Just Perfect! (Persaud Girl) Page 10

Micah

  She reread the message twice before she started to mentally swear in the key of “eff”. Micah must have lost his effing mind indeed. ‘Hope you are over me’? Who the eff did he think he was? Brad effing Pitt? She was Samantha Persaud, and he was just a little jumped up bwoy from Nowheresville, Hanover, until she dusted him off and introduced him to society, and now he hoped she was ‘over him’? He had some effing nerves! She was over him alright! She picked up her phone, scrolled through the latest calls and dialled. The phone rang until it went to voicemail. She tried again and still no answer. Jeremy was not answering. He had practically begged her earlier to give him – them – a chance and at that moment she was more than willing to consider it. After all, they were more suited for each other. His father was a Puisne Judge, and Nathan had once told her that his mother was some kind of baby whisperer. He was as gorgeous and as smart as she was. They would make super-beautiful baby geniuses...

  The box with the plan B stared back at her from the desk. She opened it and examined the two tiny tan tablets inside. She had not taken any yet. Jeremy had told her ‘one now and one twelve hours later’, but she had hesitated... She would not take them at all. She would get pregnant and have Jeremy’s picture perfect baby and show Micah just how over him she was! Pretending the Plan B were Micah, she used the heel of the Manolo Blahnik pumps that she had worn to her birthday dinner to mash them into powder. Then she brushed the powder into the waste paper basket next to her bed. As a punctuation mark on her decision, she deleted Micah’s email, shoving the delete button so hard that it got stuck in the keyboard and would not come up again until she pried it up with a hair pin.

  Five minutes later, total consternation came over her. What. The hell. Had. She. Done. She had mashed out her emergency contraceptives! She most certainly did not want to be pregnant! Especially not with Jeremy Malcolm’s devil child, irrespective of how cute and smart it would be!

  She immediately ran to Bridget and Nikki for counsel. They were the world champions of making stupid decisions and worming their way out of it. Nikki went on and on, triumphantly declaring, ‘I knew it! I knew it!’ Bridget was more mature. She ‘knew someone, who knew someone’, who could get a Samantha a new Plan B prescription on Monday morning. Samantha was freaking out. Monday morning was too late. Bridget told her to calm down. As long as she took them in 72 hours she would be fine. The same thing had happened to her once, and clearly there was no baby in sight. Besides, it took lots of tries to get a baby. No one got pregnant on their first go around, especially not under these unfavourable conditions. Karma was notthat big a bitch! Samantha spent Sunday night on her knees, begging God to make this horrible situation work out for the best. And it had, Samantha realised, as she sat with her sister. So far, apart from being a little late – which was perfectly normal after taking Plan B – everything was okay. She had sat her exams, and had done well. She was home for the entire summer, and everything would be just perfect once more.

  “Everything is fine!” Samantha assured her sister.

  “You never told me what happened when you went to meet Jeremy.”

  “What do you mean what happened?” Samantha got out of bed and moved towards her dressing table. It looked as though nothing had been moved since she had been there last Christmas. “I went, he gave me the pills and I left.”

  “And nothing else happened?”

  “What else did you expect to happen?”

  Andie shrugged. “Don’t know. I just thought... I mean, him being your first...”

  “Well, I’m over it, and so is he, so we will leave it at that.”

  “Have you spoken to him since?” Andie asked.

  “Nope!”

  “He’s coming home in a few days, you know!” Andie rearranged the nail polish on her sister’s dressing table. “Nathan told me.”

  Samantha rolled her eyes. “So?”

  Andie shrugged again. “Nothing. Just saying. He’s going back though. Gonna work full time for Persaud Financials.”

  Samantha did not comment. She did not know if she should be pleased or upset. Jeremy working full time with Persaud Enterprises meant that there was a very good chance that she would see him again.

  Samantha shook her head attempting to shake out the image of Jeremy Malcolm’s dimpled face. He even had a dimple in his chin! Was there anything more adorable than a guy with three dimples? “I don’t want to talk about Jeremy anymore. Do you know what I want to do? I want to shower and sleep, then take my favourite sister out to dinner.”

