Into the Sun. Takalani M

      ‘Good morning,’ he says, and I turn to face him. It was not a dream. He is lying here next to me, smiling. I turn back to the window and slide closer to him. He is not wearing a shirt so the closer I move to him, the more I feel his body heat on my skin. I look down at my sleeping shirt. I might have been drunk when we decided to go to bed because this is one of my ugliest sleepshirts, ever.

      ‘I thought I was dreaming,’ I murmur. He tightens his arms around me, something poking the small of my back. That makes me blush – but I stay put.

      ‘It feels like a dream. It does.’

      I turn to face him. He beams at me. No matter how much I try to make sense of his love for me, I don’t understand it.

      ‘Why me?’

      ‘Stop doubting how perfect you are.’

      ‘The thing is, our lifestyles are so different.’

      ‘It is you I want to be with,’ he says while poking my chest with his finger. ‘I don’t care what class you are; as long as you have the heart you have, I will love you.’

      ‘But … I am …’

      ‘I am not going to change anything about you.’

      ‘That’s good to hear.’ Even though it is hard to believe.

      ‘We have to check out at ten, what time is it?’ He reaches for his phone under the pillow. ‘Eight-thirty. We have an hour and a half.’

      ‘I don’t want to go.’

      ‘I can book for more days.’

      ‘No, no, no,’ I quickly say. He has already done more than enough. I bet he would have to pay an arm and a leg for just one night at this hotel. Thank God for the voucher he had.

      ‘You cannot go back there,’ he says.

      I laugh and say, ‘But you said you are not going to change me.’

      ‘That place is not safe. I had to watch my back when walking around the corridors,’ he says. He is right. I had wanted to move out since the first day I moved in there.

      ‘Fine, I will move out when I get another place.’

      ‘But I did say I can get a flat for you.’

      I could jump at this opportunity and let him rent a flat for me, but that would be wrong. What would people say? She got a well-off boyfriend to pay for her bills. That is the last thing I want.

      ‘I’ll take my job back and look for another apartment. I need the money and now that I know you are never getting back with Ms Diana, I think I can handle her.’ Dating your boss is not ideal, I suppose, but at least this will be a real relationship, not some fling or an affair. In the meantime, I’ll start looking for other employment too. ‘All I need to do is to go to Venda for a few days, and I will figure out everything when I come back.’

      ‘Why don’t I go with you?’

      ‘You have work. Come on, I promise to come back.’

      ‘Only if you promise.’