The day finally came. I woke up, got ready and I went straight to the studio in town. My shoot started and I did what I do best.

“Are you waiting for someone?” asked the photographer. “Your eyes are at the door every second, we both know you can do better, you’re just not yourself.”

It was obvious, I couldn’t deny it.

“Yeah, I’m waiting for my friends, they promised to come and see me,”

“Oh, I get you. Well, it’s still early, maybe they’re stuck somewhere,”

“I hope so or I’m never talking to them again,”

“Oh come on, don’t be so harsh. Obviously they will have an explanation. Now focus, I know you can do better than this,”

I just smiled and did what I had come for.

“You did perfect, as usual,” he said later.

“Oh thank, you. Are we done for the day?” I asked.

“Yes, and sorry about your friends, I’m sure they’ve an explanation,”

“Yeah, I hope so,” I said while getting dressed. I took my stuff and went straight to the rank. I usually hung around town first but that day I was just not in the mood.

In the taxi home there was still no call from him or any of the guys. I was so angry at them, I was even crying in the taxi. The cute guy next to me kept looking at me, then he just held me close to him and that made me cry even more. He didn’t say a word and neither did I. I eventually stopped crying and just looked outside the window, remembering how Mthobisi had promised never to disappoint me.

I told myself that he had an explanation, he can’t just not show up.

“Thank you,” I said smiling at the guy.

“No problem, everybody has bad days,”

We kept quiet till I got off the taxi and I said goodbye to the sweet stranger.

I got home and waited for the call or a WhatsApp message, but there was none. I went and checked on his Facebook, even though he didn’t post that much. I just prayed not to find anything that would be disappointing, like he didn’t come to see me because he was tired.

Sadly, I saw he had just posted a picture of the crew 30 minutes ago, with a caption saying: “Vele siyabanyisa”. I just knew they were having ibhadu so I obviously should just forget him and sleep.

In the middle of the night I got a call from Mthobisi. I ignored it and put my phone on silent and went back to sleep.

I woke up with 15 missed calls and a text message.

I am really sorry Omuhle.

I knew he was not good with expressing himself in writing so I accepted that lousy sorry and those missed calls. I knew if I picked up his call I would forgive him, that’s how good he was with words. So I ignored his calls for days.

Every morning I would get a message from him saying how sorry he was. That he made a stupid mistake by choosing to be at a party instead of using the only chance he had for us to meet up. He promised to come to a Passover service at my church. That’s when I called him and we spoke. I was happy but we did not call each other that much after that. It really broke me but I felt like he needed to make it up to me for breaking his promise.

***

Tell us: Would you forgive him if you were Omuhle?