Sunday, Rick and Celia were still busy fixing up their townhouse. The house had two bedrooms upstairs plus one downstairs with a walk in bathroom. A bathroom was also upstairs. The kitchen, dining and living rooms were also downstairs. Celia had brought down her things from Queensborough Gardens and Rick had bought some furniture and appliances from Friday and collected them at the house on Saturday. Both of them were so tired that they could hardly get out of bed that Sunday morning. They eventually got up to make breakfast before they headed up to Constant Spring to buy some plants. They also stopped at the nearby supermarket to buy some more foodstuff. Going up and coming down Constant Spring Road they noticed car and bus loads of people headed for the rural parishes of St. Catherine, St. Mary and Portland. Later, when they were having dinner, Celia said.
“Look how small our house is and the amount of work and expenses we had to put in to fix it up.”
“It isn’t all that small. I was thinking that maybe we should have gotten a one bedroom apartment. But it might come in useful if we have children.”
“Rick, we’ve just started living together. You shouldn’t be talking about children and we aren’t even married.”
“Yeah, maybe you’re right. I think I was getting ahead of myself there. But one of us could make a mistake and it happens.”
“If I felt that something happened that I didn’t want; I could always go to the pharmacy and get something for it.”
“Suppose I wanted it to happen?”
“I won’t be an unwed mother.”
“I hear you, madam. I’ll be doubly careful from now on.”
“You had better be, at least I know that I am.”
Their dinner consisted of rice and peas, baked chicken,
curried mutton, both steamed and raw vegetables, mashed potatoes, sweet corn and fruit juices.
“I didn’t know you were such a good cook.”
“My mother made sure that my sisters, Loi, Zoey and I got equal time in the kitchen.”
“It shows, I’m thankful to her.”
“You haven’t told me how you parents feel about you going to live with a woman?”
“My stepmother, you know she’s deeply religious just like your mother. Goes to church every Sunday and gets involved in so many church activities it’s hard to count. She said I wasn’t setting a good example for Ruel, Shenton and Khadeen. My father, well you know how he is. He said I was old enough to go on my own.”
“I don’t know much about your siblings.”
“I’m the only child of my father and his first wife, Carline. She died of breast cancer when I was only ten. He married Marjorie three years later. Ruel and Shenton are still in high school and Khadeen will be doing her preparatory school leaving examinations this year.”
“Your father seems to like doctors. Your mother was a doctor and your step-mother is a doctor, a gynecologist at that.”
“I’ve never asked him, but maybe that’s the profession he wanted to pursue.”
They had finished eating now and both of them began to clear away the dinner table. Rick helped her in washing up the dishes after which they retired to the upstairs balcony. They left to go to Ruddy’s night club about eight o’clock that evening.
***
Brad was at his desk that morning. It was his third week on the job. The firm had been started twenty years earlier by his father, Russell and distant cousin, Caswell Graham. Caswell, a Certified Public Accountant, had resigned as one of the partners in the audit firm of Miles, Bowen and Company, to help Russell, a veteran management consultant of some fifteen years, set up the firm.
It was a lot of work and involved a lot of travelling around Kingston and going down to Ocho Rios and Montego Bay. They did management and internal audits, company valuations and liquidations as well as other consultancy services. The information technology section was mainly involved in setting up management information systems for companies as well as doing trouble shooting work. Rick headed that section as he was a computer specialist. Morgana headed the management and internal audit sections and he headed all other sections. Blake was the managing director and his father and Caswell were there as consultants. Russell and Caswell would probably stay on for another two or three years before retiring. There were twenty employees in all including two in the cafeteria, an office helper and a messenger. Lunch at the cafeteria as well as snacks and breakfast were sold at a concessionary rate.
Management meetings were held twice monthly. That meeting was where all managers and vice presidents reported on their section to Blake. All problems were ironed out at this meeting. Board meetings were held every two months.
There was also a sports club with most of the staff being members. Members made monthly contributions and Alex was president. Brad understood that staff outings were held on most holiday weekends and he was looking forward to the next one. There were also parties at the office where the sports club provided the refreshments, music and games. These were held every other month.
Every year on the first Sunday in October, they had a church service to celebrate the firm’s anniversary. The firm was actually started in 1985.
Brad was glad that their offices were so far up Constant Spring Road and not in the bustling Half Way Tree or Cross Roads area. He might have preferred to be Downtown but wasn’t sure when that area would suit businesses like theirs to operate from. Brad looked at his watch and realized that it was minutes to one o’clock and he had a lunch date with Dania.
