Chapter Three
“So, Morgan, you haven’t told us about those two new vice-presidents who’ll be joining your firm tomorrow,” Beverly Simmonds requested of her elder sister.
They were seated around the supper table on their back patio. Neither of the girls was going out nor was their mother, Monique. Seventeen year old Darren had taken his supper to have in their living room and watch the news. He was perhaps the only one in their household interested in the mundane and sometimes turned off events, masquerading on television as news. At least, that was the opinion of the other members of the household. Darren only listened to the news because sometimes he got quizzed about it in class.
“I don’t know anything about them except their names,”
Morgana replied. “Stewart knows them, although he wasn’t able to tell me much.”
“Is Rory coming for you, Bev?” Monique asked.
“Not tonight, mummy. I told him that I have some late night studying to do.”
“So what are their names, Morgana?” Monique asked out of curiosity.
“Brad Newman, that’s Mister Newman’s son. He’s about twenty six. Rick Graham is Mister Graham’s son. He’s probably the same age as Brad and probably a bit shorter.”
“Are they attached and are they good looking?” Bev asked.
“Sure you don’t think I would know if they’re attached, but I suppose they’ll have girlfriends over there if not out here, oh I don’t know. Yes, Bev, they’re good looking, based on the pictures that I saw.”
“Oh gosh, I can’t wait to meet them. Are you sure you’re telling me the truth?”
“Of course, why would I lie to you?”
“So what are you going to do about Rory and Glen?” Monique asked.
“I have my fiancé; I have no interest in those two guys.”
Morgana flashed her engagement ring.
Bev pouted her lips and rolled her eyes at Morgana.
“You’re a cruel sister, Morgan. Mummy, Rory is my boyfriend and Glen is just a friend, plus he has his girlfriend.”
“Girls, be careful, that’s all I can say. I only hope they’re the decent type. They won’t come out here and lead some local girl on and then spring a surprise on her when the wife or girlfriend suddenly shows up.”
“Oh my, maye I’d better curb my enthusiasm,” Bev moaned.
“Maybe you’d better stick to the evil you know, little sister.”
“Let’s go and look for Sally. Maybe we can play some dominoes and ludo with her and Vernon.”
All three women agreed to go and visit Sally leaving Darren at home. He said he was okay and would probably play some computer games or watch some movies.
***
Brad Newman arrived at the offices of Newman and Graham Limited, management consultants, that Monday morning, at eight o’clock. Brad had returned to the island on Friday after completing his Master’s degree in finance from Grantham Metropolitan University and would take up a position as a vice-president with the firm. Rick would also be a vice-president and both would report to Blake Morrison. Both men saw nothing wrong with that, they could learn a great deal from Blake. The man had spent several years in the United Kingdom before returning home to work with the government on several multi-million dollar projects. He had left to work as a consultant with a multi-national corporation. Blake had only joined the firm after much persuasion from Caswell Graham, his former schoolmate.
Brad had also learned about Morgana Simmonds, a manager, employed by the firm in September last year. From all the reports, he had received, she was a real good looker
and he was eager to meet her. He also understood that she had gotten engaged to Stewart Brown a week after she began working with the firm. He knew Stewart when he used to get holidays from university and would get a job at Caswell’s former firm. Stewart, who was attending university, was doing holiday jobs there too. Even then the man used to go around with a whole host of women. He wondered if he had changed or maybe he was just using his engagement to hide his various cheatings. Any girl courageous enough to be engaged to Stewart must have an interesting personality, Brad thought.
***
Rick Graham drove to work that morning from his parent’s home on Crawford Avenue in Arcadia Gardens. When he arrived, he was introduced to the staff by his father, Caswell, Russell Newman and Blake Morrison. He understood that Brad had arrived before him and had already been introduced to the staff. He was intrigued by one of the managers, Morgana Simmonds. He thought she had an excellent figure. She was probably about five feet eight inches tall and drop dead gorgeous with dreamy eyes.
***
Morgana wasn’t overly enthusiastic about management consultancy and would have preferred a job in general management. She was only here based on Stewart’s advice. He sold life insurance for Stafford Life and General Insurance Limited. He had started out in auditing before switching to sell life insurance.
Gordon had told her that should she fail to find a suitable or challenging job in Jamaica she was always welcomed back at Bryant, Murdock and Webbley.
