Spellbound

43

BRICE

What started as a good day has only gotten progressively worse. With the trials coming up and whatever was going on with Thierry, I'm stressed now more than ever. 

Granted, I wasn't in the best of moods lately which is why I'd doubled my efforts in training. I knew I needed to channel my frustration productively instead of taking it out on Soleil like I did last night. However, my current state was all on her.

I had to admit that her response caught me off guard. She had me in my feelings and emotions clouded one's judgment. I was somewhere between embarrassed and annoyed. I thought we were solid only for her to prove otherwise.

See, this is why I don't date.

Does she know how many girls want to be with me? What some are willing to do just for a shot let alone be called my girlfriend? I remember Thierry once telling me that women were treacherous and not to trust them. Maybe he was onto something. Even when I posted pics of girls I was with at one time or another, I still received DM's from others telling me they were DTF, some of them coming from their so-called friends.

I'd been too eager with Soleil – played my hand too soon. Never again.

"Just calm down," says Hidde beside me pulling me out of my thoughts.

"What gives you the idea I'm not?"

"I know you better than most. You might appear to be so on the surface, but I can tell underneath you're simmering. You haven't spoken much since lunch." He pauses and looks over at the chopper that's about to take off. "Give her a break, she apologised."

"They're just words, empty platitudes. I'm not ready to accept her apology until she proves she really means it."

"I understand that you can be an unforgiving piece of work hell-bent on making someone pay for any perceived slight, but surely you can make an exception. I don't know Soleil that well but I do know she's not malicious. Try to see it from her perspective. Where is this relationship even going? Are you planning on introducing her to your family? I'm not talking about Oupa and Divin who don't care much for what others think but your parents sure do."

"Since you claim to know me so well then you should also know that those things have never mattered to me."

"And I suspect it's because you're at the top of the pyramid and so far up your own ass you're blind to the politics. What about her? She's different and the upper crust of society will never let her forget it, try as you might. They are ruthless gatekeepers who uphold status and tradition."

"I would thank you for the unsolicited advice, but I'd be lying since I don't appreciate it. The one thing I value most is loyalty and until she figures out where hers lies, I can't be bothered with her feelings or the hypothetical opinions of others."

I walk away back into the house in search of Divin. The exchange he had with Soleil has been niggling at the back of my mind. I can't believe I clocked my uncle because of her not even bothering to find out what transpired between them. She does have the tendency to get under one's skin. Ask me, I should know.

I find him in the study, Brandy in hand paging through an old album.

"How do you know my – " I was about to call her my girlfriend but quickly catch myself. "Soleil."

"I don't," he replies casually, not bothering to look up.

I help myself to the bar, pouring a glass from the crystal decanter.

"I knew you were a deviant, I just never pegged you for one that goes around choking teenage girls. Is that your thing – erotic asphyxiation?"

The man laughs. I wasn't trying to be funny.