Tamara’s boyfriend came, on time as usual, to pick her up. Gawd, weren’t these people affected by the laws of traffic? He sauntered in and asked for “Tammy”. Thabisa almost wanted to say they didn’t have such a person working there but before she could have her little joke, Tamara came back from the bathroom.

“Hey Jay-Jay,” Tamara greeted him with glee. Jay didn’t speak, he just swooped her off her feet by her tiny waist. Then he kissed her, if you could call it that. It seemed forced and painful, Thabisa thought. Tamara grabbed her bag and they were out of the door, Jay sauntering and Tamara giggling.

Thabisa wanted to work late tonight. She needed to reach target and secure some money for the driving lessons. Or else she’d have to ‘chat’ to Tina again and ask for an extension. No. No more humiliation, she thought to herself as she picked up the phone to dial a few more clients.

At five thirty her phone beeped. It was a WhatsApp text from Jasmine, her only friend.

Dinner at Neighbourhood after work. My treat 🙂

Suddenly her stomach roared, sharing its excitement at the prospect food other than noodles: real food. She texted back:

Be there in 30. Xx

She had done enough for the day. Thabisa packed up her stuff and locked the office. She walked to the station to catch a train into Cape Town central.

Twenty minutes later she spotted Jasmine in Neighbourhood, their favourite hangout spot. Jasmine was not in her British Airways uniform. She always changed it when she was going out; it was against regulations to wear it at such places in case one misbehaved and put the company’s name in disrepute.

“Hey doll,” Jasmine greeted, getting up to hug Thabisa. “Why the long face?” she said as she pulled away.

“Ag, you know, only that the world is run by people with a brain the size of a pea,” said Thabisa, hanging her jacket on the chair back.

“And I thought it was run by a ‘thirty-year-old, self-centred idiot, who doesn’t want to come out the closet’,” Jasmine laughed, using one of Thabisa’s lines of frustration about her boss. “You know what you need?”

“A margarita?” Thabisa said, smiling. Everything was solved by a margarita, as far as Jasmine was concerned. No problems were too big for a margarita.

She ordered two and looked at her friend from across the table.

“Now, tell me what’s wrong,” Jasmine said, looking over the rim of her cocktail glass at Thabisa.

Thabisa told her the dilemma, what Ntando said and how this could change everything for her.

“And all you have to do is beat little Miss Barbie to it,” Jasmine said. “You could do that in your sleep.”

“Jazz, she’s up to something. I don’t know what but I can feel it,” Thabisa said gulping on her drink. In the real world you could never base something on just a gut feel. They’ll call you crazy. But her gut had been unsettled since she walked in on that phone call at lunch. She told Jasmine what she had heard.

“Look, she probably just saw you and was pretending to be on a call, to mess you up,” Jasmine laughed, just as a cute waiter was passing by. She looked at Thabisa and mouthed, “Who’s he?”

They hadn’t seen him before so he definitely must be new.

“You need another drink and one of those to go,” Jasmine said, winking at Thabisa. Thabisa turned and her eyes landed on the waiter’s. He smiled. He was gorgeous. Thabisa turned back quickly and covered her face with her hands. How embarrassing! Now the guy knew they were talking about him.

“Don’t worry, he probably gets it a lot,” Jasmine said, raising her hand to call him over.

Thabisa had to run. She got up and bolted for the bathroom, leaving Jasmine to order. When she returned to the table, there were two more drinks and menus.

“We need to eat – eye candy won’t keep us alive,” Jasmine said, shoving a menu to Thabisa across the table.

All the food sounded amazing. But Thabisa didn’t want to order anything that she may not like – not on her only day of free food. She settled for a burger instead. Jasmine ordered a salad with smoked salmon.

“So, how have you been?” Thabisa asked, fanning the attention away from herself and her troubles, which, incidentally, seemed to be floating further away with each sip of her drink.

“Oh I’m good, can’t complain,” Jasmine said, looking away into the crowd down Long Street. They were sitting on the balcony, basking in the sunset.

“How is … Will? No, no Warren, I mean…” Thabisa said, struggling to remember the name of Jasmine’s last or current flame. It was hard keeping up with Jasmine’s love life. The ground attendant had dreams of becoming an air hostess and travelling the world. She believed that her ‘better half’ was out there, ready to board a plane she was working on, so they would meet, fall in love, and live happily ever after. But she just wasn’t that lucky – yet.

“Wayne. He’s fine.”

Their food arrived and Thabisa dived right in, not sparing a moment for conversation.

“Slow down! You’ll choke,” Jasmine said.

After dinner they had last rounds. Thabisa was feeling a bit lighter and better about her situation. It hadn’t improved one bit, but her mood about it had. When they were done Jasmine settled the bill and they walked to the train station.

“I’ll give you the money for your lessons and learner’s,” Jasmine said as they were approaching Thabisa’s station.

“What?”

“I’ll give you the money to do your license. When you’re sorted you can always pay me back.”

Thabisa didn’t know what to say. Jasmine was a truly good friend. She smiled her thank you and hugged her goodbye.

She had just enough energy to take off her work clothes and put herself under the covers. She pictured herself holding her license and smiling broadly and she drifted off to a sound sleep.

* * *

Tell us: Who do you think will get the job? Why? Why not?