Second Time Lucky. Malihanelo Molapo

to blame the ex-wife when it was common knowledge that a break-up is mostly the guy’s fault. How uncivil of him, she thought in disgust.

      What a wasted evening ...

      * * *

      The following morning Suthukazi burst into Criselda’s office with two skinny lattes, croissants and blueberry muffins. “Come on, Criss, out with it. Last night you walked in looking like a thundercloud. What happened?”

      “I shouldn’t have gone in the first place ... Wow, looks can be so deceiving. He’s divorced, can you imagine that?”

      “What has that got to do with your bad mood last night?” Suthukazi looked confused as she took a sip of her latte.

      “He had the gall to smear the wife for their divorce. That man has a ton of baggage – and I’m not going to subject myself to that. No siree.”

      “But Criss, you’re also divorced. And anyway, what did he say about his ex?”

      “Do you really think I was going to wait for a blow-by-blow account? As soon as he said that it had been her fault, I was out of there,” Criselda shot back.

      “Well, I think you’re overreacting, but if you feel that way I’ll forgive you, because you’ve been through a lot this past year. So how’s he proceeding with the investigation?”

      “Oh shoot, we have a meeting!” Criselda looked at her watch. “I have to be at Hampshire in five minutes. Thanks for the goodies, doll, but I have to run.” With that she grabbed her laptop and sped out of the door.

      Half an hour later she drove through the gates of Hampshire Holdings, parked and rushed inside.

      She found a very annoyed Justice sitting at one of the small desks in the foyer of the server room. Some employees were working at tiny partitioned desks on the other end of the room.

      “Sorry I’m late, I completely lost track of the time,” Criselda stammered, out of breath.

      “That’s the problem with you,” he said icily. “No wonder this system was hacked into.”

      The frown which seemed to have melted last night was back, deeper than ever.

      “We’ll work through these notes together,” he continued, and it sounded like an order. “Then we’ll go into the server and enter some of these investigative formulas to see what we can come up with.”

      She sat down on the chair opposite him and they proceeded in silence.

      * * *

      Criselda looked at her watch with a yawn and saw that it was already 8pm. Justice was still typing fiercely on the computer in the server room. They had not said a kind word to each other all afternoon, but spoke only in computer jargon.

      Just then the phone rang and the security guard downstairs informed her of their pizza delivery.

      “Our pizza is here. I’ll go get it,” Criselda said.

      Justice didn’t respond, but when she reached for her handbag, he said, “No, take this,” and took out some money from his wallet. Criselda didn’t want any favours from him, but decided not to be childish. She took the money and rushed downstairs.

      When she came back Justice was pacing up and down, stretching his back and rubbing his neck. There was a sofa and small coffee table against the wall and they sat there, quietly having their pizza and Coke.

      Justice eventually broke the silence. “So who is taking care of the kids while you’re here?”

      “A friend and colleague. But let’s please leave the personal stuff and keep it professional,” Criselda responded coolly.

      It was quiet between them for a moment, then he cleared his throat and said, “You know, I really thought you of all people would understand, but the minute I said ‘divorcé’ you looked at me as if I were a leaking sewage pipe. Dammit, can’t you see I like you and I want to get to know you?”

      Criselda looked at him, shocked. Not in her wildest dreams had she expected to hear those words come from his mouth. And before she knew it, the warmth of his lips came down forcefully on hers. She quickly pulled away.

      “Why are you doing this, Justice? We’re supposed to be solving this problem, and yet you keep flashing intimate moments at me in between your rude remarks.”

      “I’m sorry, but like I said, I’ve really started to like you and I’d like to get to know you better. But you keep building up a wall.”

      Criselda jumped to her feet. “You’re the one with the rude wall around you, and now all of a sudden you want to get to know me? I’m afraid I don’t trust your intentions, Justice. I really don’t.” With that she quickly grabbed her handbag and left the room.

      * * *

      Suthukazi was already waiting for Criselda when she arrived at her office the next morning.

      As she sat down, her friend started probing. “There’s something different about you, Criss. I wanted to ask you last night when you got home, but judging by the way you looked I thought I’d better not. What happened?”

      Criselda pretended ignorance. “What do you mean? What happened with what?”

      “Never mind, I’ll get it out of you sooner or later.” Suthukazi smiled naughtily. “Anyway, fill me in on the Hampshire debacle. Any progress?”

      “Well, after the deprogramming yesterday I’ll wait to hear from Justice. He’ll give me the go-ahead on installing another system which I still have to research. As far as who’s the culprit, we’re still none the wiser, but his company is working on it.”

      “Are you sure that’s all you guys worked on?” Suthukazi pried again.

      “Yes, Kazi, I am sure. Now please bring in all the quarterly reports on our accounts so that we can go over those before we give them to Martin for the board meeting.”

      “All right then, I’m on it – but be warned, I’m not giving up that easily.”

      Suthukazi walked out of the office and as soon as she closed the door behind her Criselda’s thoughts drifted back to the night before. It had been so unexpected and so intense.

      How would this impact on her working relationship with Justice? She wondered what his angle was. Perhaps he wanted to use her to get over his ex. It was hard to trust him, considering how he’d treated her initially. Why the sudden change?

      All these thoughts rushing through her head were rudely interrupted by the ringing of her cellphone.

      When she answered, it was Florina on the other side. “Hello, Sisi,” Florina said. “I’ll only be arriving next week Monday, but I’m glad to say things have settled down. Please forgive me, I’m sure you must be struggling.”

      “Hhayi man, it’s okay, Rina. Most days everything runs smoothly, even though I’ve had an unexpected crisis at work. I’ll manage. See you on Monday then. Bye.”

      Criselda ended the call and smiled, thinking about how lost she would be without Florina in her life. Just then the office phone rang and she picked up.

      “Mr Dlangamandla on the line,” Tseli said in her tired voice.

      “Oh, put him through,” Criselda answered unenthusiastically.

      “Hello,” Justice said huskily, “I just wanted to apologise for making you uncomfortable yesterday.”

      “No need for that,” Criselda replied stiffly. “Let’s just put it behind us.”

      “Okay. I’ll talk to you later then.”

      The line went dead.

      * * *

      It was two days later, and at around three in the afternoon Criselda went home. She had decided she would prepare dinner and then pick up the kids from aftercare.