47. The 7th guest

After the whole Cape Town ordeal, my manager was generous enough to allow me to work remotely for three months, which meant I would not have to deal with Walter for that time. However, despite my commitment to stay away from him, I unblocked him a month and a half later, it seemed as if he had forgotten about me because he hadn't tried to contact me, which was a bittersweet pill. This day marked one of those days where I found myself heavily reminiscing about him and regretting deleting our pictures, luckily there was that picture that went viral, at least it gave me something to look at.

As much as I planned to forget about Walter, him not contacting me sort of made me feel as if I didn't mean anything in his life. I sighed heavily fighting tears and the urge to contact him, 'I can't believe is been two months and I still get like this', I basked in my gloominess as I lay in my bed scanning through my social media hoping to see something about him, anything at that point, a sign of life.

Ever since that night of the big fight, I had not heard nor seen anything from-or-about him, I even began to think that he may have blocked me as well, 'But on what grounds?!' I thought. Once a week, I would sit still for an hour doing nothing but just missing him, in my defense, I thought it was part of the healing process, but who was I fooling, I had become immensely in love with him that being away from him was torture and I had to remind myself of the reasons I blocked him to ease my heavy heart. 

"Thandie, is time to go! Let's not make your dad wait", my mom called me from the kitchen. One of the reasons my manager allowed me to work from home was because of my dad's sudden hospitalization. He had to have a lumpectomy on his stomach, luckily it was not a cancerous lump and he was finally being discharged which sadly indicated that my days of isolation were close to an end, and I would have to go back to the office soon.

I grabbed my handbag and rushed to the kitchen, the excitement on my mother's face was without notice, she even hummed a song, and I was happy to see her spirit lifted because her recent days had been consumed by fear and anxiety,

"Are you that happy that your man is coming home?", I teased making her blush, she gave me a light slap on my shoulder, "Behave yourself child...he is your father. I think I left the car keys in the dining area, please go fetch them".

I walked into a room that was brightly decorated with balloons and banners all joyfully welcoming my dad home which shocked me because the dining area was not like that 2 hours ago, "Mom, when did you do this?? I was literally here an hour ago. You must really love your husband.", my mom laughed and said, "My girl, after 30 years of marriage, you have no choice but to love your partner".

My dad and my mother had been married for that long yet the way they looked at each other was out of this world, I would still catch them dancing cheek-to-cheek in the living room. Seeing how eager my mom was to see him at home again, had me convinced that they would not survive without each other. I gave my mother a warm hug just to be grateful that I had the opportunity to witness such love, from my own parents. 

"Okay honey, I don't know what this is for, but I think is enough, let's go get the love of my life".

We drove to the hospital to find my dad already packed and ready to leave, the doctor pulled my mother to the side, and when she came back she was holding a brown back with my father's medication. I took the bag from her and asked the security to help us carry some of the gifts my dad accumulated while he was in the hospital. My mom insisted on wheeling my dad so we had to walk slowly behind her, I could only watch as they chatted away as if they were in their own small universe and the rest of us were not invited. My dad sounded just as excited to see his wife and eager to be in his warm bed. We finally reached the car, I put my dad's gifts on the boot and then helped him settle in the backseat, my mom even went to join him in the backseat making me look like a driver, "This must be how it feels to be a third wheel", I sighed making them chuckle.

In 30 minutes we were home, thanks to the traffic, the trip took longer than normal. I was surprised to see Sandra and her parents waiting for us, "Mom, what's going on?", I asked as I pulled up into the driveway

My mom looked out the window, "Oh, I invited them over for supper, they have been dying to see your father,", she said nonchalantly

"But mom, don't you think dad should rest," I was very concerned that the sudden activities would stress him out,

My dad smiled while reaching out to pat my shoulder, "Don't worry sweetheart, your mom talked to me about it, so I am okay, and besides it is just six people, it would be like having a family dinner", as usual, my dad came to his wife's rescue

I was shocked and saddened by the fact that they took this very lightly, "But dad-", 

My mom jumped to speak, taking the word out of my mouth, "Actually honey, there are 7 people," she was suddenly wearing a mischievous face, "I invited Thandie's high school buddy, Bonga. I bumped into him at the bakery this morning when I went to fetch the cake, and so-"

I gasped in panic, "Mother! Why would you do that?!"