One night stand; et cetera

As I was checking into Leopard Rock hotel in the vumba, in Manicaland province of Zimbabwe, she crossed the lobby. She stopped and looked at me, screwed her face in apparent confusion and walked on.

            As I was dragging my bags towards my room, she ran towards me with a broad smile on her dimpled face. She has one of those smooth, light complexions that the harsh African sun seems to leave alone.

“We went to school together.” It was a statement rather than a question. I looked at her and saw the scrawny Tatenda Mhuru of ten years ago. She had developed into a voluptuous, well rounded woman. The blue, stretch skirt did a lot to enhance her ample hips and the white, sleeveless blouse accentuated her well toned arms and breasts that showed a bit above the blouse.

“I remember you; you were in the basketball team.”

She glanced towards an executive looking man across the lobby and whilst in the process of walking away said,

“I will see you around”.

When she came to my room at midnight, all I heard was,

“I am done for the day. I am going home.”

But the next day as she served me breakfast, I remembered that our interaction had been much more detailed than what my brain had registered and I felt I was a disgrace to manhood. As I recalled during breakfast, our interaction in my room at midnight went something like this:

“You seem to be doing well for yourself.”

Let me backtrack a bit and take you to the beginning. I was updating one of my numerous blogs at around midnight when I heard faint knocking on the door. I went over to the door and there she was with the additional coffee things I had requested for my room. I took it as coincidence that it was her at my door and not any other hotel employee. She came in, placed the coffee things on the table and went and sat on one of the sofas at the far end of the room. She crossed her legs and with her ample hips and short skirt...

And now back to:

“You seem to be doing well for yourself.”

“I am trying, you work here?” It was a stupid question on my part.

She had done a tourism degree and with the scarcity of jobs...We talked about her exploits on the basketball pitch and my brief exploits on the rugby field before someone from Watershed College tackled me badly and damaged my knee. We talked about my conquering of the physics and chemistry labs and our subsequent kiss in the senior physics lab. It was a kiss that apparently came from nowhere and led nowhere as we never developed a romantic relationship.

            She spend about one hour in my room and then stood up and said,

“I have to go”.

I remembered later as I watched porn that she had not moved towards the door as she told me she had to go. And her goodnight took her all of twenty minutes! When it dawned on me that she was waiting for me to ask her to stay the night, I felt so stupid.

            So as she served me breakfast the next morning, I did not waste any time and I told her straight up:

“Come to my room tonight.”

“Order something from room service at eleven and I will bring it up”, she said looking straight into my coffee cup. And she was gone.

When she came to my room at ten after eleven, I had acquired some condoms. A silly thought about jinxing the whole thing had crossed my mind as I bought those condoms in Mutare, where I had driven for a meeting.

            She had on the same stretch skirt and white blouse: Well, maybe not the same since it was their uniform. For five minutes, we pretended as if we were actually in that room to chat and reminisce about our school days. Our pretence fell apart in exactly five minutes and she stood naked and me half naked a minute later. She was trembling slightly and she closed her eyes as I took a nipple into my mouth. I remembered to reach for the condoms just as she was pulling my shorts off. And I actually mustered enough discipline to put the damn thing on: It’s a hard feat to achieve with a sexy woman pulling you towards a queen size bed.

            Afterwards, we chatted as she lay on my chest. We talked for many hours until she drifted off to sleep and I got out of bed to work.

The next day at around five in the late afternoon, I gave a lift to a guy who had failed to negotiate one of the tricky bends on the road to Leopard Rock hotel. His car’s right wheel had sunk deep into the mud and all the power of a range rover could not undo the predicament. He called a security company in Mutare to deal with the problem and I dropped him off at the entrance of Leopard Rock hotel.

            As I was having dinner that evening, Tatenda came over and introduced Peter as her fiancé. I had not really thought of having a long term relationship with Tatenda, but that piece of information left me reeling: Too many questions.