Love on the Menu

by Lerato Matsaneng

“Are you okay?” he asked as he hugged her.

  Lebo was lying in his arms while their hearts beat together. “I’m perfect,” she answered and finally allowed herself to fall asleep in his adoring arms.

  * * *

  The next morning, the rays of the bright winter sun streaming through the windows of Molemo’s bedroom woke Lebo up. She looked around and then recalled where she was.

  Molemo was not by her side, but she could faintly hear him humming in the distance. She lay still and thought back to the night before. A warm smile came across her face as she remembered how wonderful it had been to be in his arms, to let her guard down and allow herself to be truly loved.

  While she was still lost in wonderment, Molemo walked in with two mugs and the morning paper on a tray. “Morning, ma’am. Sleep well?” He kissed her sweetly on her lips.

  “I slept wonderfully, thanks.” She smiled at him and reached for the paper.

  Molemo handed Lebo her tea. “Your tea, just the way you like it: white, with three sugars.” Then he took his coffee and sipped it, staring at her.

  “How did you know that’s how I take my tea?” Lebo looked at him like an investigative journalist.

  “At our first meeting at Katzy’s you ordered tea. I remembered how you had yours,” he said with a smile.

  The two spent a good part of the morning lying in bed, drinking more tea and coffee, having a breakfast snack and reading the paper.

  It was already midday by the time Lebo had showered and was ready to leave for the office.

  She was running late for her afternoon shift at the paper and decided that she would put in an extra hour to make up for it.

  * * *

  When Lebo walked into the office, she found Rumbi and Bongi roaming impatiently around her desk. She knew they wanted last night’s gossip. She had told them about the meeting at Molemo’s offices and the invitation to watch the soccer game at his house.

  Knowing her friends, Lebo realised that they wouldn’t leave her alone until she had given them a blow-by-blow account of her night out.

  “Morning, ladies. Don’t you have work to do, instead of circling my desk like a flock of vultures?” Lebo loved trying her friends’ patience; it was her way of getting them back for treating her like their little sister.

  She made herself some tea and led her friends outside to the smoking area to share some of the details of her night with Molemo. As she narrated the niceties, her friends were oohing and aahing excitedly.

  “So when are you seeing him again, and when do we get to meet him?” asked Rumbi, shattering Lebo’s daydreaming daze.

  “He invited me to join him at a friend’s party tomorrow at the Shisanyama in Sebokeng, but I can’t make it because I have to be at the opening of Fashion Week. We’ll maybe hook up on Saturday afternoon. I’ll call him and we’ll see.”

  Lebo gave her friends a smug look and walked off to her desk, leaving them shaking their heads in disbelief at what they had just been told.

  She was feeling on top of the world. Her business was about to take off and she was getting very close with a wonderful man. Nothing could ever go wrong!

  Chapter 6

  6

  Lebo was in a deep sleep when her phone rang. She was irritated and didn’t intend to answer it. If it was that important, whoever it was would call again, she thought.

  A few moments later the phone rang again. Lebo reached under her pillow for it and without looking who the caller was, she groggily said hello.

  “Ya wena sefebe,” came a loud and obviously drunken voice. She was sure it was Kgotso. She looked at the phone and indeed it was.

  Lebo immediately sat up and rubbed her eyes. “What’s going on, wena? What nonsense are you waking me up for?”

  “Nonsense? Ke wena nonsense. I introduced you to Molemo and wena, you end up dating him and sleeping with him. Have you no pride? I thought you wanted to start a catering company, but clearly it’s a brothel you are interested in starting. Sies, you disgust me.”

  Kgotso went on ranting, but Lebo had had enough. “How dare you disrespect me like this? What are you going on about? You sound hopelessly drunk,” she screamed into the phone.

  Kgotso went quiet.

  By now Lebo had got out of bed and was pacing up and down in her flat.

  “Kgotso bua! What’s the matter with you?” she insisted on an explanation.