  “Your only sister!” Andie pointed out. “And in any case, that won’t work, because, number one, Theresa has been planning your welcome home dinner for weeks, and if you miss it, you know she will kill you, and number two, you may be on holiday but I still have Monetary Economics final next week, so really I don’t have the time to go running about with you!”

  “Look who suddenly got focused!’ Samantha hit her with the cushion. “I guess some of me rubbed off on you after all!”

  “I didn’t get into Columbia because of my good looks!” Andie reminded her. “I have always been focused, just not a stick in the mud like you!”

  “Whatever, Andie,” Samantha smiled at her sister. “I’ll believe it when I see your first class honours. Go study, but the second your exam is over, you and I are going to do something – just us, okay?”

  “Definitely!” Andie exited her sister’s room through the bathroom that they shared. “I’m really glad you’re home, Sammy!”

  “Not as glad as I am to be home!” Samantha told her.

  She lay on her bed and looked around her bedroom. She was happy. It was summer holidays, and there was nothing to do except lay around and have fun for the next twelve weeks. There was so much to look forward to, starting, as usual, with Grandpa’s birthday party at the end of the month; then there would be barbecues and road trips… Twelve weeks of laying back and chilling out and not having to think about Jeremy Malcolm ever again in life, and that was a beautiful thought.

  She really did miss home, she decided. She missed her sister and her brother and her parents. She missed Theresa, the plump, pleasant cook, who according to Grandma Joyce, always overfed the children, she missed Rosilda, the lean, mean housekeeper, who fearlessly took on anyone in the house, from Dr Persaud straight down to Christopher, and she missed Nursey, her former Nanny, who prevented Theresa and Rosilda from tearing each other apart. She missed sleeping in her own bed, in her own room that she had decorated herself when she was eighteen. She missed the peace and quietude of Norbrook, and weekends with her loud, crazy ‘clubhouse cousins’. She even missed the occasional tale that “TATTLER”, the gossip newspaper, would spin about her and her family. New York was fabulous – the sites, the city, the culture, but, Samantha thought as she dozed off, Dorothy had it right – there was really no place like home.

  ***

  “There really is no place like home,” Jeremy thought wryly. He had been in Jamaica for three hours, and was already counting down the days until he could go back to New York. He was now the holder of an MBA from Columbia School of Business. He had accepted a coveted position as an Investment Associate at Persaud Financials. His job would pay $120,000 with bonuses, thirty days vacation per year, a 401k and medical insurance, and a studio apartment in Chelsea at 60 percent of the rental. He was in a truly enviable position. Two days ago he had really liked his life, but now, being home, his existence had once again begun to suck.

  Although he didn’t show it, he was thrilled beyond words that his parents had come to his Business School recognition ceremony. It was touch and go there for a while, because Judge Malcolm was presiding over a case, and had declared that he had seen Jeremy graduate enough times, and ‘really did not see the need to adjourn a matter, and suffer through the indignities of flying just to see the boy shake hands with the Dean and receive an alumni pin’. Jeremy had kept it a secret until the last minute, but he had been named Class of 2003 student speaker, and he wanted
his parents there to see him deliver his address. It had been carefully planned out and rehearsed with the help of Phillip, Lexie and Marcus. Student speaker was a very big deal, Jeremy knew, and he was beyond thrilled to show his father his great accomplishment. The Judge was going to be so proud of him.

  Jeremy thought, as he unpacked his suitcase, that he should have known better. He recalled that the second the Air Jamaica lovebird lifted off from JFK, Judge Malcolm began to pick his speech apart, like a crow picking at carrion. He had taken notes, and offered his opinion on everything, from Jeremy’s choice of words, to his attempts at humour, to his posture while speaking. There were areas where he was too erudite, and sounded arrogant, and areas where he sounded so elementary that it was unbelievable that he actually graduated in the top 20th percentile of one of the best business schools in America. Jeremy did not comment as his father went on and on and on.