After the excitement in the office over the arrival of the two vice-presidents had died down; Morgana resumed work on some assignments she had to complete before the week was out.
Minutes past lunchtime, Rick pushed his head into her office.
"Hi, care to have lunch with me?"
"I'm okay, I'm having lunch with my fiancé."
“I've been away for so long that I thought maybe you could fill me in on some of the happenings around town.”
"I've just returned also, so I have to be asking my way around too."
Alex de Pass joined them. He was in the information technology section.
"You won't be luckier than I, Rick. I've been trying my luck with her, but I haven’t passed first base yet.”
"You, Alex, every girl is going crazy over you and you want me to fall in line, no sir, not this girl.”
Alex laughed.
"Those are just rumors."
“I've seen you in action, myself," she said and Alex laughed again.
"You’re really doing me bad, Morgana."
"It's true, I'm telling."
"I'm off, tell me that I'll be luckier another time," Rick requested.
"I'm not making any promises that I can't keep."
"You can't say that I didn't warn you, Rick," Alex said as he joined him going down the passageway to the cafeteria.
***
Beverly Simmonds got into her Honda Civic hatchback motor car on campus that afternoon. After she dropped off her two friends, Jovita Dorman and Melissa Donegal, she would be going down to her sister’s office. She had two parties to attend this weekend. Her boyfriend, Rory Coombs, was home on vacation. If she had followed him she would have partied all week, but her studies came first and she couldn’t afford to repeat any of her courses. She wanted to meet the two guys who were supposed to join Morgana’s firm today.
***
The rest of the working week found Morgana fending off invitations from both men, to lunch and to the various sports bars and the hottest nightclubs around town. They seemed not to care one bit that she was engaged to someone they both knew. They seemed to find the idea of her being engaged to Stewart quite intriguing to say the least. She had to spend a great deal of time defending him and to announce that for their information her engagement would soon culminate in marriage to Stewart.
***
Morgana knew that Blake was having a party at his Red Hills Heights home that weekend to welcome her, Brad and Rick. She had heard that Rick was seeing Celia Donaldson, who had been a year behind her and one year ahead of Bev in high school. She had also heard that Brad was seeing Dania Reid, who had attended the school across the road from her school and was probably the same age as Celia. When she confronted both men with this information, they were very evasive. She told them that she would find out everything at the party.
Her mother and aunt had accepted Blake's invitation and would be attending. It would be a welcome night out for them both, what with the tragedies of the last few years, Morgana thought.
Sid’s untimely death in November 2001 just as he was locking up that Saturday evening had threatened to put Sally’s life in a tailspin.
She had to give up her job, where she worked as a volunteer administrator with the Downer Foundation, a charity in aid of needy children and go and run the business full-time. The hardware was her only source of income and she had a son and daughter finishing up college in the United States. It had been bad news the following year too, when Byron Simmonds had been lost at sea with four of his friends.
Monique, her sister, had been heartbroken, but she was more fortunate than Sally. As managing director of Palmer and Gold Limited, the giant Jamaican pharmaceutital
importers, Byron had a large life insurance policy. The death benefits would enable Monique to live comfortable for the rest of her life. Sally was sure that Monique would rather have Byron by her side than the money. Upon realizing the value of Byron’s insurance proceeds, Monique resigned her job as a senior secretary with Alrick Wright Insurance Brokers, one of the largest on the island. She went and took over the charity which Sally formerly ran. It had failed to find a replacement for her. Morgana and Beverly both borrowed money from their mother to buy cars, promising to repay her when they reached the stipulated thirty years of age at which time they could begin withdrawing from their trust fund. Morgana had in fact postponed the purchase of a car until she returned home last July.
***
Morgana had told Stewart that she would be coming to the party along with Monique and her man, Val and that she would see him there. She didn’t know what to think when she reached there and found that he was nowhere around. She went to be introduced to some of their clients, whom she hadn’t met as yet. She danced with Blake and was dancing with a client when she spied him. When the song finished she cried her excuse and went over to him.
“Where were you?” she asked. “I thought you would have been here before me.”
“I had to do a rush thing with a prospective client,” he told her, taking her hand and leading her to the dance floor.
“How about us going for a spin later on?” he asked as he held her close.
“I came with my mother and Val. This party was put on in my honor as well as those two other vice-presidents. What would my boss think if he asked for me and heard that I’d already left?”
