Unhinged Love

CHAPTER 60

The moment I am woken up by multiple sounds, I know that something is wrong. The sound of my morning alarm usually wakes me up if I am not already up. Sometimes my man wakes me up with a call. I find it weird that he didn’t call last night, but I didn’t dwell on that. He might have been busy. Taking my phone from the night stand, I am puzzled by the number of notifications from X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. OMG! Please don’t tell me that this is what I think it is. Can it please be something else? Something positive and profitable? I can’t afford a scandal. Not now.

But God doesn’t answer my prayer because when I unlock my phone and first go to X, I discover that I am tagged into dozens of posts and retweets. Someone made a video, included screenshots and pictures about my relationship with Melisizwe and Mbulelo. What the hell? What is worse is that the video is a snippet from a podcast that usually finds dirt on successful women and bring them down. My God. how did my name end up there? Who the fuck did I piss? I open the video, even though I already know it is going to destroy me.

Male Host: “So, this infamous chef who has just opened her first restaurant in Richards Bay is allegedly dating her ex-boyfriend’s father who is wealthy. Talk about an upgrade. Even if you are going for revenge, don’t you think dating your ex’s father or mother is overrated? Come on ladies, we have revenge diaries for a reason. Be creative. Also, you could have found yourself a blesser somewhere else. You didn’t have to take the father. That’s harsh. And it is always the innocent looking ones. Look at her face.” The people in the background laugh and I feel like digging a whole in the ground and burying myself. Why is this happening to me?

Female Host: “But laugh all you want, guys. I also would have been tempted if my ex’s father looked like that. Phela that man is a 10. And he also looks like his son’s older brother. God, he is hot. Money is just a bonus at this point. But besides his looks, this is morally wrong. Clearly this Chef Hle is using wealthy men to fund her business ideas. How did she even get money to open and maintain a restaurant? Most black owned restaurants open and close in 6 months due to failure to handle finances. There is no way she is able to handle it like a pro. Maybe there were more older men in her past.”

That’s it. This girl’s assumptions make me want to throw my phone on the wall. How dare she reduces my life’s work into nothing? I am not a gold digger. I know very well that I got to where I am due to sleepless nights and literal door to door. I got my investors through hard work and they just… I can’t. the door to my room opens and I look up to see Mitchy coming in. she comes and sits next to me and takes the phone from my hands.

“I don’t know how those idiots got this story and I don’t know the leak but we are going to get through this, boss. Pamela and Lineo are already drafting emails for an emergency meeting with the investors. Nqobile is handling the restaurant and our social media and I am here to make sure that you don’t spiral. I am here most of all to keep you from going anywhere. This is not America where you find paparazzi outside your house but the worst thing you can do when faced with something like this is to be out and about because people will think you don’t care and you are rubbing it in their faces.” I have never heard Mitchy talk for so long.

“But how are we going to fix this, Mitch? How? I can’t afford this. my restaurant can’t afford this. what about MasterChef? OMG! This is a fuckin set back. What am I going to do?” my head literally spins with a lot of negativity. I have worked so hard for everything I have achieved and all of that is going to fade because of a mere relationship? Fuck me.

“Boss, I need you to calm down and breathe with me. Can you do that?” I didn’t even notice I was having a full-blown panic attack. I try to calm down and her method actually works. I feel myself calming down but then I just get downright emotional and the tears start falling. “Please don’t cry. We will fix this. I will personally go to the MasterChef headquarters if need be. But I will fix this and this will be nothing but a publicity stunt to make you more famous. I swear to God.”

Right now, I don’t trust a word that comes out of her mouth. My world has been turned upside down. Someone has just pulled a rug under my feet and everything just went sideways. How does one recover from this? How does one come back from this? Why would someone do this to me? I haven’t wronged anyone and I do know that Mbulelo would never be this petty. Who did this?

“Who do you think leaked the news?” I ask Mitchy in a low tone and she sighs.
“Honestly, I don’t know. The only person who is directly hurt by your relationship with Melisizwe is Mbulelo but I don’t think he would go crying to social media. Maybe his baby mama did it out of spite. Maybe Melisizwe’s ex wife did it. Maybe Zamadonda did it. There are a lot of third-party suspects. But we are going to fix this. everything in this world has a solution. Including death, so this is nothing.”

I look at her and I really want to believe her. I really do. But for the life of me, I can’t. because I know that from here on, there won’t be peace in my life. Before, people were more concerned with my work but after this, they are always going to be super into my dating life no matter what I do. They are going to find ways to meddle and track my relationship with Melisizwe.

“Can you call Melisizwe for me?” I plead and she sighs before unlocking my phone and dialling Melisizwe’s number. It goes straight to voicemail and I frown. Maybe he is dodging anyone who wants a scoop. That might be the case because I wouldn’t know any other reason for his phone to be off so early in the morning.

“We will try him again during the day. He is not the type to leave you in times of need or a crisis like this. right now, we are thinking risk management. How can we turn this story around? Maybe deny your entire relationship with Mbulelo? But that would require you to talk to him and currently he doesn’t want to talk to you. Or just tell the truth and say you fell for Melisizwe way after you had broken up with Mbulelo. But the time frame is going to get us into trouble. Fuck. But we will think of something. Don’t worry.”

But I am worried. Whichever angle I look at this, there is no way of winning. I am going to lose either way. What I do need is to think of a convincible story to tell my investors. They specifically said no drama and I brought drama into their doorsteps. Somehow, I must show stats that prove my personal drama does not affect the income of the business.

“Stats.” I blurt that out and Mitchy frowns at me. “Tell them to extract stats or our finances for the next few days with this drama and present that to our investors. Hopefully we are not going to lose our regular clients. And we must push promotions and specials just to keep our customers entertained and pull their attention away from the drama. And we should….”

“Boss, breathe. We are going to do all that and so much more. But for now, I need you to calm down and take a shower. We are going to deal with this head on, I promise you. You are not going to lose your investors or your shot at MasterChef. No bitch or nigga will pull you down. Not while we are here. Okay?”

I nod. “Okay.”
She smiles. “Now go. Let me handle some few calls.”

I stand up and head to the bathroom. The minute I close the door behind me, I slide down it and the tears fall down my cheeks. I can’t lose all my life’s work for nothing. I can’t. why would God dangle such success in my eyes and only to take it away so soon? Who did I wrong for me to be punished in this manner? I don’t deserve this. I am a good person. I am kind, attentive and loving. I don’t deserve this. I really don’t.