Just Perfect! (Persaud Girl) Read online

  “Samantha, it’s going to be fun! Do you know how many famous people are going to be there? It will be the best thing that ever happened to us in all our lives!” Bridget tucked her long jet-black hair behind her ear and plopped on to the couch, almost squashing Samantha’s legs. “You have to come with us!”

  “As exciting as turning up at a party to which I’ve not been invited, sounds, risking getting thrown out and embarrassed is not nearly as appealing, so I think I’m good staying right here!” Samantha told her firmly. “Besides, what is the point of Petunia Rose? She is three years younger than us and famous and rich with no viable credentials, education or talent. I think it is a better use of my time to stay here and work on my problem sets.”

  “C’mon, Sam! It’s the weekend!” Nikki countered. “Can’t you give it a rest?”

  “Yeah” Bridget added. “You need to have some sort of work/life balance. You study too much.”

  “And the two of you party enough for all the Graduate students at NYU.” Samantha picked up her book again. “Besides, I would feel totally out of place at Petunia Rose’s party. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t dance, and I don’t need to pick up a man. I already have one. What would be the point?”

  “You could be my wingman?” Bridget suggested.

  “Only if it would prevent you from bringing home one of those losers that you seem to be so drawn to!” Samantha chuckled from behind her book.

  “Whatever, Samantha…”

  She was interrupted by the ringing of Samantha’s cell phone. She wrinkled her freshly threaded brows at the sound of the tacky Cuppycake song that signified that Micah was calling. Samantha grabbed her cell phone eagerly. She had not heard from Micah all week. Usually he would call her on Wednesdays, and she would call him on Sundays. She had missed his call on the previous Wednesday, and although they had spent the entire night IMing, she wanted more than anything to hear his voice.

  “Hi Cuppy cake!” She cooed into the phone, a voice Bridget and Nikki only heard when she was talking to ‘the love of her life’. They looked at Samantha in disgust, knowing that it was pointless to try persuading her to go out now. For the next hour at least, the only person in Samantha’s stratosphere would be Micah Elliott. They grabbed their matching Fendi spring coats and left Samantha on the couch, giggling like a fifteen year old girl.

  Samantha was happy when the girls left, so she could talk to Micah alone. He had been acting strangely all week, and his voice did not sound the same when he greeted her.

  “How are you doing, honey?” She asked. “How are classes going?”

  “Which ones?” Micah asked. “The ones I take or the ones I teach?”

  “Either. Both.” Samantha said. She padded to her bedroom and got under her comforter. She liked to be under the covers when talking to Micah.

  “Well the ones I take are going great,” he said enthusiastically. “The ones I teach – well those are a different case. This crop of undergraduates is impossible.”

  “Well it will soon be over,” Samantha said, trying to soothe him. “You only have them for another two or three weeks before finals.”

  “I suppose…” Micah sounded distant.

  “Have you heard anything from NYU about your PhD application?”

  “No, not yet.”

  “I could try to find out for you,” Samantha said.

  “I think I can wait,” Micah told her. “Don’t trouble yourself with that.”

  “It’s no trouble, Micah!” Samantha told him. “I really want you to get in. Then I’d apply and we’d be at school together again.”

  Micah did not comment. There was a moment of awkward silence.

  “Have you managed to work out coming here for my birthday?” Samantha asked again. “We only have T- 2 weeks left to plan.”

  “I know,” Micah said. “I need to talk to you about that…”

  “I can’t wait for you to come!” Samantha gushed. We are going to have so much fun. We can do all the cheesy tourist stuff -- you know, like the Statue of Liberty and Times Square, and we can even wake up very early one morning and go to Rockefeller Centre and wave with the Today Show crowd...”

  “Samantha…” Micah started to interrupt.

  “And Aunt Phoebe and Uncle Kyle and Aunt Beth and Uncle William and Kamilla and Phillip and Alex and Margaux are so excited that you’re coming– well not Phillip so much, because he doesn’t really care, but everyone else can’t wait for you to get here…”

  “Sam…” Micah begun again.

  “You know what we should definitely do? Broadway!‘La Bohéme' is opening that weekend. Kamilla saw the preview and she thought it was awesome..."

  “Samantha, I have to talk to you about something.”

  “What is it, Micah? You don’t want to come up for my birthday?”

  “No, that’s not it.” Samantha heard him take a deep breath.

  “Then what’s wrong?”

  “I think we should break up.”