“They won’t miss you and we can return before the party’s over.”
“I just want to party, so anything else you have in mind for tonight, you had better put on hold.”
“Why not spend tonight with me? We could go to my apartment after the party.”
“Stewart, behave yourself, you know I’m yours, so just enjoy tonight,” she said and held him tighter.
***
Monique saw several of her friends at the party. She greeted them and had a chat with a few of them. She was now taking a breather whileVal talked to a few of his friends. She had met him in July 2003, almost a year after Byron's death. He understood when she told him that she was still mourning the loss of her husband of twenty four years.
He had been content to wait on her. He was going through
a divorce from his wife of twenty two years. The girls would have preferred to have their father around but didn’t want to see their mother get lonely and had encouraged her. She had gone out on a few dates with him, after which they started a relationship.
Monique wasn’t sure about a second marriage, although Val was confident that his divorce would soon be finalized. Val was a tall man who surprisingly at fifty only had a few gray hairs and didn’t carry much of a paunch. He was the investment manager for a leading building society in Kingston.
Monique saw Sally dancing with Vernon Hanlan, who had been her constant companion since they first met in August 2002, giving her solace, especially with Sid no longer around. Vernon was probably five years or so younger than Sally and was a medium sized man in sharp contrast to the giant, Sid. He was a building contractor. She saw Morgana dancing with Stewart and Bev dancing with Rory.
Darren had gone to another party with some of his friends. She had put a curfew on him so that he had to be home by ten o’clock on both Friday and Saturday nights. Tonight for example, she had asked one of her neighbors to note the time he got in as she and her husband wouldn’t be going out. He was now a senior having passed eight subjects with four distinctions and two credits in his high school leaving examinations.
She had to be constantly lecturing him about girls, and making it a rule that he introduce all his girlfriends to her. She randomly did a midnight inspection to ensure that he was in his room and an early morning one too.
***
Brad Newman and Dania Reid arrived at the party in
separate cars and were now dancing together. Dania was wearing a baby doll dress while Brad was wearing jeans and a sports shirt. Blake and his wife, Leila, and teenaged daughters, Veronica and Sophia, were doing a splendid job as hosts, Brad thought. Blake and Leila were there to welcome the guests and had in fact opened the dance floor. He saw his father, Russell and his mother, Daphne, dancing. Rick’s father, Caswell, was dancing with their company secretary, Stacy Lewis. Rick’s step-mother was seated in a chair and watching the proceedings. Rick was dancing with Celia.
He saw Morgana dancing with Stewart. He had to admit that she was one of the most beautiful girls, he had ever laid his eyes on. She was wearing a party dress that was just above her knees. Her hair, which was normally down to her shoulders was pinned up. He thought that even without the makeup she now had on she would still have looked glamorous. Her sister's beauty rivalled Morgana’s but she had broader hips and her breasts were fuller. Maybe it was Morgana’s eyes Brad thought, which simply lit up her face. Bev’s eyes were big and bold. Bev was wearing a short pants suit and her hair was canerowed fine.
Dania saw him looking at Morgana and said.
"From we reach here, you haven't taken your eyes off her."
"Who’s that?"
"Morgana, all of you guys seem to be going crazy over her."
"She's good looking, I'm sure you don't have anything against me for saying so.”
"I'm here with you and you’re paying me scant attention. If you want to go and flirt with her, that’s your business,” she said, pulling out of his arms and going into a corner.
Out of the corner of her eyes Morgana saw them arguing, then Dania stormed outside with Brad going after her.
She saw Stewart looking at Bobbette Greene. When the song finished, Morgana and Stewart went to have a seat and he excused himself. Two more songs played and Morgana seeing that he wasn’t returning, went in search of him. She saw him in a corner with Bobbette. They seemed to be arguing very animatedly. She didn’t stop to hear what it was about, but returned to the party area. As she entered, Brad came up to her.
"I wondered when I would catch you alone."
"You have me now," she said and laughed as he took her hand and led her to the dance floor. She saw her mother, sister and aunt looking curiously at her, but she wanted to have a good time. At least Stewart would realize that he wasn’t the only good looking man around.
"I hope you aren’t going to deny now that Dania is your girlfriend. You’ve spent most of the night dancing with her.”
