Linton was reclining in an armchair that Sunday. After Bobbette’s wedding they had gone to Ruddys and danced the night away. Linton didn’t wake up until after ten o’clock that Sunday morning. Melanie had phoned to say that she was coming down to look after breakfast and would cook dinner for both of them.
They were around the breakfast table eating when Melanie said.
“The girl that got married; there was a tall guy I saw dancing with her. I’m sure I used to see her out with him. He was out with another girl last night. I know I used to see him out with a different girl who was wearing his engagement ring.”
Linton didn’t know who or what she was talking about.
“Sometimes I think I’m too inquisitive but that’s how women are, Linton. So you’ll just have to put up with me.”
Their breakfast consisted of salted mackerel, boiled green bananas and fried dumplings. They were washing it down with green tea and orange juice.
“I spend most of my time admiring women. I hardly have time for anything else.”
“Oh, so can I ask you which woman you have your eyes on?”
“You of course, you’re a damn good looking woman and so hot and you’re a good cook too.”
They ate some more of their food.
“I love cooking and I like men who appreciate my cooking. As for that good looking girl I don’t think it’s me you’re talking about.”
“I didn’t see any girl at that wedding who was as good looking as you. A lot of the girls and guys there are my colleagues. They’re going to be really curious about you at work tomorrow.”
“What are you going to tell them?”
“You’re my new girlfriend and the girls can eat their hearts out and the guys had better stay clear of you.”
They had finished eating now and both of them started to clear the table. When they finished washing up the dishes, they returned to the living room.
“What are you going to do for the rest of the day? I thought you were the church going type.”
“My mother has been trying to get me to attend ever since I’ve been back but I keep on putting her off but one of these Sundays I’ll just make up my mind and start going.”
“That’s good to hear, anyway, I eat a lot. So if you’re going to have me down here you had better have enough food.”
“Let’s go to the beach, we can get something there to eat.”
“You mean fish and bammy and festival. By the time I reach home, I’ll be hungry again. I’m sure you’ll be too, and don’t tell me about going to any of those fast food joints. I like to cook my own meals. Where’s the nearest supermarket from here?”
“Aren’t you afraid of putting on too much weight.”
“I do lots of exercises and the weight seems to go in all the right places.”
“You can say that again. The amount of guys I saw looking at you at that wedding and are going to be gawking at you on the beach.”
“I hope you aren’t jealous.”
“No, I’m not.”
“I’m glad you aren’t because they don’t stand a chance, Linton.”
Linton told her that they could go to Manor Park and volunteered to drive her up there. When they returned Melanie regretted that the peas weren't soaked and it would take too long. She decided to cook some oxtail and beans, brown rice, mash some irish potatoes and vegetables along with fruit juices.
They left for the beach at one o’clock that afternoon. They had a sumptuous dinner that evening after feasting on steam fish, bammy and festival at the beach. Melanie left for her home Sunday night telling Linton that she would call him tomorrow.
***
Monday evening, Jenna was at home relaxing. Both Jaime and Kailen had finished their homework and were watching television. Based on her calculations school would be giving holidays in another three weeks or so. Primary school leaving examination results would soon be out probably in another two weeks or so. She regretted that Kailen at eleven years wasn’t allowed by her school to sit the examinations. Her mother had gotten her into one of the best primary schools in Kingston and she was sure that she would have passed the examinations without any bother. However her class teacher said that in another year she would be able to win a scholarship to one of the top two girls schools in Kingston. She didn’t know much about the school system in the United States, but would have preferred if she had started high school out here and so a transfer to another school over there would have been much easier. She was about to get up to see if either or both of them was asleep when her cell phone rang. Selwyn was on the line.
“Jenna, how’s everything? How are Jaimie and Kailen?”
“I’m fine and they’re fine.”
“Good, listen I’ve sent you some money through Western Union. You can go there tomorrow and pick it up. What’s the nearest one to you?”
Jenna told him and he gave her other details which she wrote down.
“Why are you so generous all of a sudden, Selwyn?”
“It’s for Jaimie’s sake. I don’t have much time, but when I come we’ll talk.”
“Okay then, I’ll go for it and thanks.”
***
“The sales manager showed me a lot of things,” Monique said. She was referring to helping to manage Sally’s hardware while she was on her honeymoon. Bev and Morgana were talking to her in their living room that Tuesday evening.
“Mummy, are you taking a salary?” Bev asked.
“We agreed on a small stipend. Remember, I just go there sometimes to help out.”
“I’m going up to do some hard studying for my examinations. So I’ll be seeing you folks in the morning,” Bev said.
Her mother and sister bade her goodbye. Morgana and her mother were left in the living room to discuss things in general.
