CHAPTER TWELVE - A Cocktail of Double Life

           If it knocks you off your feet, then it’s love, then it’s love

                If it makes your life complete, then it’s love, then it’s ove

                If it turns you upside down, then it’s love, then it’s love

                If it makes your world go round, then it’s love

                                Don Williams

As Shani struggled to keep up with Sudi's long strides, she was glad she had put on flat shoes. By the time they located Jamba's car, Shani's heart was racing and she was feeling a little sweaty. They found Jamba panting and struggling to make Kamaria’s comatose body comfortable on the reclined front passenger seat of his car.

                “Oh lord…she just blacked out?” Shani gasped in between panting, standing a little distance away as she let Sudi join Jamba work on Kamaria.

                “I doubt it. She seems to have been drunk. How much alcohol did she have anyway?” Jamba asked, taking a break from Kamaria to stretch his hand and introduce himself to Shani. “Hi, I am Jamba.” He was peering at her through semi-darkness.

                “I can tell that. My name is Shani. What are we going to do?”

                “Take her home, I suppose.” He answered, hands akimbo and watching Sudi finally get Kamaria’s limp body comfortable.

                “Okay. She must have her keys somewhere…” Shani was holding Kamaria’s clutch bag, she opened to search.

                “No, Shani. I am taking her home; my home…”

                “What? Are you kidding me?”

                “Do I sound like I am kidding? You are welcome to come with us though…”

                “Me?”

                Sudi took over in excitement. “Yes, you. Come on. You don’t want your friend to be upset that you left her with two strange men…”

                “You are not strange…”

                “Still…”

                “What if she doesn’t want to come with you?”

                “We don’t know that and quite honestly I am not bothered about it right now. Look, you are outdone, in number and strength. It’s up to you if you want to come or not.” Jamba walked to the driver’s side.

                Shani thought about it. Jamba’s determination to leave with Kamaria was obvious. That Sudi was backing him up left her little chance to win. She also knew that Kamaria would not kill her for letting her be taken away. Besides, she had already decided she wanted to see the end of the drama. Deep down, she knew she wanted to talk to Sudi more. She hoped he would stay around, a possibility she thought unlikely, considering his visible marital status. She sighed.

                “Okay. But what do we do with our cars?” She tried her last card. She was shivering from the cold and was rubbing her arms.

                “Leave them here. They are as safe as they can be in Nairobi. Come on, you are shaking. Come inside where it is warmer.” Sudi said as he opened the back door for her.

                 “Plus if they get stolen, we both have more cars at home, and they are insured…” She meant it to be a joke. It didn’t seem to land because neither Sudi nor Jamba laughed. “Oops, rich girl joke. You have to get used to them if you are going to be around us…?” She entered, Sudi followed and shut the door.

                “Come on, let’s go.” Jamba said, getting in and starting the car.

                Kamaria was sleeping on the reclined front passenger seat making it impossible for either Shani or Sudi to sit behind her. Shani sat in the middle, Sudi by the window, their bodies touching. The drive to Ruaka was silent but for the music from the stereo.

                “Wow…Beautiful house…” Shani remarked to no one in particular as they pulled into the compound. “I did not expect this...”

                “Thank you. It looks better in day time.” Jamba, visibly more relaxed, answered her as they all stood by the car. He turned to Sudi. “Come on Sudi, we need to get her inside the house, somehow…”

                “I can carry her on my own. Just help me ease her out of the car…”

                “You are drunk, you might drop her.” Shani protested.

                “Who says I am drunk?” He demanded, turning to Shani and without warning lifted her with ease. “If I can carry you, then I can definitely carry Serah…”

                “She’s Kamaria. Now, put me down…”

                “Yes m’am.”

                Jamba was a big man. Strong even. But Sudi was bigger, and stronger, and liked carrying women around, especially women he wanted to have sex with. Jamba watched him banter with Shani and laughed involuntarily.  His friend, true to his nature, was on the hunt. He shrugged, hoping whatever Sudi was up to would not interfere with his plans with Kamaria.

                He walked side by side with Shani and behind Sudi who was carrying Kamaria.

                “Where do you want her?” Jamba asked as he entered the house.

                “Just place her on the sofa in the living room. I will sit there with her until she wakes up.”

                “I will sit with you…” Shani offered.

                “Count me in – but only if you have alcohol.” Sudi added. He didn’t see Shani smile with relief.

                Jamba pointed to the kitchen but his eyes were on Kamaria, now lying on the sofa. “You will find what you want in the fridge.”

                “Get me something too …” Shani said, throwing herself on the seat next to Kamaria and patting her hair.

                “There are no cocktails here. Just canned beer…” Sudi said cautiously.

                “I am not choosy right now. Get me a beer, please.”

                At least she can say please, Sudi thought as he went to fetch the beers.

