Chapter Fifteen
I was almost escaping.
I knew calling Vincent meant that I would see Josh, but this was an emergency and I couldn’t afford to just sit on the fence and do nothing. Everything was almost going smoothly as I have planned when Ludo and Question suddenly started planning their murders and Josh was so confused with the sudden change of events he just stood there waiting for the chaos to happen.
And for a moment they seemed to calm, not sure what Question said but it hit a nerve because Ludo seemed to deflect for a moment before she raised a fiery gaze at him
I just had to step in. we are in a public place and I don’t need to leave Kasane with a criminal record. I plan to settle here in the near future and I need that clean record. So I had to do this and I had only one sentence to settle this chaos.
Well that very sentence never got out because Josh is suddenly in my face, pissed off as hell and I am feeling too many things right now.
It takes me an eternity for his question to register in my brain and for my too feeling brain to interpret its meaning.
‘what?’ I finally shake off whatever’s been holding me, ‘that is not important right now—I am trying to..’
‘I have been looking for you all day. I don’t know what is going on or if I did something wrong but I do appreciate some communication if you needed space.’
Like I said, I am feeling too many things right now and before I know it tears are forming in my eyes. When he sees them, his face softens, ‘July.’ He says and sighs.
I hate it that I want to bawl in front of him. In front of anybody for that matter. I turn away from him and face Vincent who has a look on his face that makes me want to hit him and laugh at the same time.
‘Nancy is waiting for you outside in a taxi.’ I tell him
‘Whaat?’ Ludo starts the same moment Vincent is already on his feet and rushing out. ‘what do you mean Nancy is outside I saw her walk inside the plane.’
‘I told her to stay.’ I say, ‘we cant push Nancy to choose what she doesn’t want.’
‘and how would you know what she really wants Jules---.’
‘I know because—.’
‘you are a good judge of character?’ Ludo scoffs, ‘what am I even doing? Why am I even doing this? I was only trying to protect you and Nancy from the very thing that almost broke you and all of us not so long ago.’
‘you keep bringing that up like it was up to you.’
‘I am your friend, you are like a sister to me, of course it was up to me to see that you didn’t hurt yourself and us… you were so fixed on yourself and that jack ass you didn’t know what we were going through worried about you—and now Nancy is doing the same thing of which you of all people should know better.’
I feel like I have been punched in the gut. But me? I get claws when I feel let out not the other way round. I am not a snail who rushes into a snail for protection, I am a porcupine, my nails and thorn sprout out and strike.
I raise my chin, ‘well I’m not a sadist.’
Ludo blinks. She didn’t see that coming and I am way too worked up to care.
‘you don’t want to believe in happy endings—you thrive and get energized when you see other people suffer—you want me to believe that you helped get David away from me? Or simply that you felt good when it all ended like you wanted…’
I know my words hurt but Ludo also doesn’t back down during a fight because the next words she says makes me take a step back, ‘I am going to kill you.’
Question holds her in time before her claws reaches me. I give her one last look before I make a sharp turn and walk away from her. Lucky for me, I meet a taxi just as I step out and I slip into the back seat closing the door behind me.
***
I open the door and he is right there standing in front of me. This person I have only known for a few hours and has made feel so much such that I can hardly recognize myself anymore. I cant fathom the expression on his face but I know that I have wronged him greatly and I wont blame him if he decides that this is too insane for his own good and wants to walk away while he still can.
Okay, mind on the matter, July.
‘hey.’ I manage a tremulous smile, he only nods back, shit this is not going down well for me.
‘you called?’
Cold and unfeeling—this is killing my motivational buzz.
‘yes—uh yeah, I uh—wanted to…’ stop right there, I don’t need to blabber in front of him as if he is some sort of master, ‘can we talk?’
A nod again and he muscles into my room before I even start to open the door wider and invite him in. okay, I knew this was not going to be easy. My palms are already sweating and my heart might just fail any moment from now. I cant even summon the confidence to turn and face him and talk like adults, well this would have been easy if he weren’t too adult right now and I would have easily gone with my crazy plan.
‘would you like something to drink?’ I say facing the door forming an impromptu escape plan that involved yanking the door open and making a run for it leaving him in the room.
‘July!’
Heart skips… I can feel his eyes at the back of my head before I slowly turn to face him. And oh god he looks so serious I am now learning that this was a bad idea. I should have just let him be, I mean the guy hasn’t said a word to me since yesterday, even when we met at the local diner by accident he treated me like just another face in the crowd and that stung,
Anyway—I fix my posture and—what had I planned to say to him again? While trying to relocate the speech I had prepared for this moment I glance at the bed and heat immediately envelops my face, I blink and remove my eyes from there but when I look at Josh again I can tell by the heat that is in his eyes that our thoughts were similar.
