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She sighs at me. ‘How’s it going?’
‘With Dominic? Excellent. Everyone in the village loves him.’ I don’t mention the unfortunate police incident.
‘I’m sorry I’ve been funny about it,’ my friend says. ‘I don’t know why. I just want to see you happy.’
Sitting down next to her, I take her hand. ‘I am happy with him, Nina. Very. I don’t want our friendship to suffer because of it.’
‘We should get to know him better. Gerry and I. We could do things as a couple then.’
At the moment, I can’t think of anything worse. But if Nina is willing to make the effort to get to know Dominic then I should make the effort with Gerry too.
‘Everything all right there?’
‘Oh yeah,’ she says breezily. ‘You know Gerry and me. One minute I want to smash his car up with a golf club, the next minute we’re all over each other again.’
I don’t remind her that the ‘smashing’ phases tend to last significantly longer than the ‘all over each other’ ones – but I hope that will change for her too. If Nina thinks that Gerry is The One, then who am I to argue otherwise?
‘Clients are here,’ Cristal says. ‘Showtime.’
My first lady today is Linda Turner, a woman with five children by five different men. Frankly, as a single mum with five children, I don’t know how she finds time to have her hair done at all.
As I start her cut and finish, I wonder if she started out on each relationship thinking that she’d finally found her soul mate. After five failed partnerships, I wonder if she’s given up on love completely or whether she still remains optimistic in the face of all the contrary evidence. How could she find the energy not once, not twice, but five times, to start all over again with someone new? Did she set out with blind optimism each time or by the time number five came along, did she have every expectation that it would be a fleeting union ?
‘Heard you’ve got yourself a new man,’ Linda says as I’m snipping away.
Nothing stays quiet in this place.
‘Cristal told me while she was shampooing me.’
She’ll probably get a bigger tip for that bit of gossip too.
‘Maasai warrior, eh?’
‘Yes.’
‘I thought she was joking at first.’
I bristle at that. ‘No.’
‘Good for you, girl,’ she says. ‘About time you had some fun.’
‘Yes,’ I agree. But I want to tell her that this isn’t about fun – it’s about love. Is that where Linda has gone wrong? Has she chosen her life partners on the basis of how much fun they are? How do any of us choose who we love and who we don’t? Why can we look at some people and feel absolutely unmoved by them and yet the mere sight of someone else will make us shake like a leaf?
‘Just make sure that you don’t start sending money and stuff to his family.’
I don’t tell her that in my handbag there’s an envelope containing fifty pounds in cash to send to Dominic’s family. I don’t tell her that, comparatively, we have so much and they have so very little. Would she understand that I begrudge them nothing? We couldn’t even send the money in a more secure way. Dominic’s family don’t have a bank account, they couldn’t change a money order without a two-day round trip into Narok – so cash it had to be. But this small sum will ease their lives for months to come. It’s not going to buy designer shoes or iPods or UGG boots. It’s more likely to go on antibiotics or food, than fripperies. It will also go some small way towards assuaging my guilt at taking their son away from them and the money they had from his job as a tour guide, which will be hard, if not impossible, to replace. If we can send them something to help them out every month, then I’m more than happy to do so. And before anyone suggests otherwise, it wasn’t even Dominic’s idea to send money to them – it was mine. All mine.
‘Well, enjoy it while it lasts,’ she advises before she returns to her magazine. ‘These things never do.’
But this has to last. I can’t imagine life without Dominic now, whatever our difficulties. I want him as my life partner, my husband, and the sooner everyone else gets used to that the better.
I have to do something so that they all get to know Dominic and see him through my eyes. Once they see how kind, funny and hot he is, then they’ll be able to see why I am utterly enchanted by him. But what?
Back in the staffroom and Nina is already tucking into her fruit for the day.
‘I’m starving,’ she says. ‘Couldn’t wait for lunch. This is second breakfast.’
