Swirl

8. Surprises.

Hi Achim. 👆🏾 - Drew Hanley.
Hey y'all. I've been a bit caught up, but it's holiday time and I'm back!

Patience hustled and bustled around the stove like a busy, busy bee. As she did, she hummed church jingles beneath her breath. The aroma of fresh oatmeal prepared, no doubt, for the entire household could be felt throughout the entire downstairs of the abode.

Achim and Lerato stood at the foot of the stairs in the living room, peering into the kitchen confusedly.

Obviously, this was not anticipated beforehand.

"What do we do now?" mouthed Achim.

Lerato shrugged to signal her confusion. She knew better than anyone else how inquisitive her mother could be, especially if something seemed amiss.

And Lerato walking out of the main house in foreign clothes and holding a small carrier bag beside Achim at this hour on a Saturday was definitely amiss.

They stood there for a few seconds silently acknowledging the hiccup in their plans until Lerato formulated a plan of action.

"Go back upstairs. I'll handle this," she whispered,

"What? No. you can't see Thato alone!" he whisper-yelled.

Defiantly she said, "Take your jealousy to the corner, boy. This is not the time for it to come out."

"I'm serious!" He hissed. It was a bit loud, but fortunately, Patience had been cracking eggs and frying bacon by then; a pop of oil and the crack of an egg simultaneously masked the sound.

She placed her pointer finger on her lips, indicating that he must keep quiet, but he continued nonetheless, rather irritated by her complacent attitude. "No. I'm not being jealous, Lerato. He's a complete stranger and it was reckless of you to have found yourself with him in the first place."

His blue eyes glared so hard at her that you'd have thought he was trying to bore holes into her skull with some type of imaginary beam. His dislike of the situation at hand was bubbling forth like popped champagne from a shaken bottle.

What he failed to pinpoint though, was why his jealousy was so... explosive. When it came to her, he'd noticed that she didn't have to do much to trigger it.

A part of her found his jealousy attractive, but the rational part of her found it impulsive and nonsensical.

"Need I remind you who's fault this is?" she whispered, unimpressed.

He shrugged. "You could have handled the situation better."

She raised her eyebrow and rolled her neck, daring him to say more. "Oh, so now it's my fault that he's here too, huh?"

"Essentially." When she looked at him with eyes of fury, he rushed to explain his theory, an air of nonchalance surrounding his accusation. "You know me. A part of you must have known that I'd come after you, so you could have waited under a bus stop," he whispered rather arrogantly and shrugged as one corner of his lip curled.

The sudden arrogance he'd adopted hit her out of nowhere and she didn't like it one bit. "No. I don't know you. I thought I did, but I don't," she whispered, deflated.

He noticed the exhausted look on her face and regretted the blame game he tried to ensue. The events that had occurred the previous night had obviously taken a toll on her emotional wellbeing, and he knew it was unfair of him to make it resurface.

Especially after the wonderful time they'd spent together after.

He had wanted to say something to quell the situation as he seemed to be doing around Lerato often, but she lifted her palm to stop him and walked in the direction of the kitchen without even a glance back.