                ______________________

                Half an hour later, the four of them were still in the living room. Kamaria was still out cold on the sofa, breathing hard but steadily, her head resting on Shani’s lap, a couch blanket protecting her from the chilly night. Shani was slowly sipping on her Tusker, cringing with every sip but careful not to show the guys how much she was struggling. With a shrug, she decided she had no idea why she felt the need to feel like she belonged to the beer club.

                Jamba and Sudi were sitting on the carpet against the sofa, the same sofa Kamaria was lying on with her head on Shani’s lap. They were both on their second beers, the first ones having been downed within minutes. They were looking at the television, making awkward conversation that had nothing to do with the current situation. Jamba kept looking at Kamaria. Sudi kept looking at Shani. Shani kept fanning her face and Kamaria’s.

                 Shani remained quiet, but she was thoughtful. Also, a little worried about how attracted she felt towards the rough, loud Sudi who would, if juxtaposed to the kind of men she dated, look like a Martian. In the end, she decided she was ovulating and sexually starved, that the combination would make anyone attractive.

She thought about how the night was dishing strange revelations and stomping on her assumptions. The two men were not outright handsome, but the more she looked at them, the more attractive they appeared. What fascinated her most was how unaware they were about their looks. She was vain, she knew that. She surrounded herself with vain people with the exception of Kamaria. Vanity seemed like a foreign word to these two. They scratched. They burped. They pulled up trousers to expose un-oiled legs and made scratch marks on the same legs. They drank beer, and straight from the cans. They squeezed the cans noisily and tossed them on the side. The kind of stuff she always frowned upon but at that moment, it did not look revolting.

Studying them and listening to their conversation gave her the impression of people who had perhaps seen it all and accepted life as it dished itself. They were not there to spin the world. They let the world be as they did their bit. They did not seem to look for approval, a polar opposite characteristic of the world she lived in.

How about the neighbourhood? And the house itself? As they had driven along the tarmacked and well lit roads to Jamba’s house, she had been shocked to see mansions and bungalows and security. In her life, she had never ventured past Muthaiga on the north side of Nairobi. She had dismissed Ruaka as an area not worth her time. In her circle, she had never met anyone who lived in Ruaka.

The name Ruaka in her mind suggested location in the middle of a god-forsaken jungle. Instead, she had seen a thriving neighborhood. Even more surprising was to see a sign pointing to Runda, only to be in Ruaka a few minutes later.

                The area possibly had better houses than her neighborhood, which was currently a tower block jungle. She thought about Jamba and Kamaria. With a glint of envy, she realized how much the man loved her friend. He kept patting Kamaria on the head, subconsciously checking her pulse, rubbing her hand. The worry and concern on his face was the icing of the cake. This, she thought enviously, was the real deal. She briefly thought about Jalani, and all the men she had dated. With a sense of sadness, she could not imagine them doing what Jamba was doing. They were the kind of people more likely to feel inconvenienced by an indisposed persona. 

                Then there was Sudi. Huge, imposing man. A little too shaggy on the face and character. His baritone could be too loud.  He seemed like he drank too much, but he also seemed to laugh at life. And he had the most amazing smile she had ever seen. She was aware he was studying her more than she was comfortable with and she tried to feign ignorance of the fact but every time he looked at he.r she furiously blushed from within. Yes, he was hitting on her silently, and to her horror, she loved it. Even craved for it.

                When, she wondered, did Shani, a man magnet, become the sort of person who entertained having an affair with a married man? Was her desire to be wanted that desperately bad? The thought triggered an involuntary shiver.

                She hoped she would feel different in the morning. Perhaps it was all being brought about by the happenstances of the evening. Cupid was obviously around, and she was most likely arrow-happy.

                Kamaria stirred and groaned. Everybody sat up. The men put their beers down.

                “Ouch, ouch, ouch…” She slowly sat up, rubbing her temples, her eyes still closed.

                “Are you okay, girlfriend?” Shani asked tenderly, helping Kamaria to sit up.

                “My head! I have bells in my head. What happened?” She finally opened her eyes, coming face to face with Jamba. “What’s going on? Where am I?” She demanded, for a moment forgetting the pain in her head. She looked at her friend beside her, then at Sudi and back at Jamba.

                “Hey there. You blacked out…” They all giggled.

                “What? How?”

                Sudi laughed and took over the explanation. “It must have had something to do with downing three different drinks in record time….”

                And it all came back to her. The note. The wine. The cocktail. The whatever else hard drink the couple was having. The staggering. The car alarms. The arms…

                “Oh my God. This is so embarrassing…” She tried to stand up. Shani restrained her.

                Sudi stood up. “Come on Shan.” Something about him calling her Shan instead of Shani made her shiver. “Let’s go out for a cigarette and leave these two love birds to reconcile…”

                “I stopped smoking…” She said unnecessarily, getting up.

