Read Online One Tragic Night by Mandy Wiener - Free Book Online Page B

with Oscar – from January 2013 when we returned from our annual holiday – Reeva spent most nights at home watching TV and/or talking and laughing with Kim and Gina.’
    Regardless of who one speaks to about Reeva, they are astonishingly complimentary, and not with the ‘never speak ill of the dead’ type of generosity. There appears to be a genuinely deep affection for her amongst her friends who describe her as ‘beautiful’ and ‘special’.
    â€˜I love that when she felt so passionately about something and she loved it, and when she was really speaking from her heart, she used to put her hand on her heart and her eyes would look up and she would just be so … and you knew that’s exactly how she felt,’ remembers Gina emotionally. ‘Her hand gestures, the way she spoke. I think that’s why she was always my person that I called. I could trust her to really tell me the truth and it was always going to come out sincere.’
    Samantha has to stretch to find a flaw when asked. The only fault she can think of is Reeva’s eyebrows – fortunately, Samantha owned her own beauty salon and has a talent for manicuring brows. ‘I always used to sit there and look and she’d be like, “Oh my God, are you looking at my eyebrows again?” and I’d say, “Yes, please can we sort those out?”’
    But when pushed, Samantha also concedes that Reeva could be pedantic and slothful. ‘She would be like, “Oh my God, we’ve only got 25 kilometres to go, we need to fill up” and you could drive another whole day on that! And then shewould freak out, “No, Sam, we have to fill up!” She was also a creature of habit. She’d come and sleep at my house and we would get up and have a piece of toast with peanut butter and a cup of tea. She liked to chill.’ Samantha flips between present and past tense when describing her friend’s idiosyncrasies.
    â€˜She doesn’t like to be rushed in the morning. I think that’s the one thing that irritated me sometimes is if I wanted to get up and go, if I wanted to go somewhere early, or “Let’s get up and go for an early breakfast before work” – she would say, “No, no, no, no. Let’s not do anything early.”’
    Reeva was passionate about women’s rights and was particularly vocal about sexual abuse – so much so that after her death her parents announced they would be starting a foundation for abused women in her honour.
    Reeva’s own Twitter timeline reflected her compassion and concern for those who had suffered and made particular reference to the brutal rape and murder of 17-year-old Anene Booysen in Bredasdorp in the Western Cape. Four days before Reeva was killed she posted a graphic of a man’s hand silencing a screaming woman on her Instagram feed:
    I woke up in a happy safe home this morning. Not everyone did. Speak out against the rape of individuals …
    Reeva had had her own negative experience while living in Port Elizabeth, as she recounted to ZAlebs in her final interview:
    I once had to get a restraining order against a guy. I went on one date with him and on the way home to drop me off, we had to ‘pop by his place to let the dogs out’ as he’d forgotten. He didn’t own any pets and after I told him there wouldn’t be a second date, he moved back home with his parents because ‘his house smelled of my perfume’. Psycho.
    Fun and frivolous, Reeva wasn’t looking for anything serious in her private life, having just come out of a five-year relationship with Warren. She was more focused on advancing her career – but it didn’t hurt when she had a brief fling with professional rugby player and Blue Bulls heartthrob Francois Hougaard. She met the 24-year-old tattooed scrumhalf in early 2012 and the relationship didn’t last long before fizzling out.
    â€˜I