The week seemed to drag on-and-on, not to mention how Zanele was breathing down my neck about me going out with Keitumetse. “How well do you even know her?” she asked me.

“I don’t. That’s the purpose of a date, to get to know each other,” I responded, shrugging. I was eating my disco pops, popularly known at the township as “di skopas”.

“I don’t like her,” Zanele said, frowning and sipping her can of coke.

“You don’t have to like her, baby. I do,” I responded, laughing.

“I’m just looking out for you here,” Zanele argued.

“Or you’re just jealous,” I responded, smirking.

“Wipe that smug smile off your face. Why would I be jealous?” she asked, lowering her voice.

“I don’t know. Maybe you are still hung up on that ‘mistake’ that happened between us at your house on Valentine’s Day,” I whispered back.

“What? No! You were heartbroken. You had just broken up with Vuyelwa, who was so arrogant and didn’t deserve your love, by the way,” Zanele responded, defending herself. “I was trying to offer comfort, and we should not have done what we did. It meant nothing, did it?” she asked.

“I’m not the one who is jealous. So you tell me,” I responded.

“I’m not jealous!” Zanele shouted.

“Okay, okay. Look, you got a boyfriend, and I’m on the verge of getting a girl,” I responded.

“A girl? That is a woman. An experienced woman,” Zanele reminded me.

“There is nothing I have not done yet, so anything that she’s willing to teach me, I’m more than happy to learn. I am, after all, an A student,” I responded, shrugging.

“Wow! What could you possibly offer her?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I responded.

“She’ll start demanding things you can’t afford,” Zanele said.

“She told me that she would never ask me to bend over backwards for her,” I responded, smiling.

“Mxm,” Zanele said, sucking her teeth.

While we were talking, our other friends came to us in groups, and when I told them about Keitumetse, they all seemed to be proud of me. “Ah, you are the best! A sugar mama? You will be swimming in money! Did you say she has an Audi? Gone are the days of us walking under the scorching sun,” they shouted.

Only Zanele had a disapproving look in her eyes. I did not care, though. After all, she and I were never going to happen! She was too controlling and holy for me.

***

Tell us: What do you think about friends that influence their friends to get sugar-mamas and sugar-daddies just for the sake of money?