Dating a Gangster

Chapter Three: Superman Saves the Day

Smack! “Mama!” Exclaims Amanda as she jumps out of bed and lands on the other side. “Woah guys! Violence has never solved anything. Mamakhe give the child a chance to explain, we’re all adults here now. Haybo, what is this behavior?”, says Mr Nzwane as he interjects and raises his arms to grab Amanda’s mother. “Amanda where’s my car?” Exclaims Mrs Nzwane.

Honestly at this point I’m not sure what is going and why there’s so much noise. My head and ears are buzzing. I have the highest migraine known to humankind, let me tell you! I feel like I’m having a bile reflux and I’m about to throw up any minute from now. The smell of alcohol is just nauseating me even more. I’m not sure whether I’m the one who smells like the alcohol or maybe…maybe it’s my parents? I scan around my room and try to recollect my thoughts. What happened here?

“Amanda I’m not going to ask you again! What happened to my car? Why are you home with the car keys and the car is not here? Where’s my car Amanda, man? Yazini I’m going to beat this child!” Shouts my mom as she snatches her wig off her head. Oh no. The car is at Bars’ parking lot. Eish. This woman won’t even hear my explanation, she just wants me in flesh. My dad better hold her down otherwise I’ll have to call in sick at work to nurse my bruises.

Beep, beep! Someone hoots at our front gate. “Who’s that Amanda?” Exclaims my mom. We all walk to each side of the window to check. Wait? My moms car is being towed by a black Porsche Cayenne S Coupé with tinted windows! Now which one is this father God? The wheel that was ruptured last night looks perfectly fine today, in fact the car looks fully operational! Was I that drunk and perhaps even experienced some hallucinations last night? At this point I’m not sure if I even left the car in the parking at Bars, I really need some balancing.

“Amanda who is that man in that fancy car? Why is my car being towed by him?” Shouts my mom once more. Yho this lady needs to tone it down. I don’t have all the answers here but surprisingly I recognize the man she’s talking about. “It’s Lukhanyo Ma. I’m coming back now.” I whisper as I rush out of the bedroom to go outside. I’m praying Lukhanyo tells me what’s going on. Why is he here with my moms car so early in the morning? “Hey. You don’t look so good.” says Lukhanyo while scanning me with his eyes. “Hey. I don’t just look bad, I feel bad. Why are you here? What’s going on?” I say, while turning to look at the car behind. “I’m sorry for rocking up so abruptly. All you could talk about last night was how stressed you were about your moms car, and how it was going to be a problem for you in the morning. So I called up a couple of my guys to fix it and decided to bring it here in the nick of time.” He smiles. At this point I can’t help myself. I jump onto him and give him the biggest hug. I would kiss his bum if I could, let me tell you! Aargh he smells so good. He looks good too, I don’t know why so early in the morning. “Are you okay Mandy? What’s with all this affection?” He says in between giggles. “Dude I got woken up by two hot slaps right across my face, probably fifteen minutes before you showed up. You? You were definitely sent by the Gods. My mom was ready to whip the living daylights out of my grown self. Probably by now I’d be calling in sick at work just to nurse my bruises and myself back to health.” I go off. He laughs. “Well let me untie your moms car then and leave you to go back to the boxing ring.”, He chuckles. As he turns around, my mom walks out of the door with so much poise. “Morning. How can we help you so early in the morning my son?” says my mom smiling from ear to ear. Listen, she could win a Grammy award for this act, okay. Baby girl went from boiling hot lava with anger to sweet angel in just minutes. “Oh, uhm. Good morning mama. I’m Mandy’s friend. She got into some trouble yesterday, she had a tyre puncture which sort of resulted in the entire tyre rupturing actually. So I told her to park the car nicely and leave it there for the night. I drove her and her friend home last night. I got my friends who are mechanics to fix it as Mandy and I agreed, I’m just bringing it back now because she was stressing about you needing it for work in the morning. I hope I’m not late though.” says Luks as he gets up from untying the car.

