“You know who you need to ask that question? Rita and Sammy. They had a whole enemies-to-lovers thing going.”
Ivy, the new girl in their group, spun around to face Rita and Sammy, who were seated on opposite couches, a coffee table between them.
“How did y’all meet?” She breathed, excited.
Sammy smiled, running his hands through his head, pushing back his huge afro. “I would like to begin by clarifying that there was no enmity on my part. It was all love on my end.”
“Wow, baby. Is that how you want to start this?” Rita asked, leaning forward in her seat.
Ivy sat on a single chair effectively between them, head swinging from one to the other.
“Where’s the lie? I was your knight in shining armour.”
“Wow. First of all, if there was any rescuing, it was me rescuing you.”
Sammy threw his head back laughing. “So, we’re starting with alternative facts? Good to know.”
“You would have lost what’s left of your goddamned mind if you’d been stuck in that house alone for five days. You know it, and I know it. I saved your ass.”
Sammy’s eyes were soft as he nodded, his voice low, “You’re right. You saved me.” He held her gaze and blew her a kiss. “My knight in shining armour.”
She smiled at him. “You saved me, too.”
“My God! Can you just start from the top? Nobody cares about whatever this is you’re doing.” Eric, one of their friends, growled.
Sammy turned to Ivy. “He cares, he’s just pretending.”
“Okay, can you just tell me how you met?”
“Rita and I were next-door neighbours. I didn’t know it then, but she’d had the hots for me for a long time. So, this one time it was raining heavily, and she saw an opportunity. She runs to my house, drenched and looking way too hot and says in the sweetest voice you ever heard, “Can I please stay with you?” Naturally, I said yes. We’ve been together eight years, now.”
Ivy turned to Rita with a smile.
“Obviously, none of that is true,” Rita said, leaning back on the couch.
Ivy’s expressive face fell.
Rita sighed, she didn’t have the heart to keep jacking her around. “Sammy and I were neighbours, that part is true. He was those annoying neighbours who start playing guitar at 35 and they suck at it and so it’s just noise. The worst noise.”
“Sweetheart!” he exclaimed, his hand over his heart.
“Hey, you’re good at a lot of things. A lot,” she winked at him. “Just not guitar.”
“Okay,” he said with a shrug, a smile on his lips.
“It was the rainy season. It had been raining on and off for days. That night, it was bad, this tree just came down on the roof, shattered the window, and I was alone. I was living with my sister then, but she was gone that day. I called the only neighbour I knew, and she was out too. So, I’m stuck in this house where it’s raining inside, my only companion is a tree, and I’m in the dark cause I had to switch off the lights. The only neighbour I know who is around is Mr. Guitar over there,” she points at him with a disappointed shake of her head. “Let’s just say I learnt my lesson. I make friends with my neighbours now.”
“That’s where I came in,” Sammy picked up, his voice dripping with excitement. “She runs to my door, soaking wet and like I said looking so hot. I swear you’ve never seen somebody that beautiful.”
Rita turned to Ivy, “I looked like a drowned cat.”
“You looked beautiful.” He countered, his voice low, firm.
She rolled her eyes playfully. “Fine, I looked beautiful.”
“You do.” He said with a wink.
Ivy’s chest constricted with desire. She wanted what they had.
“Like the gentleman I am, I let her in, get a room ready for her, all of that. In response, she barricades herself in the room. And I mean barricade. Like she locks the door and pushes the dresser in front of it.”
“That was just common sense.”
Ivy agreed with a nod. “I agree.”
Rita turned to Ivy. “Do you know what he said to me the following morning?”
Day 2: 7th June 2025
Ivy shook her head.
“He says, ‘you can relax, you know 70% of the time women are killed by intimate partners and we’re not that.’”
Ivy’s jaw dropped.
Rita nodded, supporting Ivy’s shocked look.
“First of all, it was late afternoon. You stayed barricaded all day. Second, I was just trying to calm her down.”
“By talking about men murdering women?” Ivy threw back.
“By showing her the odds were in her favour.” He answered, enunciating each word.
