FOUND HIM WITH MY SISTER

CHAPTER 2:THE NEW JOB

*CHAPTER 2

Monday morning, 6am. I woke up. My eyes were still swollen from crying. Lindiwe did not sleep at home. Sipho sent 15 messages: "Please, Nandi, it was a mistake, I was drunk."

Mistake? Drunk? In the middle of the day?

I blocked him.

I ironed my only good white shirt. The one I bought for interviews. My mother looked at me, "Nandi, where are you going looking so beautiful?"

"New job, Mama," I said.

The hotel was called The Khumalo Grand Hotel. On the beachfront. So big, so beautiful, I was scared to enter. The security guard asked, "Are you a guest?"

"No, I am the new receptionist."

Inside, everything smelled like expensive perfume. The floor was so shiny I could see my face.

Then I saw him.

A tall man in a black suit. Light skin, beard trimmed perfectly. He was talking to the manager, but his eyes... his eyes looked at me. Straight at me.

"You must be Nandi," he said. His voice was deep and calm. "I am Liam. Liam Khumalo. This is my hotel."

My knees were shaking. "Yes, sir."

"Don't call me, sir. Call me Liam," he smiled. "You are very beautiful, Nandi. But I hired you because my friend said you are hardworking. Don't disappoint me."

"I won't, sir... I mean Liam."

That whole day, I tried to learn the computer. Check-in, check-out. I made mistakes. But Liam was patient. He came to the reception 3 times. "Are you okay? Do you need water?"

No man ever asked me if I needed water.

At 5 p.m., when I was about to leave, a cleaner woman was struggling with two heavy buckets of water. Everyone walked past her.

I ran and helped her.

"Thank you, my child," she said.

I didn't know Liam was watching from upstairs. Watching me help that woman. I'm watching my heart.

And that was the moment he fell for me.

But Sipho was not finished with me yet. He was waiting for me outside the hotel gate.

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