J&B Met

It was time to attend the J&B Met, the premier fashion event of the year. The theme for this year was, “Made to Fly”. Each year we attended the Met. It was our tradition. Ed, as the fashion editor had to attend. Thando and I tagged along, because we loved looking fabulous and we loved mingling with celebs and pseudo celebs.

Our designer was busy creating our masterpieces. I couldn’t wait to see my dress. No matter how big I was, I loved dressing up.

‘I’m not going,’ Ed informed us one afternoon as we were having dinner at the Health Food Restaurant.

‘What do you mean, you’re not attending?’ I asked, outraged. ‘We always do the Met together. You can’t break tradition.’

‘It’s because of Matt. You should have seen him when I mentioned Cape Town. He screamed at me and told me he’s never going back. He totally freaked out. I’ve never seen him that upset before,’ he said.

‘What did you expect?’ Thando asked. ‘He knows nothing about fashion. And no, he can’t join us if he’ll be wearing his gym clothes.’

Our first attempt at getting Matt out of his gym tracksuit had failed. He used his job as an excuse. ‘I’m a personal trainer and these are my work clothes,’ he’d said.

I looked at Ed who was standing in front of me wearing a sad expression on his face. ‘I never thought I’d see a day where you choose a man over the Met,’ I said.

‘Over fashion,’ Thando added.

I stood, pushing my chair as I did so. ‘But you have to go, you’re the fashion editor.’

‘I was gonna ask you to represent me,’ he said.

We begged him for a while, but he wouldn’t change his mind. So there was only one thing left to do.

We knocked at Matt’s apartment. As he opened the door, we pushed it and let ourselves in before he had a chance to invite us in or shut the door on our faces.

‘We’re taking you to our designer,’ Thando said.

‘Please… come on in,’ Matt said, instead. ‘And yes I’m fine, thank you for asking.’

‘We need you to come with us to the Met,’ I said.

His eyes widened a little, but he turned his head from us hiding his emotions.  ‘No, I have to work,’ he said. He cleared his throat.

I noticed the turmoil, but Thando didn’t. She said, ‘It’s only one day. You can fly in, in the morning and be back in the evening.’

‘I left Cape Town behind.’ He cleared his throat again. ‘Some of us have to work for a living.’

‘Could you at least convince Ed to attend? It’s just won’t be the same without him,’ Thando said.

Matt nodded.

We left Matt’s apartment and climbed the elevator up to my apartment.

‘Did we ever find out why Matt left Cape Town?’ I asked.

‘No.’

‘I think we need to.’

I was sure Matt was hiding something from his past and I was determined to find out what.

I don’t know what Matt said to Ed, but he convinced him to come with us to the Met. We had a lovely time at the Met, but that’s a story for another day.