okay I will see him later, he said “by the way tomorrow we doing the ceremony for Katlego’s child” shit I had completely forgotten about that I said okay and hung up.

I went back to working, Cindy eventually came 3 hours later, I didn’t even want to ask where she went. She looked at me and said “here is how this is going to work, I’m not going to report you to Andiswa, knowing that crazy bitch she would probably give you a raise for this, but if I feel that you are being favoured over me because of your sleeping arrangements with Mfundo I swear to God Lee I will go straight to your husband and tell him about this affair” that last statement made my stomach turn, I just sat there dumb-struck, no words, speechless. Cindy then went to work and acted like nothing happened and kept asking me questions all work related. At about 12:30 there was a knock at our office door, as I looked up it was my husband. He came to me and kissed me and said he didn’t know we were back at our office, Cindy smiled and said “your wife can be very convincing when she wants to be, she managed to get us our office back”, Mthobisi looked at me and said “Wow Baby, well done, how did you do it?” Cindy the bitch was really enjoying this she said “Yes Lee, tell your husband how you managed to get us back into the office and the account, she is such a miracle worker this wife of yours” I was annoyed now I said to my husband I would tell him when we got home it was a long story, he said he bought me lunch, it was prawns but the smell was so bad, I love prawns I asked him why they smelled so bad and told him they were probably rotten I didn’t want them, Cindy said she would have them he had also brought me a new phone and had done the sim swop for me on it as well shame my husband can be sweet, I thanked him and he said he would couldn’t stay long as he had to get back to work.

I walked him out to his car, on the way he told me to go to my parent’s house after work, he will bring my clothes and the next day we would be going to his mother’s house for the ceremony. I agreed realising that this shit was now serious. I went back to the office and Cindy was all smiles she was even humming, the bitch had me where she wanted me. I managed to do a bit of work and drove to my parent’s house after work.
I got home and both my mom and Victor were already there my mom jokingly said if we going to be there so much we need to start paying rent, we all laughed I played with my son for a bit until my husband arrived with our suitcases, this man and suitcases though. We went to bed, Mthobisi wanted to make love, I was tired, I had been ready for him the night before but tonight I was not in the mood so I just laid there while he did his thing, this was wrong but I was exhausted and honestly couldn’t perform at all. When he was done he passed out, how boring, I laid there with so many things running through my mind, I decided to tell my girls to come support me tomorrow at my inlaw’s ceremony.

I didn’t know their numbers off by heart but I had all their business cards in my business cards pouch, took their numbers from there and send them all each a message telling them I needed them at Daveyton the next day, they all agreed that they would be there, She Rocks said she would not stay for long coz she still had not found Siyabonga, I said it was fine. Next morning it was Saterday morning we got up early before my mom and Victor they sleep in on weekends we got dressed I wore my traditional outfit and Mthobisi said we should go with one car, I told him my friends would be coming he was happy and said I could do with the support. I wanted this day to be over and done with already I was just over it.
We arrived at Mthobisi’s mom’s house, she was still in the wheelchair but bossing people around, there were a few people helping with the cooking and shit and since I was the makoti I was also expected to help out under normal circumstances I would have helped out with the cooking but these were different circumstances I didn’t have to do shit, and since hubby and his mom were not in good terms I could do as I please. I went and greeted my mother-in law there were people around so I had to be polite, Mthobisi didn’t even come close to her he went and to speak with his uncles. I went to the bedroom and my friend’s arrived, looking supper gorgeous in their traditional wear, we all went and sat in my husband’s bedroom, they saw the child’s picture and commented on how pretty she was I gave them the death stare which made them change the topic immediately. I asked She Rocks about the latest on Siyabonga, she said even his family didn’t know where he was and it’s been more than 48 hours so they have opened a missing person docket with the cops, shit this was more serious than we had all thought. Cleo with her big mouth said “I hope his not dead”.

We all turned and looked and her and she said “I’m just saying, we all know the situation his in guys” I quickly said maybe he was just trying to avoid She Rocks the stress of moving to rural areas and had just gone without her, in a few weeks he will miss her and come back, I was trying to be positive and supportive as much as is possible could after the mouth lashing I got from She Rocks I didn’t want to take any chances. She Rocks said that she had thought the same thing but Siyabonga would have never just left like that, something was not right. Andiswa changed the topic and started asking about work, we all had so much to complain about, we were all complaining about our bosses, that’s one thing that you can never go wrong on if the conversation is going to the left shift it by asking about work. While we were still talking there was a knock at the door, it was Koketso, she was late. I asked why didn’t she come to help out earlier with the cooking she said Tshepang said she shouldn’t he was standing in solidarity with Mthobisi against their mother, wow, music to my ears. She Rocks said she was going to the toilet and walked out, this was a perfect opportunity to talk about her, Andiswa quickly said “guys we need to do something about her, she is going crazy” I told them about Mthobisi’s friend who can track people’s phone and we all agreed that we will ask my husband after the ceremony to find Siyabonga’s phone.

As we were talking She Rocks phone rang, it was a private number I took it and said I will answer as I was answering her phone the door opened but I don’t think the person who opened it realised that there were people inside, she was busy talking to the people that she was with and her back was to us. I was still on She Rocks phone the person on the other end said, “I’m sorry to have to tell you this but we believe that we have found your fiancé and he was shot, I’m sorry but he is dead” I said I’m sorry what then the woman who was standing at the door said “and this is where my precious daughter was conceived” she said turning around to find all of us staring at her, my mouth was wide opened it was soo obvious this standing in front of us was Katlego and did she just say her daughter was created in this room? I still had the phone in my ear and the lady was screaming “ma’am are you okay? Are you still there? We will need you to come and identify the body, I gave the phone to Andiswa and jumped on top of Katlego and started beating the bitch down.