***
Valentine’s Day parties were all over the city. Stewart and Morgana were in Billy Dunn. Rick and Celia were in Zadie Gardens. Bev and her friends were at a party in East Kirkland Heights. Darren and his girlfriend, Bianca, were at a party in Papine. Monique, Val, Sally and Vernon were at a party in Belvedere Heights being hosted by the president of Val’s company and his wife. Brad and Dania were also partying in Armour Heights.
***
Rick and Celia were having dinner that Tuesday evening.
“Dania told me that she’s been encouraging Brad to come and live with her, but so far he’s been resisting.”
“I suppose he isn’t ready for that as yet.”
“I don’t see why he doesn’t want to. The whole time he was away she was out here waiting on him. It isn’t as if he has to pay rent or anything. All she wants him to do is to help her with the bills.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want to get tied down.”
“Am I doing that to you?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Brad isn’t religious or anything like that. If I was Dania I would stop sleeping with him.”
“Why?”
“Because the girl has made him an offer; her mother isn’t going to say anything. As I said he isn’t a biblical type of person nor is he shy so it must be that he has other women.”
Rick looked at her. They were half way through their dinner.
“I know he likes Morgana, but she’s engaged to Stewart.”
Celia laughed. She drank some of her fruit juice.
“Rick, be sensible. She’s engaged to him, not him to her. Maybe Brad figures that they’ll soon break up.”
“I know that he and Bobbette are lovers. She was at that
party in Red Hills Heights. While you were talking to Morgana, she just disappeared and not long after that I saw Stewart leaving. If he was my man I would keep a close watch on both of them.”
“So do you think he went to sleep with her?”
“Don’t be so naïve. We all know who Stewart is. April was so embarrassed when he decided to get engaged to Morgana that she had to run away to the States.”
“I bet she’ll soon be back and with him again.”
“She called me about three or four times and each time she swears never to go back to him, but if I know April she’ll be fighting Morgana and Bobbette for him when she returns.”
“I’m sure that Morgana isn’t going to let him go.”
“Some women are like that. They hate to be losers.”
They finished eating and Rick helped her wash up and tidy up the kitchen after which they left to go down to Randy Chin’s sports bar.
***
Bev was pacing up and down her room trying to control her anger. She had tried calling Rory and was only getting his voice mail. It was almost a week since he went up and apart from the night when he left she hadn’t heard from him since. She had borrowed Darren’s phone and called him, but got the same result. She had sent him an email, but it got bounced. Why wasn’t Rory calling her? She had gone down to his aunt, Cydonne’s home, but heard that she was in the States too and wouldn’t be back until July. She had left one of her middle-aged cousins to look after her three children as she and her husband were separated. Bev didn’t ask the woman anything about Rory, but left for her home knowing that she had wasted her time coming down here. She wondered if she was overreacting, but it wasn’t like a couple of years ago when you had to go through so many things to make an overseas phone call. All he had to do was to buy a card and put credit on his phone to call her.
***
“So how are you and your other vice presidents getting on, Morgana?” Monique asked as they sat in their living room that evening.
“They’re okay, I guess. They used to tease me about Stewart and they didn’t want to tell me who their girlfriends were.”
“Rick and Celia are living together and I understand that Dania is pressuring Brad to come and live with her,” Morgana continued.
“So is he going?” Bev asked.
“I don’t know, he wouldn’t tell me that. I saw them in church and they looked like the ideal couple. At the party up at Blake’s house, I danced with him and he said she wasn’t his girlfriend but when I went for that drink with him he said she was very jealous.”
“She looks like one of those women who doesn’t want her man to look at any other woman much less talk to her,” Monique said.
“Maybe she feels that she isn’t good enough for him,” Morgana put in.
“Talk about jealousy, I can’t get a word out of Rory,” Bev declared, throwing up her hands in the air.
“Did you see his aunt?” Morgana asked.
“She’s away and won’t be back until later this year. I don’t know the woman she left at the house so I didn’t ask her any questions.”
“Doesn’t he have any other relatives or friends out here you can contact?” Monique asked.
“He has some cousins living in Kintyre but I don’t have a number for any of them. He has another aunt living in Moneague, but I don’t have a number for her either.”
“What are you going to do? It’s only a week since he’s gone back up, maybe you should give him some more time,” Morgana advised.