‘okay!’ I say that out loud as an encouragement mantra to myself before I catch him giving me a strange look, ‘I am not good with this heart to heart thing- too many emotions.’
‘this is a heart to heart thing?’
I raise a palm at him, ‘I am trying to collect my thoughts here okay—stop looking at me like that – just be your normal self.’
He cocks his head to one side. Yeah dude I don’t get myself either at times welcome to the party. I start and begin taking backward steps when the man suddenly narrows those heated eyes at me and starts advancing towards me.
‘why did you run and hide from me July?’
Okay, maybe it was lame of me to sneak out of my own room on him and vanishing but I do that when I feel like my head is about to explode and mine can’t explode—period.
‘I didn’t call you here to talk about that,’
‘what could you have possibly called me here to talk about then?’
Step—step –step, eyes squeezed shut and deep breath
‘you drive me crazy— I don’t even know you and you are all over me in a way that is—like I said—driving me crazy.’
Okay I hadn’t planned to say that. I mean my speech was formal and sensible but my brain to mouth filter seem to have died. After I hold my breath for thirty seconds and I realise that nothing is happening (not that I have in mind what must happen) I peel open one eye and the way he is close to me makes me pop open both my eyes and take a step back, only there isn’t any space anymore behind me than the wall which is incredibly cold in the middle of summer.
But I will think about that later because right now I am way too focused in his arms that are caging me right on this spot and those eyes asking for complete honesty.
‘that didn’t come out right.’ I try to rephrase my earlier statement though I am positive it will be on the front headlines for decades, you know like the bad habits of a celeb once they get out of their famous era.
‘you think you know crazy? Because I know crazy—I know crazy to a greater extent because I love you—and I have decided that you belong to me, so if you still want to play show and hide that’s fine, but at the end of the day you don’t get to decide by yourself what happens in this relationship remember that I am now involved too and my say also matters.’
I thought I was the crazy one—talk about David meet Goliath moment. I am pretty sure my mouth hangs open for thirty full seconds because I am counting—I mean I count when my brain is about to explode—like I said earlier—I can’t afford to have my head explode…
‘show and hide sounds like a good idea.’ I blurt out again.
‘damn it July.’ He closes his eyes and moves back into the room and I almost sag in relief at the distance…’what about me then?’
‘I didn’t plan--.’
He pivots to face me, ‘and you think that I planned it? But never mind that—I don’t care if I’ve only known you for an hour, all I know is that I have never felt anything real like this my whole life and I know for a fact that I will never find it anywhere else and with you I am not afraid to bare my heart out over and over again because none of this feels strange to me.’
My knees almost buckle—gosh did this guy get possessed by some romance novel Adonis or what? I mean dude…
‘I feel the same way.’ That part of me that seem to confess things I haven’t consented yet says, ‘and it scares me.’
My scalp prickles—like I tried to tell him, I don’t do heart to heart—it makes me cringe.
A long silence and all I am thinking about is what could he possibly be thinking about?
‘I’m sorry that you had to meet that jack ass before you met me—I would never let a woman like you go, I’d hold you hostage if it were up to me and you want to walk away—I’d hold you hostage until you fell in love with me the same way I am falling for you—and I am not just saying.’
The thought of Josh holding me hostage brings a scandalous image in my mind I have to shake my head to return to my normal self. I am screwed, irrevocably and for a lifetime screwed—with that conclusion I rush towards him in a daze and throw my arms around his neck.
After he returns my passionate kiss for a good one minute—yeah I was counting—he pulls away to look at my face and says;
‘if you sneak out on me this time I will hunt you down and torture you.’
Oh god how do this guy seem to say the right things even though they sound nutty. And I am nuttier because I breathlessly reply;
‘noted,’ before latching myself onto him again like a freaking star fish.
***
I take a deep breath as I approach the little gazebo where all the protagonists of this interesting road trip are hereby gathered. It was last night that I finally decided what to do with my so desired YouTube channel I will let it out once this phase is over.
Everyone is there, even Ludo who avoids eye contact with me as I sit rigidly beside Josh. Question nods at me and Vincent flashes me a warm small smile that matches Nancy’s I suppose they did have a talk about me being involved in the matter.
‘great we are all here now.’ Nancy exclaims, ‘I know that today is our last day here and we all have plans to enjoy the final laps of this trip so I will keep it short.’
We all nod simultaneously.
‘now.’ She glances at Vincent and takes his hand, ‘I know we all met in the strangest way possible, Josh and Q but I consider you my friends now and I want to say that the past few days have been crazy.’
We all echo answers like;
‘you don’t say.’
‘Yeah no kidding.’
A scoff, ‘you’re telling me.’
