Bev had told Rory that she would drive herself to Corners that night. They danced and chatted with their friends. When she told him not to come for her, he wanted to know if she didn’t trust him or his driving skills. She simply told him that she felt more comfortable driving herself. Normally in former years and at the height of their relationship before Rory first went away, he and Bev usually made love at his mother’s house as he still had rooms there. His mother had sold that house and when he was here in January he had to stay at his aunt, Cydonne’s house. They had memories of their nights of intense lovemaking when they both wished the night would never end. Of course Bev’s excuse to her mother was that she was staying with friends at their house and doing some group studies.
“Why do you want us to leave so early?" Bev asked. She looked at her watch and realized that it was just a quarter to ten.
"You know that I don't have my flat again."
“Remember when you were out here in January you had to stay at your aunt, Cydonne’s house."
“Oh, I forgot that you knew.”
They were outside the nightclub now.
“So you don't want to spend some time with me? After all it’s long time we haven't been together."
"So is that why you were in such a hurry to see me? You came out here looking for me and sex. I don’t hear from you for over three months, then we go on a date and all you can think about is going to bed with me. You know I was never that easy a girl. I never believed a word you told me. You just got tired of sleeping with Brittany and thought of a change of bed partners," Bev told him.
“Or is Brittany too advanced in her pregnancy for you to have sex with her?”
"Hey, what are you talking about? You think I have to come to Jamaica to get a woman? It’s like I told you and if you don’t believe me, that’s too bad. Maybe those rumors about you and that guy, Rick, are true after all or is it Glen? And I’m not going to repeat that Brittany isn’t pregnant for me.”
"Rick and I were never lovers and how did you hear about me and him?” she asked. “And Glen and I are just good friends.”
"Since I came out, I’ve heard that some campus money guys have been pursuing you.”
"What a lot of things you’ve heard. Well, for your information none of them is pursuing me and even if they are, they aren’t having any luck.”
"Like I said, it's since I came out I heard the rumors."
"I'm going home. You'd better go back to Brittany. I don’t think this long distance relationship is going to work out."
"So what are you saying, it's over between us? You still believe what Roxanne told you?"
"For all I know you and Brittany could have gotten married. I don’t think this is going to work and maybe we shouldn't try to rekindle it."
Rory shrugged his shoulders and moved off to his car.
"Go to hell."
That was all she heard him say before he got into his car and drove off. Bev wasn’t sure if some patrons heard him, but she didn’t reply.
He was obviously angry at not getting the chance to go to bed with her, Bev thought as she drove off.
***
When Bev reached home, Morgana was in the living room watching television.
"Why are you home so early?" she asked Bev. Bev laughed and took a seat in one of the couches.
"Where are mummy and Darren?"
"Mummy is lying down in her room and Darren is in his room too."
Morgana looked at her expectantly as the girl hadn’t answered her question.
"Rory told me to go to hell because I refused to go and sleep with him.”
"What! I'm surprised that you went out with him after not hearing from him for so long.”
"He came to me with a story about why I wasn’t hearing from him. So I decided to test him.”
"I understand, don't think I don't. I’m on the verge of returning Stewart’s engagement ring to him. We’re through, I’m finished with him and his cheating ways.”
"It seems like we're two lonely hearts."
"I won't be lonely for long. I'm not going to let any man
date me again this long like Stewart did.”
"Talk about Stewart, I saw him at Corners with April."
Without giving Morgana time to answer Bev got up.
"Let's go beat her up, Morgan and let her leave your man alone.”
She rushed into the kitchen and returned with a baton.
"What do you think you’re going to do and where are you going with that thing?"
"Aren't you going to fight April? We can wait until they’re leaving the club and then attack her.”
Morgana laughed and Bev looked at her.
"You want me to go out there to fight a girl over Stewart. If I go to fight April I don't know how many other women I would end up fighting. You must have noticed that I'm no longer wearing his engagement ring."
"I thought you just had some disagreement."
"Stewart is wild. I've only just realized how he is. He told me that he didn’t want anything to do with April but now you’ve seen him out with her. Before April there was Bobbette and countless other women.”
"But he’s your fiancé, even though you aren’t wearing his ring. I wouldn’t give him up so easily so that April can boast that she now has your man.”
"You want me to go out there to get into a fight with April and disgrace myself. I’m in a responsible position. I’m not attending school like you. If I have a man and have to be fighting every girl out there to keep him, then what’s the use. You know that April and I have fought over him already,” Morgana appealed to her sister for understanding.