“Oh, Amanda didn’t tell me all of this. Thank you, son. What’s your name again?” says mom as she walks up to Lukhanyo. I wonder when she expected me to tell her this half truth when she’s been slapping me around all morning. “It’s Lukhanyo Ma.”, says Luks. He shakes my moms hand. “Nice to meet you Lukhanyo. I’d offer you to join us for breakfast as a way of thanking you but we’ve had quite the dysfunctional morning today so I didn’t get around preparing breakfast as I usually do. Besides I might start getting late for work if I don’t go back inside and finish getting ready. Again thank you Lukhanyo. I’ll surely invite you next time my child.” says mom as she smiles sweetly at Lukhanyo. “It’s not a problem Ma. I also need to get going. Enjoy your day further.” He says while smiling back at my mother. I just keep looking at one person, and then the other as they have their own conversation without acknowledging my presence. My mom walks back inside and Lukhanyo turns to look at me. “Can I take you out for lunch?” He says with a smile. “Only if you don’t mind, of course.” I smile. “There’s no ways I’d allow you to still take me out for lunch. You’ve done enough Superman! I’ll take you out for lunch, definitely will need the breather. Let’s say 1pm?” I whisper in between a smile. He chuckles, “Alright then, you’ll send me your location I guess. Let me leave you to get ready for work. I also need to dash somewhere.” , says Luks. “You sort of need to take my number, you know?” I say mockingly. “Haha, no that’s not a problem at all. Check your phone, you’ll get my text without us having to exchange numbers. Still feeling affectionate enough to give me another hug?” He smiles. “Haha, you’re pushing it now.” I answer back with a smile. He walks to the drivers side of the car. “I’ll see you at 1pm then Amanda.” He opens the car and climbs in. “See you at 1 o’clock Lukhanyo. That’s if you do hunt my number down and text me.” I roll my eyes and walk back into the yard. He starts the car and drives off.

I’ve never brought a guy home even if it’s just a friend. What just happened today is a first and to top it off, this man rocks up in one of the most luxurious cars. I don’t even think my parents have been this close to a Porsche before. It’s either I get questioned about this or the atmosphere will be so thick that I have to really focus on avoiding them today. I get inside the house and my dad is enjoying a cup of coffee with a full blown English breakfast in front of him. Did my mom just lie to Lukhanyo about not preparing breakfast? Wow. Okay. I quietly walk to the kitchen to make myself a killer concoction for my hangover. “Amanda?” The deep baritone chimes. “Daddy?” I whisper, skeptically. “Get ready so I can drop you off at work. We leaving in 30 minutes.” He says. He has never offered to drop me off anywhere, why today? Oh God I’m not about to agree to the awkwardness that I’ll experience in that car ride. “No dad it’s fine. I’ll schedule an Uber to take me. I don’t want to inconvenience anyone.” I say, rather happily. “I’m not inconvenienced in any way. Get ready I will be dropping you off at work.” He says very sternly this time around. Okay. I gulp the concoction down and walk up the stairs to go take a shower. I’m not even going to bother with tidying up my room, the housekeeper will genuinely have to forgive me today. I only have thirty minutes to get myself together physically, emotionally and mentally for work. On top of that I think my mom is avoiding me. I’m not sure why, maybe she feels embarrassed for hitting me. Nonetheless I’m already past that anyway, she doesn’t even need to apologize even though I know she’d never.

“Amanda! Let’s go!” My dad shouts from downstairs. “Coming daddy!” I shout back. I grab my phone and pull the charger from the socket. I pop everything in my hand bag and carry my heels in my hand. I rush down the stairs and lock the door. My mom left whilst I was in the shower. I’m really convinced she’s avoiding me now. I climb into my dad’s car which he has already started and we drive off in silence. “You know Mandy my baby, we need to be careful when we choose a partner. Often young ladies like you these days prefer someone who is already made. Someone who is older and richer than them. I’m not saying there’s something wrong with such preferences but all I’m saying is nothing could ever beat building with a partner. Equally contributing to each other’s successes and being there from the beginning till the end. Many people don’t understand the problems that come with already made men. Especially men who are three to four tax brackets above you. They tend to feel entitled and as though they own you just because you came with way less than what they had. The moral of this is just be careful I don’t want you ending up in sticky situations like that, okay?” says Daddy as he turns to look at me for confirmation. “I hear you Dad and just to address the elephant in the room, that man is nothing but a friend. I don’t have a boyfriend and I’m not looking for one either so we both have nothing to worry about in that department, I promise you.” I say while forcing a tight smile on my face. I can’t help but feel awkward. I’ve never had a talk with my father about…you know, boyfriend’s and stuff. It’s always family stuff, work, goals, future plans and all those general things.

“Okay. I just wanted us to be clear on that. Otherwise don’t forget that we scheduled to have lunch together today at my office. You can just order an Uber there and I’ll order in some food for us.” He says. s**t! We usually have lunch together twice a month just to bond, you know, father and daughter things. But now I already promised Lukhanyo I’d take him out for lunch.

My dad parks the car outside my office. “Uhm about that, I forgot to tell you that we have a meeting during lunch today so can we reschedule it to tomorrow or Tuesday perhaps?” I whisper fearfully. I honestly hate lying. “Tuesday it is. Enjoy your day then.” He smiles at me as I climb out of the car. My phone beeps “Hey looking forward to seeing you at lunch. It’s Luks by the way.” …