Just Perfect! (Persaud Girl) Read online

  He crossed the room, and approached Dr Hansen. She was with her daughter, Joie, at the pastry station.

  “Dr Hansen! Hi! How are you?” He greeted her.

  Dr Hansen gave him a polite smile. “I’m good, Jeremy, and yourself?”

  “Can’t complain!” Jeremy smiled back. “It’s nice to see you again,” he added for good measure.

  “When did you get home?” Dr Hansen asked. “I take it you’re done with Columbia.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said. He helped himself to a miniature cheese cake. “I’ve been home for a few days now. I go back in August to start working. I got an offer at Persaud Financials in Manhattan.”

  “That’s really impressive, Jeremy!” Dr Hansen said enthusiastically. “Congratulations.”

  “Thank you.” He looked at Joie. She was looking at him as she nursed a cherry tart. “Is this little Joie all grown up?”

  “No, it is little Joie’s alter ego, Minerva!” Joie said nastily.

  Her mother gave her a stern look. “Joie!”

  Joie rolled her eyes and took a small bite from her tart.

  “Joie doesn’t want to be here tonight,” Dr Hansen apologised.

  “My mother forced me to come.” Joie added.

  Jeremy laughed. “That makes two of us! My mother forced me to come, too.”

  “Yeah, but I’m a child!” Joie pointed out. “People can still force me to do things. You are a big grown man. What are you? Like thirty?”

  “Twenty-three and three months," Jeremy corrected. “And trust me, cutie pie – mothers still force you to do stuff even when you’re fifty!”

  She smiled, and Jeremy noticed that she looked a lot like Nathan.

  “Did Nathan come tonight?” He asked.

  “Nathan is still in Kingston,” Dr Hansen told him. “I had hoped he’d be down in time for this, but he had some stuff to sort out.”

  Jeremy nodded. “I hope he makes it home before I go back to New York,” he said. “It would be cool if we could link up even for a bit.”

  “Hmm,” Dr Hansen said. She knew that Nathan had no desire to ‘link up’ with Jeremy. “So you’re going to be a permanent New Yorker?”

  “I hope not,” Jeremy answered. “I think I’ll do a couple of years there and come back home. My mother needs me here with her.” His eyes roved the room and rested on his mother. She was standing with her husband who was carrying on a one person conversation with a bunch of other people from the legal fraternity and their spouses. Jeremy noticed that his father’s arm was around her shoulder and he was laughing. Jeremy frowned, hoping that his mother was not the punch line of his father’s jokes, as was so often the case.

  “Well, terror attacks aside,” Dr Hansen said, “New York is a great city. I spent thirteen years there myself, and except for right here in Jamaica, nowhere else compares.”

  “I agree!” Jeremy nodded. “Well, I won’t keep you any longer. Could you please tell Nate I said hello?”

  “Will do, Jeremy,” Dr Hansen promised.

  “Bye, Minerva!” Jeremy waved to Joie before moving away, and she waved back. He smiled to himself when he heard Joie tell her mother that he was the dreamiest man, and she would marry him when she grew up. His smile fell when he heard Dr Hansen’s response.

  “Not over your brother’s dead body!” She said.

  Jeremy shook his head. So clearly, Nathan was determined to hate him for life. He could do precious little about that. He wasn’t going to be a girl about the whole thing. If Nathan never spoke to him again, then fine. He made his way around the other guests, smiling politely to a few who smiled with him first, until he found his sister. She was standing by a wall with a glass of something in her hands.

  “What you drinking?” He asked her.

  “Just Chamdor, so don’t bother get huffy with me.”

  Jeremy looked at her. “You sure?”

  “Taste it if you want!” Jasmine put the glass to his lips.

  Jeremy backed away. “No thank you, queen of backwash. There’s junk floating around in it…”

  “Very funny!”

  “So you having fun?” Jeremy asked her.

  “Nope!” Jasmine said. “I don’t have anyone to talk to. You?”

  “Nope!” Jeremy returned. “I don’t have anyone to talk to either.”

