Forgiven

S’bu arrived accompanied by Menzi and they received the warmest welcome from Thandi’s family. Everyone was fussing over them, even neighbours came to introduce themselves. Thandi avoided everyone and stayed in her room but was soon dragged out by one of her aunts who insisted she must come and sit with S’bu and have lunch with him.

When Thandi walked into the lounge, she saw S’bu first and their eyes met.

“MaDlamini” he greeted her lovingly.

Thandi blushed. No matter how angry she was with S’bu, he still made her blush when he addressed her like that.

“First Lady” Menzi greeted her bowing down.

“Please don’t do that” Thandi said embarrassed.

“You will get used to it since all Jobe men will greet you like that from now on” Menzi told her.

Thandi looked at S’bu for explanation but he only smiled at her. After lunch Thandi left with S’bu and Menzi. Leaving Menzi in town, Thandi and S’bu headed back to Johannesburg. After a long silence, S’bu decided to explain himself to Thandi.

“MaDlamini, I know that you are angry and disappointed with me. We were brought up to respect our culture and traditions, it’s what makes us who we are. All I wanted to do was to do everything right by you. I’m sorry you were hurt in the process and I’m sorry my uncle got carried away. Please forgive me” S’bu pleaded.

Thandi was quiet for a long time, thinking about S’bu’s apology. One of the reasons she loved him was that even though he grew up in the city, he still respected his culture and traditions. In the end she decided it was not fair for her to be angry with him for the same reasons. They got to Johannesburg in the late afternoon, they were both exhausted after six hours in the car. Thandi decided to stay in S’bu’s flat and go to her university very early tomorrow morning. S’bu remembered the herbs his uncle got to heal Thandi’s wounds. He ran a bath for her and poured them in as instructed and told Thandi to soak in it for few minutes. Sitting in the bathtub, Thandi felt so much better. The pain was gone and the sjambok marks were fading off. Few more soaks, the marks will be completely gone. Getting out of the bathtub, Thandi put on a towel and start feeling weird sensations through her body. Her temperature was rising and her heart was beating fast.

“S’bu, something is wrong with those herbs, I feel weird”she said.

“What do you mean by weird?” he asked.

“Like I’m going to die if you don’t touch me right now” she said embarrassed.

S’bu’s jaw dropped realising what his uncle meant when he said ‘they will both be happy with it’. He was sure there was an aphrodisiac in the herbs.

“I promise you I didn’t know about that” he told her.

“Can we talk about that later?” Thandi said impatiently dropping the towel, unable to control herself anymore.

S’bu picked her up, put her on the bed and undressed fast. He lay on the bed facing her and started kissing her passionately on the lips before moving to her neck then her breast. Thandi moaned begging him to make love to her. S’bu got on top of her and positioned himself. Thandi screamed with pleasure, calling his name and driving S’bu to completely loose control too. After multiple orgasms they were both exhausted and couldn’t make love anymore. Thandi ran to the shower, opened the cold water and stood there for an hour before she felt like herself again. She was so embarrassed when she got out thinking about her behaviour but S’bu pulled her to his arms and told her never to blame herself for something that was beyond her control.

“Besides, I think it was a good make up process” he added mischievously. “MaDlamini, I have a request” S’bu said, suddenly becoming serious.

“What is it?”Thandi asked blushing.

“I know I’m being a hypocrite for asking you this but I will ask anyway” he said. “Can you please never ever touch, kiss and sleep with anyone else but me? I promise to be there whenever you need me, no matter how far I am and how busy I am, I will leave everything and come to you. I will not touch your friends and family. My love will be completely reserved for you, you will never compete with anyone for my attention” he promised.

“You are asking me to be in a monogamous relationship with you while you have the freedom to still hook up with other women?” Thandi asked.

“Yes” he said kissing her neck.

“How is that fair?” Thandi asked.

“It’s not” S’bu said. He had thought of this from every angle and still couldn’t find anyway to make all this fair. He could not promise Thandi a monogamous relationship when he knew very well that he would not keep that promise but he did not want to imagine Thandi with anyone else. After thinking about it for a long time he decided to ask her anyway.

“Okay” she agreed.

“Really?” he asked. He didn’t expect Thandi to agree so easy.

“Yes, really” Thandi responded.

S’bu was so happy that he picked Thandi up, turned around twice with her before putting her down and kissing her passionately. Thandi went back to her university that morning, attended her lectures and went back to her room. She missed S’bu so much she felt like a lovesick teenager. Mandy came just in time to keep her distracted and was not impressed with her for agreeing to S’bu’s request.

“Are you crazy? How can you give him permission to hook up with other women?” Mandy shouted at her.

“I don’t want to change or control him, it’s not my place”Thandi told her friend.

“I’m convinced that he gave you a love portion!” Mandy exclaimed. “Before I forget, uncle Zake is inviting us this weekend.”

“No, I will pass” Thandi responded.

“Come on friend, he’s really not a bad person. He just didn’t know that you and S’bu were in love. He wants to make it up to you” Mandy explained.

“I get that a lot of women have tried to exploit your family previously and I had forgiven him for that but he gave me an aphrodisiac after that!” Thandi exclaimed. She remembered how she lost control and how wild she behaved that day.

Mandy laughed so hard until tears rolled down her cheeks.

“It’s not funny, your uncle is a freak!” Thandi exclaimed getting angry.

“He thought he was spicing up your relationship, he didn’t know that the two of you were already out of control to start with” Mandy said still laughing.

“What do you mean?” Thandi asked confused.

“Even before you started sleeping with each other, you couldn’t control yourselves. There was constant touching, kissing and forever flirting” Mandy said. “That’s why I avoid being with the two of you, you are already on an aphrodisiac. I still don’t get how you even manage to stay with Tsepo that long” she added.

Thandi blushed, Mandy was right. Even when they had broken up, the flirting never stopped and now that they are together again, they were both out of control.