Читать книгу The Bridesmaid's Lover - Tsire Mushoma - Страница 4

1

Zandi Zungu put on the coral dress and a pair of silver heels. Although she had fitted the dress at the shop just an hour ago, she’d had bad experiences in the past with shop mirrors being misleading. But even before she tried on the dress for the second time, she doubted that it would look any less beautiful on her than it had an hour ago. In fact, staring at her reflection in the mirror now, she decided it flattered her even more than she had thought at the shop.

She liked how the ruffles transformed her boyish figure by giving an illusion of feminine curves. The V-shaped neckline flattered her small bust and the sleeveless cut showed off her beautiful shoulders. The dress went down all the way to her calves in a draping of ruffles, showing off her long, lean legs through them. This is the perfect dress, Zandi thought to herself. No wonder it took me so long to find it.

If only finding a date was like finding a dress. But that was proving to be much more challenging than she had imagined. Her thoughts drifted to Jeffrey and how easy things would have been if he were still around. But he was gone and she was constantly feeling as if she had to start all over again, rebuilding her life from the very beginning. She had planned a lot of things around her and Jeffrey, and that made it more difficult to get over him.

Zandi decided thinking about her ex didn’t do her any good, so she focused on the dress again. She hadn’t noticed it initially, but its colour looked so much brighter in contrast to her almost caramel complexion. She twisted her braids in her hand and piled them up on top of her head. She decided that wearing her hair up would work better for the dress; that would also show off her well-defined cheekbones. And she would apply almost no make-up, thereby emphasising her full lips and naturally long eyelashes.

At the sound of the doorbell, Zandi quickly slipped out of the dress and the shoes and into a pair of slippers and a dressing gown which she tied on her way to the door. She was expecting her friends Neo Ledwaba and Tondani Munyai, and from the insistent way the bell was ringing she just knew that it was them.

“Okay, okay! Here I am. Or are you trying to break my doorbell?”

“No, we were trying to break down your door. You can’t call and say you have an emergency, only to leave us stranded at the door for ten minutes,” Tondani answered, glancing at her watch.

Tondani was almost the same height as Zandi but she was curvier. She looked glamorous in a purple floral wrap dress and a pair of plum heels. Zandi envied her friend the way her make-up always looked perfect, regardless of the time of day. She also had what Zandi thought was the perfect canvas for make-up: a flawless skin. Tondani had bright eyes that never looked reddish at the end of the day, perfect white teeth, thanks to her cosmetic dentist, and perfectly shaped eyebrows. Her weave danced around her face in a silken curtain of soft curls.

“Oh, please, it wasn’t that long! Come on in and I’ll pour you some juice.” Zandi led the two ladies into the lounge.

“Just juice? I’m sorry, but I need something stronger for what you’ve just put me through. I was starting to think that something bad had happened to you.” Neo fanned her face with her hand as if she was under tremendous stress.

Neo Ledwaba was the shortest of the three women. She had a short weave that was curled outwards all around, framing her sweet-looking face. She had small eyes, but her friends always joked that they never missed a thing. The only make-up Neo wore was clear lip gloss. Compared to Tondani, she looked casual in blue jeans, a black T-shirt and flat black sandals.

“Neo, you’re such a drama queen. I don’t keep alcohol in the house; you know how it goes when I’m feeling depressed. The juice is really good.” Zandi disappeared into the kitchen and reappeared a few minutes later with three glasses of juice on a round tray.

Zandi’s lounge was a rectangular open-plan living space that comprised both a sitting and a dining area. There was an archway that led into a passage that in turn led to the kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms. At one end of the lounge there was a rectangular dark-wood dining table with six matching chairs which formed the dining area. The sitting area had a long dark-brown couch, a four-seater that Zandi thought was the most comfortable couch she had ever sat on. In front of the couch was a glass coffee table, and then there was a long cabinet that Zandi used as a TV stand and a bookshelf. The cushions that were scattered liberally on the couch provided colour in the room.

“So what is this emergency that you had to pull me out of work for? Do you know how busy I am this week?” Tondani took a sip of juice as she eagerly waited for the answer.

Zandi was enjoying the moment, sipping her juice slowly, clearly in no hurry to tell her friends why she had asked them to come past her house.

“What I want to know is why you’re looking so . . . happy. Whatever you mixed into your juice, I want it. You were all sad and depressed yesterday; now look at you!” Neo added.

“You make it sound as if being happy is a crime,” Tondani reproached her. “The girl deserves some happiness.”

“I just want to know her secret . . . Do you have any idea how much this wedding is stressing me out? Hmm . . . this stuff tastes nice.” Neo had raised her glass and was looking at it as if she wanted to see why the juice tasted good.

