“So you’re telling me that Xavier is X-man and you spent the entire day with him and didn’t realise it?”

“I know it’s crazy! I still don’t believe it myself.”

“And now what?”

“Well, we had a great day and he gave me a present.” I reached into my bag and pulled out two tickets and handed them to Karabo.

“Tickets? To the concert?” She looked them over. “No ways! Are these VIP? Are we going to be backstage with him?”

I nodded my head. “Why not? Didn’t I give him the A-1 tour of Cape Town and didn’t you serve him the best chicken livers south of the equator?”

Karabo grabbed my hands and we jumped up and down together in the middle of Go Monate, screaming like mad women.

*****

Not only had Xavier given us VIP tickets, he insisted that he collect us.

“I hope this X-man character will not be drinking and driving,” Mmakola said.

“I doubt he himself is collecting us. He’ll be busy getting ready for the show. He’ll send a taxi,” I said.

“I’ve heard about those VIP rooms. All drugs and girls half naked,” Mmakola said.

“Xavier’s not like that.”

“What do you even know about him? You spent one day with him during which he lied about who he was. Who knows? He might be lying about a lot of things. Maybe he’s married.”

“Married? I don’t think so. Why do you always have to be so negative? This is a good thing. It’s going to be fine.”

“We’ll see.” Mmakola pulled the curtain aside to see if the taxi had arrived. “Oh, lord, now what is that?”

Karabo pushed in next to Mmakola to see. “Oh my god! Is that for us?”

Outside was a long, white limousine. I watched as the suited driver got out of the car and walked up to our house. There was a knock at the door and all of us just stood where we were and looked at each other, shocked.

There was another knock and Mmakola broke out of her trance and said, “I’ll get it.” She opened the door. “Can I help you?”

“I’m here to collect Ms Peleka and Ms Matlapeng.”

“That’s us!” Karabo shouted, while pushing past him and running out to the car. “Can you believe this Lily? You and me – in this? It’s like I died and went to heaven. Serious. Dead. In heaven.”

We climbed inside and waved back at a still-stunned Mmakola as we drove away.

“Champagne, chocolate truffles … and prawns! This is the life!” Karabo leaned back in her seat drinking the champagne and eating prawns. Prawns were her favourite and she dug in enthusiastically.

I wondered if this was the normal life Xavier lived. He probably thought my stupid tour the day before was a joke. I felt embarrassed about how proud I’d been of it.

At the Convention Centre, the driver took us through a door at the back. We passed the long queues of people at the front, the queues we had once hoped to be part of. A security guard let us pass and we walked along a carpeted passage to a room at the end.

The driver knocked on the door and when it opened there was Xavier, except different: Xavier as X-man. It took me a moment to adjust. He wore his long, black leather jacket, leather pants, red combat boots. His glasses were gone. Someone had applied eyeliner.

“You’re here; good.” Xavier hugged me and shook Karabo’s hand. “I’m so glad you could come. You’ve made my night.”

It was a bit like a glorified sitting room. There were sofas and tables with food and drinks. I expected a crowd of people, but there were only a handful. I recognised TT, who I knew now was Xavier’s manager. The three men sitting together in the corner were his band members and the women listening to what was being said were the back-up singers. Otherwise that was it, except for the people coming in and out replacing food trays or giving messages to TT. No drugs. No naked women.

“Come have a drink. Let’s sit a bit; I have about ten minutes before we need to be on stage. I got you seats right at the front,” Xavier said.

“So thanks for the lift. Wow,” Karabo said, “that was amazing.”

“Did you like it?”

“Sure. You always move around like that?” Karabo asked.

Xavier laughed. “No, I like to keep my X-man life separate from my real, Xavier life.”

I liked that idea. I suspected all of this could get out of hand. But still, the fact that he could have all of this whenever he wanted made his life already miles different from mine. Maybe too different.

Karabo went for more prawns and I wondered if it was possible to poison yourself with prawns; if so, I was sure Karabo was near the limit.

Xavier sat down next to me. “You’re very quiet. I hope all this is not putting you off. Yesterday was great, one of my best days ever. It’s all I’ve been thinking about.”

“Really? After seeing all this, I was feeling kind of stupid.”

“Stupid? Why? Don’t. Please, don’t. I was wrong to have kept the truth from you for so long. I just get so tired of this sometimes.”

TT came over to where we were sitting. “Hi, I don’t believe we’ve met.” He held out his hand to me but he already seemed uninterested in what I was going to say. I said it anyway.

“I’m Lily Peleka.”

“Oh yes, OK, the takeaway girl.” He said it with a certain sneer in his voice, as if the words were dirty.

“Yes, the takeaway girl,” I said. It was not something I was ashamed of; I didn’t care what he thought.

“Come on Xavier, time to get the show going,” he said.

Xavier got up to follow him and then came back to me. He bent down and whispered in my ear, “I’ll be watching you from the stage. I’ll be thinking about you.”

He looked back and smiled at me at the door.

“What did he whisper to you?” Karabo asked.

“Nothing.” Though the truth was – everything.

***

Tell us: How would you feel about all this if you were Lily?