Bev got up.
"I'm going to bed; see you in the morning," she said, going into the kitchen to put away the baton.
"I'm going to finish watching this movie," Morgana told her as she came out of the kitchen and started ascending the stairs.
***
Bev didn’t go to bed immediately as she told Morgana, instead she called Glen. Glen was in his room reading a book. He hadn’t spoken to his parents about his break-up with Leona as yet, but intended to do so shortly.
“Hi, Glen, how are you?”
“I’m okay, so is everything okay between you and Rory now?”
“For your information we’ve now officially broken up. He kept lying to me about Brittany. He said he hadn’t seen Strats and again denied that Brittany was pregnant for him. Then would you believe it, he wanted me to go to bed with him. When I told him no, he told me to go hell and drove away.”
Glen wiped some of the sweat from his forehead. He knew that Bev was a sensible girl and a strong woman.
“I’m sorry about you and Rory, but I didn’t tell you that Leona and I have broken up too.”
If he had been nearer he would have seen the broad smile on Bev’s face at his latest announcement.
“I’m sorry about that. You should try to get back together.”
“That’s like me giving you the same advice about Rory. She wants to go her way and we weren’t getting on.”
“I know what everybody will be saying about us.”
“Even my mother has heard the rumors,” Glen said.
“Only my little brother hasn’t confronted me about you.”
“So what do we do? Quell the rumors or confirm them?”
“I don’t know.”
“We should continue seeing each other and see how things work out.”
“I agree with you. I’ll call you tomorrow,” she said before ending the call.
***
Brad and Jenna were at Corners that Friday evening when they saw Morgana and Jessica Aldridge enter the nightclub. Jessica was Blake’s secretary. Brad was dancing with Jenna. Alex and Jessica were now dating and Brad had no doubt that he was on his way to the nightclub.
He and Jenna spent a great deal of time on the dance floor. Brad wondered where Stewart was. He knew that Morgana was no longer wearing his engagement ring. He had suspected that Morgana being a sensible girl, would soon wise up to his womanizing ways.
He soon lost track of Morgana, but saw Alex still dancing with Jessica. Morgana was also dancing with a guy, but Brad didn’t know him. When Jenna said she was tired and wanted to sit down, Brad took her back to their table. He spied Morgana, Alex and Jessica sitting at their table and talking. Brad left Jenna at their table and went over to Morgan.
"Alex, how come you're so lucky? You alone have two fabulously looking women?”Brad asked.
Alex laughed and replied.
"I'm just here talking to them, Brad."
"Brad, I would dance with you, but I don't want your girlfriend to get jealous,” Morgana said.
"You're colleagues, why should she be jealous?” Jessica asked as Alex took her hand and led her to the dance floor.
"She's not that kind of person. She won’t say anything if she saw me dancing with you. She didn’t make a fuss when we danced together at Sally’s wedding,” Brad replied taking her hand.
As they danced Brad asked her.
"So where is Stewie?"
"He's around somewhere," she replied. She replied in such a disinterested way that prompted him to ask.
"I hope you two haven’t broken up?"
"No, we haven't, but it's going to take a lot for us to patch up things again.”
"I sincerely hope that both of you can make up."
When the song finished he rejoined Jenna at their table.
"Hey, I thought somebody might have stolen you away from me,” he remarked as he took a chair.
"They might try, but you know nobody will succeed."
"Hey, that's how I like to hear my girl talk," he said as they got up to dance again. He looked over and saw Morgana dancing with a guy. Again, this guy was a stranger to him. Secretly he was worried as he kept on dancing with Jenna.
Later as they lay in her bed after an intense session of lovemaking, Jenna said.
"It does appear as if that girl has suddenly gotten sensible and left that guy.”
"She has stopped wearing his engagement ring and I hear that he’s been seen a few nights out with a girl called April.”
“I knew that he and Bobbette were friends."
"Rick and I couldn't understand how Stewart could have duped a sensible girl like Morgana into getting engaged to him.”
"At least she has regained hold of her senses.Turn off the lights, I might want some more in the morning.”
Brad laughed.
“I wonder if I’ll be able to get up in time though," she said as he got up off the bed to look at his watch.
"It's already morning," he told her as he turned off the lights and joined her on the bed.
"You know what I mean by morning," she said as they hugged each other close, falling asleep in each other’s arms.
***
Stewart and April went to the party being put on by April’s friend, Anneisha Mc Phail, in Orange Grove. They danced, mingled with friends, had some of the food and refreshments on offer, but left at around midnight as they had Bobbette’s wedding to attend in the morning.
