Lerato arrives at work. After she sits down and opens her laptop to start working, a message pops up on her iPhone that’s next to the laptop.

“After work, I will come pick you up. Have a beautiful day like yourself… from your secret admirer.”

That was a text from Lethu, her high school sweetheart. Dee notices that Lerato is blushing.

“Psss… girlfriend, wassup?” Dee asks.

“I’ll tell you when it’s lunchtime, you noisy thing,” Lerato replies.

Dee couldn’t wait for lunchtime. It has been ages without seeing Lerato blushing with her phone.

Lerato comes to Dee’s desk with two MacDee soda-flavoured drinks, two red apples, and two white Dagwood sandwiches. The girls love each other so much. Dee was amazed that her friend is in a very good mood today.

“Thank you so much. The way I’m noisy, I forgot that it’s my turn to buy us lunch today,” Dee says.

“It’s OK, friend. You know I got you mos forever,” she says.

“Mhnnn… so tell me, who is making you a happy girl like this?” Dee says.

Lerato smiles, and she looks prettier when she smiles.

“He is Lethu, my high school sweetheart. Our dreams pushed us to different directions. After matric, he went to Germany to further his studies. We really couldn’t choose love over our goals,” she says.

“You still love him, chommie. I am glad that finally, you will escape that toxic marriage with that psychopath. He DOESN’T DESERVE YOU!” Dee replies.

“I know, right? I tried my best to love him, but no, he loves his side chick. Guess what? He came back today after disappearing on Friday. He comes wearing a shirt with lipstick kisses. He doesn’t see me,” Lerato says.

What is meant to be will always be. So Lerato knew one day, Lethu would come for her. The man of her dreams will fetch her at work. The pretty girl kept fixing herself and looking at her iPhone. She applied lip gloss to her shiny lips and kept looking at her afro over the phone’s screen. She expected another message from the handsome Lethu.

The phone rang instead.

“Mama, are you already done at work?” he asked.

“Yes, I am done. I am just waiting for you to fetch me,” Lerato replied with a huge smile.

Lerato said her goodbye to her girl Dee. The noisy Dee reminded her to enjoy and tell Lethu she loves him.

“OKAY, chommie. Love you lots, bye,” she said, as she walked away to the parking lot after hugging her friend.

After a few minutes, Lethu arrives in his black G-Wagon. He is a successful CEO of a software engineering company. He is rich with honesty, unlike Justin.

He gets out of the beautiful, expensive machine. He is wearing a matching black suit. He looks like a model; tall, has a nice body shape, and his skin is glowing brown. When he walks, you’d swear he owns this earth.

Lerato’s heart beats faster as Lethu walks closer to where she is standing. She wants to run away, but no, she can’t do that. Dee will be disappointed, and her heart will be disappointed too.

“Hi, sorry for keeping you waiting. Are you good?” he asked.

“Uhm… hey, you didn’t keep me waiting,” she replied.

“You keep on getting prettier. Let’s get going. I am sure you are tired,” he said.

They walk to the car.

“Let me open that for you, let me be a gentleman,” he says.

He opens the front door for her and closes it. They look at each other and laugh in the car, then he drives away from Lerato’s workplace to his house.

“What, you still love me? Even though we were in love in our younger days, I thought you would find yourself someone to navigate through life with because you stopped talking to me when you were in Germany,” Lerato says, with tears filling her beautiful brown eyes.

Lethu wipes those tears with his veiny hands. He pulls her close to his chest for Lerato to hear his heart beating out her name.

“Mama, lalela la, I didn’t go to Germany to replace you. I went there to work hard so that years later I have everything. Everything, including you by my side, and give you my last name,” he says with a low, charming tone.

Lerato pulls away from his chest to look at him. She sees herself in that white dress, getting married to Mr. Khumalo and increasing the Khumalo family. She remembers that ring she left in her drawer lately. Reason being, she is not happily married.

A fight between her heart and mind begins. Her heart pushes her to tell this man holding her waist and giving her butterflies that she loves him. As for her mind, it tells her she is a married woman, and she is doing the wrong thing.

“I am married, sorry,” she says, with a sore heart.

“I know, I know, but I’ll still fight for you. I will make sure you divorce him. I have been waiting for the right time to fight for you, mama. From today, you will be staying here with me,” he says.

Lerato cries because she feels so safe in Lethu’s arms. She feels safe and protected. With the right man, it is a must to feel safe and protected when you are around him. She wishes to have Lethu in her life again and come back to his warm hugs when she comes back to their home.

The two high school sweethearts cook together. They cook chilli rice with a full succulent chicken. Lerato never thought she would cook with her high school sweetheart and enjoy it.

“Always Be My Baby” by Mariah Carey plays in the background. At this point, love is in the atmosphere. They start kissing each other, then Lethu carries Lerato to his bedroom. One thing leads to another.