                “Good for you. it’s a nasty habit. Come on, let’s go and watch the stars or the darkness from a balcony upstairs. Oh, better wrap yourself up with that blanket. It can get ice cold here, unlike where you live…”

                Shani ruffled Kamaria’s hair and followed Sudi upstairs.

                Kamaria, still trying to come to terms with what had happened, and where she was, watched Sudi and Shani disappear up the stairs. But she felt Jamba move next to her. Placing her fingers on her aching temples and massaging them, she slowly turned to face him. Taking a deep breath, Jamba removed her hands from the temples, replaced them with his hands, looked at her intensely before kissing her. It was intense. Somewhere between desire and anger. She felt devoured, and she loved it. She had no idea how long the kiss was, but it was long enough to leave her almost gasping for breath. They stopped, but like a man afraid of dropping his last bit of water in midday desert heat, he didn’t let go. He lay on the sofa and pulled her to lie on top of him, her head on his chest.

                “I missed you so, so much….” He whispered above her head. She felt his uneven breath on top of her head and shivered. “You have to promise that you are not leaving us again. Ever…”

                He heard her sob. “I am not who you think I am…” She whispered, almost inaudibly. But when the words came out, the immense release was so great, she coughed.

                “I know. I do not care. Come on, let me just hold you, we can talk about it in the morning. Right now, I just want to catch up on holding you. Make up for time lost and opportunities wasted…” And she let him. “I forbid you to ever run away again. Promise me that.”

                “I promise.”

                He sighed with relief. “Everything else can wait for morning.” And he closed his hands around her, gently and tightly.

                ***

                Long ago enough for Sudi not to remember the timeline, he had sat with a couple of regular customers at R&R. One of them, in a dramatic and inebriated state, had told a story he had sworn on his precious beer was true. A matatu tout had fallen in love with a rich man’s daughter. The feeling was mutual. The incensed rich father thought the tout was too much of a commoner, had a literally and otherwise dirty mouth, was under-educated, drank too much and had too many women. The accusations, according to the daughter, were lies. She had stuck by her man.

                The rich father had set out to save his daughter from the unfit suitor by separating them. He had threatened to disinherit the daughter but she dared him to go ahead. He had sent thugs to threaten violence on the tout, the tout had told them he was ready to die for love and had quoted Romeo and Juliet for them. Eventually, the daughter ran away from her wealthy parents and moved in with the tout to live in a stream of houses that had shared toilets and bathrooms, where people brushed their teeth outside, a repeated activity that left white marks all over the soil and grass. The father lost the fight and the battle.

                If you can’t beat them, join them. When he eventually located his five month pregnant daughter, he begged for her forgiveness and moved them to one of his high-rise flats, opened a hardware business for the tout. Five years later, the tout had opened three more shops with no help, and he was making his wife a very happy woman.

                Kamaria and Jamba seemed, to Sudi, like the richer version of the couple in the bar story. Jamba was no tout, and Kamaria had  no parents to bar her, but as Sudi stood at the balcony with nothing but his boxer shorts and a gown, he admitted to himself that, if such a couple could make it, it was possible for Jamba and Kamaria to work things out. Even he, ever the skeptic, had agreed that the two were in real love.

                It was the morning after and they had all spent the night at Jamba’s house. When they had each been allocated a separate bedroom, he had, for many minutes before falling asleep, considered sneaking into Shani’s room. He could tell when a woman was open for negotiation and Shani was. But he had decided against it for several reasons. One, that she was Kamaria’s friend and in his many years of experience in sleeping with women, he knew it was always tricky to chase his friends’ girlfriends’ friends. Two, he actually liked that girl. He laughed at himself in the middle of a smoke drag, trying to remember when he had last liked a girl, when he last wanted to have a conversation with a girl, a conversation that did not involve when to have sex.

With the cigarette dangling between his lips, rising smoke burning his eyes and causing them to squint, he played with his wedding ring.

                “So much for a wedding ring…” He muttered to himself, wondering for the millionth time why he still wore it. But the ring served his purpose; when women saw the ring, they knew he was not up for commitment that went beyond the length of the sexual encounter. It served his purpose.

                Eight AM. The house was still deathly quiet. Whatever noise came from the deluge of rain hitting on the garden and windows. Even the birds were quiet as if, just like the humans, sleeping in. He cursed that he was an early riser because it often caused him to cook in his own boredom as he waited for everyone else to run out of sleep.

He considered going back to bed but quickly changed his mind. It never worked unless he had a hangover. So he went to the kitchen, made himself coffee and returned to the bedroom.

                In the bedroom next to Sudi’s, Shani was also awake and she heard the door next to her open and shut. She had been up for half an hour. Unlike Sudi, waking up early when she didn’t have to was not something she had to worry about. She could easily sleep to late morning. But she was suffering from an overdose of adrenaline. Plus she did not do very well in sleeping in people’s houses, people she was not familiar with.