“I’ve sent text messages and emailed him. My emails have all bounced and my text messages aren’t going through. I’m not going to do anything drastic until I find out what’s really going on.”
“Meanwhile you’re here scratching out your hair over him, he could be up there enjoying himself with another girl,” Monique opined.
“All the time he was over there we used to be in contact with each other. I feel it’s this girl, Brittany, who Roxanne told me about. I think they’re together and he doesn’t want anything more to do with me.”
“Have you tried calling Roxanne?” Morgana asked.
“I spoke to her yesterday but she said that she hadn’t seen him since he came up.”
“Maybe something’s really wrong,” Monique said.
“I’m going up to do some studies. I’ll see you folks in the morning,” Bev said and made for the stairs.
Monique and Morgana sat there talking for some time before each left for their respective room.
***
Stewart and Morgana were having lunch at Clive’s Great Eats in New Kingston. They had their appetizers and were waiting for their lunches which they had already ordered.
“I didn’t like how you behaved after I went for that drink with Brad.”
“Brad is my good friend, so I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Their lunches arrived. Morgana chose rice and peas and country style chicken while Stewart chose local curry goat and locally produced food.
Stewart had been wondering if she wasn’t going for a drink with Rick. Maybe she had thought better of it because of Celia. They were half way through their meal when he said.
“Everybody’s shacking up these days.”
“Who’s the latest? I’ve heard about Rick and Celia.”
“Judy Dawson and Vance Nation are now living together. I heard that Ducal Peat and Leta Weir will be doing the same thing as from next week. I also understand that Brad is on his way to live with Dania.”
“I heard about Vance and Judy but about Brad and Dania that’s news to me. I thought Ducal and Leta were already living together.”
“Maybe you and I’ll be the only ones still going around and not living together.”
Morgana laughed and drank some of her orange juice.
“You live with me or I with you. My room is big enough for both of us.”
“Why do you always treat these things as being a joke?”
“Because people can get out of these relationships by simply walking away.”
“Isn’t it the same way with a marriage?”
They were almost finished eating now.
“If I married you, I wouldn’t be letting you off that easily.”
It was Stewart’s turn to laugh.
“I wouldn’t give you any reason to want to divorce me.”
“I left you once before, remember?"
“It won’t happen again. I can assure you of that,” Stewart said as they finished eating.
“I could name several instances when had I been a different woman I might have been gone, but I won’t go there.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m already late and I’m still on probation so I’d better get back to work.”
“I thought like how you were a vice president you wouldn’t be on probation. Aren’t you there more than three months?”
“That’s what you think. I don’t have any godfathers at Newman and Graham and the probation period is six months,’’ Morgana said getting up.
“That’s long. Are Brad and Rick on probation too?” Stewart asked as they left the restaurant.
“I know I am. I don’t know about them, but I shouldn’t think so seeing that they own the business.”
Stewart dropped her at work and they made plans in the car to go clubbing that night and the next night and Morgana would spend Sunday with him.
***
Brad and Dania were stretched out in lounge chairs on her patio that Saturday afternoon. Brad had slept with her on Friday night and had taken her to the Coronation Market to buy her weekend supplies. Dania said that she preferred coming to the market as she could get any farm product she wanted at a lower price than on the streets or at other markets not to mention the supermarkets. They just had a cup of tea before leaving for the market but when they returned she cooked green bananas and callaloo. In the afternoon she made fish soup with king and turbit fish.
“That was one hell of a soup. I feel so much stronger after eating it.”
“It’s supposed to give you more stamina, though why you’d want more I don’t know. I’ll be the one to suffer.”
“But you’ll enjoy it, Dania.”
“Don’t you feel lonely sometimes, Brad?”
“You forget that I live with my parents.”
“Yeah, but when you go to bed, it’s you alone in that big bed of yours.”
“How do you know how big it is and you’ve never seen it?”
“Would your parents object if I came up there to sleep with you?”
“I know what you’re going to say, but Dania, be reasonable. I’m sure if Miss Beulah was in Jamaica she’d object to me coming here to sleep with you.”
“She isn’t objecting now and she won’t object if you come to live with me.”
Brad looked at her. It wasn’t the first time she was bringing up the subject.
“Maybe I’ll have to give it some serious consideration now that I’m back.”
“I hope you do.”
They soon switched to other subjects before deciding to go down to Randy Chin to play some games.
