Consummation

In the emergency room, Thandi was filling in S’bu’s details on the forms when Menzi and his other cousins arrived to make sure that S’bu was fine. When Thandi was about to hand over the form to the receptionist, Menzi took it from her.

“You do realise that only married couples know this much detail about each other?” Menzi asked looking at the form. “Some of our family members don’t even know this much about S’bu and you filled this form all on your own without asking him” he added.

Thandi blushed and looked down not willing to talk about the marriage topic anymore.

“That’s because she is my wife even though she’s in denial” S’bu responded looking at Thandi.

She sighed when S’bu was called in to have his wound cleaned and stitched.

When S’bu came out, Thandi told him that she will be going home but he just ignored her and opened the car door for her to get in but Thandi looked at him refusing to go in.

“Please go in” he pleaded.

“I thought we were going our separate ways” Thandi said coldly.

S’bu froze for a moment. He had forgotten about the argument they had before the bull ran to Thandi.

“Please go into the car so we can talk” he said gaining his composure.

“We can talk but I’m still going home” Thandi said indifferent.

“Okay, get in so we can talk and I promise to take you home”he promised.

Thandi got into the car, S’bu closed the door and got into the driver seat.

“Can we forget about what happened earlier” he asked warmly touching her hand.

“You mean the part where you called me a whore, hurt my wrist and accepted that we break up?” she asked coldly.

“I never called you a whore!” S’bu exclaimed.

“What do you call a woman that flirts with other man outside her boyfriends home with his whole family around?” Thandi asked recalling how S’bu treated her and getting angry.

“I’m sorry, I was wrong” he apologised. He had been working on controlling his jealousy, seeing her chatting happily with Sthe drove him crazy that he lost his patience and hurt Thandi.

“Apology accepted” she said. “You did save my life after that and for that I’m grateful” she added. She could have been hurt really bad if S’bu did not jump in to save her.

“Your protection is my responsibility” he said lovingly coming closer to her kissing her forehead. S’bu started the car and drove to his home ignoring Thandi who kept reminding him that he promised to take her home.

“I did keep my promise, this is is now your home” he said smiling.

Thandi was speechless.

“Do you want to call your mother or should I?” he asked taking out his phone.

“I will call her myself” she said snatching his phone. She was surprised at how easy her mom agreed that she won’t be coming home.

“Now, we can have our honeymoon”S’bu said getting out of the car, opening Thandi’s door and carried her to his room. That night, they made love and spoke about the future. In the morning S’bu took Thandi to her village and received a warm welcome from her mother and granny. Thandi could not help but roll her eyes hearing S’bu flatter her mother and granny. What she didn’t know was that everything S’bu did with her family was well calculated. He learned long time ago how much Thandi valued and respected her family. Getting them closer to him would be valuable to him especially now that she was getting more impatient with him and has attempted to leave him. He spent and hour with Thandi’s family and promised to bring cashew nuts for Thandi’s granny when he came back next time. When he got back to the city, his father was waiting for him. They discussed JJL and S’bu’s plans for the future.

“Does she know that you two are really married?” Mr J asked his son.

“No, she doesn’t” S’bu answered.

“You better start preparing for the right processes and make it official” Mr J said.

“I’m working on it” S’bu promised.

The following months Thandi went back to university, S’bu took over JJL and became its CEO. He deferred meeting with board members stating that he was still formulating his plans and would call a meeting with them when he is ready. He was so busy consulting and doing his research that he spent most of his time at work. Thandi was concerned about him, every night when they spoke on the phone he sounded so tired. She decided to come down to surprise him one of the weekends. She stayed in his room and waited for him to come home but at 10 o’clock at night he had not returned and Thandi was starting to think that he was spending a night with someone else. When he finally called to wish her a good night sleep Thandi asked where he was. Not wanting Thandi to worry about him spending too much time at the office he lied telling her that he was home.

“I wish you would stop lying to me” Thandi said getting emotional. She felt foolish for travelling such a long distance to see him.

“Thandi what’s wrong?” S’bu didn’t understand why she was so emotional all of a sudden. Thandi thought S’bu was making a fool of her. She dropped the call and decided to spend a night at a BnB and go back to her university the following day. She sat down and searched for nearby BnB’s contact numbers. She did not want to go to her aunt Noli’s home because she did not want her family to know that she had come back. If they found out, they would definitely tell S’bu. S’bu sat in his office wondering why Thandi cut off his call and decided to ask his sister about it.

“Hi friend” Mandy said answering the call. She was sure that it was Thandi calling her with S’bu’s phone.

“Are we friends now?” he asked teasing her.

“I thought it was Thandi calling me with your phone” Mandy explained. “Did she get there safely? I told her you are fine but she was worried and insisted on coming to see you” she added.

Listening to Mandy, S’bu figured out why Thandi was so emotional over the phone.

“I was just checking if there are stuff you need me to send for you, think about it and send me a message” S’bu said dropping the call and heading for the door. He drove very fast passing through red traffic lights heading for his home. When he opened his bedroom door, Thandi was on the phone with the BnB receptionist. He took the phone from her, apologised to the receptionist telling them that they won’t need the place after all.

“I was in the office, I didn’t want you to worry about me” he said pulling her to his arms. Thandi wanted to push him away but the smell of his cologne was so intoxicating , she found herself inhaling, closing her eyes and realising how much she missed him.

“I missed you too” he said seeing through her.

Thandi blushed moving away from him but he pulled her back and kissed her. Thandi kissed him back and soon they were in bed making love. When Thandi woke up in the morning, S’bu was sitting next to the bed watching her.

“Creepy” she said rubbing her eyes.

“Morning beautiful”he said lovingly.

“Are you not going to be late for work” Thandi asked looking at the time. It was already past 8 o’clock.

“I can’t go to work when my wife came all this way to see me” he said.

“Great, we need to talk about taking care of yourself better” she said walking to the bathroom watching her face and brushing her teeth.

S’bu noticed that Thandi did not object to him calling her his wife and smiled to himself.