“You know my answer to stress: retail therapy. Especially when you find the perfect bridesmaid’s dress,” Zandi finally confessed, beaming at the thought that she had found it all on her own.

“You went to look for the dress without us?” Tondani looked genuinely shocked, as if she had just heard about something happening that she had always thought was impossible.

“I didn’t go looking for the dress. I was just out clearing my head at lunchtime when I saw it. I almost walked right past that shop! I’m glad I didn’t, though, because when I tried it on there was no doubt in my mind that I’d found the perfect dress. So I went back there after work and bought it,” Zandi said excitedly.

“I can’t believe you bought something without us seeing it first! Never mind, we’ll be returning that dress if it isn’t good enough. Go ahead then, we want to see it.” Tondani gave Zandi a slight push from the couch.

“Okay, ladies, get ready to be dazzled!”

Zandi disappeared into her room and closed the door behind her. When she reappeared, she had changed back into the dress. She walked along the length of the lounge, pretending to be on a catwalk and twirling at each end to show off the ruffles.

“Aren’t you going to say anything? Do I look that bad in it?”

“Uhm . . . I suppose we’re just lost for words. It looks amazing on you. We’ve been looking for this outfit everywhere; where has it been?” Tondani stood up so that she could see the dress properly.

“Oh no, I’m not lost for words. I can’t let you come to my wedding looking that beautiful! All eyes are supposed to be on the bride, and that’s me,” Neo gasped between large sips of juice.

Tondani went to sit next to Neo. Putting her arm around her friend, she gave her a squeeze. “The bride shouldn’t worry, because as your bridesmaid I will make sure that you are the fairest of them all. As for you, my friend, this dress fits you nicely.”

“That’s a relief! I couldn’t handle parting with it if you wanted me to return it. Getting a nod from the fashion editor is always good. But wait, there’s more!” Zandi quickly went back to her room.

“As if you don’t look beautiful enough already!” Neo called after her. “You’ll have to forgive me if I replace you as bridesmaid.”

Zandi reappeared holding a black suit, a white shirt with coral stripes and a coral tie. She held the clothes up for her friends to see.

Tondani was confused. “Is that a man’s suit?”

“Please don’t wear that to my wedding!” pleaded Neo.

“It’s not for me, but look at how the tie matches my dress. And the tie goes really well with this shirt, so I couldn’t not buy both. And then there was the suit. Doesn’t everything just go together so well?”

Tondani was still confused. “Sure, but I still don’t understand why you’d buy men’s clothes when you look this good in this dress?”

“It’s for my date, silly. If I’m going to be looking this gorgeous, then my date also needs to look the part, don’t you agree?”

Neo wondered if she had missed something while focusing on the juice she was drinking. “But I thought you didn’t have a date for the wedding?”

“I don’t have one yet, but the wedding is still two months away. That’s plenty of time to charm a man into being my date, right?”

“I totally agree, except I don’t know how you can buy a suit for a man you haven’t met yet. What if you do meet him, and he’s too skinny or too fat or too tall?” Tondani couldn’t understand what had gotten into Zandi.

“I’m not thinking about that right now; you’re the one who told me to forget about the what-ifs. All I know is that my date and I will make a great couple in these outfits. Just make sure your photographer friend shows up, because this is the stuff the fashion society pages are made of.” Zandi had it all figured out. She had found a dress she looked amazing in. She had also found an elegant suit that went perfectly with her dress. How could she possibly not find a man to wear it and be her date for the wedding when everything else had worked out so perfectly?

“I bet you bought the suit with Jeffrey in mind. Look at it; it’s his size!” Neo had emptied her glass of juice and now moved on to sipping Zandi’s juice, which had hardly been touched.

“What?” was all Zandi managed to say, so shocked was she by her friend’s suggestion.

“I’m simply saying maybe you should ask Jeffrey to be your date.”

Tondani looked a little shocked at how Neo had just brought up his name. “I disagree. How can you waste a suit like that on him? No way!”

“And quite honestly, Jeffrey hates suits. He would never wear this!” Zandi concurred.

“I was just making a suggestion. Maybe as a last resort, just in case,” Neo persisted.

“How could I ever ask Jeffrey? After what he did to me?”

“Forget about him; we’ll find you a date for the wedding and he won’t be a lowlife like Jeffrey,” Tondani tried to resolve the situation before it got worse.

“I thought you were the one who broke up with him?” Neo blinked innocently as Tondani shot a warning glance her way.

“Well, I did,” replied Zandi, close to tears. “What else was I supposed to have done when the guy I’d been with for five years told me he wasn’t ready for commitment?”