  “You betrayed me, Lebo. I beat that lover of yours and I hate you. You’re a damn bitch!”

  “Stop that!” Lebo shouted. “You’re pissing me off. Now please tell me what the heck is going on.”

  “I never want to speak to you again, girl. I never want to see you again. I hate you!” Kgotso roared and hung up.

  Lebo felt confused and irritated. What had happened? There was no way Molemo would have told anyone, let alone Kgotso, what had happened between them. Or was there?

  She looked at her phone and noticed she had missed two calls from Tebogo. He wasn’t one to call late, so she knew something was wrong. She wondered if it had anything to do with what Kgotso had phoned her about.

  Lebo wanted answers and she wanted them fast, so she called Tebogo. There was a lot of noise when he answered, which meant he was still out partying. This didn’t surprise her; she knew her friend loved revelling until the sun came up.

  There was no greeting or his usual banter when Tebogo answered the phone. He went straight to the point.

  “Lebo, I told you to be careful ka Molemo. Now everyone knows about the two of you. Why didn’t you listen to me, mara?”

  “Please tell me what’s going on?” Lebo said into the phone. “Kgotso called me, ranting about the same thing. Ke eng hle.” Lebo was holding back her tears as she tried to get to the bottom of what had happened.

  Tebogo relayed in great detail the events of earlier that night. “We were all at the party at the Shisanyama, and Kgotso overheard Molemo tell his best friend, Sizwe, that you two are dating and that you’d spent the night at his house. Kgotso got upset and confronted Molemo, and the two of them got into a screaming match. Then Kgotso lost it completely and punched Molemo in the eye.”

  Tebogo gave Lebo some more gory details, but her mind had drifted away. All she could think of was why on earth Molemo would do such a thing.

  “I’m really disappointed in you, ngwanana. I thought you were better than that, but you acted like a real bimbo this time,” Tebogo said in parting and ended the call. Lebo wanted to call him back, but she knew he wasn’t the one with the answers.

  So she called Molemo’s phone, which just rang and then went to voicemail.

  Lebo took a deep breath and started to cry. How had she gone from being a nobody to a much loathed bitch in such a short space of time? Now everyone saw her as just another one of Molemo Tladi’s conquests.

  She looked at her phone. It was 3:23am. She felt drained and exhausted.

  She burst into tears and cried some more. For a long time she lay awake, then finally dozed off.

  When she woke, Lebo thought she had woken up from a bad dream. But then she looked at the calls registered on her phone and realised that it was the terrible truth.

  Suddenly a gush of anger swept through her. How could Molemo have done this to her? She felt cheap and used and was disappointed in herself. Why had she ignored everyone’s warnings? They had told her that he was a player, but she believed he had been different with her. Molemo had been so gentle and sweet. Was that all a façade? The only way to find out was to get the truth from the horse’s mouth.

  * * *

  Although Molemo was awake, he kept his eyes shut. His head pounded like never before. He was a seasoned drinker, but this was a headache of note. It hurt all over.

  He tried to lift his head but it wouldn’t move; he opened his left eye and then the right, and the pain took a trip around his body. He really felt as if there was something seriously wrong with him.

  Eventually opening his eyes, he looked around and realised that he
was in Sizwe’s spare bedroom. He’d been here many times before.

  As he painfully struggled to get into an upright position, his friend walked in.

  “Feeling better, bra? You had a hectic night,” Sizwe laughed.

  “What happened? Why is my head pounding like this? What did you guys give me to drink?” Molemo was annoyed that he couldn’t remember how he had got into such a state.

  “You had your whisky as usual, as well as some bubbly. But I think it’s the black eye that’s giving you that headache,” Sizwe said.

  Then he went on to inform his friend about what had happened the night before.

  Molemo quickly sat up. For a split second he forgot about the pain he was in. He couldn’t believe what Sizwe was telling him.