                She was not in the mood to debate with herself about whether or not what she was about to do was right or not, so, wearing a gown to cover a tee shirt she had been given by Jamba to sleep in with and a pair of shorts that once belonged to Kamaria when she was bigger, she left her bedroom and knocked on Sudi’s door.

                “Who is it?” A deep, near groggy voice asked.

                “Shani.” She answered with more confidence than she felt.

                “Oh, come in.” He said hesitantly, clearing his throat.

                He was sitting on the bed, feet on the floor, holding a coffee mug. He had a gown on but it was not fastened, exposing a hairy chest and muscled legs. She quickly looked away but sat next to him anyway.

                “What I would do for a cup of coffee…”

                “I can make you one…” He was avoiding looking at her because half her thighs were visible. These were not the kind of temptations he liked to confront in the morning.

                “Please…”

                She waited for him, nerves taking over her body. Why was she setting herself up? What was it she was looking for, a quickie, or an illegal relationship?

                He came back with tray. “I forgot to ask how you like your coffee, so I boiled water, brought the coffee, milk and sugar.”

                “Thanks. I like it strong black, one sugar.”

                He mixed it silently and handed it to her. He was trying to work out what was happening. Why was she here? Was it for sex, or just to talk? And why were her legs bare if she was not there for sex? Was he allowed to imagine if she had knickers on or not? In the end, he decided to let her take the lead. He was technically up for anything. If she wanted to just talk, he had a mouth. If she wanted sex, he had a lot of experience and didn’t imagine himself too bad at it.

                “I woke up to use the toilet and I couldn’t go back to sleep.” She said after sipping her coffee.

                “I am an early riser and this is pretty much normal. Sucks, when everyone else sleeps until tomorrow. Did you sleep well, though?”

                She shook her head. “Too much stuff happening.”

                “Stuff like?”

                She shrugged. “You know, Kamaria, Jamba, you, me…” She sipped her coffee to avoid looking at him.

                “What about you and me?”

                She shrugged again.

                “Come on. Why did you come in here?” He took her coffee from her, placed it on the bedside table and held her hand. “Tell me…”

                She slowly pulled her hand away. “I don’t know. I just did. Look, we are two adults so let’s not beat around the bush. I came here because I wanted to – I even want to have sex, but I would like you not to agree to do it…”

                Sudi burst out. “Are you kidding me? You dangle the carrot then in not so many words tell me if I take it, it would be my fault? Are you trying to make me feel guilty?”

                She laughed nervously. “Precisely.”

                “Is that a rich girl thing?”

                She giggled. “I don’t know. I have never been poor so I do not have a point of comparison…”

                Sudi laughed again. “I like you. What do you have under the tee shirt and gown?”

                “Huh?”

                “Are you wearing anything underneath that tee-shirt?” He let his eyes rest on her thighs as he asked.

                She nodded in confusion. “Yeah, shorts. A bit tight though…” She laughed nervously.”

                “Good. Come on, come inside the bed…”

                She looked at him suspiciously. “Why?”

                “So we can cuddle. I feel safer knowing you have some sort of safety measure. The rest, I can handle. I would so like to make love to you right now, but I am a gentleman, and you already told me you would blame me. I only do things I can live with…come on, I promise, even if you try to take me by force, I shall scream for help…”

                She laughed. “Promise?”

                “Promise. Come on.” He slid under the duvet and held it up for her. Hesitantly, eyes locked on his, she joined him. When Sudi brought the covers down and held her. she surrendered to the hug. “See, it is so much warmer here.”

                It was. And very nice.

                Shani closed her eyes and slept within minutes. Sudi stayed up longer as he tried to control his desires but eventually fell asleep.

                _____________

                A knock, and the door opening, was what woke them up. Shani opened her eyes in confusion, for a moment forgetting why she was in unfamiliar territory with somebody cuddling her.

                She rubbed her eyes and looked towards the door. Jamba stood there, holding on to the knob, mouth open in shock. “What the hell…” The words were inaudible, but Sudi and Shani read them alright.

                “Morning Jamba. It’s not what you think…”

                Jamba laughed. “You sound like a kid caught in mischief. It’s none of my business though…”

                “No, really. It’s not what you think…look.” Sudi threw off the covers to expose their barely dressed bodies. “See. Just a cuddle. But like you said, none of your business. What’s up?”

                “I am about to tell the kids that Serah…”

                “Kamaria…please stop calling her Serah.” Shani begged, sitting up.

                “Don’t blame us. She chose the name. Anyway, I want to tell the kids Kamaria is here. Do you want to join us?”

                Sudi shook his head. “Not me. I think you guys should do your thing without us. We can join you for a meal. Make it snappy – I am totally famished?”

                Shani stepped out of the bed. “I agree. You should do this on your own.”