***
Linton had reported his break-up with Kedija to crew members and introduced Melanie to them as her replacement. Linton had to agree that she was a great looking woman. She wasn’t as tall as Kedija but had a fuller body with bigger breasts and hips and she had great legs. It was more than a week now since they started going around. They had been hitting the nightclub circuit together almost from the first night they met. Melanie was a senior secretary with a building society in Kingston.
Tonight they attended Reasons nightclub and danced the night away. Linton had dropped her home and they were talking in his van outside her flat.
“I know you guys are going to Ocho Rios next week, but I can’t go.”
“Why can’t you go?”
“I’d be going as your woman and we’d have to sleep in separate rooms.”
“Why would we have to do that?”
“Because I’m not ready to sleep with you.”
“I’m an honorable guy. I wouldn’t trouble you if you told me that you weren’t ready.”
“You know, a lot of people look at me and say that I have a lot of experience with guys but honestly I don’t. There was only one other guy before Wilks and he took my, you know what. I’d like to luxuriate in this relationship.”
“When I first met Wilks, he never pressured me. He allowed me to take all the time I wanted. That’s why I’m sorry he went away, but you’ll have to show me what you can do. So far I can’t say I’m disappointed.”
“You haven’t seen half of me yet.”
“The first night we met you nearly swept me off my feet and since then it has only gotten better. All you have to do is to continue working at it.”
“That’s a lot of encouragement. Think you can handle it when I start pouring it on?”
“Try me, Linton.”
“Have you ever heard men or it can be women too. They’ll see a man and a woman walking and they’ll be passing remarks if the man can manage her or some crude expression like that.”
“They mean if the man can take care of business. In other words, can he give her sexual satisfaction.”
“So how do you think I measure up?”
“You were a track athlete and you look fit and healthy to me. But I’m still guessing your age. I’m twenty six.”
“I’m two years older than you, but with not a lot of experience.”
“You look experienced to me, but we’ll see. But you’ll have to show this relatively inexperienced girl all the ropes.”
Melanie burst out laughing and Linton joined her.
“We have a wedding to attend and it’s a morning one at that. Why did she chose to have a morning wedding?
“I think she and her new husband want to have an early afternoon love feast.”
“I have to turn in if I want to be in one piece for that wedding,” Melanie said and kissed him and opened his van door.
Linton came out of his vehicle and accompanied her to her gate and watched her open her door and go in before he went to his van and drove away.
***
Bobbette’s wedding took place at the New Testament Church in Molynes Gardens. Celia, Dania and two of her former classmates, were her four bridesmaids. Robert’s business partner, and three former school mates, were his best men. The nuptials out of the way the wedding party had a breakfast reception at the Mountain Valley Hotel. This would later be followed by a party at Robert and Bobbette’s new home in Norbrook Mountains. Bobbette looked regal in her white wedding gown as did her bridesmaids who were all outfitted by Thalia Meikle of Weddings and More, a wedding planning company in the Sovereign Plaza in Liguanea. Robert and his best men were outfitted by Pablo Ryan’s Tailoring Establishment in Seventh Avenue Plaza off Constant Spring Road.
Bobbette nearly tripped over her wedding gown when she saw Stewart at her party with April English of all persons. She was walking along a pavement looking for Robert when she saw them.
Rick got to dance with both Bobbette and Dania. Dania had a new boyfriend, Leo Barnes, a civil engineer with a road and bridge construction company. She told him that she was no longer thinking of migrating and had gotten over Brad.
Bobbette and Robert both danced and chatted with several of their guests and finally she and Stewart were dancing.
“I thought it was Morgana, you were bringing.”
Stewart scoffed.
“She has virtually broken off with me. It’s a good thing April was around and I asked her to come with me.”
“Is it because of April why she and you are quarrelling? I’m sure it could never be me as I’m no longer in the picture.”
“Surprisingly, believe it or not it’s you. She said I wasn’t acting right from the time I heard that you were going to be married.”
“You know, Stewart, I should be angry at seeing you at my wedding with April. Of all the nerve I thought, but I’m glad. Imagine me having to be fighting both April and Morgana for some attention from you.”
“You know how I have always felt about you and April and I are just good friends.”
“I suppose that you used to tell Morgana that you and I were good friends too,” she said and laughed.
“What did you use to tell Robert?” he asked as the song finished and they pulled apart.
“You know what I used to tell him.”
Stewart laughed.
