The Don's Saving Grace (GxG)✔️

6

"Did I ever tell you how Ash and I began dating?" Mrs Jones never told me their love story, always figured it was because she had lost the love she held for him but that is not true. She still had his pictures all over her house.

"You never did, how did you meet?" She places the cookies and tea on the counter and sits in front of me.

"We met in high school. He was dating my then best friend. They were toxic towards each other. He would cheat and she would take him back and there were instances where he would abuse her physically.  One day we went to a party while she decided to stay at home because she was exhausted from soccer.
We ended up kissing and one thing lead to another."

"Did he leave her for you?" She shakes her head.

"He just kept saying that he can not and I never understood why but I kept my mouth shut and told him that it meant we can not be together so when they would kiss and hold hands, I would boil in jealousy. One morning she comes up to him and tells him it is over and she went home. He came to me and told me he liked me. I told him he would have to show me because so far he has not gained my trust. He took me out on a date to his favourite spot and showed me the city. It was a small town at the time. We started dating and it was wonderful." A tear falls from her face, she wipes it away.

"You remained together all that time?" She shakes her head.

"Actually, no. We broke up after I found out the kind of people he was entangled with but I later forgave him when he explained the circumstances." She sits beside me.

"What happened to you and your former best friend?" she takes a moment to breathe and reflect. 

"When she was pregnant with her son, the announcement made the news and I sent her a box and note. She called me to thank me for the gift. We did not talk for a long time then I killed Ash and the news made it back to her. She hated him with everything in her but could not touch him because of the type of people they were affiliated with. She 'convinced' the judge that I was innocent and I was sent home. We occasionally talk and we met up a year ago on Christmas. She invited me to dinner with her, her husband and a few friends. She is as sweet and kind as I remember her even with all the money in the world."
She smiles before looking at me.

"You are friends again?" She lets out a chuckle.

"No, dear. I betrayed her by being the other woman. She extended courtesy by accepting my gift and apology. She does not owe me a friendship but she has made me feel as though it is attainable in the future so I hope until then I wish her and her family well. Tell me are you planning on going anywhere for Christmas?" I shake my head. I have nowhere to spend Christmas but at my place.

"Not this year, why?" She stands and walks to the kitchen I follow her.

"I wanted to take you with me to Krugersdorp to meet my family, would you like that?" I nod. I would love to meet her family.

"Yes. For how long would we be there?" She places a plate of cookies in my hands while she looks for something else.

"A week at most. Just to get to know them." I am worried about Mrs Jones. She thinks I can not see that she is acting as though she is an eighty-year-old in pain when she is barely forty.

"We will leave a few days before Christmas. Pack nice church clothes, they are unhealthily religious. Let me check on the food. You need feeding, this thing of yours of not cooking is not good. You need a balanced meal, not those instant packs you love. I am going to give you a bunch of recipes my mother gave to me when I started living by myself. I do not know why I did not give this to you earlier. Tell me about your week." She goes to her room. She must be fetching the recipes.

"Nothing other than school and Black beans." She comes back with a cookie tin filled with recipes written on paper. "Thank you., I say as she makes her way into the kitchen.

"What about that Kash boy?" She thinks Kash and I would make a great couple. She is rooting for us.

"We are going to an art gallery on Saturday. I will tell you all about it when I return from the date." I did not mean for the last part to sound the way it did. I instantly regret my word choice.

"So it is a date?" Not like that.

"Not really. Tomorrow is a team-building experience. I do not know what to wear." She looks bewildered.

"Dress casually but not messy like you love doing, I do not know who taught you that dressing like that is okay. Wearing a tracksuit and a shirt like it is your uniform." She bought me clothes but I just can not wear them. They fit perfectly but they are not my style.

"I will. Amari says that this year will not be like last year's disaster." She laughs.

"It was not all that bad, give the girl credit. She is running in her mother's shadow." She places my food in front of me. She always says she does not want help.

"You and her mother actually went to school at the same time, did you know her?"

"Did I know Alyone Zaitzev-Goncharov? She was my best friend. " she stole Mrs Goncharov's boyfriend?? She was her best friend??

"So how was she?" In high school I meant.

"She has always been kind, had a naughty streak but she was also intelligent." That is it?

"Is there more?"

"There always is but that is for us to know and for the world to wonder."