  “We were chilling, enjoying our drinks and talking with the other guys. You got an SMS and were all smiles like some love-sick puppy. I asked you who it was from and you said Lebo. You went on to tell me about how much you liked her and how special and different she was from all the other women you’re used to. You told me about the great time you two had when she spent the night at your house.”

  “But how does that explain this headache of mine?” Molemo wanted to know.

  “Kgotso, her ex, was standing behind us and overheard everything. So he asked if you were serious about what you’d just said about Lebo and you tried to answer him, but he freaked out,” Sizwe explained. “The two of you started screaming and arguing. He punched you in the eye and that’s when the other guys and I intervened and pulled you two apart. So then I brought you here.”

  While Molemo was still digesting everything Sizwe had thrown his way, his phone rang.

  “Dumela, Molemo, it’s Lebo. I need to talk to you.”

  “Hey, I’ve been missing you,” he said gently.

  Lebo ignored that and continued coldly, “I received a disturbing call from Kgotso in the wee hours of this morning – about something that happened last night.”

  Although she had not intended to, she started to raise her voice at Molemo. “I thought you were a decent person, but clearly all the rumours about you are true. You’re a selfish bastard! You want everything to revolve around you and what you want, nxa!” she exclaimed.

  “Please let me explain,” Molemo tried.

  “Explain what?” Lebo demanded.

  “I might’ve said some things last night, but I was drunk and I barely remember anything. All I know is I wasn’t trying to hurt you and . . .” There was silence as Molemo tried to come up with an excuse, but he drew a blank. “Before you called, my friend, Sizwe, was telling me what’d happened. I’m so sorry, Lebo.”

  “Stay the hell away from me!” she yelled. “I don’t want your help or anything else from you. Don’t ever come close to me again.” She burst into tears and the phone went dead.

  * * *

  Lebo couldn’t believe that things had turned out this way. Details of her personal life were making the rounds in Sebokeng, and she had just told the person who wanted to help her get her business going never to come near her again. She was devastated.

  She SMSed her friends and told them that she was having a crisis.

  Rumbi and Bongi arrived less than an hour later. By then Lebo had showered and just wanted to get out of her flat. She needed some fresh air to give her the strength to tell her friends what had happened.

  The girls drove to Melrose Arch in silence. Lebo was sitting in the back of the car, gazing up at the sky. She thought about how Molemo had held her close while she rested her head on his strong chest, about how his boyish laugh had made her feel relaxed and free around him, and how his touch had ignited desires in her that she had never felt before.

  She couldn’t understand why after all that had happened, she still wanted to lie with her head on his chest so badly and listen to his heartbeat. No matter what had happened in the last few hours, one thing was certain: She had feelings for Molemo which she could not deny.

  She looked down at the phone in her hand. She had ignored all his attempts to talk to her. She hadn’t answered his calls, nor replied to his SMSs.

  When they were settled at the restaurant, Rumbi ordered the girls a round of daiquiris and she and Bongi turned expectantly towards Lebo.

  Lebo hesitated. How was she going to tell her friends what had happened? Not knowing where to start, she got straight to the point.

  “Molemo told Kgotso and the entire township that I slept with him.”

  “What?!” screeched her friends.

  Lebo told them the whole story about Kgotso calling her, Tebogo confirming what he had said, and Molemo offering her nothing more than a lame “I was drunk” excuse.

  Her friends looked at each other in dismay, searching for something positive to say to her. Lebo was always the strong one among the three of them. She always had the answers when they were feeling low. But right now she was on the receiving end, and they wanted so badly to help her.

  As they held her hands, Lebo’s phone rang. It was her mother, who wanted to know what time she would be home so they could go through their recipes for the event. Lebo could hear the excitement in MaMokoena’s voice and couldn’t bring herself to hurt her mother by telling her the truth. But she also couldn’t face going through all that trouble for Molemo Tladi of all people.

  “Mme, I have to work this weekend. It’s the SAMA nomination party tonight and I’m covering it. I’ll come home during the week and we can talk about it. I have to go now; I’m in the middle of something with the girls. I’ll call you later.” Lebo quickly ended the call. She didn’t want her mother to hear that she had been crying, because she knew that MaMokoena would wring the truth out of her.

