After that, for the rest of the week, every morning Lame came into Claudio’s for breakfast. Dineo would chat with him, but the morning shift was busy, so it was just tiny snippets of chit-chat. She still found it strange how he always moved the conversation to her, and away from him.

“I bet he’s married,” Mimi said.

“No, I don’t think he’s married. He’s just not keen to talk about himself. He told me a few things. He was living in Joburg and recently moved here for a new job; marketing manager at Dibuka Publishing,” Dineo said. “He’s just a private person.”

“Private, or secretive?” Mimi said.

“Some people don’t like telling the world their personal business, my Mimi,” Angelica said. “You know mystery is very attractive. You might think of that too.”

Angelica looked Mimi up and down. Mimi was wearing a cropped sleeveless T-shirt and a mini-skirt. She had a good body and she liked to flaunt it. They were knocking off and she was meeting her newest love.

“Ricardo likes me dressed like this,” Mimi said.

“Ricardo will not be your husband,” Angelica said.

“You don’t know that,” Mimi protested.

“Yes, I do. Husbands like to keep their wives’ assets to themselves.”

Dineo laughed and Mimi glared at her. “That’s old-fashioned thinking, Angelica. And really, Dineo? What do you know about dating? All you know is jumping about and rolling on the ground!”

Mimi stormed out. Her words were more cutting than they might have been normally. Dineo knew Mimi had a temper that flared and disappeared and meant nothing. Tomorrow she’d apologise, but today her words lingered.

Lame had asked Dineo out to dinner after studio, and she was nervous. Mimi was right, Lame was secretive. She’d tried to make a case that Lame had told her lots of things, but to be honest those were the only things she knew about him. Nothing else.

But he knew where she was from, what her dreams were, how many sisters and brothers she has, and that she broke her arm when she was fourteen during a ballet recital.

He was secretive, just as Mimi had said, and that meant he was hiding something. The problem was, Dineo was beginning to like him. He seemed nearly the perfect guy, and now she was afraid his secrets would wreck everything – before it even got started.

***

Tell us what you think: Is Lame hiding the fact that he is married?