  “But you were talking to Nathan’s mother a while ago!” Jasmine took a sip of her drink. “What was that about?”

  Jeremy shrugged. “Just asking her how Nate was doing.”

  “Why? You think Nate gives a flip about how you’re doing?” Jasmine asked.

  “Doesn’t mean I can’t ask about him,” Jeremy pointed out. “If he wants to keep up this malice thing, that’s his business. I’m a big man. I don’t have time for foolishness.”

  “You need to get over your little ‘bromance’!” Jasmine said firmly. “You’ve been infatuated with Nathan Hansen since forever. Get a new best friend and move on, already.”

  “Why am I even talking to you?” Jeremy glared at his sister.

  “Because you don’t have anyone else to talk to!” She reminded him. “We already did this. By the way, you were right about my dress. It’s awful.”

  “I don’t think anyone notices…” Jeremy looked around to see if anyone was laughing and pointing at his sister.

  “Perhaps they’re too polite to say anything.” Jasmine gave up on her drink and put it down. “And it’s not even because it is so pretty. It’s just not the right style for this event. I mean, look at Klao Persaud’s dress! That’s an Izzy beaded silk dress. It costs almost two thousand dollars – green back, I mean!”

  Jeremy looked across the room at Klao. She was posed with a glass of wine and laughing and throwing her head back. Jasmine was right. Cost aside, Klao’s dress was more fitting for the mayor’s ball, and she certainly was wearing the dickens out of it.

  “Klao’s family owns Izzy,” he reminded her. “She probably got it free, and besides, her parents are rolling in money. She probably has dresses coming out of her wazoo!”

  “It must be so awesome being a Persaud!” Jasmine sighed. Apart from having scads of money and all the dresses one could wear, she was absolutely positive that Dr Persaud was always nice to his wife. She was convinced that Dr Persaud never told Klao or the twins that they were worthless and would come to nothing. She and Jeremy had been told that by their father time and time again. “I am so ready to leave!”

  “You know!” Jeremy agreed. “Ravi P has courtesy cars. We could take one home. You really ready?”

  “We have to tell them first!” Jasmine nodded towards their parents. Their group had dispersed and they were talking to one gentleman who Jeremy could not recall meeting before.

  “Fine!” Jeremy checked his watch. It was still early. He could catch the guys at The Brewery. “Let’s go then...”

  Their father spotted them as they made their way over.

  “Jeremy, my boy! Jasmine!” He bellowed. “Come here and meet someone!”

  Jeremy winced. He plastered a smile to his face as he and his sister went to their father.

  “Jeremy, Jasmine, this is Raoul Montaque, a newly appointed Puisne Judge. Raoul, my son, Jeremy, and my daughter, Jasmine!”

  Jasmine smiled politely and shook Judge Montaque’s hand.

  “Jasmine just completed lower sixth form at Mount Alvernia. She has her sights set on the bench just like me, and my boy, Jeremy, my pride and joy.…” His father looked at him, a proud look that Jeremy couldn’t recall seeing before. “Jeremy got first class honours in Actuarial Sciences from UWI. Missed being named Pure and Applied Sciences valedictorian by the skin of his teeth. And he just graduated from Columbia School of Business. MBA in Economics and Finance – isn’t that right, son?”

  Jeremy looked back at him, offering no response. He glanced at his mother who was just standing there, a stupid grin on her face.

  “He did his internship at Persaud Financials in Manhattan,” Peter Malc
olm continued to brag. “And he did so well that they offered him an Associate position there.”

  “Congratulations, Jeremy!” Raoul Montaque boomed. He was as loud and pompous as Judge Malcolm. “You are clearly a chip off the old block!”

  “Oh, I’m nothing of the sort…” Jeremy began.

  “And you are such a modest fellow!” Montaque remarked, clearly not getting Jeremy’s meaning.

  “Tell Raoul how you were inducted into the Gamma Sigma honour society!” Judge Malcolm interrupted. “To be asked to join Gamma Sigma means that he was in the top twenty per cent of the master’s students at Columbia, you know, Raoul…. Tell him, Jeremy.”

