Chapter 4
eel collapsed on his bed. This was not him. He didn’t know what the hell was going on. He’d thought Kaavi was going to die. He loved this woman. He couldn’t turn that off, but he’d brought on a panic attack. Is that why she’d left him? He stressed her out?
His cellphone rang.
‘Hey.’
‘Hey. I have so many questions. Firstly, a youth empowerment programme? Sari told me about it. What do you have planned?’
‘It was just me being a selfish idiot,’ he replied to his sister.
‘Idiot, I agree with. Selfish? Never. You’re too selfless. That’s why you get yourself into these situations,’ she countered.
‘I sent the divorce papers to her,’ said Neel.
He heard his sister sigh on the other end of the line.
‘And she’ll sign them?’
‘Yes. She didn’t want me then and she doesn’t want me now,’ he said flatly.
‘Neel, you always knew this was going to happen and that you’d eventually have to divorce her. Don’t do this to yourself. She broke you once before. Don’t let her do it now. You deserve happiness,’ Natara said encouragingly. She sounded concerned.
Neel swallowed the lump in his throat.
‘It’s not that easy, Nats,’ he admitted.
‘I know, Neel. I feel it. I’m your twin, remember?’
‘And a pain in the butt,’ he said.
Natara chuckled.
‘So you’re coming back home then?’
‘As soon as she signs the papers, I’ll be on the next flight,’ he said wearily.
He spoke to Natara for a few more minutes.
After the call, he got into full work mode. The gruff CEO was back.
She didn’t sign them. The papers had sat on Sen’s hallway table for the last two days.
She didn’t know why she wasn’t signing them.
The instructions were to sign the papers and leave them at the hotel reception.
It was Friday afternoon and she was restless. She cleaned the apartment, scrolled social media, watched her soapie without paying any attention to it, and baked scones that came out hard as rocks.
She pretended that the whole thing with Neel wasn’t what was getting to her.
But the more she pretended, the more restless she became.
She was running out of baking ingredients so she couldn’t afford to try another recipe just to get her mind off the man she loved deeply, desired desperately and wanted out of her life at the same time. She had to tell someone!
But who? Shona was away on honeymoon and it wasn’t like she could actually tell her.
She would never put Shona in the position of keeping a secret from Sen.
Kaavi’s shoulders dropped and she sighed heavily.
Who was she kidding? She didn’t have any friends.
She’d left her real friends behind when she fled Johannesburg at the age of 18.
After that, she hadn’t made any friends because her industry was cutthroat.
Everyone was on a ladder to the top and no one gave a damn about shoving someone off to get ahead.
Her first real lesson had come when she signed with the first modelling agency she came across after landing in London.
Sen, who’d accompanied her, was completely against it, but he eventually gave in.
The agency’s name, ‘Leggy Lasses’, should have put her off, but she was so desperate to be seen and self-sufficient that she’d looked beyond it.
There she met Misha. Misha was from Durban and, just like Kaavi, was looking for her big break in a new country. Kaavi thought that Misha was her friend. Her angelic face and syrupy sweet voice could sell any brand and convince even the most sceptical person that she was genuine.
‘We’re in this together,’ she’d tell Kaavi. And Kaavi lapped it up.
What she didn’t know was that Misha Ramnarain was a venomous snake disguised as a beautiful 19-year-old.
Misha showed her true colours when the agency’s owner announced an audition to model for a new up-and-coming designer.
She lied to the agency’s owner, saying that Kaavi was starting a rebellion, inciting other models to speak up about working conditions.
The owner didn’t even give her a chance to defend herself.
He kicked her out. By then, Sen had returned to South Africa and she had to get back on her feet – alone.
She then signed up with YZL Models, a decision that changed her life.
She became a supermodel because Bertie and his wife, Romy, believed in her.
They insisted that all their models should have a Plan B.
Hers? She studied online for her communications degree.
She had it all, except friends. Then, Bertie and Romy closed shop and moved to Spain.
Kaavi got an agent, but he was hardly her friend.
Her friends in Rally were really her cousin’s friends.
They never made her feel left out or like she was just tagging along, but she knew that without Sen’s introduction Anni, Sam and even Sven would not have been her friends.
Still, she needed someone to spill her secret to.
She was so desperate that for a millisecond she even considered her grandfather’s housekeeper, Aunty Morgie.
She reluctantly typed a message to Anni, asking if she could meet for drinks later.
Within minutes, Anni replied. There was no backing out.
She would meet Anni at Riya’s Lounge and tell her everything.
If Anni judged her, so be it. But this secret was crushing her and Sen’s oven would not survive another round of stress baking if she didn’t tell someone.
