I dare not open my mouth as Taylor and I slide in the backseat and Charles is driving us home. I suddenly have the urge to cackle loudly—how did this happen again? How the hell did I end up in the same car with the man I am supposedly engaged with and the man I kiss on a regular basis? And why is Taylor going to my house? Oh maybe this is just a wild guess but is Charles going to tell them that he found me in another man’s house and introduce Taylor?
I sit rigidly beside Taylor who has is keeping a possessive hold of my hand. Maybe when we get home I could just dash out and make a run for it because (I am not trying to be a creep) but I foresee possible murder in the near future.
And maybe Charles drove fast back as well because we are suddenly in front of the gate and one of my uncles is pushing it open. With one glance in the car he takes in the scene, scowls in confusion then his jaw drops open.
He closes the gate as soon as Charles parks his car in front of the garage and rushes into the house. I can almost see him announcing the scene to everyone and my stomach does an uncomfortable twist I think I’m going to be sick.
Charles gets out of the car and strides towards the house. I pull my hand out of Taylor’s and rush out of the car. Only he is faster than me because before I reach the front door he has taken hold of my hand again
‘Let me go!’ my voice is strained
‘Don’t do that.’ He says as he knocks on the door once and pushes it open. My entire body freezes as I take in the scene in the living room. Of course they are all there—as if their lives were so boring they attended any gathering every chance they got.
No one is sitting down, the expression on their faces is priceless as pairs of eyes land on me then on Taylor and then our joined hands. I try to pull my hand but he holds it firmer. This again reminds me of the Korean drama part when you bring an unworthy guest to a dinner party.
Aunt holds Mother’s arm because for a moment there she seemed like she was about to collapse. Father’s eyes are locked on Taylor. Again that flicker of recognition.
Taylor greets everyone respectfully and introduces himself. I am just the statue of liberty the whole time. Mother and Aunt start a timid inquisition and Taylor is very polite and civil with them. No one has sat down yet and I figure the situation does call for standing up.
But I do need to sit down or I will collapse from a nervous breakdown.
‘Sir,’ Taylor faces my father, ‘Mr Charles, can I talk to you?’
My heart skips. What? This time I’m the one who holds his hand firmly.
‘It’s okay.’ He whispers to me before he gently withdraws his hand from mine and follows Charles and Father to the office.
Okay? Nothing is okay! I am not okay—I feel like I am about to have a freaking heart attack how is that okay? I sag into the couch and an involuntary sigh escapes my lips as I try to not meet mother and aunt’s gazes.
‘So he is the cause.’ Aunt begins. ‘I can imagine, the man is very handsome.’
‘Looks rich as well.’ Mother adds
‘Is he rich?’ aunt asks me
How should I know? Is Taylor rich? I don’t know—I know close to nothing about the man, and yes that is the first time I think that out loud without trying to ignore the creepy feeling I get from that fact.
‘Heather?’ the two women speak at the same time. I peer at them through my lashes.
‘What’s really going on? I thought you were happy with Charles.’ Aunt says
‘You are to meet his parents this weekend.’ Mother adds
Yes I am very aware of the fact and that is the reason I wanted to run for the hills screaming. But of course mother and aunt have no idea that father has a debt that is over his neck and is using me to clear it.
When I don’t say anything they begin to wonder between themselves
‘She ran to another man’s house!’ Mother says with a shudder.
‘How long has she been seeing him?’ aunt mirrors mother’s expression.
‘maybe she is pregnant!” aunt gasps as if she just had an epiphany.
‘So she will have to marry him.’ Mother says with finality in her voice
That makes my head to snap up and look at them, I just don’t like the topic of marriage right now
‘Say something!’ aunt cries in exasperation.
I open my mouth to say something and the room grows silent. I swear even my uncles who pretended to leave the room for the kitchen are straining their ears at the moment.
I clamp my mouth shut. I can only say the truth and the truth is something I really shouldn’t say at the moment. Unless I have a death wish. Or maybe I could just go along with their theory. But that is complicated as well. There is nothing going on between me and Taylor to consider marriage between the two of us. Nothing happened between us. Unless hot passionate kissing in considered defiling then I guess I am screwed. And I am screwed at the moment because I should be saying this out loud but I am too shocked by the present predicament to find my voice,
Two pairs of eyes are fixed on me with the unrelenting need for answers.
‘I don’t like Charles.’ Is all I manage to say, which is a major disappointment for the two because I should say more than that—explain why I ran away from home yesterday and why I spend the night at Taylor’s house and the most important of all elaborate to the two women that I just slept there and not with him and maybe I can find the words to explain my weird relationship with the guy.
‘Why didn’t you say anything?’ mother asks, clearly appalled
Why can’t I see the world through my mother’s eyes? Everything is so simply black and white. It’s either I like the guy and I don’t and I can just bow out.
‘You like Taylor?’ Aunt asks and I nod, that’s true enough. I like Taylor. Like is an understatement. I am obsessed with the guy, ‘did something happen between the two of you?’