She decided not to ask him why they had been quarrelling or of Dania’s present whereabouts.
"We're just good friends, but it's you I like. Anybody ever told you that you’re the most beautiful woman alive?”
"You’re just flattering me," she said and laughed. "I wonder what Dania would say if I asked her about you?"
"She would tell you just like I did."
"Anybody who saw you two at this party would say that you’re lovebirds.”
"If you say that to Dania, she would say that it was I who told you so and nothing could be further from the truth.”
"Brad, you're impossible, but you can't fool my woman's intuition though.”
"I think that maybe it just got fooled," he replied and she laughed.
Dania had re-entered the party and was looking at them dancing so also was Stewart.
When the song finished, Morgana left Brad and went over to Stewart.
"I saw you and Bobbette arguing. It seems as if you were having quite a spat. Is she here alone and where is her boyfriend? By the way, who is her boyfriend these days?”
She remembered that Bobbette and Dania had been in the same class in high school. It was the first time she was seeing Bobbette since returning to the island.
Stewart only grinned and said.
"Oh, it was nothing; it's just something I said to her. I don’t know where her boyfriend is. Maybe he’s on his way here. I never asked her. Her boyfriend is Robert Parsons. He’s gotten big since you’ve been away. I don’t think you know him.”
Morgana shook her head.
She had never heard about Robert Parsons and couldn’t remember who had been Bobbette’s latest boyfriend before she went away.
"I've heard things about you and her. Maybe this is the time to ask you about them.”
"What kind of rumors did you hear?"
"That while I was away you used to go around together."
“I used to go out with several girls, but they were just my friends. I never slept with any of them. And what about you? I saw you dancing with Mr. Bigshot, Brad Newman. I suppose Rick Graham will want his dance too. The two of them are always in a competition to see who can beat the other. I suppose you’ll be the next prize they’ll be fighting over. I've never asked you about that guy you had while you were in Florida."
"Stewart, stop it!"
Morgana stamped her feet and stormed away.
***
Dania pushed past Brad but he followed and caught up with her.
"Why did you return?"
"You wanted to get rid of me so that you could continue your pursuit of Morgana. Is that it, Brad? I just decided to turn around my car and return to see how well you were doing,” she said and laughed.
"You’re too jealous. Why do you think I would be pursuing her when I had you waiting for me all these years?”
"You know it's you I love, so stop acting silly. Remember the great times we used to have before I went away.”
"It's that Morgana, since she returned, she’s just showing off and behaving as if she’s any beauty queen."
"Oh come off it, she's not better looking than you. Come, let's return to the party," he told her, taking her hand.
***
Rick saw when Morgana storm away from Stewart and went after her. He caught up with her on the front patio. From there they could make out just a few people playing around in Blake’s pool. Celia had decided to take a breather and was having some refreshments while talking to some of her friends.
"Don't tell me you've stopped dancing for the night and I’ve not even had my dance yet.”
"I'm really tired, Rick, and I'm not in the mood right now."
"Maybe we could sit and talk."
He took a seat opposite her.
She didn’t answer at once, but after a while she nodded.
"You know when I returned I was thinking of finally
settling down in Jamaica and help to turn the company into a powerhouse, but now I’m not too sure. I got a lot of offers before I returned and I kind of miss up North and my friends.”
"I thought you were already settled. You should be able to make it out here. What are you afraid of?”
"I've never been afraid of anything. I know I can make it, but I’m not sure about the country. I just don’t like how they run things out here anymore.”
They continued talking with Rick continuing to express his disappointment at the bureaucratic bungling that was simply holding back developments in the country.
Stewart spied Morgana and came over.
"Rick, what's going on? Morgana, I'm leaving, are you coming along?"
"No, I'm waiting for my mother and sister.”
She was looking around trying to see if she saw Bobbette but she was nowhere to be seen.
Stewart saw her looking around and probably guessed the reason for her discomfiture but remained nonplussed.
"Okay then, I'll call you tomorrow. Rick, you take good care of her for me,” he said before walking away.
"Celia must be waiting for you, Rick," Morgana told him.
“I’ll soon go to her.”
“I’d better go and see how mummy, Bev and Aunt Sally are doing," Morgana said, getting up.
"What about that dance you promised me?"
"I've told you that I'm tired, maybe some other time,” she said as Brad came over.
"I saw your fiance’ leaving," he stated.