  9

  Just Perfect!

  chapter two

  Friday, March 28

  Samantha lay on her side under the covers and stared at the bone white wall of her bedroom at Aunt Phoebe’s house. It was her room on weekends and on one-day holidays. It had been her room for the past week. The worst week of her life. It was Friday night again, and the one week anniversary of the night her life came to an end. She pulled her knees as close to her chin as she could manage, and drew the comforter over her head. She wondered why they called it a comforter. Right now, when her heart was broken into a million little pieces, it was offering her no comfort whatsoever. Fresh tears streamed down her pale face that was already tight with a week of tear stains. The only sound to be heard in the entire penthouse was an annoying ticking clock on the wall. Samantha did not like clocks that made ticking sounds. They unnerved her. In two minutes the grandfather clock downstairs would chime 9.00pm. If there was anything Samantha hated more than a clock that ticked was one that chimed. When she was seven years old, and Andie was six, Andie had saved her pocket money and used it to buy an annoying little clock that sang a different jingle at the top of every hour. Andie adored the clock, and kept it on her nightstand. At the time, she and Andie had shared a room, and the clock got on her very last nerve. In the middle of ‘Oh Suzanna’ at two o’clock in the morning, Samantha got out of bed, went downstairs to the kitchen and returned with a meat mallet, which she used to pound the clock into a pile of glass and metal. She had to spend the next day in the naughty corner, and pay Andie back for the clock from her pocket money, but it was worth it to see Rosilda, the housekeeper, sweeping up the mess and putting it into the bin.

  Samantha shifted positions, and turned to face the other wall, a decision she instantly regretted, because that side of the room had the mirror. Even without her glasses, she knew she looked repulsive. Her face and eyes were swollen and red. Her hair had not been shampooed or combed in a week. She probably smelled as bad as she looked, because she had not showered since Thursday morning.

  Samantha wondered what on earth had gone wrong. Why was she lying on her side, cocooned in bed at her Auntie’s house on a Friday night all by herself? Why had she spent the last week going through the crucible of heartbreak and distress? Why had she not even been to classes or her apartment all week? Why the only time she had eaten was when Aunt Phoebe threatened to call her mother if she didn’t drink the soup that Maria, one of the maids had taken up.

  Samantha closed her eyes and brought back last Friday night to her memory.

  “I think we should break up.” Micah had said.

  Samantha had held the cell phone away from her ear. For one split second, she thought that she must have misheard what her boyfriend of two years and three months had said.

  “What did you just say, Micah?” She asked.

  “I said I think we should break up,” Micah repeated.

  "But—but—what – why…” Samantha spluttered. So she hadn’t mish
eard Micah. She just could not understand why he was saying that. “Micah…”

  “I’m sorry, Sammy,” Micah said. “I just don’t think this – you and me -- is going to work.”

  “It has been working quite fine for the past two years!” Samantha argued, deciding that she was not going to cry. “How comes it suddenly isn’t working now?”

  “Well, in the first place, Samantha, you know that long distance relationships don’t usually work,” Micah explained. “I’m here. You’re all the way there. I just would be more comfortable having a girlfriend who lives a little closer to me…”

  “Is there someone else that you want to be dating?”

  “Why would you even ask me that, Sammy?” Micah returned.

  “What else do you expect me to ask?” Samantha screamed. She pulled her fingers through her long brown hair, a gesture of frustration. “My boyfriend is calling me on a Friday night out of the blue to break up with me and I didn’t even do anything wrong!”

  “I’m sorry, Sammy. I don’t want to hurt you... It’s just that... I don’t think we’re a good fit... I don’t know how to explain it... I’m just not in love with you. I used to be, but not anymore.... Do you understand?”

  “No, actually I don’t!” Samantha felt very small and helpless. “I don’t understand at all. I think we were made for each other. And I’m still very much in love with you…”

  “Why? Why do you think we were made for each other? What do we really have in common, except that we’re both good at Economics? And being apart right now isn’t helping our ‘relationship’ at all. If we’re going to be together, I want to hold you and touch you and see you every day.” He sighed. “Being apart like this -- we aren’t boyfriend and girlfriend. We’re hardly even pen pals!”

  “That’s not fair, Micah!” Samantha insisted. “You saw me Christmas, and my birthday is only a couple weeks away – you’ll see me then. Then a month after that, I’ll be home for the entire summer. In no time it will be December again and I’ll be back for good, or if you get into NYU, we’ll be together by August! You have to be patient, Micah. We can work this out when I come home...”

  “There’s nothing to work out, Samantha!”

  “Don’t do this!” Samantha pleaded. “Please don’t break up with me…” She was beginning to feel desperate. She wondered if she could offer him some sort of deal. “Why don’t we take a break then? Until I am done with school? Then when I come home in December, you can see how you feel and we can pick up...”

  “No!” Micah declared. “I don’t want to take a break. I’m telling you that I don’t want to be with you. I want to move on, and I want you to do the same. I’m sorry Samantha, and hurting you is the last thing that I ever wanted to do...”

  “You don’t want to hurt me?” Samantha screamed. “What do you think you are doing now? “

  “I’m sorry, Samantha,” Micah said again. “I really am… I better hang up now. Are you going to be okay?”

  “No, I’m not going to be okay, Micah,” Samantha said, hearing her voice crack. “How can you do this to me? You promised me! You told me you would never break up with me!”

  “I’m sorry…” Micah repeated for the third time. “I’m so sorry.”

  The next thing Samantha heard was a click and then the dial tone. She sat on her bed, numb with shock. Two minutes later, she was throwing random articles of clothing into an overnight bag. She pulled on her coat and ran outside into the brisk March evening. She hailed a cab and gave the driver Aunt Phoebe’s address. Phoebe and Kyle Javar came home from dinner with advertisers to find a tear stained Samantha huddled into a ball at their front door. She was covered with a blue comforter and looked like a homeless person.