Ivy shook her head, rejecting his argument.
“Yeah, my thoughts exactly,” Rita said. “Anyway, he made me breakfast, and so I forgave him.”
“Please,” he contested. “You only began to thaw after I’d spent the entire afternoon trying to cover up the broken window.”
“Ah, men, I forgot about that,” she said, a warm smile and faraway look on her face. “So, he spends the entire afternoon trying to find a fundi willing to come immediately. As soon as he gets one, we find out the main road was carried away, and so the fundi can’t come anyway.”
She laughed softly, then looked up and held his gaze. “Anyway, Sammy takes like the two tools he has and we go to my place and he tries to put plastic on the window.”
“I succeeded, why are you saying tried, like I couldn’t affix plastic paper to a window?”
Rita turned to Ivy, “After much effort, he succeeded in affixing plastic paper to the big hole that used to be a window.”
“Ivy, Ivy,” Sammy called urgently.
She turned to him, a wry smile on her face.
“It only took time because it was still raining, and so the tape wouldn’t stick.” Sammy protested.
Ivy laughed. “Okay.” She turned to Rita. “So, then what happened?”
“I couldn’t stay there because no electricity, plus, dripping roof.” She shook her head. “I was so sad, there was water everywhere, my couch was soaked. It was a mess.”
She sighed. “We walk back to Sammy’s in silence. All I want is to be alone. He’s trying to distract me with silly jokes and conversation, but I’m just like, stop.”
“Silly jokes? That was some of my best work.”
“Ouch… that’s sad.” Eric chimed in.
Sammy narrows his eyes at Eric.
“He was trying so hard,” Rita added.
“Because I was raised well, thank you very much.”
“Dude,” Eric says, looking embarrassed on Sammy’s behalf.
Sammy rolls his eyes at him. “Anyway, we get to the house, she barricades herself again. But this time, I know what works. Breakfast had significantly improved her disposition. So, I make her my favourite comfort food pasta, with chicken and more cheese than should be legal.”
“Let’s just say food is the way to my heart.”
“Yeah, let’s just say that,” Sammy added, his emphasis on just carrying suggestive undertones.
Eric scoffed.
“We spent the next four days with him trying to fatten and cheer me up.”
“It worked. You moved from crying about your house and barricading yourself in the room to laughing and looking at me like you wanted some of this.” He licked his lips and suggestively moved his hips.
Rita turned to Ivy. “It was the food and the comedies, not whatever that is he just did.”
Ivy laughed.
“Anyway, on the fifth day or something like that, the road was fixed and the contractor came and did his thing.”
“And then Sammy stayed to help me clean the house,” Rita said, that soft look back on her face.
Sammy smiled, holding her gaze. “Turns out the cheat sheet is cooking, cleaning and making her laugh.”
“He asked me out when we were done, and I couldn’t say no.”
“Oh, come on, the yes was out of your mouth before I even finished asking.”
“He’s lying. I was very demure.”
“Until that first kiss.”
She nodded, smiling. “It was a great kiss.”
He smiled, the memory of her soft lips warming him. “Eight years of great kisses.”
“Woah, eight years. That’s long.” Ivy exclaimed. “Is it hard to keep things good?”
Sammy turned serious, meeting Rita’s gaze. “I wouldn’t say hard. I just make sure I remember what does it for Rita, and it’s what worked that first week. Cook, clean, laugh and keep the kisses coming. What do you say, baby?”
“It doesn’t even feel long, like eight years long.” Rita blew out a breath. “It feels like it’s going too fast. Like, I want to slow things down. So no, it’s not been hard.”
She held his gaze, and for a minute, it felt like it was just the two of them and their love suffusing everything in the room.
“Okay, who’s following that?” Ivy asked, clearing her throat as she looked away from them.
The room erupted in laughter, protest and general chaos as people moved about serving snacks and just being noisy.
“I love you,” he mouthed with a smile.
She closed her eyes, resting in the love engulfing her like a warm hug. I love you, too, her heart sang.
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