Unhinged Love

CHAPTER 61

NQOBILE MSIBI

You would think that after two days an ordinary chef with a mini scandal would have been long forgotten but that’s not the case. People are still on her case and they have gone to extreme measures to dig on her exes. Luckily none of them were old, so there is no case of her following a pattern. When they couldn’t find dirt on her side, they dug on Melisizwe’s side and found that he has dated younger ladies before and some of his exes were more than generous with the information about their relationships. The silver lining in all this is that Melisizwe treated all those women with grace and parted with them amicably. Those who tried being bitter were immediately attacked by his fan club. Yes, the dude gained a fan club in the last 48 hours.

One person who surprised me the most was the legal catfish on X. he just made fun of how Hle upgraded when she went from son to father. That’s all he said and the X community continued terrorizing other people. However, that doesn’t mean all is well. This publicity might have brought us more new customers in but it does not align with our brand and it threatens to tarnish it. Which is why we are thinking of different ways to spin this around.

Despite all that, Hlengi hasn’t been herself every since news broke out about her relationship. She didn’t even try to stay strong. She is so worried about her future and the possibility of losing her investors and her slot at MasterChef. I also worry about that. The investors gave us three years to start paying back the money they gave us by cutting them a stake in the business because they believed that Hle could expand Healthy Eats and make it national within three years and that is highly possible. But NO SCANDAL was an underlined condition on the contract and that is eating her up from the inside. Being a petite girl that she is, I think she has maybe lost a kilo because of this. she has only had shakes as a form of consumable and I am worried about her. When we reached out to the investors, they gave us a week to try to solve this and come back to them with answers. How are we going to do that though if our captain is down?

One person who is oddly quiet about all of this is Melisizwe. He has not once reached out to Hle since this whole thing blew up. You would think that he would be here comforting her and telling her that everything will be okay or moving earth and hell to make sure things go back to normal or what not. But the guy is literally MIA. I called him and even called his office but they said he hasn’t been in there since the news blew up. I didn’t think he was the cowardice type. I guess I have to pay him a visit after all this is done and remind him whose best friend he is playing.

Today though, I am dealing with his son. He somehow contributed to this situation and in a way, sins of the fathers always befall on their kids. Phelelani brought me to Mbulelo’s house. He and I got back together after a lot of begging from his side. He really fucked up and I wasn’t willing to hear him out but he went an extra mile to convince me that he won’t disappoint me again. I am not saying I am truly over what he did but I chose to forgive and give him another chance. Hope he doesn’t disappoint me because I won’t dump him. I will strangle him in his sleep because I am not a doll that he can use and discard when he is done.

We drive into Mbulelo’s place with Phelelani telling me to stay calm at all times. I just chuckle at his unneeded advice. I only stay calm when I am eating and that’s only because I was taught table manners at a young age. Otherwise, the word calm wouldn’t exist in my vocabulary. Why stay calm when you can wreak havoc and go crazy? Why not wake up and choose violence every day? Honestly I think this man next to me keeps up with me because of the good coochie, otherwise there is no way in hell I just miraculously landed a kid-less, young and handsome doctor all by myself. Yoh. Definitely not the personality nogal. 

Stepping into Mbulelo’s humble abode, we find him sitting in the lounge watching TV while his baby mama is napping in one of the couches. I know she moved in with him a month after he broke up with Hle and one of the reasons was that her pregnancy is not an easy one and she constantly needs to go to the doctor. So, Mbulelo wanted to be able to take good care of her. He even paid damages for the kid and then paid lobola for the kid so that he/she will carry the Mzimela last name. I don’t know if they are together or not because sometimes, they are lovey dover but at other times they act like enemies.

“Hi guys.” I announce our presence even though they already know we have entered their space. Mbulelo looks up and Phelo moves to shake his hand before he sits next to him.
Mbulelo smiles at me. “Hlanyo, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” he asks and I chuckle, sitting on a vacant couch.

“I am the grenade they send when shit hits the fan.” He laughs. I wouldn’t say there is bad blood between us. I am dating his friend, so our paths are bound to cross. When he found out about Melisizwe and Hle, he just asked that we never talk about that. He is a cool dude, yena. But I guess he was never enough for Hle. But ke Hle is always destined for greater things, even when it comes to relationships. His laughter wakes up his baby mama. She greets us and slowly sits up. She doesn’t look too bad for a pregnant chick. She is actually glowing and I think that’s mainly because of a present dad. They have that effect.

“So, what have I done now?” he asks, sitting back and lowering the volume of whatever show he was watching.
I clear my throat. “I am just going to go straight to the reason I am here. You don’t live under a rock. You have seen what has been happening the past two days. Hle’s life turned upside down because of the relationship she has with your father. We wouldn’t care much about the public’s opinion but this type of publicity poses a huge threat on Health Eats and her spot on MasterChef.” He frowns.

“She got nominated for MasterChef?” he asks and I nod.
“A lot of her dreams are coming true and this scandal has a potential of burning everything she has worked hard for to the ground. You know she is a strong and resilient young woman but the possibility of everything going aways has brought so much fear to her and she is legit depressed.” I didn’t want to air out my friend’s dirty laundry to her ex but this is necessary.

“Sorry to her but what has any of this got to do with Mbulelo? She brought this upon herself when she chose Baba. She has to live with the consequences of her actions and this is the first step.” Nomfundo responds in a non-challant way and I clench my fist.

“The only reason my fist is not acquainting itself with your cheek is because of that soul in your belly. Don’t test me, Nomfundo. I am a Calculus exam.” I click my tongue and then turn to look at Mbulelo. “I know you were hurt both physically and emotionally by your father’s relationship with Hle and I know I am a hypocrite for coming here and thinking that you might do something nice for Hle but I am desperate. If I could, I would go straight to Durban North and strangle your father for ghosting Hle on such a tough time but I am holding down the fort since she is going through it. And as the bible says, the sins of the father fall on the son. Now, I am making it your problem. Get your father to fix this mess before Hle loses everything she has ever worked for in life and we lose our jobs. I am talking about over 50 employees losing their jobs, the farm ones included.”

I take a deep breath. “She has never asked you for anything even after your betrayed her trust. I am not trying to manipulate you or anything and I know she would slice me into pieces and send my body parts back home if she found out I was here, but just think of how this is going to impact the Healthy Eats family. Heck, you were once a part of it. This is not a manipulation or emotional blackmail of any sort. I love you and I respect you but I need you to drag your father from whatever hole he is in and make him fix this. Please.”