***
Linton and Melanie were at Solid Mix that evening dancing, drinking and chatting with their friends. They had danced to several songs and were now back at their small table. The crew was also out and had been doing the rounds since the beginning of the week.
“The crew is getting all excited over you. They want to know where I found such a girl like you.”
“Do I measure up to the other women in the crew? I want an honest answer from you.”
“Since we’ve met I’ve been showering praises on you about your great looks. I think you’re a wonderful woman. What does it matter what other people in the crew think?”
“Because in the short time I’ve known you, you’ve told me about Kennea Stevens and Orlean Patricks both of whom got booted from the crew because their boyfriends, Sheldon Morgan and Dustin Carter didn’t think they looked fashionable enough. They brought in new women to replace them in Candace Bernard and Carolyn Young.”
“These things are bound to happen in any crew. Those guys tried with those two girls, but they just couldn’t get a passing grade.”
They got up to dance again. They left the club minutes to midnight and were on Melanie’s patio talking.
“So what if Candy and Carloyn don’t meet their expectations? They will be shown the door too and the process starts over again. I can just imagine the number of people who’ve been kicked out of your crew and it’s been mainly women.”
“A few guys have gotten the same treatment too.”
“Why?”
“If they’ve lost their job, can’t keep up with the car or house payments or been convicted of white collar crime.”
“I can’t imagine there’d be a lot of the latter.”
“You’d be surprised.”
“What’s the crew all about though?”
“It’s just a few guys and girls deciding to socialize. It’s strictly couples and we restrict it to people under a certain age.”
“Why are no single people allowed?”
“Too much trouble, guys would be competing with each other for the girls. The girls would be doing the same thing for the guys. You can see the amount of conflict that would bring.”
“Come and sit in my lap, Melanie.”
“Linton, are you crazy? All the neighbors will see us.”
“At this time of the morning, they’re all asleep. Okay, let’s go inside.”
“I don’t want that.” She got up and Linton got up and kissed her. But Melanie pulled away.
“That’s enough.” She sat back in her chair leaving Linton standing.
“I thought you didn’t want it to stop.”
“Until we ended up in bed, I’ve just met you. Remember when I told you that I like to luxuriate in a relationship. It meant I like to take my time.”
Linton sat back down.
“I don’t want you to feel that I’m forcing you.”
“Of course not, I like you a lot. It’s just that I’m feeling a bit uneasy about the crew.”
“The crew can’t do you anything and I’m now one of the top guys in it.”
“Okay, if you say so.”
“Hey, I have to go to work and since I’m not going to spend the night with you, I’d better be going.”
Melanie came into his arms again and they kissed. Linton bade her goodbye and went to his van and drove off.
***
Glen was lying down in a chair on his patio and drinking a light beer when his cell phone rang. He pressed the call button and an unfamiliar number came up. Rory was on the line.
“Glen, it’s me, Rory, I’m warning you to leave my woman alone, guy.”
“How’d you get my number? You know you can’t talk to me like that. Yeah, I’m seeing her now. Want to do something about it?”
“Don’t worry about how I got your number. You’re going on as if you’re bad. Hey, guy, I’ll come up there and do you something.”
Although Rory was taller and thicker than him, Glen knew too much about him to be scared. Rory might outweigh him by thirty or forty pounds, but that didn’t mean anything and if he wanted a fight he’d meet him anywhere.
“What can you do to me? Just remember we used to be in the same class.”
“All I want is for you to leave Bev alone. Go back to Leona. Because you have so much money that’s why you feel you can use it and buy her love, but it’s not going to work.”
“You leave Leona out of this. Why don’t we leave it up to Bev to make the decision?”
“Fat chance I’d have against you with all that money you have splashing around.”
“You are the one who is challenging me.”
“Hey guy, hold this. Ask that girl how many abortions she has done. You think that she’s a little angel. You ask her about the amount of money I’ve given her to have them done.”
“You’re a dirty liar. I’d punch your face right now if I knew where you are.”
“I’m parked over by the stop light at Molynes Road and Washington Boulevard. Want to come and fight me?”
“Don’t run, stay right there. I’m on my way there.”
***
Glen waited at the agreed meeting place for about ten minutes and knew that Rory had just been bluffing. Come to
think of it while he had gotten into a few fights in high school he couldn’t remember Rory being in any. He got into his car and was about to drive off when a car came down Molynes Road and blew its horn. He looked out of his window and saw Morgana and Beverly.
Morgana turned around her car and came to park behind Glen’s car.
Both women came out of the car.
“Are you all right, Glen? Rory told us that he and you were fighting and he had beaten you up,” Bev said rushing to Glen’s car and peeking inside.
Glen opened his car door and came out.
“He’s lying, look at me. Do I look hurt to you? I came here to fight him, but he seems to be hiding from me.”
“Morgan, I’m going to stay with Glen.”
