Forks and Knives – Episode 15

FORKS AND KNIVES
Episode 15
A story by Kennedy C Katongo
∆ A k-ss FROM THE PAST ∆
He looked at his phone, tried to remember her name but ended up saving her as Brown Skin Girl. It was just a matter of hours and that name was going to bring trouble for him.
After a good 30 minutes Tandiwe dropped off at the station. As she began walking towards the clinic she saw Jeff standing at the corner with headsets.
‘Maybe I should just give him a chance. His good to me, he cares about me.’ she thought to herself as she approached him.
“Hey – Good morning!” He said as he closed up on her with a hug.
Jeff was always quick on his feet, before Tandiwe could even react she was already in his arms.
She moved a stepped backwards as she gave him a lite push. For some reason she just felt shy – this wasn’t something that usually happened. She had fallen prey of jealousy a few times when one of Jeff’s many girlfriends would come through at the store.
“Hey! You seem lost in the moment. Snap out of it.” Jeff giggled.
“Stop making fan of me.” She said in a girly manner. More like she was chaffed.
“How’s Peter doing?” Jeff asked her as they began walking.
“His good. The boy cried his lungs out this morning.” “Can you imagine he got my handbag and stood at the door waiting for me to come out.” She added as they both began laughing.
“How’s Roderick doing? Is his swollen face back to normal?” She asked.
“His okay. Still looks blue, i mean, it was pans and pots hitting his face. It’s going to take a while for his face to get back to normal.” Jeff explained to her.
“You never even told me what happened. Now you talking about pots and pans. Did he sleep with someones wife?” She asked.
“Someone’s wife! What would make you think that?” He asked, “Roderick is many things but his not the type of guy that can sleep with another man’s wife.” Jeff added strongly.
“Then what happened?” She pressed on.
“It’s his girlfriend. She found out he impregnated some other girl. She got mad and wanted to kill him. You know how you girls behave.” He said casually.
“How we girls behave… You talking as if he didn’t do something wrong at all. His lucky it was just pots and pans otherwise I would have stubbed him with a knife.” Tandiwe said.
“Isn’t that extreme?”
“No it isn’t. It really hurts when you give up friends and turn down men because of your man and then you find out his been kicking it somewhere else… Not only that; he even got her pregnant.” She shook her head as she spoke.
Jeff was surprised she was now all worked up from the story. The best he could do was just change the topic. If not careful, he would become the prey of the topic. Like they say ‘Birds of the same feathers fly together.’
Tandiwe wanted to tell Jeff that Peter’s father was in town. But she knew how he would react to that – she had told him of everything that happened between the two of them till the time that the baby was born. What she hadn’t told him was that they had began talking some five months ago and he seemed to have changed from the last time they spoke. There was a sense of maturity, growth and responsibility in him. He had offered to help take the child to school and other things.
Telling this to Jeff would really hurt him, but hiding it from him again was not easy. He was to nosy and asked a lot of questions.
“What’s on your mind?” Jeff asked as they walking through the car park.
“Nothing!” She responded.
“Are you sure? Because you seem like you have something on your mind.” Jeff smiled as he spoke. His words ended there, it was rare for him to insist on Tandiwe to speak up.
“Don’t worry.” She quickly replied as she brushed him off.
When they arrived at work, Jeff wasted no time – he got his phone and texted the Brown Skin Girl.
BSG: ‘I was hurt when you couldn’t remember me.’
JEFF: ‘Am sorry. It’s just been long since I saw you. I hope you find it in your sweet heart to forgive a humble man like me.’
BSG: ‘Someone seems to be good with words. About forgiving you, I might just think about it.’
JEFF: ‘That will me lovely. Ain’t you supposed to be in class?’
BSG: ‘I am. The lecturer isn’t in yet. What about you?’
JEFF: ‘Am not a student.lol. Am actually at work right now.’
BSG: ‘Where?’
JEFF: ‘I work for PEP at Levy Junction.’
While Tandiwe was busy getting ready for work, Jeff was at the door smiling as his eyes were glued to his phone.
“I wonder who it might be?” Her friend asked she bumped Tandiwe.
“Oh! Am sure it’s just one of his friends.” She responded. Tandiwe didn’t want to entertain the thought of another lady chatting with Jeff from the moment she had considered dating him.
Jeff came running to the ladies, “Am asking for a charger please…”
“This early you already asking for a charger?” Tandiwe jumped in.
“I have about 40 downloads going on. I don’t want them to cut.” He said as he handed his phone to Tandiwe who had volunteered to charge it for him.
Just as she was getting the charger, a message came through on Jeff’s phone. It hadn’t yet locked itself. Upon noticing the popped up message saved under the name Brown Skin Girl, she was forced not only to read it but to go through their entire chat which had been making Jeff smile.
The chat between the two was heating up and was concluded by them meeting around 16hrs since she would have been done with class by then.
Tandiwe plugged the phone to the charger and went to do her duties. It was a busy morning and this created a gap for Jeff and Tandiwe to intEr×¢t as both of them were busy.
.
.
.
A young man and lady, with two kids had just left the counter. Tandiwe immediately zoomed in on her friend as they both began admiring the couple. As they were talking, Jeff came along and joined the conversation.
“We can make a good couple. Me and you, our kids running around.” Jeff said as he took a breath feeling all chaffed.
“Sorry to disappoint you. Even if you were the last man on Earth I wouldn’t date you.” Tandiwe responded harshly.
Her friends happy face changed in a second, “Baby his just joking.” She said in a low voice.
“I don’t care if his joking. I just don’t want you to use such example’s on me.” Tandiwe said.
“Am sorry.” Jeff said as he Wondered what he had done wrong this time around.
Tandiwe left the two and went to the store room.
“What did you do?” “A few hours ago you two were like love birds and now she’s breathing fire.” There work mate asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t remember saying something offensive to her. We’ve been okay till now apa when she has just snapped.” Jeff said as he tried to redeem himself.
“Well, I know Tandiwe. She just doesn’t snap for no reason. You must have done something. Am sure you will find out what it is sooner or later.” She said as Jeff took leave to patrol the store and make sure everything was in order.
While in the store room, Tandiwe’s phone rang. It was baby daddy calling. He had already sent a text prior to the call. However, she decided to ignore it.
“Hello! You know am at work. What do you want?” She asked him.
“I just thought of checking up on you.” He responded.
“Listen, I don’t know what you trying to do… But please stop being weird. I told you I would talk to mum and see if she would allow you to see Peter. I don’t remember saying you need to be calling me.” Tandiwe lashed out on him.
“I didn’t mean to get you worked up. I just thought maybe we could meet after you knock off.” He said politely.
“Iwe! Don’t call me.” She said as she cut the line.
Her s₱0t on thought was to block him if he called her again.
To be continued.