***
Stewart had to wake up Morgana that evening to have dinner. She had spent Saturday with him and they had gone clubbing. She had returned to spend Sunday with him and they had gone to bed. Stewart had turned up his air conditioning unit and they had made love for hours.
“I feel so drained, it’s like all my strength has been sapped out of me. I can’t believe that I let you make love to me for so long. You’ve always been complaining that I won’t spend a night with you. Can you imagine doing that and trying to get up and go to work the next morning?”
“You got some real mind blowing climaxes.”
“And you kept coming back for more.”
“I couldn’t resist your body.”
Morgana felt her belly.
“Stewart, I feel hungry. What did you cook?”
“Steam fish, bananas, dumplings, gully beans and okra.”
“You cooked that kind of food on a Sunday? Was I so fast asleep that you couldn’t wake me up and ask me what I wanted? Gully beans, what’s that?”
“Susumber, it’s good to cook with rundown.”
“What’s rundown?”
“You don’t seem to know much about country life. Anyhow the fish, okra and gully beans will help put back some of what you lost after that marathon session of lovemaking.”
“I’ll have some, but not much as I know my rice and peas and chicken will be waiting on me when I get home.”
Stewart brought her some of the food which she had, sitting up in bed. He had his at a nearby table. They continued talking before Morgana went to have a bath and drove home.
***
Bev, Melissa Donegal and Jovita Dorman were on campus that afternoon. They were sitting on one of the concrete benches and talking. Bev had her hands under her chin and her head was bowed.
“I know a girl who was dating a guy for a couple of years. He got a visa and went up and she never heard from him again,” Bev said.
“I’ve heard of it happening to several people, both males and females, but that’s not your case, Bev,” Melissa said.
Melissa was a tall girl with heavy breasts and was a year younger than Bev. Jovita was also tall and very pretty and had entered a few modelling and beauty pageants but had never won anything. She was a few months younger than Bev.
“It’s the first time he’s done anything like this. That’s why I’m highly suspicious that it’s that girl, Roxanne told me about.”
“So what are you going to do?” Jovita asked.
“I’m just going to wait. If he doesn’t contact me, I’m sure I’ll see one of his friends or I’ll just have to wait until I get over there to confront him.”
“You have a lot of patience,” Melissa remarked.
“I certainly do, hey, I think I’m boring you two to death so let’s do some more studying,” Bev said, to which the other two girls agreed.
***
“I used to tell Sid that I had no interest in business, but now I know what it is to have to meet a pay bill every week and to just keep a business afloat,” Sally said.
Sally had come to visit Monique and they were talking on the front patio. Morgana had gone to a tennis match and Bev was at Melissa’s house going through some notes with her and Jovita.
“We aren’t doing too bad lately ourselves,” Monique said.
“I’ve rearranged things and appointed managers to report to me. I’ve also appointed a financial controller and a purchasing and warehouse manager. I’ve also decided to set up a board of directors. I’ll be the chairman and managing director. I’m going to invite you and Morgana to be board members along with Vernon. A lawyer whom I’ve known for years has agreed to be our company secretary.”
“I thought Sid had these things in place.”
“Sid was just a one man band. But I realize that I have to get other people’s input and advice if I’m to successfully manage this business.”
“I have to decline though, and ask Val. He has a lot of experience in the business world.”
“Oh, I thought about him but I was thinking that maybe he’ll be too busy.”
“I don’t think so, and besides it’s just once a month.”
“Okay, I’ll ask him then.”
“You seem to have everything planned, Sally.”
Sally nodded.
“So what’s the latest with Bev and Rory?”
“She can’t get a word out of him.”
“I warned her about these long distance relationships. They hardly work out. I just hope he hasn’t committed himself.”
“Roxanne told her about this girl who he’s supposed to be fooling around over there.”
“If I was Bev, I’d give him a couple more weeks and if I don’t hear from him, that’s it. What does he take her for? Anyway, Monique, I’m leaving. I’ll probably drop by later this week.”
The two sisters shared a short hug before Sally went to her sports utility vehicle and drove off.
***
Stewart and Morgana were at Corners that evening. They saw Brad and Dania. The dance floor was really crowded, Morgana thought as she danced with Stewart. About ten o’clock she looked over and saw Dania and Brad sitting at one of the small tables, talking. She was wondering why Brad hadn’t asked her for a dance. Stewart wouldn’t have objected, but Dania might have. She saw them getting up to dance and soon lost them in the crowded dance floor. Two hours later when she and Stewart were leaving she saw no sign of them. Maybe they had left already, she thought.
