A Woman To Love

Chapter Five (continued)

Everything became a blur for Maureen after that. She heard the words, saw them leaving Steve's mouth but she simply couldn't wrap her head around them.

"Is it true?" she asked Laura, her own voice sounding foreignly calm. Laura, now a weeping mess on the floor, only nodded, breaking into fresh sobs. "Does Philip know?" Laura shook her head, face hidden behind her palms, body wracking from her endless tears. Maureen, still surprised at how detached she felt from the whole situation, walked out of the house.

Even in her car, hidden from the world by the tinted glass, she couldn't bring herself to cry. She sat there for a while, waiting for the pain to cripple her, anticipating her heart to implode, her world to crumble, for her own little apocalypse. It never came.

She started her car, sighing, what was she going to do now? She decided to drive to Westlands where Philip was setting up their new restaurant. Driving haphazardly, she almost rammed into a blue Toyota Corolla.

Maureen remembered the day her dad walked back home six years after he had eloped with his gacungwa. How her mother had welcomed him home with open arms like nothing had happened. How, weighed down by guilt and gratitude, he had become a more sensitive husband, loving and diligent in his attentions to her mother. He had over compensated as a father also, become less harsh and more inclined to understand. Well, Maureen thought, she wasn't her mother.

The restaurant was on the first floor of Duke Mall. Philip was busy with redesigning it, an endeavour that had bled them dry financially. She was still looking for a trustworthy taxi driver to start making some extra cash off of her car. Climbing up the mall stairs, she wondered if anyone could tell that her life was unravelling. She walked into the open space meant for their restaurant. Strewn across the floor were pieces of wood, cardboard, paint brushes, nylon paper, saws, overalls, junk, the works. The workers must have left already, Philip, she figured would be in the back office.

She managed to make her way past the heaps of equipment and trash to the other side. She stood at the door for a while, surprised that Philip was blasting Tupac at work. The music was so loud she could feel the vibrations on the door handle. This was very uncharacteristic of him. She stood at the door for a while, wondering why she was here in the first place.

Torn between unleashing hysterics or being dignified, if ever there was a dignified way to confront one's husband about a love child with one's ex best friend, she took a moment to breathe. A mental heads and tails landed on faux dignified. She pushed open the door in one determined push, she wished she hadn't.

By the time Philip and his bimbo noticed her standing at the door, completely dumbfounded, she had been there for almost a minute. She had seen it, been a part of it even. The moaning, groaning, hair pulling, scratching, clinging, touching, screaming drowned out by loud gangster music... Everything in explicit detail.

"Maureen?"Philip choked out when he finally looked away from the girl long enough to notice her. He jumped, pulled up his trousers, threw the girl a dress and struggled not to pass out from consternation. The look on his face was one of total dismay, utter shame, complete shock, like a thief who had never expected to be caught. As if on cue, the radio suddenly stopped playing.

"What's going on?" asked the girl, still seated on the desk. Maureen fought the urge to lunge at her, tear that fake Brazilian off her dumb head. She wondered how much soap, water and detergent would be sufficient to sterilise, the damn desk. "Rono, you'd better go," Philip said, voice barely audible. The girl took a moment, looking between Maureen and Philip, before recognition registered over her face. She looked genuinely embarrassed, sincerely sorry about the whole situation. The innocent facade, Maureen mused, typical Philip. The girl took her things from the floor including a university students ID card and three one thousand shillings notes. She was anxious to leave but unsure with Maureen still standing on the door like a statue.