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Chapter One

Tembeka rubbed her eyes. She felt a little bored. She had agreed to come to the rugby match with Brigitte because she loved Stellenbosch. The oak-lined avenues and the streams in the specially built gutters. Last time she had taken her shoes off and dangled them in the freshly running water. The coolness stimulated them but she didn't move.

She watched the Matie students as they were called. The girls were pretty and the guys looked so macho...apart from the geek with the pile of books and the huge spectacles. 'Stop it', she chastised herself, 'I am sure he is a wonderful friend and I'd never have to save up to have my computer fixed.' There were very few students walking alone. Her eyes met those of a really wow guy on the opposite side of the road. 'Mmm,' she thought and closed her eyes.

'Ow! What are you doing?' she yelped as she was knocked sideways by a body clutching an oval-shaped ball. A sweaty hand helped her up and she blinked. The person in front of her was tall with wide shoulders and black hair flopping over a broad forehead and green eyes that were sparkling.

'Oh, I know what I am doing,' the lips moved in reply. 'It was the only way I could get to meet you before the game is over. Give me your cell number quickly. I'll remember it, Please. Please. They are waiting for me to throw the ball in.'

He sounded so serious. The moment seemed frozen. She was frozen. 'What do I do? I don't give my cell number to any stranger. ' In the same split second she rattled off, '072-555 7890.'

'o72-555 7890,' he repeated. 'Tonight.' And he was lifting the ball up to throw it into the lineout. Men's voices shouted numbers in Afrikaans which she couldn't understand. Suddenly a tall player leaped seemingly to the sky, grabbed the ball and passed it on. The game moved on. He was gone with the rest of the team, moving the ball forward to score a try.

She knew about tries. You scored five points with a try and another two if a player managed to kick the ball between the posts. But that was it. She wondered why they stood in a line, one behind the other. She caught herself thinking, 'Why are you even wondering about what they are doing? Just now you were falling asleep. Come on, Tembeka, be honest with yourself? Yes, he was gorgeous, yes, he had the greenest eyes you have ever seen, yes, you gave him your number...' She straightened her corn braids and her t-shirt. 'You can't take him home to the Eastern Cape. They won't accept him as a man.' She tried to imagine him dining in the next room because he couldn't sit with the other men according to tradition.

She took her hand out of her pocket and looked at her cell phone. What was the point of even waiting. He couldn't have been serious in any case.