“I might dance with you again before the night is out. It’ll be my goodbye dance and to show that I bear you no ill-will,” Bobbette said as she went in search of her husband.
Linton was also at the wedding with Melanie and was quite easily the best dancer at the venue. Several unescorted women had their eyes on him, but Melanie refused to let him go except to dance with a few of his female colleagues.
***
Bev had agreed to go with Glen to Corners and both of
them were snuggled up together as they sat in his vehicle in the early hours of the morning. They were on Wiltshire Avenue near to her home in the Canrieves. Bev was dressed in a pair of blue shorts with a body hugging blouse while Glen wore a short jeans pants and a short sleeve sports shirt.
“Glen, we’ll definitely have to put our partying on hold because we both have exams and want to do well in them.”
Glen drew her closer to him, their windows were pulled down and the early morning atmosphere allowed them not to turn on the vehicle’s air conditioning unit. The Canrieves was patrolled by the police as well as several security companies.
“You’re right about that and you know what, they have a saying that nothing is ever done before it’s time and I think they’re right. This is the right time for us.”
“I suppose you’re right. Imagine me going up and being confronted by Brittany and her baby.”
“What about me coming up not sure about Leona only to find out that she and Duncan Sawyers are lovers?”
“But seriously though, if Leona wanted to live with you I think I might want a try at it,” she said and laughed. “I was just joking.”
“I don’t think people should live together unless they’re married. People shack up, have children and then go their separate ways and sometimes they leave their kids behind who often become a burden on society.”
“I would never live with a man unless I was married to him.”
Glen took her in his arms and they began kissing. After a while Bev pulled away.
“You’re too experienced for me and I don’t want anybody to say they saw me and you on the road kissing.”
“I’m just two years older than you,” he said and laughed. “Your lips are so sweet that I don’t think I could stop kissing you.”
“You know what that would lead to,” she remarked and put her head in his lap.
“No, I don’t.”
“The police would arrest us for indecent exposure.”
“We would have found somewhere.”
“Your place or mine? Anyway, I’m not yet ready for that.”
“I’m not rushing you. I just love to feel you in my arms that’s all.”
“I like you a lot and I hope you feel the same way about me.”
“I’ve always liked you and even more now,” he said and Bev drew down his head and kissed him before sitting up.
“I want to get some sleep and I know you want some too. More’s the pity we can’t sleep in the same bed.”
“I could sleep in the same bed with you and nothing would happen. Want to try it?”
“You’re young and virile and I’m young too. I don’t think we could trust ourselves not to make love and I know you. I’d probably have to kick you off the bed.”
“Why would you have to do something like that?”
“Because you’d be twisting and turning and being tempted all the while to touch the hot young female body beside you.”
Glen laughed and said.
“Maybe it’ll be sooner than we both think.”
“We’ll have to work on that, darling,” she said as he started the vehicle and drove off.
***
That Sunday morning as Stewart and April lay in bed she said.
“I feel jealous of Bobbette.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“For one thing she is married to a rich guy and has gone on this fabulous honeymoon.”
“I wonder when will I ever marry? When will I ever find a man, who is going to treat me like that?” she asked and started to beat his chest.
“Hey, what’s the meaning of this? Don’t worry, your luck might soon be changing.”
“I bet that’s what you were telling Bobbette. Do you remember what I told you when I just returned home?”
Stewart tried to recollect what she had said.
“I don’t know who could have told you that. It was nothing like that. You didn’t see the big handshake, he gave me. He was thanking me for encouraging her to marry him.”
“I don’t believe anything that you’ve just said.”
“You can ask Bobbette the next time you see her.”
“You know I’ll be doing nothing like that. I want to get some more sleep. Maybe we can go to the beach later on. I want to get a real soak,” she said and turned over on her back. Shortly she was snoring. Stewart got up and went to the bathroom before returning to lie beside her. Shortly he too was snoring.
***
Stan lay relaxed in a hammock in his yard. All kinds of wild thoughts were going through his head. Like killing the old couple and just creating mayhem in the village. But these people hadn’t done him any harm. He realized that you were likely to be accepted by these people if they saw and agreed with your lifestyle. Stan had shared his marijuana with the young men in the village. He was now having his meals cooked by a twenty-two year old mother of two children from a neighbouring village. He would spend half the night with her before returning to his room to sleep. He was now giving her a weekly allowance. He still had the stuff he had taken from Linton stored in his room and would probably sell them when he moved from Hepburn Grove to a town or a more prosperous location.