“You did the right thing. Jeffrey didn’t deserve you. Neo, please pass some tissues,” asked Tondani, giving Neo a see-what-you’ve-done look.

“Anyway, what did he mean, he wasn’t ready for commitment?” Zandi asked as she started to sob. “Am I controlling? Is that what he meant?”

Tondani rescued the suit from Zandi and placed it neatly on the couch so that her friend would not damage it by sobbing all over it.

“You know what? It doesn’t matter,” Neo tried to console Zandi. “Whatever he meant, it’s really not important any more. Don’t cry; you’re going to ruin that beautiful dress.”

Zandi gasped as her attention turned to the outfit she was still wearing, but then she seemed to decide that it didn’t matter any more because she started to cry again. “He’s ruined everything, absolutely everything. How could he be so cruel?”

“Jeffrey has always been like that,” Neo retorted. “That’s why I never really liked him.”

“So why do you insist that she comes to your wedding with him?” Tondani asked Neo.

“Remember the time we all went to the festival in Mafikeng? It was five of us: you and Lutendo, Zandi and Jeffrey, and I was alone. I was the only girl who didn’t have a boyfriend. Remember what Jeffrey said to me? He said he didn’t think I was anywhere close to finding a man. That’s why it would be great for me to have him there when I get married, just to see the look on his cruel face.”

Tondani sighed at Neo’s explanation. “Don’t mind her; the wedding is stressing her out,” she said.

But that didn’t make Zandi feel better. “I’m alone because I’m clingy and controlling. Look at me, buying a suit for a man I haven’t even met yet. What’s the matter with me?”

Zandi didn’t want to think about the wedding gown that was in her closet. She wondered if she would ever get to wear it. Why had she even bought something like that with no marriage proposal in sight?

“It means you are in control, which isn’t the same thing as being controlling,” Tondani said and then continued, “Say you meet a handsome man a day before the wedding and he doesn’t own a suit? That would be disastrous, so I think it’s good that you take charge like this; it’s very sexy.”

Zandi managed a laugh and started to dry her eyes with a tissue.

“You’ll be okay, girlfriend. You’ll find a date for the wedding, and in time you’ll find a really wonderful man who has eyes only for you. Uhm . . . you know my brother has always liked you,” Tondani joked.

“Is he still single?” Neo asked. “I’m surprised, because you market him any chance you get. I remember you said exactly the same about your brother to me before I met Thabo.”

“I did? It just bothers me that he always goes for the wrong type of girls and they always break his heart. He’s a real sweetheart.” Tondani looked affectionately at Zandi, who raised both hands.

“No offence, but I’m not that desperate. Your brother isn’t my type.”

“Don’t give up, Zandi. I’d already given up all hope of finding a good man worth spending the rest of my life with when Thabo came along and swept me off my feet.” Neo could hardly hide how happy she was.

“I thought you just stalked the poor guy,” Zandi said.

“Oh well, sometimes you need to haunt them until they realise they can’t live without you. If you decide to go that route, I’m here should you need advice.”

“You know, you are unbelievable sometimes. Anyway, we really need to get going. How about we meet for lunch tomorrow?” Tondani was already getting up from the couch.

Zandi thought lunch with friends might be just what she needed to get her mind off work and Jeffrey, even if it was just for a short while. “Lunch would be great.”

“I’m not sure I can get away from work,” Neo mumbled.

“Yes, you can, and it’s essential that you do. You spend the whole day with five-year-olds; you need a break for some intelligent conversation with grown-ups. I’ll fetch you on my way. Zandi, sleep well and please don’t think about people who make you sad.” Tondani rubbed her friend’s shoulder as they walked to the door.

Zandi wished they didn’t have to leave. She loved that she could talk and laugh – and sometimes cry – with people who truly understood her. Being alone made her sad most of the time.

“Thanks for coming over. I really appreciate it.”

Zandi had closed the door and was just about to go and change clothes when her brother Sizwe walked into the lounge.

“Wow! Are you going somewhere?”

“No, I’m not. This is the dress I’m wearing to Neo’s wedding. I was just trying it on.”

“It’s pretty and it suits you.” Sizwe smiled shyly at Zandi.

“Thanks.” Zandi smiled back at her brother, then picked up the suit from the couch and went to her room.

After she had changed, she hung both the dress and the suit in her closet. Looking at the suit, she could imagine her date in it, more handsome than ever. At the end of the day he would take off the jacket and look dashing in the white shirt. Zandi couldn’t help it, but she just had to imagine this irresistible man in her kitchen, cooking them dinner. But at that moment she heard Sizwe calling from the kitchen, asking about dinner, and so she was brought back to reality.

There was no dashing man in her kitchen.