                “Okay. The house already smells like a hotel because Mariam is already cooking up a storm. She is very excited to hear her boss is around…”

“You know who Mariam is?” Shani gasped.

“By now I have put all the pieces together. I even know you made that call…”

Shani giggled. “Sorry…”

Jamba smirked. “That’s okay. I forgive you…anyway, if I do not come for you in an hour, assume I forgot to and come down anyway.”

                “Tell Mariam I will only have meat…” Sudi called, his eyes on Shani’s bottoms.

                ____________________

                Shani and Sudi had only cuddled for an hour. Jamba and Kamaria had cuddled since one AM. Kamaria had fallen asleep, head on Jamba’s chest. He had stayed up, listening to her breathing and savouring the moment, the feeling of disbelief that she lay in his arms. An hour later, he had tapped her to tell her it would be better to sleep in bed.

 Quietly, they had held hands and walked up the stairs to Jamba’s bedroom. Quietly too, she had showered and when she came out of the shower, she found Jamba had fetched a short, sleeveless black night dress from her room. He got into the shower. When he came out, Kamaria was already breathing steadily, fast asleep. He wore a pair of cotton shorts and slid under the duvet, spooned her, fell into a dreamless sleep for four hours, the longest he had sleep in recent history. At six AM, she stirred.

                He turned her towards him, she shut her eyes shyly. “Open them…” He ordered in a whisper. She did. “I want you to keep them open as I kiss you…” His whisper sounded dangerously shaky, even to his own ears. And he kissed her. Not hungrily like the night before. Not hard either. They kissed like two people who had all the time in the world. As the tip of his tongue made contact with her lips, anything and everything outside the kiss ceased to exist.

Kamaria heard herself squeak as she surrendered her mouth to his. She was desperate to close her eyes because her eyelids had suddenly become very heavy.  He kissed her softly, slowly, probing with his tongue, his body probing her body.

                If she managed to keep her eyes open, she was unable to keep her body still. It moved involuntarily to match his every move. She felt faint, thankful that she was already lying down. Then he stopped. He placed his head on her heaving chest. She felt disappointed, thinking that was it. He was trying to catch his breath, and control his body. The only sound both their minds registered was their combined breathing. Smelling nothing but each other’s desire.

                When the breathing was under control, Jamba carefully sat on her, eyes locked. With his fingers, the journey to explore her body started on her head, moved to her face, lingered on her lips where the fingers made several circles. The neck was next. Breasts. Tummy. Thighs. Legs. With every new touch, the fire in her body increased. She wanted to scream for him to end the sweet torture and take her right away, but she had lost her voice, and mobility.

                Then he stopped, slowly moving to lie next to her. “I need to take you to a private place for a few hours, for starters.” He whispered into her ear. “This house is not conducive for what I want to do to you. Any minute now, the kids will come banging on my door, and then I will become instantly suicidal or murderous, or both…” She wanted to laugh. She choked instead.

“Did you love that?” She nodded. “Tip of the iceberg, if I may say so myself. The things I have been dreaming of doing to you from the first day I saw you, I can finally do them. My idea of heaven is within touching distance.” She finally managed to laugh. “Come on, I hate to kick you out of my room. If we are going to pull a surprise for the children, we need to hide you.” He stood up. “Plus I need a cold shower, very quickly…” He looked down at himself and laughed. She laughed along, glad that her desires were less visible.

                She sat up and studied him intensely, fear slowly replacing her desire for him. “What are you going to tell them?”

                “What else? That you are back…”

                “And?...’

                He sat back on the bed and looked at her. “We don’t have enough time to discuss everything we need to. I just need a few assurances from you, like, did you miss us?”

                She felt tears building in her crying eye. “So much…” She whispered.

                “Good, because this house turned into a misery house without you. Question number two; are you intending to leave us again?”

                She shook her head. “Only a few days a week. I have a house in Kileleshwa…”

                “Move out of there and move in with us…officially.”

                “What do you mean?”

                “Like, let’s get married – damn, this is the worst proposal in the history of proposals.” He laughed nervously, studying her confused face. “Forget that last bit. When I do it, and I will do it, it will be done properly. That you promise not to leave us is good enough for now. Come on, scatter.”

                He stood up, helped her up and pulled her to him. “I love you…” He declared.

                Her one tear duct let out. She walked out.

                That was over half an hour ago. She was still dizzy from the kiss, from everything he had done to her body. The shower did not help. She accepted the possibility of spending the rest of her day thinking about what Jamba had done to her and what she wanted him to do to her. She slid into a pair of jeans and a black sleeveless top, throwing a light sweater on as the morning was chilly from the rain. She sat on the bed and waited.

                There was a knock on her door. “Come in…” She expected to see the children. It was Jamba, a strange look on his face.

                “What is it?” She asked, standing up.

                “Sudi. Sudi and Shani…”

                “What about them?”