Of course something happened it’s not as if I can convince them otherwise. They will never get it because I don’t get it either,
‘Heather start speaking right now or I will whip the answers out of you.’ Mother gives up trying to be democratic and I know she will whip me. You don’t irritate an African mom and get out of it unscathed. ‘Why did you come holding hands with another man?’
‘We already asked that.’
‘And she did not answer it!’ mother says
I squirm in the couch, ‘I really like Taylor!’ I say timidly
‘We have figured that out!’ aunt raises an eyebrow at me.
Oh my god I didn’t murder anyone here okay? But presently the idea is not so out of the question if these two keep asking me of things I have no answers to. Okay, I do have the answers but it’s something they would rather not know about.
I feel my brows start to grow beads of sweat, in times like these you make up stories just to cover yourself but my head is blank at the moment
Someone clears their throat, saving me, because I was going to experience death by eyes situation. All three of us turn to look at the three men warily as they diplomatically make their way into the room and sit in designated places.
Silence falls for a moment, I keep my eyes to the floor. There is a lump in my throat threatening to end my life.
‘Heather!’ father wants me to raise my head. So I decide to look at him instead. My heart is cooking pumpkins inside my chest with a thick rich broth.
‘We had a long talk.’ Father begins, ‘and I will just summarise it all for you.’
I clench my fists together because I suddenly feel tingles all over me. You know the kind of itchiness that you are not so sure where it’s coming from.
Aunt and mother stare at him, their gazes moving between the three men. It’s historically correct that father never comes with a liberating announcement whenever he has a long talk in that office of his.
‘Charles will not be taking Heather as his wife.’
The statement resonates resoundingly in my mind’s administrative department before it hits home and I blink at him in shock. No way, he is about to drop a bomb. It couldn’t have been that easy to call all this off. The issue has been stressing me for a month and a half and he just can’t call it off without releasing another hell for me to experience. He is a tyrant after all
As if to prove my point a small smile appears on his lips and I know nothing liberating is about to some out from those lips. The suspense is killing me I am about to burst
‘Rather,’ pause, oh he is enjoying this—the tyrant, ‘Taylor has been with my daughter so he will marry her.’
I feel like collapsing. My jaw drops open. What the duck?
‘Oh of course,’ Aunt’s voice pierces through my shocked silence, ‘that makes sense!’
Why does it make sense? I am about to have a panic attack. Marry Taylor! Wasn’t it only hours ago when I had an epiphany that he is more dangerous than Charles?
Somebody should just delete my existence!
‘Heather!’ father stretches his hand to me. I stare at it as if it will bite me. ‘Come.’ He smiles gently
And father never does gentle smiling, unless he is about to add more misery to my existence. Like he is now. I am officially from the frying pan to the fire.
I rise out of the couch, not feeling my legs and more like wobble to where father is standing and I place my small hand into his large one.
Holding my hand in a ceremonial manner, he leads me to where Taylor is standing and places my hand in his. Even at this moment when I am thoroughly freaked out, I still feel tingles from our contact. A shiver runs down my body and I feel nauseous. Taylor squeezes my hand and I don’t look at him.
‘This is the right thing to do. She will leave with him today.’
‘Oh what to do?’ mother is about to have one of her nervous break downs, ‘what about Charles?’
‘This is what it has come to.’ Charles says in a calm voice. ‘I cannot take a wife who has been with another man.’
Ah seriously are we in the nineteen fifties? And this is all just made up crap. The real reason why father is marrying me to Taylor remains in that office of his, why are they making me the villain in all this I‘m not the one who took the debt from a bunch of twisted loan sharks!
‘I apologize for the way it has happened.’ Taylor says in his polite civil manner that he seem to have adopted lately, ‘but I love Heather and I will take care of her.’ He looks at mother, yes I finally look at him because the man just declared to my entire family that he loved me.
Mother sighs and manages a shaky smile. ‘You must.’
Father claps his hands together startling me, ‘and that’s settled then.’
Taylor hold me against him as I sway and I’m about to fall. I need to lie down. I don’t feel so good.
‘Oh and you have my blessing.’ Father is too blithely with this, I’m sure money is involved in all this. ‘You kids go along, we will meet and discuss other details another time.’
‘Oh but we must discuss them now.’ My reasonable aunt hedges, ‘surely you are not sending her with him right now.’
‘What difference does it make?’ Father raises his voice. ‘She has already been with him all sense of purity is gone in this issue.’
I swear I hear Taylor growl and his hold on me tightens. This is bad. Something is going on.
‘Besides, her brother and my brother are not here, we will do the whole thing later and I am not keeping what’s another man’s in my house.’
And just like that, I am officially kicked from my own home. The whole time when my bag is packed and loaded in the taxi is a blur. I think I was in a state of shock. The kind of shock that makes you a zombie and rubs all the mind of any thoughts. That kind of shock.