  Jeremy was getting annoyed. “Why don’t you tell him, Daddy, since you seem to know so much about it? And while you’re at it, tell him how I made the Dean’s list every semester at Columbia, and that I was named MBA student speaker for this year’s graduating class. And please don’t forget to tell him that it was only possible because I got a scholarship, since you had made the grand declaration that I was on my own after UWI since I was so stupid that I could not even manage to be named Valedictorian, and you weren’t paying for anything else for me.”

  “Jeremy…” Judge Malcolm began, a wide, embarrassed grin on his face.

  “And make sure you tell him, and whoever else you plan to boast to tonight, that although I was named MBA student speaker, you took it as your personal duty to tear down the speech that I worked so hard to write and deliver.” Jeremy continued.

  “Jeremy, I really don’t think this is the time or place…” Joan Malcolm was turning purple.

  “And since we’re telling people things,” Jeremy went on, getting angrier and angrier as he spoke, “tell Raoul Montaque what you told Jasmine when she told you she wanted to become a Judge, too.”

  “Jeremy!”

  “Oh you forgot!” Jeremy smiled. “You told her that she would never come to anything better than selling onions in Montego Bay market. Do you remember, Daddy, because I am sure Jasmine has never forgotten, have you Jas?”

  “Jeremy, I…” Jasmine begun. She hung her head, embarrassed.

  “Because she must have felt the same way I did when I came second in grade seven and you told me I had no ambition; and when I was in tenth grade and asked you to help me set up the ‘Young Investors’ Club’, and you told me I couldn’t even set up a lawn chair!”

  “Shut up!” Judge Malcolm snapped. His face was stiff with embarrassment.

  Raoul Montaque was equally embarrassed. “I see – ahm – somebody else… It was nice seeing you, Peter,” he said, quickly excusing himself.

  Peter Malcolm looked at his son. “How could you embarrass me like that?”

  “Easy,” Jeremy shrugged. “After all, I am a chip off the old block, and embarrassing your family is what you do best. Jasmine and I are going home!”

  “Jeremy can’t you just stay and try to behave yourself?” Mrs Malcolm asked, her eyes filling with tears.

  “No,” Jeremy said. “I did not even want to come tonight, and I’m certainly not going to stay here and listen to him boast and brag about us to his big shot friends and when we go home treat us like crap. Jasmine, you coming?”

  Jasmine stood rooted to the spot, studying her toes. It was at that moment she realised that people could really die from shame.

  “You are not leaving this ball, Jeremy!” Peter Malcolm warned. “You are going to stay here, and you are going to act like you are happy!”

  “Like hell, I am!” Jeremy shot.

  “You bastard, you don’t speak to me like that!” The Judge was livid. He looked around to see if anyone was looking their way. “I bring you here, thinking that you could meet some people and show them that in spite of your fondness for mediocrity you could actually come to something, and you behave like this towards me!”

  “You brought me here so you can show off to all your friends…”

  “Jeremy, we know you would rather be out having a good time with your friends and you’re just cross that you have to be here,” his mother interrupted. “But this is your father’s moment. For a peaceful life, can’t you just humour us and put our happiness ahead of your own childish agenda?”

  “You mean like what you do to me and Jasmine all the time?” Jeremy asked his mother. “Like how for all those years you have put our happiness ahead of your desire to remain Mrs Peter Malcolm despite all the hell that we have gone through?”

  “Jeremy!”

  Judge Malcolm sighed. “You know something Joan, let him leave. Leave, Jeremy, leave. Since you so badly want to be away from your horrible father from hell, you are dismissed. Go home, or go to hell! I don’t care either way.”

  “That’s not news to me!” Jeremy said, turning away. He stormed out of the ballroom, and his mother followed him.

  “Jeremy how could you!” She chastised, catching up with him in the hotel lobby.

  “How could I what?” Jeremy asked through clenched teeth. He was trying not to be angry at his mother too.

  “Your father was only trying to be nice…”

  “Stop defending him!” Jeremy almost shouted. “For Heaven’s sake, Mummy, when will you learn? He’s a monster!”

