I wanted to watch another but it was almost 12 I needed to start preparing lunch.

Naledi told me she was having lunch with Kuleza. It was when I saw her text I realised she liked him. I had been so blind to it all so wrapped up in my own grief. He had bought a computer for her birthday and she had given him a painting of him as a birthday present. How had I been so blind? I had been such a bad friend. A good friend would have asked what was going on, found out how she felt about him but I did neither of that. I was waiting for her to return from the lunch. I was going to ask her what was going on and apologise for being a bad friend. I didn’t want them to like each other. Kuleza was very tall, taller than Xo even, they were many feet between him and Naledi. Maybe Naledi would have many difficulties giving birth and many miscarriages carrying Kuleza’s children like my mother did. Kuleza was being selfish. He should have swept a fellow colossus off their feet. How could I think this way? I who had been annoyed when I learnt of the opposition to my parent’s marriage due to height? I, who was conceived in such a union? Moreover Naledi told me she didn’t want to have children.

As soon as the door opened and Naledi entered I asked. “How was the lunch?”

Silently she trudged past the couch I was sitting on, to the one near the window and buried herself in it.

She spoke but I could not hear what she said as response to my question. I moved to the couch she was sitting on. “How was it?”

She pulled her head up. “I don’t know.” And buried it again in the couch.

“C’mon tell me.”

“Hey why the sudden interest in my dealings with Kuleza.”

“I am sorry I was not interested in before. I was wrapped up in myself. But I am now.” I said stroking her blue kinks which were in a French braid.

She twisted her body to face me. “He made a move on me.” She exhaled. “He told me that he saw wife material in me.”

“Those were his exact words?”

She nodded her head.

“What did you say?”

“I told him I was confused. Then I asked him if was he asking me to marry him? He said yes but only when I was ready. That he was asking me to court him with the intention of marriage. That he knew that six years was a big age gap and that I hadn’t started thinking seriously about marriage. That he would not pressure me and was willing to wait.”

“Oh. What did you say?”

“I told him I was surprised. That it was a lot and I had to think. So he should give me some space and I would get back to him. He didn’t ask to be my boyfriend, no he asked to be my husband.”

“I knew Kuleza was serious but even this surprises me.”

“I like him a lot. And, I have thought of us together but this marriage thing. It’s taken me aback. I just need to calm down.” Her eyes bore into my own. “I am scared Ipy. I have never let a boy in this much after the brothel. I care for him but I am truly at that point that I can date.”

“Pray about it. I will too.”

She lay on her back, her eyes facing our ceiling. “I don’t want to lose him but I just need time to get myself in that space.”

“Then maybe you should tell him that. Did you tell him about your time at the brothel?”

She nodded her head.

“You guys are close huh?”

She nodded again.

“Let’s go get milkshakes. Milkshakes make decision making easier.” I said pulling her up.

“I don’t wanna.”

“I am not taking no for an answer.”

She got up.