***
Stewart was just about to leave work that evening when his cell phone rang. Bobbette was on the line.
“Stranger, how are you?”
“Wait, Bobbette, what’s going on, girl?”
“Robert is going to May Pen from Friday night. Says he won’t be back until Saturday afternoon.”
“Are you sure he won’t be back before then?”
“What’s this, Stewart? You never used to ask me any questions before.”
“Just trying to be careful, that’s all. Sure, I’ll come, you know I can never resist that curvaceous body of yours.”
“I want you bad. You make sure to come or else you’ll never get this booty again,” she warned before ending the call.
What did you do when a woman sends you that kind of invitation accompanied by veiled threats? The only thing was to go and give her what she wanted.
***
Brad had three hundred United States dollars and
decided to change it out into local currency. He was in the building society that afternoon waiting in the foreign currency line when he saw a woman coming towards him. It was Jenna Marsden. She recognized him immediately and came into his arms.
She was a petite girl he had met before he went away to
study. At the time she had a young son for Robert Parsons, an up and coming young entrepreneur. She was working and had just started a part-time business course at the university.
“It’s been so long, Brad. So how’s everything with you?” she asked, coming out of his arms.
“I’m okay, just been back, and certainly glad to see you.”
“I work here, been here since I finished my associate degree. I’m certainly glad to see you. I can’t stay long with you as those customers will start complaining.”
They exchanged cell phone numbers before she returned to her work.
***
Stewart and Robert nearly got into a fight over Bobbette. Robert had driven to his woman’s apartment late Saturday morning to see Stewart about to get into his car. Suspecting that something was up, he had immediately gone over and confronted him.
The two men faced off each other.
"Hey, guy, I don't want to see your car down at my woman’s apartment again.”
"But wait, mister, how do you know where I was? How do you know that I was visiting your girlfriend?”
"I know you, Stewart. Every time I ask Bobbette, she denies that you and her are friends,” Robert said as Bobbette now summoned by a neighbor, came and saw the two men quarrelling.
"What's going on here?"
"I want to know what this guy's doing here?" Robert demanded.
"He's my friend, who came to visit me. So are you saying that I can’t have any male friends coming to visit me, Robert?”
Robert stormed off; jumped into his car and drove away. Stewart and the two women watched his car roar out of the apartment court nearly colliding with an on-coming garbage truck. Stewart reversed his car out of the parking lot, but didn’t drive off immediately. Bobbette didn’t say anything to Stewart, but just went to her car and reversed it out of the parking lot and drove off.
Stewart drove off a few seconds later hoping to catch up with her. He didn’t know what that guy, Robert, wanted with him. Maybe if he had seen him with his woman he would have had a stroke. It served him right for being always out there running down money while his woman was screaming off her head as Stewart made beautiful love to her. They had done it last night and then again this morning. She had climaxed both times, crying and screaming and digging her nails into his back as she rode out the waves of ecstasy egulfing her body. He had to cover her mouth with his hands each time in an effort to muffle her screams.
Stewart had nearly panicked when he saw Robert driving in just as he was about to drive out. He had to calm himself because to do anything rash would have alerted Robert’s already suspicious mind. Based on what Bobbette had told him he was home almost nine hours earlier. He wondered if he had been trying to trick Bobbette. When he looked at his watch and saw that it was after nine o’clock, he knew that the time was almost right. Two hours or even an hour earlier and there could be no denying it on Bobbette’s part that she had an overnight guest. He wondered why he had let her persuade him to have that morning session when he knew of the dangers it posed.
***
“Glad you’re getting used to us living together, Celia.”
“I don’t have to tell you how mummy behaved, but I managed to persuade her that everything will be all right. Plus, she likes you.”
“I hope I don’t let her down.”
They were relaxing in their living room before hitting the club scene later on.
“So how does it feel after three weeks. There’s a saying out there about being friendly with a woman and then living with her or it could be the other way around. So tell me what you think.”
“It’s too short a time. I’m glad that I’ve got my car. If I want anything I can always stop when I’m coming home rather than ask you to pick it up for me. Plus, I don’t have to take taxis or buses again.”
“Okay, I’ll give you some more time. I suppose we’ll have our difficulties later on. I’m glad that you got your own car now. All I ask is that you be careful on the road