                “I found them in bed, together…”

                “What the hell…” She sat back on the bed.

                “My exact words. But they swear it wasn’t what it looked like.” Kamaria laughed. “I know. My exact reaction. But I sort of believe them. I think they were just cuddling…”

                “Oh…oooh…is that good or bad?”

                Jamba shrugged. “I don’t know. I however refuse to worry about them. They are two grownups; I have to trust they know what they are doing.”

                “But Sudi is married…”

                Jamba gave a grunt mixed with a laugh.

                “What?”

                “Yeah, some marriage. But I will leave that to him to tell…anyway, are you ready?”

                “I guess. Where are the children?”

                “Mariam is getting them ready. I told them I have a surprise and they had to look good for the surprise…”

                “Mariam. How is she?”

                “Better cook than you…” He ducked to avoid the punch. “It’s true though. I know she works for you, but what exactly is she?”

                “My housekeeper…”

                He laughed. “I thought as much. Keep her. She is awesome, and faithful. That woman cannot talk even under torture…okay, see you in a bit.”

                ____________________

                Jamba found the children on his bed, sitting next to each other against the headboard, playing games on his phone. Christine was wearing a pink dress and white stockings, hair held up her head. Christian was in a pair of black jeans and a white tee-shirt. ”Hello kids.”

                “Hi daddy. Where is the surprise? Is it another bike?” Christian wanted to know.

                “No, my man. Way better…”

                “Is it a new Lego?” Christine didn’t want to be left behind in the guessing game.

                “Better. Come on, follow me…” He led them towards Kamaria’s room. They followed cautiously. When he reached the door, he turned back to find Christine holding back, an unsure look on her face. “Don’t be scared. Come on…”

                “Is it Serah?” She finally shrieked, moving back two steps.

                “Why don’t you find out?”

                “It is Serah…” She screamed, running as she pushed Christian and Jamba out of the way. “Serah!”

                Kamaria had heard the conversation, and it was already making her cry. Christine found her standing nervously, her crying eye already wet, the other one perpetually pregnant with tears.

                “Serah!” Christine jumped on her, and Kamaria could only be thankful that there was a bed behind her, because that was where they awkwardly landed. Christine was weeping uncontrollably as she held on to her.

                Kamaria held her and let her cry. She was having enough crying of her own. She could see Jamba and Christian at the door. Christian was crying silently, Jamba was trying to be the man, but the emotions were clear on his face.

                Right there at that moment, she knew the day Jamba proposed properly, she would say yes, very loudly.

The rains that had started on Saturday morning had refused to subside, making any sort of outdoor activity difficult. The four adults and two children spent all the rainy time together soaking in each other’s happiness. Mariam was the fifth adult, around the shadows, appearing whenever needed. She had voluntarily forfeited her weekend off, hanging somewhere in the background to make sure everybody was well fed. They lazed, they ate, they watched television, they played board and card games, video games, they laughed, they drank alcohol from tea cups to confuse the children. Shani surprised everyone by expertly making a doll dress for Atoti. “How do you know how to do that?” Sudi, taking a break from the video game he was playing with Christian, had asked, new respect for Shani echoing in his words.

                Shani shrugged. “I just did. I loved dolls. Actually I still do…”

                “She still sleeps with two dolls…” Kamaria, cuddling to Jamba on the sofa as Shani and Christine were huddled together, said with amusement. She had never understood her friend’s attachment to dolls.

                “What? Why?” Jamba was laughing.

                “I don’t know really. I just find it hard to let them go. Maybe one day when I have babies I will bequeath…”

                “You better have those babies quick…” Sudi quipped, thinking he would hate to compete for bed space with dolls.

For most of the time, Christine and Christian hardly left Kamaria’s side, trailing her every step, even when she needed to use the bathroom.

                “I think they have post trauma depression…” Remarked Shani as she watched Christine and Christian follow Kamaria.

                “That’s a bit dramatic.” Sudi said, taking the opportunity of the children’s absence to hold Shani’s hand and rub it softly. Jamba watched from the corner in amusement. He had never seen his friend display affection to a woman, except his wife, and that was a long time ago.

                “They will be fine once they are sure she will not escape.” Jamba said, trying to convince himself.

                “What if she does?”

                “Sudi you are a party pooper! Kamaria is not going anywhere. Trust me, I am her friend.” Shani stated with the same confidence she felt.

                “Well, I hope so. That will make sure that you do not escape either.” He squeezed her hand.

                “What’s with you two anyway?” Jamba’s curiousity finally escaped through his words. He had earlier decided not to ask questions, but they were making it difficult for him not to.

                “What about us?” Shani asked in feigned surprise.

                “You are more lovey dovey than Kamaria and I.”

                “Well, excuse us, we just met two days ago. We need to catch up with you two…” Sudi offered.

