Love's Revenge

Cynthia had tried everything to get her man to be interested in her. Everything. And out of all the things she had tried nothing had worked. Nothing. She was out of ideas. She was frustrated. She was angry. Angry at Q who had evidently stolen her man’s heart. Cynthia knew that Sbu wanted to be with Q. It was clear as day. She saw it his eyes every time they accidentally ran into Q. He never looked at her the way he looked at Q. Never.

If she did nothing, she knew she would lose Sbu. Each day she could feel her man, the handsome and successful Sbu, slip away. She could sense the distance. She could see the longing in his eyes. A longing for another woman. A woman with a name she couldn’t even pronounce. Qaqamba aka Q.

Cynthia wasn’t willing to let Sbu go. Not yet anyway. She loved him and believed that he would learn to love her as well. The only thing that stood in her way was Q. Cynthia was determined to do everything in her power to get rid of her. Everything.

She walked out of the lounge into her balcony and sat on her swing chair. She moved back and forth. This helped calm her nerves and helped her think. She needed to find a way to get rid of Q. It had to be clever, neat, and clean. Sbu could never know about her plans and he could never find out that she’s the one who took care of Q. All she needed now was a man she could trust. Someone who could take care of Q and be able to keep his mouth shut. She closed her eyes and scrolled through her mental list. She went through each name carefully and listed the cons and pros and if the former outweighed the latter, she moved on to the next name. She did this until she came to Sipho’s name. Pros: he was handsome, tall, caring, and gentle. He was an actor, albeit a struggling one, nevertheless the women flocked to him because of his perceived celebrity status. Cons: he was always broke. And that was a major stumbling block. Q would never look twice at a broke man. But at the same time it meant Cynthia could easily convince him to do Q for her by simply offering him a large paycheque. He would be the easiest to buy. In addition, she could trust Sipho to keep this a secret because they were kind of friends. In the end, she decided the pros outweighed the cons. Sipho was the man for the job. She smiled. Q would be taken care of soon.

She went back inside the house, grabbed her cell phone, and scrolled through the contact list until she found Sipho’s name. She pressed call and waited as the phone on the other end rang.

Q had been single for a while now. She hadn’t had a boyfriend since she broke up with Tato. She wasn’t perturbed by it. She simply enjoyed being by herself for now. But her friends Thando and Ed did not understand why she was enjoying her single-dom. They were agitated on her behalf. They’ve tried to hook her up, with zero success. She refused to rush into a relationship. She’d been hurt too many times and wanted to take her time and be sure the man was right for her.

While she was getting ready for their night out, Thando and Ed were hatching a plan to find her a man tonight. They were seated next to each other in the lounge. Matt was on a single-seater opposite them.

‘I heard that Sbu will be there,’ Thando said.

‘You know what that means,’ Matt said. ‘Ice queen Cynthia will also be there.’

‘Should we just cancel and find something else to do?’ Ed asked.

Matt shook his head. ‘No. She can’t avoid Sbu forever. Eventually she’ll have to deal with her feelings for him and move on.’

‘I’m glad I’m not in her shoes,’ Ed said. He gazed lovingly at Matt. ‘I can’t imagine my life without you.’

Matt smiled. ‘I love you too.’

Thando thrashed her hands in the air. ‘I’m getting a little nauseated here. This is not about you two; it’s about Q. We need to find her a man, a rich one preferably, but any man will do for now. She’s been single for way too long.’ She rolled her eyes.

They were silent, thinking. They failed to come up with a name.

‘Please don’t tell her Sbu will be there, she won’t go if she finds out,’ Matt said.

‘Who will be where?’ Q asked coming out of her bedroom into the lounge. She was dressed and ready to go. Tonight she wore a tight fitting dress that hugged her curves, which she’d bought at a random boutique, and she paired it with her favourite Christian Louboutin heels.

‘No one,’ Thando said. ‘You look great by the way.’

Q smiled and nodded a thank you. ‘Who needs a man when I’ve got all you beautiful people?’

At the party, they were met by a few surprises. The first surprise was Cynthia approaching them wearing a wide smile. She negotiated the crowd walking towards them.

Thando poked Ed on the shoulder. ‘Is she coming to us?’ she asked.

‘Who?’ Ed asked.

She responded by pointing at the tall woman walking in their direction.

‘Who do you think she’s wearing?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know. I just hate the fact that it looks so damn good on her.’

‘Me too.’ Thando was wearing a little black number with lace details designed by Gert-Johan Coetzee, paired up with Jimmy Choo stilettos.

‘This is going to be interesting,’ he said.

‘What is?’ Q asked. She lifted her eyes to the direction Ed and Thando were facing. Her eyes locked with Cynthia’s. Cynthia’s smile widened if that was at all possible. Q looked behind her, sure that the smile had been directed at someone behind her, but there was no one there. Cynthia was still walking towards them, purpose it her steps. They waited for her in silence. All equally perplexed.

‘Welcome, guys! Welcome,’ Cynthia said in a sing-song voice, as if she was the host of the party.

They all looked at each other, now more confused than before.

‘For a second I thought you guys weren’t coming,’ she said.

They were silent. They just stood there staring at her. Cynthia had been dubbed the group’s enemy number one, because she stole Q’s man. The love of her life. The one who got away. So they all stood there not sure what to say to a woman they’ve been scandalizing and criticizing behind her back. They’ve never had a single positive thing to say about her.

‘Come on, guys, let me get you something to drink. You look like you’re attending a funeral. Lighten up this is a party!’ She called a waiter and order drinks for them without asking them what they wanted. The waiter left and she turned back to them. They were still standing there like statues processing everything.

Thando finally got her voice back. ‘What do you want?’ she asked.

Cynthia’s brow creased in confusion. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You’re being nice to us,’ Ed said. ‘It’s weird.’

‘We like you better when you give us one of your get-out-of-my-way looks,’ Matt said.

‘You know I was sitting at home and I was wondering why we’re always so nasty to each other and I couldn’t come up with a single reason. Not one. Nothing. Nada. So I decided it was time to bury the hatchet and mend fences. So this is my attempt to let bygones be bygones. So what do you say? Truce?’

She extended her hand to no one in particular. They all stared at the hand but no one reached out.

‘It’s all too much too soon,’ Q said. ‘Could we just take it a step at a time?’

Cynthia withdrew her hand and let it fall to her side. She nodded. ‘OK, that’s fair I guess. But you must know that I’m not going nowhere. You might as well accept it, soon we’ll all be best friends.’

She walked away.

They stared at each other for a second.

‘What was that all about?’ Matt asked. ‘Miss Ice Queen is finally talking to us.’

‘Did she actually say nada?’ Q said. ‘She’s trying too hard.’

‘Trying too hard to what?’ Thando asked. ‘Be our friend? I don’t understand.’

Q shrugged. It didn’t make sense to her either. Cynthia had been cold in the past, downright rude at times and now all of a sudden she was playing best friend. Warning bells rang at the back of her head. She would have to watch Cynthia closely in the future.

They tried finding a table at the cramped venue, but were unsuccessful, so they went outside into the balcony instead. Moment later, the waiter found them. He had their drinks as ordered by Cynthia who was calling herself their new best friend.

‘She has something up her sleeve,’ Q said. ‘That was just too much of a performance.’

They grabbed the drinks from the waiter and decided to forget about Cynthia and enjoy the party.