Not A Phase

CHAPTER 15

A soft knock wakes me up from my short sleep. Luckily I hadn’t fallen into deep sleep, otherwise I wouldn’t have heard my midnight guest. I frown. Who could be at my door at this time of the night? I get up from the bed, switching on my side lamp, and put on my fur robe and then head to the door.

“Who is it?” I question because I don’t wanna be opening my door to a thug.
“Babe, it’s me.” I hear Asante’s voice and I chuckle unbelievably. What the fuck is she doing here at this hour?
“What do you want?” she laughs softly.

“I am freezing. Please open for me.”
“If you hadn’t left the comfort of your bed, you wouldn’t be freezing.”
She grunts. “Thingo.” I chuckle and open the door.
“How did you even get through the gate?”
“I should be asking you that question. You’re the one who put a spell on Me.” she cups my face and roughly kisses me. Her hands are freezing. In fact her whole body is cold.
“You’re so cold.”

“Thanks to you.” I roll my eyes. I take her hand and lead her to my bedroom. I climb inside my comfy blankets and look at her.
“Are you coming in?” she laughs softly before undressing and getting in beside me. Fuck, she is cold. She wraps her arms around me and bring me closer to her. “Why are you here?”
“I couldn’t sleep alone in this cold weather. Instead of opening an electric heater which might burn me during the night, I figured going to my woman is a much safer option.” I giggle.

“I am glad I am your human heater, not some other bitch.”
She chuckles. “You’re jealous.”
“Of course I am. But I think I am much better than you.” she rolls her eyes.
“Relevance for your statement?” I crack up because I know how jealous she can get.
“How was your day with Lisa?” she smiles.

“It was everything I couldn’t have imagined. At first I was shit scared. I didn’t know what I was going to do, where was I going to start or what to even say. I called one of my friends, Bulo, and asked for advice because she has a niece. Most of the things we did came from Bulo.”
“She is wise, then.” I comment.
“And a butch who is married, so you have nothing to be jealous of.” I roll my eyes. “I know you were thinking about it.”

I chuckle. “Whatever.” I pout and she perks my lips. “I remember my first time seeing you at Page Heaven. I became your admirer and a stalker of some sort.” She snorts. “Don’t laugh. I could actually judge your mood according to your dress code on that particular day. You had that thing that made everyone turn and look at you when passing. I don’t even wanna talk about your cologne. That one can wake up the dead.” She tries to control her laughter and I just chuckle.

“And what about the day you actually made conversation with me? What can you say about my mood that day?”
“You were not in the mood but I guess seeing my beautiful face brightened your day.” she laughs.
“You are correct. Tell me about my dress code though.”

“All black is not a thing for you. You only wear it when you are in a somber mood. And then you have that white and yellow shirt which you always wear with your white chino pants. That outfit means you’re over the moon or someone or something just made your day. Then you have the blue suit, I don’t wanna put this the wrong way but when you’re wearing it, I know you’re horny because you go for the most erotic books in the store.”

Her eyes pop out before trying to laugh quietly. “You sure know how to read a person, my love.” I smile. “Now let’s sleep. I don’t want you being late for work because of me. And don’t worry I won’t sneak out of bed. I will notify you when I leave. I don’t wanna freak out my new friend.” I smile at her. We share a passionate kiss before I snuggle into her arms and inhale her scent before drifting to dreamland. Imagine your partner jumping over your locked gate just to cuddle with you. Fortunately my fence is not electric or else this gesture wouldn’t have been romantic.
…

“Dad’s birthday party is in two weeks. I think that would be the perfect time to tell everyone about Asante. Of course you would have to wait until all the guests are gone before blurting out these news because that’s the only way to come out.” Ndoni’s forever cheerful voice states over the phone and I scoff.

“I am not saying Asante is going to dump me anytime soon or what, but we haven’t even been dating for a month. I should wait and see if this thing turns to be serious.”

She huffs. “You have already broken rules for this woman. You introduced her to you kid. Be it unofficial or whatever, she knows your child and that changes everything. She sounds like she has pure intentions. I have lesbian friends and they always tell me, once you go pussy you never go dick again, unless you’re someone who doesn’t know what they want in life.”

I sigh. “How do I just come out to my family? ‘Ow hey, by the way I am gay now and I am dating this woman called Asante.’ What do you think mom is going to say?  ‘Congratulations my baby. When are we meeting her?’ what about dad? This is a fuckin disaster.”
“What if Asante wants to take things to another level? Like the serious marriage level? What are you going to do then?”

“Urg, I don’t know.”
“Better deal with this now before it gets out of hand. This woman is not ashamed of you. She has posted you on her social media and she is an influencer. You don’t want these news reaching our family like this. It’s better if they hear from the horse’s mouth.”
I swallow hard. “Can you tell them for me?”

She laughs. “Only because I love drama. Anyways I am getting married. I will tell you about it when I get home.” I frown.
“What? Getting married to who?”
“I will tell you about it when I get home.” She repeats her statement before her line goes dead. This child. How does she drop such a bomb from me and then hang up on me? She is a special case, there is no other explanation.

“Rainbow, there are customers at the counter.” Daph informs me.
“Thanks, Daph.” I head to the counter to see these 2 beautiful ladies on the other side of the counter. “Good evening. I am Thingo and Welcome to Page Heaven. How can I assist you today?”
“I am Nomcebo Myeni and this is my friend, Thandeka Zuke. We have business to discuss with the manager but we didn’t make an appointment. Is it possible to see her?” I smile.
“Yes, it’s possible. How about you order something first and then I will go call Daph while you wait for your order?” the other lady nods.

“I will have a cappuccino and two bran muffins please.” She states before heading to a vacant table.
“I will have a guava juice and one vanilla muffin.” Nomcebo states and I nod, typing in her order.
“Coming right up.” she smiles before heading to join her friend. After finishing up her order on the computer, I head to Daph’s office.

She looks up. “What’s up?”
“Some author ladies are at the front and they wanna talk to you.”
“How do you know they are author ladies?”
I chuckle. “Thandeka Zuke? Does the name ring a bell?”
“The author of Unpaid Blood Debt? I do know her. I have read her book and it’s so intriguing. Let me go and see what she needs.”

She stands up with a smile and she is the first one to leave the office. Whatever Thandeka is here to talk about, I am sure Daph is going to persuade her into launching her book here because she loves launches, actually she loves planning them and then seeing everything come together. We have had like a hundred book launches here ever since I started working. I go back to the counter and help the customers in line. I catch a glimpse of Daph laughing with the author ladies. You can see that she is in her element and she is actually wooing them in.