                Jamba grunted. “I hope you know what you are doing…” He was glaring at his friend. His friend had baggage, Jamba wanted to make sure that Shani knew about the baggage.

                “Yes daddy. Don’t worry. We will be fine.”

                Kamaria returned to the lounge without the children. “I had to beg them to take a shower…” She giggled, taking a seat next to Jamba and hanging on to his arm. She finally allowed herself to study Shani and Sudi, looking from one to the other. “You two look lovely…” She quipped.

They all laughed. “Thank you. We feel lovely…” Shani winked at Kamaria in assurance. She had noticed her friend’s concerned look. She was concerned with herself too, but she was afraid of confronting possible sad or disappointing scenarios. She didn’t know Sudi’s story, but she had no doubt there was one. The biggest clue was in the fact that he had spent the night at Jamba’s, and he was still around looking ready to spend another night. Was he divorced, or, like Jamba, a widower?

She needed to know what his story was and the sooner she did, the better. She needed to know what kind of oil she was deep frying herself in. With a degree of shock, she realized that she had already made the decision to see Sudi, married or not.

               

                _________________________

                Four PM. Sunday. They had stayed in, again. Cabin fever was starting to bare its ugly fangs. Sudi seemed most affected. 

                “I hate to break this beautiful party, but it is either I leave the house, or you allow me to fling five glasses against a wall. I feel cooked in. Besides, tomorrow is a working day, and some of us work for a living…” He glared at Shani.

                “Don’t blame me for being rich. And by the way, I work too…”

                “Ser…Kamaria doesn’t.”

                “She does too. She’s been going to work the last two weeks.”

                “She doesn’t have to, though.”

                “Are you angry with us?”

                “Not just angry. Jealous too. Do you know how I look forward to not having to work? It’s all good though…”

                They all laughed. “Shall we get ready to leave?”

                “Unfortunately, yes.”

                Neither of the girls had their cars. Earlier on, Fumo, who had taken a taxi, picked both Kamaria’s and Shani’s keys. His instructions were to park both cars where they belonged.

Because Sudi had also left his car at R&R’s parking lot, the plan was for him and Shani to take Jamba’s car, the car, Shani to drive Jamba’s car back, get into Sudi’s car, and he would then drive her home.

                _______________________

                “I don’t make a habit of inviting men to my house, but do you want to come up for a coffee?” She asked when Sudi drove into the apartment parking lot.

                Sudi laughed, a little nervously. “Is that a version of ‘I don’t really have sex on the first day…’ kind of thing?” He asked hopefully.

                Shani smirked. “I am not inviting you for sex, just coffee. I want to talk.”

                Sudi sighed with disappointment. “So much for getting ready for a working day tomorrow.” He said as he locked up the car and followed her to first floor.

                “Goodness, this house is too pink. It’s hurting my eyes…” It was genuine shock to his vision. When he went through the door, he did not see anything but pink and random black. He took a step back, looking at the house in genuine shock.

                “Get over it. I am a woman…” Shani was unapologetic. She threw her bag on the floor, removed her shoes and glared at him.

                “Pugh. You are not the first woman to invite me to her house…” He said, closing the door behind him reluctantly.

“Show off. Come on, have a seat. I will make coffee.” She walked to the open plan kitchen, watching him with amusement as he removed his shoes but kept his eyes roaming around the room.

                A few minutes later, she balanced two cups of black coffee and joined him at the dining table, sitting opposite him. The table was black, but the mats were pink, and the vase had pink roses. The wall hanging on her side was several shades of pink. So were the other three spread about on the walls.

                Sudi felt visually assaulted and wanted to get out as soon as possible. He had never hated a décor as much as he hated Shani’s choice. “So, what do you want to talk about?”

                “As if you don’t know. What do you want with me?” She held his gaze as she sipped on her coffee.

                “How about to make love to you right now…” He was half serious.

                “Dream on. Come on, get serious. What’s with the ring on your finger, and you wanting to have sex with me?”

                “What? You want to tell me that I am the first married man to want to sleep with you?”

                She shrugged. “Irrelevant. This is about you?”

                “Why, because you want it too?”

                She shrugged again.

                Sudi went quiet. She didn’t break his silence because he looked like he was having a conversation with himself, in his head. He was. Very few people, even in his inner circle, knew the real state of his marital status. In fact, only Jamba had the full story, everyone else just accepted he had a bad marriage. Everyone blamed him because he was the one known to have affairs as regular as his car wash.

                He had long ago accepted that people thought he was a careless womanizer, and he also knew he did not do much to dissuade those assumptions. His friends’ wives did not like him. Even Jamba’s wife had hated him, worried about his womanizing ways rubbing off on Jamba. He did not keep regular girlfriends – he preferred women he could take to a lodging and they would both be on their separate ways the following day. He was known to prefer married women because they could be trusted to keep the secrets’ to not bother him.

