NEIGHBOUR CRUSH

About this story

In Middelburg, Christmas comes with summer rain, family biscuit exchanges and people who remember every version of you. Thando returns with a broken heart and no patience for being told how her life should look. Khaya returns with a promotion, a careful silence and the memory of the clever girl from the house next door. One crowded bar puts them in each other's path, but neither recognises how close they have always been until the morning after. What begins as an anonymous escape becomes an awkward revelation, a rescue from an unwanted conversation, an old couch where they fall asleep too close, and one confession neither of them planned to make. When Sandton pulls them both back into its bright, fast life, Thando has to decide whether to protect herself from disappointment or meet Khaya at midnight. Some crushes are not over. They are only waiting for the right door to open.