  “So what are you going to do now?” a worried Rumbi asked as she squeezed Lebo’s hand.

  “I’m going to pull out of catering for the event, what else? I mean it when I say I want nothing to do with that man any more. He’s a selfish and arrogant bastard. I’m not going to get tangled up in his web of drama.”

  “Mara, Lebo, what about your mother and aunt? They’re looking forward to this. They really need this break.” Bongi couldn’t believe that Lebo was taking things this far.

  “Well, they’ll just have to get over it. Can we go now? I need some rest because I have to work tonight.” Lebo got up and headed for the car park.

  * * *

  That evening the SAMA nomination party passed by Lebo in a haze. She couldn’t concentrate on what was going on. Molemo and Kgotso had been phoning her all day, but she had ignored their calls. She wanted nothing to do with either of them.

  The party was buzzing with happy musicians and producers excited about their nominations. Lebo tried to bury herself in the event, mingling with other journalists and a few of her celebrity friends. She hoped all the carefree chatting would take her mind off the day she’d had, but no such luck.

  Her mind and her heart were racing in different directions.

  Her heart was telling her to call Molemo back, to find out what he had to say and hopefully sort this mess out. After all, the two of them did care very deeply for each other.

  Her head, on the other hand, was telling her what a bastard Molemo was and that she had every right to feel betrayed and used by him.

  Around 1am on Sunday morning Lebo arrived at her flat from the party. She changed into her pyjamas and went to bed. She tried to fall asleep, but an hour later her eyes were still wide open.

  She picked up the phone from her night table and started going through her calls. There were four voice messages from Molemo.

  She listened to the first one, which had been left at 9:15 the previous morning. “Hi, Lebo, it’s Molemo. We really need to talk.”

  The second message had been recorded at 12:22. “How can I explain my side of the story if you won’t talk to me? Please get back to me.”

  The third call had come at 16:30. “Lebo, please call me back. I’m really very sorry.”

  The fourth one had been left at 21:58
and it simply said, “I miss you.”

  Lebo deleted all the messages. Then she put the phone under her pillow.

  As she lay there crying silently in the dark, she wondered how it was possible that things could have got this bad.

  * * *

  On Monday morning Lebo made her way through the Joburg traffic to Molemo’s offices.

  Over the weekend, after many battles between her head and her heart, she had decided to cancel the contract and pull out of catering for the event. She was not about to make Molemo look like a superstar in the industry and among his colleagues for pulling off a great event at her expense.

  Lebo had still not replied to any of his calls or SMSs. She wanted to approach him in person and on her terms.

  “Hi, can I please see Molemo Tladi? Tell him it’s Lebo Mokoena,” she demanded from the young lady at reception. She was filled with such anger that she had a good mind to tell the receptionist to see a stylist.

  Doesn’t this girl have any friends to advise her? Lebo thought to herself. Today this fashion disaster was wearing a pink silk shirt with orange pants.

  “He says you can come through,” the receptionist told Lebo, who sped off before she could even finish her sentence.

  Molemo’s PA wasn’t at her desk, so Lebo showed herself into his office. Without knocking, she walked in.

  He was sitting behind his desk, waiting for her to enter.

  Lebo was startled to see his slightly bruised eye hidden behind his Calvin Klein reading glasses. It was the first time she had seen him wearing glasses.

  She was even more shocked at her reaction: She wanted to run over and make him feel better. How could she still care for this man after everything he had done to her?

  “What happened to your eye?” she forced herself to demand blankly as she stood behind one of the chairs at his desk. She wasn’t planning on sitting. She was going to tell him she was no longer catering for his event and then walk out and be done with him.

  “Lebo, you’re behaving like a three-year-old, you don’t even greet me,” Molemo tried to tease her, but the look on her face told him not to bother. She was upset and certainly in no mood for niceties.