                As he sat in a dining room in a house whose décor he detested, he was horrified with himself, that he actually thought it a good idea to pour out his heart to Shani, a woman he had met barely forty eight hours ago. But he liked her, and it was refreshing to actually like a woman enough not to be bothered with an exit plan. He wanted her to understand him, the real him, not what people thought of him. And she had been fun to spend time with at Jamba’s. And she was absolutely gorgeous. And right now she was staring at him with laser eyes.

                “Are you sure you want to be bored with the details?” He asked, shifting in his seat. Shani noticed how uneasy he was, making her the more curious.

                She threw up her hands impatiently. “Come on. Let me be the judge of boring. I already know you are married, you already know I am considering compromising my keep off married men value. I just want to know what I am getting myself into…”

                He sighed. “Okay. My wife is into women.”

                She spluttered her coffee. “What the hell? You mean like, a lesbian?” He nodded. She gasped. She put her hand to cover her mouth.

                Her reaction did not hurt his feelings. He had expected nothing less. “Seriously. She is a lesbian, but we live together. And we are absolutely good friends. And we have two children…”

                “Oh my God. How did that happen?”

                He sighed again. “You know, the usual. Girl meets boy, they fall in love, have children… then four years into our marriage I found her having seriously steamy sex with one of her friends, in our house….”

                “Oh lord…now I need a drink.” She went to the fridge, poured in two tots of whisky in each glass and offered Sudi one. He took it and poured it in his mouth. Shani looked at him in fascination, unsure on whether to be awed by how he just drunk his whisky or what he was telling her.

                “At least it wasn’t in our bed.” He continued.

                “Gosh - I am so sorry…”

                “I always wonder what I would have done if it was another man – probably killed them both? Yeah, most probably. But when I walked in, and they didn’t see me for a minute or so, as I stood there listening to my wife mourn like I have never made her mourn, all I thought was how I could join them…”

                Shani choked on her drink for the second time, this time on the whisky. 

                “Come on. It’s not abnormal for a man to imagine that…”

                “I am not a man, I wouldn’t know…then?”

                “Then the girlfriend saw me, and cursed in words I never thought existed. And to cut a very long, long story short, my wife and I agreed to live under the same roof, for the sake of the children, for now. Until further notice.”

                “Wow. Do you two have sex?”

                He gave a short laugh. “What do you think? Of course we don’t. She was actually relieved when I caught them, because she no longer had to pretend to enjoy…that hurt, man. It really hurt.” Shani didn’t know what to say, so she maintained silence. “Turned out I was just a cover. She needed to convince her relatives that she was what they wanted her to be.”

                “I am so, so, sorry…”

                “It’s alright. We are friends now, we laugh about it now. And I got two absolutely amazing boys out of it.”

                “That’s good then.” They were silent for a while. “So, would she mind…you know, if you and I…”

                “Of course not. She tries to hook me up with her straight friends, but as you can imagine, I cannot trust her friends.”

                They laughed. “Have you ever dated, you know, since then?”

                He shook his head. “Nope. I am what they call the village he-goat. I sleep with any woman I can get hold of. I even tried chatting up your friend, you know…”

                “Kamaria?”

                “Yep. But Jamba was there before me, of course. She was very rude to me, you know.”

                They both laughed nervously.

                “So, there you have it. What do you think now?”

                She shook her head. “I don’t know. I am shocked, obviously. Skeptical, expectedly. But it’s not like I want to get married tomorrow. I like you, of course, which is silly because we only just met, but stranger things have happened. Let’s see how it goes…”

                “Plus you are rich…”

                “What’s that got to do with anything?” She was suddenly defensive.

                “A lot. I am your typical macho man. I want to have the upper hand in everything, including finances. Dating you is another way of risking my already dented ego…”

                “Well, I cannot help you with that and I do not intend to be your ego sitter. Let’s see how it goes, shall we? Who knows, I might, in a week or so, wonder what the hell was wrong with me, thinking you are sexy and stuff…”

                “You think I am sexy?”

                “Get over yourself!”

                Sudi smiled. But he thought about a conversation he had with Jamba when he took him to Kamaria’s office. A conversation that he warned his friend against dating rich women. He had no idea whether Shani was richer than him or not, but he knew she was rich. And yet, here he was, actually considering going into a relationship with her? But, in his defense, she didn’t behave like a spoilt rich girl. She did have her rich girl jokes, but they were just that, jokes. Those, he could take. In his opinion, she looked like a normal girl, one who just wanted to be loved, assured and needed.

                He would take one step at a time, and get ready with the roasting his friend would give him for dating a rich girl. 

Story by Ciku Kimani-Mwaniki

My personal guinea pigs: Nyambura Michuki, Ceh Gichimu, Rachel Gathoni, Shiku Carole

Nip & Tuck dude: Antoney Luvinzu