"I'll soon be leaving too," Morgana said, not wanting to be the source of any conflict between the two men.
"Celia must be looking for you, Rick."
"I could say the same thing about Dania."
Morgana wanting to get away from them spied Beverly and beckoned her over and she complied.
Again, both men started gushing over her and Morgana excused herself saying that she was going to look for her mother.
***
Driving back to his apartment, Stewart saw Bobbette's blue 2001 Suzuki Swift hatchback motor car ahead of him going down Red Hills Road. He blew his car horn and she stopped the car. He pulled up beside her.
"I thought you would have reached there by now."
"I was waiting to make sure you'd gotten away."
“Okay then, let's go," he said, letting her continue ahead of him.
Bobbette left her car at her apartment and returned to Stewart’s house in his car.
When they were inside his bedroom, she asked.
"Do you think she suspects anything?"
"After she saw us talking, she asked me about you."
"And what did you tell her?"
She had finished undressing now and came into his arms.
"I told her nothing, except that I knew you from university days."
“Stewart, we shouldn’t be doing this to her,” Bobbette said as they started kissing and Stewart drew her towards the bed. He had also taken off his clothes except for his shorts. He stopped kissing her and then started sucking her breasts.
He caressed her body using his fingers to play with her most sensitive areas. Bobbette kept undulating her legs in this the oldest dance of all.
“Stewart, please.’’
“Please what?”
“You know what I want.”
Later as they lay in each other’s arms, still savoring the joys that the joining of their bodies had just given them, Bobbette remarked.
“That second orgasm was mind boggling.”
“You didn’t want it to stop.”
“It nearly knocked me out.”
She hit him in his chest.
"Why did you leave Morgana alone with Rick and Brad?"
Stewart laughed.
"I asked her if she wanted me to drop her home, but she said she would go with her mother. She’s safe; her whole family is practically there.”
"You can say that again, no wonder you didn't want to dance with me,” she said. “I wonder how she let you go, knowing that I was around.”
"Who says I didn't want to dance with you? Of course I wanted to but I knew it would cause a fuss. As for wondering where you were, when I told her I was leaving, I saw her looking all over the place for you.”
"We've done a lot of terrible things to that girl. Wake me up at the usual time so that I can go home. Although none of the neighbors are nosy, you can never tell," she said, dropping off to sleep almost immediately.
Stewart wondered where Morgana was. Maybe she had already left the party. It served her right for not wanting to spend nights with him. He wondered what she had been thinking about when she was looking all over the place for Bobbette and didn’t see her. The only way that she could know that he was sleeping with her would be to come to his apartment anytime from now until she left in the morning. He knew that Morgana wouldn’t be doing any such thing.
He wondered why she had been asking him who was Bobbette’s boyfriend these days. He had to be careful because these girls knew a lot about each other. The only boyfriend, he knew about was Robert. He didn’t like to dig into a woman’s past.
Stewart got up to set the alarm on his cell phone for four thirty that morning. Almost none of her neighbors would be up at that time. It would allow her about three more hours of sleep at his apartment plus what she would get when she went home. He went and took off the condom before returning to the bed beside her. Shortly he too was snoring, after recounting the night’s events.
***
Morgana had reached home now. As she lay in bed, she knew she had made a mistake in not having Stewart take her home. But she reasoned that he could have taken her home and gone back to Bobbete’s apartment to sleep with her. She had to find out if they were lovers. She had no doubt that they had been quarrelling over something and maybe it had to do with her. Maybe he hadn’t told her that she would be at the party. Bobbette may have come to the party expecting to spend the night in Stewart’s arms only to find her there.
She was sure that Bobbette had left the party before him. So that was something they had planned. She should have realized that once Bobbette was there without her boyfriend, something was up.
She regretted not driving her car to the party. It would have been easy to trail Stewart to his apartment and have a confrontation with him and Bobbette if as she suspected she was there. In any case if she was mobile he wouldn’t have risked it with Bobbette. As it was she had come with her mother in Val’s car and it would hardly have been appropriate for her to have asked him to take her down to Stewart’s apartment. Nor would it make sense for her to get into her car and go down there at this time of the morning. She felt like calling Stewart, but he had only a cell phone and even if he was with Bobbette the only way she could find out would be to catch them in the act. She felt sleepy and finally dozed off.