MY EX'S NEW BOSS

I had written his name in my graduation speech. That was my first mistake. The hall was full. My mother was crying in the front row. My law degree was heavy in my hands — c*m Laude. Four years of sleepless nights, of praying, of believing that love would wait for me. Peter was supposed to be waiting outside with flowers. He was not outside. He was inside, sitting two rows behind my mother, holding another woman's hand. "Grace Mokoena, Bachelor of Laws, c*m Laude!" Everyone stood up and clapped. I searched for Peter's eyes. He didn't clap. Lindiwe — my roommate, my best friend — was the one clapping the loudest. She was wearing the dress I had lent her for interviews. I walked off that stage smiling like a fool. After the ceremony, I found him near the parking lot. I was sweating with my gown sticking to my back. "Peter! You came! Where are the flowers you promised?" He didn't smile. He looked at me like I was a stranger. "We need to talk, Grace." Lindiwe appeared from behind his car. Holding his car keys. His car keys. "Grace, please. Don't make this harder," Lindiwe said, not even looking guilty. My stomach dropped. "Make what harder?" Peter sighed, like I was a job interview he was tired of failing. "Look, you graduated. Congratulations. But... what's next? Huh? You've applied for 187 jobs. No firm wants you. My mother asked me last night what my girlfriend does, and I had nothing to say. Nothing." The air left my lungs. "What?" "I can't build my future with potential, Grace. I need a woman who has already arrived. Lindiwe just got retained at Smith Attorneys. She has a car. An apartment. She is... she is building." Lindiwe put her hand on his chest. My person's chest. "I told him not to do it like this," she whispered. "But you have to understand, Grace. You have no character for this world. You are too soft. Too emotional. Too... churchy. Men like Peter need a woman with strategy." I laughed. A crazy, broken laugh. "Strategy? I tutored you! I wrote your CV! That job at Smith Attorneys — that was MY application, you got the job because you used my research!" Lindiwe rolled her eyes. "And look where your goodness got you. No job. No man. No future." Peter looked away. He couldn't even look at me. "I'm sorry, Grace. You will always be... the character I will never forget. But I can't be stuck remembering you while life moves on." He got into the car. HIS car. The car I prayed for with him. Lindiwe got into the passenger seat. My seat. And they drove off. Leaving me in my graduation gown, with a degree that meant nothing, in a parking lot full of people taking happy pictures. My mother found me ten minutes later, still standing there. "Where is Peter, my child?" I couldn't speak. The tears finally came, hot and humiliating. And then my phone buzzed. An email. From Smith Attorneys. _Dear Miss Mokoena, Thank you for your application. After careful consideration... we regret to inform you..._ They had rejected me again. And they had kept her. I wiped my tears with my graduation sleeve and made a vow right there, in that parking lot, while everyone else celebrated. One day, Peter Khumalo would walk into a boardroom and beg for my signature. One day, he would understand that he didn't just dump a broke graduate. He dumped a woman who was about to become unforgettable.