“Okay then. I think Rory is bluffing, Glen,” Morgana said and got into her car and drove off.
Bev got into Glen’s car and they went into the nearby lay-by.
“What were you and Rory quarrelling about?”
“He made some spurious allegations against you.”
“Like what?”
“That you got pregnant for him several times and he gave you money to do an abortion each of those times.
“The whole time I was along with Rory I was having sex with him. I’ve never been afraid to admit that, but I was always on the pill and I insisted that he wear a condom. He can’t tell you when I was ever pregnant for him or any doctor that I went to abort the baby.”
“Where does he live?”
“He’s staying with his aunt in Duhaney Park.”
“Let’s go down there.”
“I don’t want you to get into any fight with Rory because he said some untruthful things about me.”
“He told you that he’d beaten me up. I want to confront him about that and see what he’ll do.”
They found Rory’s house. Cydonne recognized Bev but told her that she hadn’t seen Rory since coming home from Spanish Town where she had gone to sell some of the things she had brought home from the States. She told Bev that she had returned from the States last week.
They went into Sandy’s Place in the Duhaney Park Plaza, where Glen ordered a beer for himself and a soda for her. He also ordered some sandwiches.
“Some people can be bitter and revengeful, Bev. He’s trying to drive a wedge between us.”
“He has let me down. He isn’t even prepared to stand by Brittany and her baby.”
“He told me to meet him there and we’d fight. So I said okay, but he didn’t show up.”
“He’s just taunting you. He phoned me to say that you came to fight him and what he had done to you.”
They continued to eat their food.
“You want me to order some more food.”
“No, I’m okay. I think I’ll just go home and try to relax before I take up a book.”
“When does Rory leave the island?”
“Tomorrow.”
“I don’t want him to get away with insulting you.”
“I have to get home. I have an examination tomorrow.”
“I have one too, what a waste?”
“I don’t understand you. You have important examinations coming up and you’re going to fight over something so insignificant.”
“It was important. Come we’d better go.”
He dropped Bev home and didn’t stay long talking to her because of their impending examinations.
***
Stewart had slept with April, Yasmin, Treena and Haydee Clementson who had returned from the Cayman Islands only for one week. Already it was just Friday morning and he was still feeling drowsy after having three cups of coffee. He had spent practically the whole night partying and making love to each woman. Haydee had gotten up early this morning and had cooked breakfast consisting of fritters, green plantains and steam fish. They had washed it down with coffee and orange juice. She told him that her stay in Jamaica was too short for only one night with him and she wanted him all to herself the next time she was on the island. There was something he liked about Haydee, her natural inclination to fuss over him. She wanted to know that since he was a single man, who was cooking and doing his laundry for him. Haydee was a nursing assistant at a small hospital in Grand Cayman. She had left him a booklet on the nutritional value of most Jamaican foods. Not even Morgana had shown that kind of interest in his welfare.
Treena was proving to be a sexual bombshell and he had to spend a longer time with her than all of the others. She also wanted to spend more time with him, but he had to warn her that although he and his present fiancé had nothing going on she was still watching him for what he had no idea. He had also told Treena that he would soon get rid of her and just concentrate on her alone.
***
Friday evening Linton and Melanie and the crew drove down to Ocho Rios. Linton and Melanie had agreed to share a room, but she said that he had to respect her privacy. She wanted to know about Candy and Carolyn. But Linton said that they were staying with their boyfriends, but he didn’t know what the arrangements were. On Friday night they partied all night. On Saturday Linton and Melaine went to the beach and Dunn’s River Falls along with most members of the crew. That night they partied in the hotel’s nightclub and didn’t go to bed until the early morning.
Linton was fast asleep when he saw like a shadow come over him. He thought he was dreaming until he heard Melaine’s voice.
“Linton, wake up. I want you.”
Linton woke up, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Melanie was standing over him and she was naked. She looked like a sex goddess. Her skin was flawless, her breasts were deep and pendulous and her nipples big and prominent. He took one and began to suck it, but she pushed his hand away.
The embers that they had stoked and re-stoked all morning had finally subsided and now the two of them lay in each other’s arms. They were still savoring the joys of a lovemaking neither of them had expected, so early in their relationship.
“You shocked me this morning.”
“I dreamed that we were making love and I decided that
I wanted you to make love to me.”
“Did I meet your expectations?”
“With flying colors.”
“Don’t you believe in foreplay? I was sucking your breasts when you pushed my hand away.”
“It seems as if the dream I had, got me ready. I felt that I was already in the mood for love. From what I’ve told you, you must know that it’s been a long time for me. Anyway, I want to get some more sleep.”
“You go back to sleep. I’m going to the bathroom to take off this thing.”
When he returned from the bathroom, she was fast asleep. Linton too went back to sleep in a few minutes.