  “I don’t know if you haven’t learned anything at all from me!” Judge Malcolm declared, as he took a sip of the champagne that the airline offered its first class passengers. “You are the son of a supreme court judge for goodness sakes, Jeremy! You think I got there based on my good looks and charm? Well, that helped, but I had to be a damn good speaker on top of it! Why you didn’t ask me to help you? It would have been better than going up there and embarrassing yourself and me and your mother with that half-baked drivel that you must have pulled out of your ass!”

  “I wasn’t embarrassed,” Joan Malcolm had interjected, speaking up for the first time. “I thought you gave a very clever speech Jeremy. You showed a lot of personality and you sounded very intelligent. You made me wish I had gone to Columbia, too. It’s clear why the class nominated you to be their student speaker.”

  “What the hell you know, Joan?” Judge Malcolm bit. “You are a blasted kindergarten teacher, for crying out loud! All you do whole day is teach four year olds how to clap. What you know about a good speech versus a bad speech? Just shut up, and don’t offer any opinions unless someone asks you for one!”

  Jeremy recalled the look on his mother’s face. She had gone totally ashen, and there were tears in her eyes. The other passengers had heard how the Judge had snapped at his wife. Jeremy didn’t -- couldn’t -- say anything. His mother took a book from her handbag and started to read. Thankfully, the judge did not say another word for the rest of the trip.

  He finally spoke when they got into his Prado at Donald Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay.

  “Son, I know you think I’m hard on you, but if I am, it is for your own good. When you get married and have children of your own, you will get it. All I want for you is to achieve; to do the best you can do and be the best you can be, and sometimes I think you don’t even bother to try, just to spite me!” He sighed. “I love you, Jeremy, and that is why I push you so hard. You can understand that, right?”

  “Yeah!” Jeremy mumbled.

  “Yeah?” His father repeated. “When did it become okay for you to answer me ‘yeah’?”

  “Yes, sir,” he immediately corrected, feeling like 13 instead of 23.

  He ruminated on his father’s words as he unpacked. Didn’t bother to try? Jeremy thought of his degree in the canister in the bottom of his suitcase. All he ever did was try, but he would not waste his time trying to explain that to his father. He would never be able to do anything to make the judge proud of him. If he were to raise a dead person to life the judge would have declared that he had done the world a disservice by providing one more person to deplete the resources of the planet.

  His sister, Jasmine came to the door and broke his train of thought.

  “Hey, big man!” She greeted him.

  “Whaddup, girlie girl?” He replied with a smile.

  “Surf’s up, wake up, push up, hic up, giddy up!” Jasmine returned. Then she quickly added, “Oh, and your number’s up.”

  “You are so funny!” Jeremy said sarcastically. He wanted to ask his sister for a hug, but they were not the hugging sort. He looked at her. She was seventeen and in lower sixth form at Mount Alvernia High. Jasmine Malcolm would never become a stunningly beautiful woman, but she was cute. She was not as bright as Jeremy, but did okay. Jasmine suffered from all sorts of maladies, from an allergy to nuts that almost killed her when she was four, to asthma. Jeremy did not believe that his little sister who was born when he was six would have made it so far in life. He could recall when she was between the ages of three and ten, he would be left alone with the housekeeper while his parents rushed with her to Mobay Mercy hospital. Fortunately with the passage of time, Jasmine had gotten sturdier and sturdier.

  “I wanted to come to your graduation,” Jasmine told her brother. “But I was being punished.”

  “What you do?”

  “More like what I didn’t do,” Jasmine corrected. “I didn’t get A for history Christmas term, so Daddy said I would be better served staying here and studying than flitting off to New York to watch you graduate. He said you look like you might come to something, but he still wasn’t quite sure about me. You, with your overachieving self, making life very hard for me, Jeremy!”

  “Me? Overachiever?” Jeremy scoffed. “I was told not even an hour ago that I wasn’t trying hard enough to ‘be the best I can be’! And honestly, I can’t bother anymore. Anyway, apart from History, how is school?”

  “Alright,” Jasmine said. “Can’t wait to finish and get the hell outta here, though.”

  Jeremy nodded. He knew exactly what his sister was talking about.