‘It’s insane.’
Nancy nods, ‘like I said I will keep it short—we are returning to Gaborone tomorrow and when we get there the wedding will immediately take place and we want all of you to be there.’
Dead silence and guess who speaks first;
‘Do you think its wise to just dive to the wedding after such a roller-coaster event?’
‘Why wait?’ Vincent beams, ‘I don’t see the reason.’
‘Yeah lets get it over with.’ Question says with drooped eyes, ‘I am so ready to return to my normal life.’
Ludo shrugs and rolls her eyes.
‘we will be at the wedding.’ Josh assures the blissful couple, ‘whatever we can do to help.’
‘because they do need it.’ Ludo says, ‘Mr. Babutsi isn’t aware of this arrangement, imagine showing up with Vincent tomorrow.’
I cringe, oh crap I had forgotten about him. that I had made the sore oath to keep his precious daughter from the wolf that was known as Vincent.
‘take a road trip.’ He had said. ‘get some air and I am positive that by the time you return everything will be just as it should be.’
Oh boy, now I really want to turn back time and have nothing to do with this entire ordeal.
‘that is my duty, I am the one who is going to take care of his daughter the rest of my life.’
Question purses his lips, ‘I don’t know bro, that man is kind of scary.’
‘that one look.’ Josh echoes beside me and I give him a reprimanding look. He shrugs.
‘I will take care of that.’
‘good luck.’ Ludo sing-songs.
A lump settles in my throat but I manage a tremulous smile and a curt nod at the couple before sagging into my chair.
‘thank you guys—I know at the end of the day, all will work out, you’ll see. So we have a few hours to enjoy our last day of the trip I don’t want to take your time.’
And with that, the meeting comes to an end.
As soon as Vincent and Nancy are out of the picture I stand from my chair and march to pull Ludo from her chair before she even tries to run away or figure out what I am up to.
As soon as we turn into a corner I push her against the wall and start a torrent of speeches.
‘first of all I am sorry for what I said—its been a hellish twenty four hours without talking to you. I don’t believe that you are a sadist, I just said that to hurt you and I am sorry.’
Ludo sighs, ‘I’m sorry too Jules, we both hurt each other, I am so exhausted with all the emotional trauma I went through, lets get past it.’
‘are you sure?’ I am still skeptical though Ludo and I have had our fair share of fights over the years we’ve been friends and this one wouldn’t even count as the ugliest of them all, ‘you don’t have to say that just to not want to talk about it.’
Ludo raises an eyebrow, ‘well fine, if it makes you fel better you can take me for a shopping spree when we get back and I will erase it from your record.’
‘shopping apology is done by a boyfriend and I have no interests in replacing any suitors in your life.’
‘there you go agin,’ she rolls her eyes, ‘you are the one with a boyfriend now.’
I cant help the smile that lights my face then its gone when I remember what I want to ambush Ludo about, ‘we need to avoid Mr Babutsi.’
Ludo grows serious, ‘yes we do, I am not facing him after all we managed to do was cement what was supposed to be broken.’
I nod, ‘so how are we going to do that?’
Ludo shrugs, ‘well we don’t need to go with them for the wedding re-aanouncement.’
I cringe, ‘I cant imagine the reaction of the reletives.’
Then we are both giggling
‘I so don’t want to be any of thse two right now.’
We fist bump to that and I let out a shriek when an arm snakes across my stomach and I am lifted from my feet and pulled against a hard warm body.
Question shows up behind Ludo and easy rests his elbow on her shoulder, ‘okay conspiracy plan over, we have a whole day to enjoy this place for the last time lets not waste it.’
‘you guys have no idea the kind of shit we are in.’ Ludo says.
‘its Vincent and Nancy’s relatives, they will deal with it.’ Josh says, ‘we are just the too loyal friends who are ready to kidnap and stalk on their behalf.’
We all laugh recalling the predicament of this crazy road trip.
‘but seriously.’ Question raises a hand, ‘out of all the events I liked the rush car escape the most.’ He grins.
Ludo grins back at him, ‘I was on fire.’
‘I have my favourites too.’ Josh says.
I crane my neck to look at him, ‘anything that doesn’t involve you making peace between parties at war.’
‘yes,’ he flashes a small smile, ‘in fact…’ he leans down and whispers something in my ear. Instead of hiding my face behind my hand and have Ludo come up with all sorts of assumptions I turn to burry my face in his chest.
This man will be the death of me.
‘what is it?’ Ludo scoffs, ‘your make out session?’
‘woman don’t you have a brain to mouth filter?’ that’s Question.
‘not if I can help it.’
I chuckle still face planted against Josh’s chest. I give up on Ludo, I really do.
Totally give up.