One night in Cape Town

Chapter 3

Florence washed the evidence of last night's tryst off her body. She stood in the shower of the hotel and blocked out what happened in the early hours of the morning. She could still feel him everywhere, this couldn't be normal! She needed him again. After all the sex they had till the early hours of today, she still needed him. She let the water hit her naked body as she stood under the shower head. Her braids were getting wet but she didn't care.

The door of the bathroom opened and she turned around in alarm. Had her thoughts been so loud they'd woken someone up? She wondered guiltily.

"You're here early!" - Happy pointed out in surprise.

"Bona, Flo is here. It's her not some stranger in our hotel room that came to rob and kill us." - she informed Bona drily.

That sentence summarised Bonang and Happy in a nutshell, cautious. Extremely cautious. If they are near a coastal line and it rains, it's a tsunami. If a large branch falls off a tree, it's an earthquake. She was actually surprised that the two of them had made it home safe, Flo thought to herself as she savoured the last moments under the shower. Bona and Happy were a weird mix of naivety and cynicism. The part of her that worried had recognised the risk of leaving them at club by themselves could have lead to them leaving early because they were "approaching 30" or getting lost. Bona and Happy probably left early to avoid any of their string of fears coming to life, she'd bet money on it. Flo closed the lever of the shower putting an end to the shower and her thoughts.

Bona came to the bathroom at Happy's encouragement as Flo stepped out of the shower to dry herself. She looked at her friends as they were giddy with excitement and she knew that they wanted the details of her wanton adventures. Both girls were in their white robes and slipper. Their braids in buns, the signature vacation style for black women. They looked refreshed so they left the club soon after her, if someone had taken her bet, she would have won.

Flo didn't mention this to them, she kept her observations to herself. She, as the older and wiser one, always encouraged her friends to live. That's what had drawn her to them, their thirst to live even when their fears threatened to take over. They'd become so much like her little sisters. Flo had been hurt and disappointed by the people she'd loved but she had the sense to keep loving even with the risk of betrayal or disappointment. Her friends were different. Barriers the size of China's Great Wall barricaded their hearts. Bona and Happy believed in safety and sanity over fire and passion and that's why she could not let them see how rattled she was by this encounter. It scared her how much she could still feel that man on her. When she closed her eyes she could still feel his breath on her body, his hand and the warmth of his body were imprinted on her skin... forever!

A small voice in her head added the word. She'd had good sex before and this was nothing special, nothing at all! Flo looked at herself in the misty mirror as the her friends awaited "the tea".

"So, we have ordered breakfast and alcohol to go down with the tea you are about to serve us" - Happy giggled.

They wanted to know if she enjoyed her dance with danger She tried to put on a smile, act normal but she could feel her smile slipping. She had sex with a stranger and now she couldn't stop thinking about him.

"Okay let me finish here and I will be right there." - she told them steadily. Her response seemed to be sufficient. Bona and Happy walked out of the bathroom as room service knocked on the door of their penthouse which, now she knew, wasn't the most expensive here. She'd been to an upper level that wasn't for sale. Her mind and soul never left that place.

"Pull yourself together!" She whispered to her reflection in the mirror. She prepared herself to go out there and act like this was the best thing that ever happened to her. She didn't regret it and that, that was the truth.

She found them in the dining area that overlooked the city. She remembered the penthouse suit in this very hotel. She'd only just left a few hours ago. Their suite was modest, it fit their budget but didn't come cheap. The table was full of a variety of breakfast treats and she saw two pills on the table and concluded they were hers as both girls looked at with curiosity. She looked at them in confusion.

"Because I have read many novels that started with a one night stand and ended with a baby" Happy informed her. "I figured, we could mitigate that risk and give you a morning after pill. Real life one night stand pregnancies can't be as romantic." - She Finished off. Florence was grateful. Even though he used a condom every time, it didn't hurt to be careful. She took the pills and washed them down with orange juice.

"Wait, what? There were multiple instances of sex?" -Bona asked. Clearly a little jealous. Both of her friends were virgins who could only dream of having sex. They'd always joked that ever since she'd met them they'd hit her with the same dry spell. But it had been broken last night and early this morning.

"Yes, Bona. We had sex multiple times." - she answered. "And before you ask, yes, it was great..." she let herself think about all those moments and she almost lost herself in it.

"Too great."- she told them honestly. Happy picked up on it and probed.
"I don't know. It felt real, I mean I know it was real but that felt real." - she emphasised to both her friends.

"Listen, you have a life to go back to. You have a job waiting for you. A great job. You are thinking of having a baby and you have enough money to do it by yourself." - Happy pointed all these things out. She was right. This was her last hooray before she settled within her job and started looking to have another child in a year's time. She'd only had sex with one other person before this and now she added another man to her list. It was worth it. Despite the emotional earthquake she experienced, the sex has been magnificent and now she could move on with her life.

"Choosing this hotel was smart by the way. When you slipped out did he not wonder where you were going?"- Bona asked.

"He did. I told him that I was in a hotel across town." - Florence lied. For the first time in their years of friendship, she didn't want to explain how she'd left while he was asleep. That she could not bare looking at him because she didn't even know his name!

"Okay, cheers guys."- Bona raised her flute that was filled with champagne. "We will always have Cape Town."

Both Happy and Flo raised their classes "To Cape Town." And they glasses clicked.