  “When you going back?”

  “End of August. So you have to put up with me for four months.”

  “I don’t mind. I wish you didn’t have to go back at all.” Jasmine sat on the bed next to Jeremy’s clothes. “Daddy gets worse and worse every day, Jeremy. It is one thing how he deals with us – we are his children, but it is sinful how he treats Mummy. Every single day she cries. I don’t know how much more she can take!”

  Jeremy clenched his jaw and closed his eyes. “She can leave if she wants to Jas,” he said finally. “She doesn’t have to stay and take this.”

  “How can she, though?” Jasmine asked. “How can she leave him like that – after twenty-five years?”

  “Easy. She can pack her things and leave.”

  “You don’t understand,” Jasmine said, with all the wisdom of a seventeen year old.

  “You’re right!” Jeremy flung the ‘I ♥ New York’ shirt that he had gotten her. “I can never understand how a woman supposedly so smart and independent and educated can sit down with a man who treats her like shit. And if you do the same thing – if any man is careless enough to marry you -- I am coming for you bodily!”

  “Whatever, Jeremy!” Jasmine caught the shirt with one hand. “Is this all you brought back for me?”

  “You should be lucky I brought anything for you at all!” Jeremy told her. “You think I had time to go trolling the malls? And even when I did, you were the last person on my mind!”

  “Really?” Jasmine wrinkled her face. “You must have missed me even a little bit. I know I missed you every day!”

  Jeremy looked at her with disgust. “Corny much!” He said, rolling his eyes. “Go put on decent clothes. I’m taking you to dinner.”

  ***

  May 9

  Samantha lay on her back on one of the pool chairs at her grandparents’ home in Paddington Terrace. Bianca and Klao had invited her and Andie to spend the day. Bianca and Klao had lived with the grandparents since they had started University, as their parents would not allow them to live on campus, and Grandma Sylvia and Grandpa Ravi had insisted that the girls live with them. That had not been as burdensome as they had originally thought. In fact, it had turned out into one grand slumber party, as Grandma and Grandpa were always away on some mission or another and the girls were left to do pretty much whatever they wanted. That morning was no different. It was Klao’s second day back from third year at Law School in Barbados, and Bianca had two weeks br
eak before starting fourth year at UWI medical school, so it was the perfect day to get Isadore, Grandma and Grandpa’s housekeeper to fix them an awesome brunch and they would spend the day gossiping and catching up, while lazing by the pool and living up to TATTLER’s description of them as ‘the Persaud Snobs’.

  When Klao had called the previous day, Samantha had been ecstatic. It would be awesome spending the day with Klao and Bianca. Andie still had one final exam left and only two days left to study for it. She hesitantly decided to go because Samantha had begged her and had promised to help her study. Now, as she lay on the pool deck, her eyes shaded with a pair of Cavalli sunglasses that she had inherited from Aunt Phoebe, and her hair covered with a huge, floppy hat, Samantha was sorry that she had not stayed home. She was not feeling particularly well that morning. The night before, she had gone with Bianca and her boyfriend, Tevin, to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Bianca had also taken along her friend and ‘mentor’, Courtney Harris. Courtney had just completed Medical School at UWI. In fact, he had read his Hippocratic Oath just that day, and was looking forward to a year of internship at the University Hospital. He was an average-looking, fair-skinned young man of twenty-three, and according to Bianca, was phenomenally brilliant. Apparently, he had signed the matriculation book five years before and would probably be Medical School valedictorian at graduation in November.

  “Bless Bianca’s heart!” Samantha had thought. She was trying to set her up. She did not have the heart to tell her beautiful little cousin that she had no interest in being set up. And even if she were, Courtney would have been her last choice. He was a nice enough guy, but he was also sort of a nerd, and had apparently spent all five years of medical school with his nose buried in his books, because his social skills were shot. Furthermore, although she would never admit it, she was a bit superficial when it came to men. She liked them older than twenty-three, and tall and dark. Courtney was 0 for five as far as her requirements were concerned, counting his limited social skills and average looks.