Second Time Lucky. Malihanelo Molapo

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СКАЧАТЬ Not in her wildest dreams had she expected to hear those words come from his mouth. And before she knew it, the warmth of his lips came down forcefully on hers. She quickly pulled away.

      “Why are you doing this, Justice? We’re supposed to be solving this problem, and yet you keep flashing intimate moments at me in between your rude remarks.”

      “I’m sorry, but like I said, I’ve really started to like you and I’d like to get to know you better. But you keep building up a wall.”

      Criselda jumped to her feet. “You’re the one with the rude wall around you, and now all of a sudden you want to get to know me? I’m afraid I don’t trust your intentions, Justice. I really don’t.” With that she quickly grabbed her handbag and left the room.

      * * *

      Suthukazi was already waiting for Criselda when she arrived at her office the next morning.

      As she sat down, her friend started probing. “There’s something different about you, Criss. I wanted to ask you last night when you got home, but judging by the way you looked I thought I’d better not. What happened?”

      Criselda pretended ignorance. “What do you mean? What happened with what?”

      “Never mind, I’ll get it out of you sooner or later.” Suthukazi smiled naughtily. “Anyway, fill me in on the Hampshire debacle. Any progress?”

      “Well, after the deprogramming yesterday I’ll wait to hear from Justice. He’ll give me the go-ahead on installing another system which I still have to research. As far as who’s the culprit, we’re still none the wiser, but his company is working on it.”

      “Are you sure that’s all you guys worked on?” Suthukazi pried again.

      “Yes, Kazi, I am sure. Now please bring in all the quarterly reports on our accounts so that we can go over those before we give them to Martin for the board meeting.”

      “All right then, I’m on it – but be warned, I’m not giving up that easily.”

      Suthukazi walked out of the office and as soon as she closed the door behind her Criselda’s thoughts drifted back to the night before. It had been so unexpected and so intense.

      How would this impact on her working relationship with Justice? She wondered what his angle was. Perhaps he wanted to use her to get over his ex. It was hard to trust him, considering how he’d treated her initially. Why the sudden change?

      All these thoughts rushing through her head were rudely interrupted by the ringing of her cellphone.

      When she answered, it was Florina on the other side. “Hello, Sisi,” Florina said. “I’ll only be arriving next week Monday, but I’m glad to say things have settled down. Please forgive me, I’m sure you must be struggling.”

      “Hhayi man, it’s okay, Rina. Most days everything runs smoothly, even though I’ve had an unexpected crisis at work. I’ll manage. See you on Monday then. Bye.”

      Criselda ended the call and smiled, thinking about how lost she would be without Florina in her life. Just then the office phone rang and she picked up.

      “Mr Dlangamandla on the line,” Tseli said in her tired voice.

      “Oh, put him through,” Criselda answered unenthusiastically.

      “Hello,” Justice said huskily, “I just wanted to apologise for making you uncomfortable yesterday.”

      “No need for that,” Criselda replied stiffly. “Let’s just put it behind us.”

      “Okay. I’ll talk to you later then.”

      The line went dead.

      * * *

      It was two days later, and at around three in the afternoon Criselda went home. She had decided she would prepare dinner and then pick up the kids from aftercare.

      She was feeling exhausted, what with the whole Hampshire debacle, and on top of that she couldn’t stop thinking about Justice. As she was driving along the N1 she kept wondering what would have happened if she had returned his kiss at Hampshire the other day.

      At the same time she couldn’t shake the feeling that he could perhaps be playing her, wanting to get her in Adam’s bad books so that he could take over her account. Maybe he was trying to distract her so that he could move in for the kill. He had just changed attitudes too quickly for her liking.

      When she got home she was surprised to see Sifiso’s car in the driveway. She would have to change the locks if he kept on showing up unannounced like this.

      Criselda braced herself as she stepped out of her car and walked through the front door, where she got an even bigger surprise when she was greeted by shrieks and loud laughter from the twins.

      “My turn, Dad, my turn!” she heard Sandile shouting. When she entered the lounge, she found the furniture rearranged to make a goal post at one end of the room. Sifiso seemed to be the goalkeeper as the boys kicked the ball back in his direction.

      When Siyanda saw Criselda he shouted, “Mom, Dad got us two new soccer balls for practising.”

      “That’s great, honey, but you can’t play in here. You guys are going to destroy my furniture, not to mention the windows.” She gestured for Sifiso to follow her to the kitchen.

      He kicked the ball to the boys and suavely followed her, making her feel unsafe in her own home.

      “Hey, baby, how are you?”

      Not bothering to answer, Criselda came straight to the point. “Sifiso, you’re not supposed to show up unannounced. You need to keep to the schedule so that things can run smoothly.”

      “Come on, Criss, you know how it is. When I miss my boys, I miss my boys. Where’s the crime there?” he replied nonchalantly.

      “I’m not going to argue with you, Sifiso. Please say goodbye and wait for your turn in two weeks’ time,” she said firmly. He smirked and she added, “And another thing – why did you pick them up from aftercare without informing me? That’s a really irresponsible thing to do.”

      “Okay, okay, I’m out of here.”

      Sifiso went back to the boys and played with them for another half an hour before leaving.

      Criselda then took the opportunity to finish the “match” with them, after which she was too exhausted to cook, so she ordered pizza instead.

      Later that evening, when the boys had gone to bed, she thought about how much she had enjoyed spending the late afternoon with them. Lately she hadn’t been able to do that due to her heavy work load, especially now with the Hampshire mess.

      She ended up by deciding to dedicate at least one weekend a month to doing whatever the boys felt like and spending quality time with them.

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