L_O_V_E...

17

With her arms folded under her breasts, Nkuli silently sat facing forward with an angry look on her face. Kenneth sat beside her talking to the marriage counsellor. The tension between them was palpable and had been that way since he accidentally blurted out his girlfriends name. Though he had never cheated on her with any of his assistants, he still did not want her knowing he was dating an employee. Well in this case a former employee.

' Nkuli so what about you?'

' What?'

Her body might have been present in that office but the rest of her senses were not part of the meeting. Thoughts about Jessica had taken over her. She could not help but envy her beautiful and gorgeous body and beauty.

' Kenneth here was just explaining -'

The counsellor was abruptly silenced when Nkuli turned to face her husband. She did not mean to be disrespectful but she could not keep calm any longer.

' So all this time you were eyeing her!'

' I had no interest like that with her when she was an employee. I never saw her in that way.'

' How did you see her? As a future girlfriend!.'

' I had no sexual or romantic feelings for her then.'

' Yeah right! Is she the one you cheated on me with?'

Kenneth shook his head. This is the reason she did not know about Jessica. Nkuli always jumped into her own conclusions and hurt herself in the process. She refused to listen or believe anything after she had concluded and this is what he was telling the counsellor.

' Nkuli-'

' I'm still waiting on an answer!'

' No Nonkululeko! I did not sleep with her when we were married or anyone for that matter.'

' You expect me to believe that you wined and dined this women and got nothing in return. I ain't that stupid.'

' It is the truth!'

' You wouldn't know the truth even if it hit you in the face.'

The counsellor silently observed them go back and forth at each other with their voices rising as they grew angrier and soon none of them was listening to the other. They did not know how to communicate effectively. They were just trying to speak over each other.

' Okay! That's enough!'

Nkuli and Kenneth turned to him as if they were now realising that they were in the middle of a consultation.

' That's not how a married couple let alone any couple communicates. You're not listening to each other. If this is how you have been communicating around your children. I really feel bad for them. How do you except them to listen to you when you don't even listen to each other. You're just throwing accusations at each other so one of you has the last word. Is this how it's always been?'

' It wasn't always like this. Everything changed after our youngest. He felt that I did not care for him as a husband and treated him like one of our kids. The arguments started and got worse when I found out he was seeing somebody else. He made me feel so worthless, like I was good enough to bear his children but not good enough to be wined and dined like the other woman.'