My husband and I own the same type of cell phones and many times he’s taken my phone by mistake. I woke up first and as usual and I made fire to boil water for bathing. As the water boiled, I was busy ironing his clothes. After he bathed and ate, he left for work and I went back to bed.

I own a small spaza shop at home and I open it at 9 a.m. and my husband has to leave for work at 7. He is a manager at a supermarket in Saselamani. So 20 minutes after going to bed a phone rang and I answered it, thinking it was mine. Now I wish I had not answered the damn thing.

“Baby where are you? Don’t tell me you are late again. You know I have to have your lunch container before going to work or our baby is going to die of hunger today. Besides, that wife of yours might dress like an old woman but she sure can cook. Also I hope you gave her my mopani worms to cook for today’s lunch or you will pay for it,”

The woman on the other side rambled on. And then she was silent and I knew it was the kind of silence where she was hoping for her man to assure her that what she wished for had been done. I was too shocked, so shocked I had yet to breathe since she started talking.

“OK, so you can’t talk because your wife is there, right? OK, I will hang up but if you don’t bring my worms don’t come to work at all, you know my pregnancy craves them.”

Then she hung up.

I didn’t know what to do and for a long time after she hang up, I stared at the phone in my hand before letting go of it like I got burnt. I couldn’t really go to sleep after that so I woke up and got busy trying not to think about it. Then denial set in. I told myself it was a wrong number and the proof was that she said “Baby” and not his name, so it could be a wrong number.

The day went by a little faster for me. I was not ready to see my husband and by the time he got home I still didn’t know what to tell him, so I said nothing. He kissed me on my cheek and asked about my day. After that I was sure it was a wrong number, so I decided to forget about it.

*****

Tell us: Tell us: What would you do in this situation? Would you confront him or let it go?