I've transcribed my favorite scene below... it was so damn adorable I had to put down the book and rush off to visit my boyfriend, who was busily playing a video game. But I didn't care, I had to tell him about this romantic thing I'd just read. I don't know if he was really listening or only half-listening... I'll quiz him later.
Phuti noticed her examining the gold-coloured sofa. "Do you like that one, Grace?" he said. "Why don't you try sitting on it? See if it's comfortable."
Mma Makutsi hesitated. "Oh, I was just looking, Phuti. We do not need a gold-coloured sofa..."
"Try it out," he said. "Sit on it."
She moved round to the front of the sofa and very slowly lowered herself into it. She felt the cushion beneath her, at once firm and soft, supportive but yielding. She leaned back, and it was like giving oneself into the arms of a gentle, comforting lover. "Oh," she muttered, and then, "oh," again.
"You look very good on that," said Phuti. "That sofa is the right colour for you. Gold. That is your colour, Grace."
She felt the fabric with her fingers. It was as smooth as satin. Gold? Was that really her colour? She had always thought that red suited her very well, but perhaps gold was also suitable for people who looked good in red. If they bought this sofa, which of course they would not -- not at that price -- then she might perhaps buy a pair of gold-coloured shoes that she could wear when she was sitting on her sofa. She had seen a pair in the shoe shop at Riverwalk, and she could go back and see whether they were still available.
"Would you like that one?" Phuti asked. "We can get it if you like."
She sat up and propelled herself off the sofa. "No," she said. "It is very nice, Phuti, but it is not right for us."
He frowned. "Are you sure? You looked so comfortable."
"I am sure. And I can already see one over there -- that brown one -- that I think might be right for us."
They made their way over to the brown sofa -- a much more low-key affair -- and she sat down on it. It was considerably less physically comfortable than the gold-coloured sofa, but correspondingly more mentally comfortable. This was a sofa on which one might sit in casual clothes, on which one might eat a doughnut or drink a cup of tea without worrying about crumbs or splashes. This was a sofa entirely free of guilt.
"I think that this will be a very good sofa," she said to Phuti. "You try it."
Phuti sat down. "It is well made," he said. "I know the people who make these sofas. They are honest people."
"Then I would like this one," said Mma Makutsi.
Phuti leaned across and whispered in her ear. "I am very happy, Grace. I am very happy that you have chosen this one rather than the gold one. That shows me that you are not one who is impressed with flashy things. You are gold inside, Grace, not just outside."
She turned and kissed him lightly. "That is the kindest thing anybody has ever said to me." Gold inside, not just outside.