  “Samantha, what the …” Uncle Kyle began.

  Samantha saw her aunt and uncle looking at her and immediately burst into uncontrollable sobbing. Uncle Kyle lifted her into his arms and took her upstairs to her bedroom. Aunt Phoebe did not bother to wake Maria, but went to the kitchen to make her a cup of chamomile tea that remained untouched. Neither probed, but after a few days and a number of covert questions, they were able to figure out what had happened. They had left her alone to stew in self-pity until that evening when they insisted that she come out to Le Cirque with them, where they were meeting Kamilla and her husband, Kevin for dinner. Samantha had flat out refused, and had to suffer through an earful from Aunt Phoebe. Aunt Phoebe expounded for half hour, the usual ‘lift yourself’, ‘it’s not the end of the world’, ‘time will heal all wounds’ platitudes, but Samantha remained unmoved. In her opinion, it was the end of the world. The man she loved – scratch that – the only man she would ever love, told her he did not love her anymore.

  It was as though someone else, not her, had gotten that phone call. Someone else had just been dumped for no justifiable reason. This was not happening. This had to be a joke. Samantha decided to call him. It had been one whole week. He must have come to his senses by now. Before she could dial his number, her cell phone rang. She slid it open eagerly. It had to be Micah. He had to be calling her to tell her that he was only joking. He just wanted to know how she would react if they weren’t together anymore. She could hear him now:

  “Gotcha! I got you so good! How could you possibly think I could want to break up with you? I love you, you idiot!”

  Samantha put the phone to her ear. “Hello…”

  “Sammy?”

  It wasn’t Micah. It was Andie.

  “Hey, Andie!” Samantha said, trying to mask the disappointment in her voice. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing much,” Andie replied. “What you doing?”

  “Nothing…”

  Andie took a deep breath. “You heard from Micah?”

  “No,” Samantha said.

  “You feeling any better?” Andie asked again.

  “Ask me that question again!”

  “I take that to mean no …”

  Andie’s voice trailed off, and Samantha could not help the sob that escaped from her throat.

  “Sam…” Andie began.

  “I can’t talk to you right now, Andie…” Samantha said hurriedly.

  “Please don’t hang up, Samantha,” Andie pleaded. “I need to know that you’re alright.”

  “He broke up with me,” Samantha whispered. “He said he doesn’t love me anymore, and I don’t even know why. Did you know he was going to break up with me?”

  Silence from the other end of the phone line gave Samantha her answer. She did not even bother to fight against the sobs that came.

  “Why, Andie?” She cried. “What was he thinking? What’s happening down there?”

  “I’m sorry, Sam,” Andie said. “There’s this girl. She’s a grad student as well…”

  “He dumped me for another girl?” Samantha cried. “He told me there was no one else…”

  “That’s his lying, cheating face,” Andie explained. “He’s been going around with that girl for about three weeks now and Nathan called him on it. We thought he would have chucked her. We had no idea he would pick her over you…”

  “What’s she like?” Samantha asked. “Is she prettier than me? Or smarter?”

  “I don’t know if she’s smarter, but she certainly isn’t prettier,” Andie said. “She’s ugly. And emaciated. And she looks crazy, and dresses crazy and wears her hair crazy…”

  Andie’s description of the girl was not helping matters.

  “He left me for an ugly girl!” Samantha squealed.

  “I really don’t know what he sees in her,” Andie said helplessly. “I’m sorry, Sam…”

  Samantha could not believe her ears. She thought that they would be together forever. She could not believe that he had broken up with her and was dating someone else! Tears ran down her face and on to her comforter.

  “Is this my fault, Andie?” She asked. “You think if I had never come to NYU this would have happened?”

  “No, I don’t,” Andie said. “It’s not
your fault. Micah is a jackass. He is impatient and stupid. I don’t see how he could have swapped you for her. It all boils down to the 80/20 principle…”

  “What does the Pareto Principle have to do with my relationship?” Samantha asked.

  “Well, because you’re there, and he’s here, in your absence, he was only getting 80% from your relationship,” Andie explained. “He decided to get the remaining 20% from that ugly, weird girl, and then bam, he’s swapping his 80 for a mere 20!”

  “You’re such an idiot, Andie!” Samantha retorted.

  “An idiot that can make you smile!” Andie retorted back. “Tell me you didn’t smile.”

  “I didn’t smile!” Samantha said seriously.

  Andie sighed. “I’m sorry, Sammy.”

  “I know. It’s not your fault.”

  “You wanna talk some more?” Andie asked.

  Samantha shook her head, although her sister could not see her across the phone lines. “I think I want to be alone right now.”

  “Want me to come up first flight tomorrow? We can wait to exhale over avocado face masks and chocolate mint ice cream!”

  “Don’t you have exams to study for?”

  “Exams can go to hell!” Andie said. “You’re my sister. If you want me, I’m there.”