Night Like That (rewritten)

fifteen

Ivy was under the very real suspicion that Kiptum had decided to channel his hatred of her toward Chastity - which made absolutely no sense, and so she told him.

"Be a man," she said, "and tell me why you are taking it all easy on me and giving it all to Chastity. Mind, she says nice things about you." She wanted to finish off with sometimes, but even that would have been a lie. Chastity hated all that hated Ivy, and that included Kiptum.

"I am a man. You be a man!" Kiptum said, cocking his head to the side, turning to look at anything but her. 

It was evening and the parking lot of Alpine Flats was steadily filling up with cars. Kiptum's demon lords were lazying about in the setting sun, one REM cycle away from snoring. Had he been normal, Ivy declared, she would have probably seen something good in those dogs. Alas, he was far from normal and that affected the standing of the dogs in her eyes.

"Well," she said, "I am more man than you, so what now?"

Ivy's plan had not been to go downstairs and antagonise the man but with his recent bout of confused civility coupled with the fact that she could not sit still in a flat devoid of Chastity, she had to channel her restlessness somewhere. She'd had only two options - go to the supermarket and buy real food or sit about, waiting for Chastity to come so that they could have a proper talk. A mysterious third option had presented itself with Kiptum and she had been quick to take it. 

Kiptum huffed. "I will let my dogs out. Don't test me." They fell quiet. It was clear the threat was doing nothing. "Are you waiting for your girl?"

Ivy had not realized that her focus had wandered away from him when she quickly turned to face him. She had been staring at the empty parking spot Chastity had temporarily commandeered. Even fighting with the man could not steal her concentration for more than a minute. "Why would you say it like that? Like she's a thing? Kiptum," she leaned over, placing her right hand on his shoulder, "this is going to be the reason you die without ever knowing the touch of a woman."

He pushed her hand away. "I am a married man with two children. One is in form four and the other is in class five. I paid ten cows for my wife and she has rewarded me a thousand times that. I sometimes want to go back and add more cows."

She took a step back. Surely not, she thought. Kiptum hardly ever left the premises of Alpine Flats. He was so one with the place he could be called the foundation and it would have held meaning on both sides of the coin. "No, you don't. If you did, you wouldn't have been looking like that and living on here like that too."

"Here," he pulled out his phone, swiping through quickly and settling on the thing he wanted her to see most, "are my wife and two children."

She stared at the screen. There indeed stood four people. One was Kiptum but he didn't have his uniform on. He looked odd in the way toddlers looked odd in leather jackets and firm vocabulary. She was not sure she would have realised it was him had they met each other and he was dressed as such. Next to him was a woman, she deduced, who must have been the wife. She was a head shorter with cropped hair and a big brilliant smile, which was at war with the frown on his face. Two boys stood on either side of them, and they were neither happy nor sad. Simply there. 

If he was to be believed, Kiptum actually had a family. "Why the fuck are you fighting with me for, then? You have it all figured out!"

He pocketed his phone, going all languid on his seat, a triumphant look on his face. "Yes, I have a family and we are doing wonderfully. I have figured it out. To answer your question, it is just because. Also, you came for part of my family and I was not going to stand still, is that not right, platoon?" He turned to face his dogs only to be ignored as they went on drowning in the beautiful evening sun's ambience. 

Ivy couldn't help the pang of jealousy. If he could have that, so could she. She deserved it, in fact, only she was not sure who'd pay the dowry between her and Chastity if it ever got that far. Then again, she had not even gone over the small hurdle that was taking her out on a date so who was she to think about dowry? "Look," her voice went low, hand awkwardly scratching the back of her neck, "how'd you do it, taking the first step with her, I mean."

His gaze focused on her. If she hadn't known the fifty similar looks of Kiptum, she'd have assumed he had gone sick instead of being left half speechless. "Do you mean romancing my young wife?"

She shrugged, "Is she young though? She looks -" he narrowed his eyes and she thought better than to continue "- she is young, you are right. So how did you romance her to the point of convincing her to make more of you?"

"You lack manners."

"You too."

He let a small tired laugh escape him. "I didn't make her do anything. She just chose me and I accepted it. I hadn't thought about getting a wife or having children. I had been quite alright all alone but then she came and she changed everything. To romance? I don't have a talent for it. She had all the talent for the both of us and so I do the things that I am good at and that make her happy like providing for my family and all those things." He waved away his hand. "I cannot tell you more than that."

"You know, I actually think you are telling the truth."

Kiptum took on the air of affront.  "Did you I would not?"

"What stupid person believes their arch nemesis in the first go?"

Kiptum looked both parts disappointed and impressed. "She's here," he said, quickly putting an end to whatever had been transpiring as she ran from him towards her ultimate goal.

*

I feel like I have to add this. I have noticed there has been a steady spike in readers and I really appreciate it. However, my mental health seems to be taking the piss (horrendous job market and all) and I am assuming it is probably going to sip into the tone of the story. For the next two weeks, I think my upload is going to wobble just a bit but I am of the hope that it is going to get better soon enough. Please be a tad patient with me. Thank you! 😊🖤