Chapter 22 - Keys

Menzi dropped the make-up wipe into the bin. Then he took a towel to throw over the puddle he'd left on the floor and toed off his shoes. To my utter delight, he began stripping out of his wet clothes.

Watching him raptly, I said, "You feel guilty because she still loves you."

"I do, yes. I knew her husband. He was a good man and he was mad about her, until he worked out that she didn't feel the same way and things fell apart."

He looked at me as he peeled his shirt off. "I couldn't understand why he let it get to him. He was married to the woman he wanted, they lived on another continent, away from me, so what was his problem? Now I understand. If you loved someone else, Aviwe, it would tear me to pieces, every single day. It would kill me even if you were with me and not him. But unlike Giroux, I wouldn't let you go. Maybe I wouldn't have all of you, but you'd still be mine and I'd take what I could get."

My fingers laced in my lap. "That's what scares me, Menzi. You don't know what you're worth."

"Actually, I do. A hundred bill—"

"Shut up." My head spun and I pressed my fingertips to my eyes. "It shouldn't be such a mystery that women fall in love with you and stay in love. Did you know that Zandile kept her hair long, hoping it would remind you of Buhle?"

He dropped his trousers and frowned at me. "Why?"

"Yoh." I sighed at his cluelessness. "Because she believes Buhle is who you want."

"Then she isn't paying attention."

"Isn't she? Buhle told me she talks to you almost every day."