KEPT

45. WASH IT OFF

KHANYISA

I lead the way to his office, if he wants to stick around and speak to Bangizwe then he will find me in there. Just this morning, I was making internal excuses for why Nkosi would have a woman's perfume on him, he's never given me any reason to not trust him but knowing it belongs to his ex? The same ex he almost married? What were they even doing, were they hugging? Or even worse...

He walks in, clearly oblivious to the whole thing. He walks to his table and sets up his laptop, ready to get started with work until he sees that I'm still standing and looking at him

"What?"

"Why do you smell like her?" I ask as calmly as I can be

"Huh?"

"Nobuhle, You have her perfume all over you"

He thinks about it for a moment "Oh, she sprayed perfume in the elevator earlier, Some of it must have gotten on my suit"

" Oh, she just started spraying perfume in there?"

"It's rude, I know and I told her but clearly the damage was already done" he looks at his clothes then he has an irritated look on his face as though we are reaching the same realization

Nobuhle did this on purpose, she wanted Nkosi to come home smelling like another woman. She might not have banked on us meeting because there's no way she could have known that I'd be coming here but when she saw the opportunity to mess with me she did just that, she made sure I smell her. She knew I'd recognize the smell, hence the too close for comfort proximity

"Maybe I should have a word with her" Nkosi says

"No, don't. That's exactly what she's looking for, a reaction"

"But she's trying to cause unnecessary fights, you could have gone and thought that I was up to no good and now we would be fighting over a stupid perfume"

"But we are not. Yes it pissed me off but I trust you, I have no reason not to" the way that I trust Nkosi scares me sometimes, we live in a world trust has become an out of reach thing but he's made me feel that I can trust him, Lord knows it would crash me if he ever got with another woman behind my back, that would hurt more than me finding out Aaron got married behind my back, this pain would be unbearable because I've dived into this wholeheartedly and forgot to leave room for disappointment

"I'd never cross you like that, Makhosa. Not when I know what the pain is like. The thought that Nobuhle tried to instill such thoughts in you pisses me off"

"But that doesn't mean you have to act on it. Look, right now, Nobuhle is expecting this, she's expecting any kind of confrontation and she badly wants it because that will serve as a confirmation that her little trick succeeded. I refuse to give her that satisfaction"

"So we let it slide?"

"Yes, she's the foolish one. Let's not entertain her crazy or we will all look like we've lost it"

We don't get to discuss this further because his phone rings and I get comfortable on the couch then I start reading my book. Nobuhle pissed me off, I won't lie. It's annoying really, all I'd like is to enjoy some peace, some freaking peace and she's here wanting to stir trouble. I know not being asked anything will eat at her because she will wonder how things are between Nkosi and I. If it's not Refilwe it's her, I'm sick of this, I'm sick of people trying me but I know that a rise is what she's looking for, she would love to see me lose control and go off at her so I'm going to do the opposite and not give her the time of the day.

Later when Nkosi is done with his day we go home, I'm not in the mood to cook so we pass by a Nandos drive through and when we get home we both head straight to the bedroom. I want to get off these clothes and put on a dress and he wants to change too