  “Irrespective, he’s still your father!” His mother reminded him, “And you were very rude to him in there. You embarrassed him, and you embarrassed me and Jasmine as well! He really is very proud of you Jeremy.”

  “I don’t want him to be proud of me!” Jeremy informed her. “I wanted him to be proud of me when I was ten and twelve and fifteen … even when I was twenty-one. I don’t want or need him to be proud of me now.”

  “Jeremy…”

  “I’ll see you at home, Mummy.”

  Jeremy left his mother standing in the lobby of the Ravi P hotel in Rose Hall. He removed his tie as he stepped into the parking lot. What the hell had he done? Talking to his father like that, and worse in public, was prescription for death. His only saving grace at that moment was that the judge was presiding over a matter in Kingston, starting the following day. It would take him out of the house for at least a couple of days, and if Jeremy was lucky, it would be a murder trial that kept him away for weeks. At least, by the time he came back, he would have forgotten Jeremy’s insolence and found something else to be pissed off about. He decided, he would go straight to the Brewery and meet the guys. Perhaps he could convince them to spend the entire night out. He would treat them to drinks and regale them of all his conquests in New York. They would be impressed hearing about his nights spent in Manhattan’s hippest spots, being pawed and fawned over by New York’s most beautiful and affluent socialites. Of course, he would have to embellish. He would tell them about Jen… But he would not mention Samantha. She was not a subject for idle discussion. She was special…

  It was 6:39 in the morning when he finally made his way home, his status as ‘the big man round town’ set in stone. The judge’s Prado was not in the driveway, which meant he was already on his way to Kingston, and Jeremy sighed, relief flooding his body. He felt like a scared little boy instead of a big grown man.

  The house was deadly quiet. No doubt, Jasmine and his mother were still asleep. Jeremy, however, was too wired from too many beers to fall asleep. Fortunately, he had nothing to do that day, so he could stay in bed as long as he wished when sleep finally came. He made himself a pot of chamomile tea and sipped it in silence. He thought of the ball, and how he had yelled at his father, and then at his mother. He had embarrassed Jasmine, too. Hopefully, TATTLER had no eyes or ears at the ball. He would not like his family’s dirty linen to be aired in public. Jeremy realised that losing his cool like that had been more than inappropriate. He frowned, thinking that he was more like his father than he cared to admit.

  Jeremy was so deep in thought that the ringing telephone caused him to jump. Some of his chamomile tea sloshed out of the mug and burned his knuckles.

  “Dammit!” He swore. Who the hell could be calling his house at six thirty
in the morning? For a moment, he had a feeling of dread, as he thought it might be the police calling to say his father had an accident on his way into Kingston. After all, telephones only rang at those strange hours when bad news was being delivered. He grabbed the cordless off its base on the counter.

  “Hello?”

  “Jeremy?” It was a soft female voice that he could not place. The girl on the phone sounded like she was whispering.

  “Hello?” Jeremy repeated.

  “Is this Jeremy Malcolm?” The voice repeated.

  “Yes, it is,” Jeremy replied nervously.

  “Thank God! I’ve been trying to reach you for days now. Don’t you ever stay home?”

  “I…”

  “Sorry to call you so early…” She interrupted, sounding a bit more confident now.

  “Uh – who is this?” Jeremy reached for his tea.

  “This is Anne Dru Persaud – Samantha’s sister. There is something you need to know.”

  111

  Just Perfect!

  chapter six

  Friday, May 23

  Andie took a sip of her water and blushed under her boyfriend’s angry glare. In the almost three years that they had been together, she had never seen him that angry at her. She winced at the two huge veins that were pulsing on the side of his head.

  “I cannot believe you didn’t tell me!” He hissed.

  “I told you now!” Andie returned. “Which I shouldn’t even have. I promised Sam I wouldn’t say anything!”

  “This isn’t a petty, teenaged, ‘who has a crush on whom’ secret, Anne Dru!” Nathan retorted. “This is a baby! Everything is going to be different now - for both Sam and Jeremy. This is no joke business!"