At around 7 pm, when Kaavi walked into Riya’s Lounge, she was calmer than she had been earlier. It wasn’t because she’d had some epiphany or wised up; she’d drunk two glasses of red wine. If she were being honest with herself, she’d admit it was more like three.
She spotted Anni in a booth facing away from the bar. Kaavi waved to Gavin Meyer as she went to join her. She also smiled at Riya, but the owner looked the other way. Kaavi shook her head. When she tapped Anni’s shoulder, her friend turned sharply and jumped up.
‘Yay. You’re here,’ she hugged her and squeezed extra tight.
‘You’re squishing me,’ Kaavi mumbled.
‘Sorry. I hate it here,’ Anni said, letting go of her.
She sat down and Kaavi followed suit opposite her.
‘Sam said we must support Gavin but he’s supposed to be a silent partner, so what is he even doing here? The service sucks and Riya is the worst,’ Anni continued.
‘I’m married,’ Kaavi blurted out.
Anni blinked, then shook her head, smiling.
‘Kaavi, that’s not how wedding fever works. I know we’re all still high on the wedding, but you couldn’t have got married overnight. I think you mean you want to get married,’ Anni replied.
Kaavi grabbed Anni’s hand before reaching for the wine list.
‘No, Anni. I am married. I’ve been married for almost three years.’
Anni pulled her hand out of her grasp, reached out and brushed a few strands of hair off Kaavi’s face and looked closely at her.
‘You’re serious. You are!’
Kaavi nodded slowly.
‘But how? What? I don’t understand,’ Anni said, looking around. ‘I wish I had a drink in my hand, but God forbid we find a waiter here.’
Kaavi opened her bag and pulled out a mini bottle of vodka mixed with cranberry juice.
‘This is so unlike me, but I figured you’d need this because this is the only bar in town, or possibly the world, where a drink is hard to come by.’ At that moment, a waiter breezed past, completely ignoring them.
Anni grabbed the bottle, opened it hastily and swigged back the contents. She shoved the empty bottle in her handbag.
‘Talk now.’
‘You can’t tell anyone.’
‘You’re my friend too. Of course I won’t babble your secrets to anyone.’
Kaavi squinted her eyes to try to make out the two figures sitting at the bar. Right now, she really wished she hadn’t drunk those glasses of wine.
She turned her attention back to Anni.
‘I got married to this guy in Jo’burg. We were married for a couple of months and it ended.’
‘He cheated?’
‘No.’
‘He hurt you? Kaavi, I swear to God if he hurt you—’
‘Calm down Anni. He didn’t hurt me. It wasn’t anything like that. I left him.’
‘What was wrong with him?’
‘Nothing.’
Anni pulled out the bottle from her handbag and read the label. ‘There’s so little alcohol in this that it can’t be the drink, but I have no idea what you’re saying.’
Kaavi leaned forward across the table, grabbed the bottle from her and shoved it in her own handbag.
‘Listen, there was nothing wrong with him. Focus. Did you hear what I said? I am married. I am still married to him,’ she said.
‘And?’
‘He is walking towards us … with your husband.’
Anni’s head snapped around so fast that it was surprising it was still attached to her body.
‘Oh,’ she said softly.
Neel and Sam were now standing in front of them. Sam carried two Cosmopolitan cocktails, which he placed on the table. Then Neel passed him his beer, keeping another bottle for himself.
‘Hey, Kaavi. So good to see you,’ Sam said, ruffling her hair. ‘I hope you two don’t mind that my friend Neel Naran is joining us.’
Anni was shell-shocked. She just nodded.
Kaavi, a little tipsy, gave a thumbs up. Neel raised an eyebrow but slid into the booth next to her.
‘Hello,’ he said, more to Anni than to her.
Anni scooted further into the booth and Sam moved in next to her.
‘Neel, this is my wife Anni and next to you is our dear friend Kaavi.’
Neel nodded. Anni still didn’t say anything. She just took a big sip of her drink.
‘Neel and I go way back. We met a couple of times a year for interschool cricket. Those were the best days of our lives, right Neel?’
‘The best. But I always preferred it when your team came to Jo’burg than us coming to the Midlands,’ he replied.
Sam sipped his beer, nodding.
‘I still can’t believe you hated cricket,’ Neel continued.
Kaavi shifted in her seat. Neel was pretending that she was no one to him, going on about damn cricket when she was having a mini heart attack.
‘I only hated it because my best friend was on the rugby team and sucked at cricket. Hey, did you marry that girl who was always cheering for you at every game?’