Just Perfect! (Persaud Girl) Read online

  “God, Jen, is no one off limits to you?” Chad asked, rolling his eyes.

  Chad’s question led Jen into a long narrative on the guys she had ‘shagged’, and the ones she ‘wanted to shag’ and the ones she ‘could have shagged’ and the ones she ‘hadn’t shagged and why’. Jen’s bold confessions led Lexie to be equally bold in expressing how ‘abhorrent and disgusting’ she found ‘Jen’s wayward behaviour’.

  Samantha did not want to listen to them talk anymore. She wanted to find Phillip and wring his neck for telling his friends about Micah. She could not believe that he had gone and announced to all his friends her greatest humiliation and failure. She would find him and tell him to take her home, after she had wrung his neck then and disowned him. Who needed a blabber mouth like him for a cousin, anyway?

  “Where’s the ladies’ room?” She whispered to Lexie.

  "Two lefts and a right," Lexie told her. "Want me to come with you?"

  "No, I'll be fine!" Samantha grabbed her purse and weaved her way through the club. She found the ladies’ room without incident. A tall, elegant black woman was yelling into her cell phone.

  "No, no, no!" She barked. "Tell him not to sign anything.... Twenty per cent is not enough! It is an insult... I don't care if a burning bush told him, do not let him sign... Where is he.... I'm at Infierno, a couple blocks away... I'll be there in five! Son of a bitch!" She snapped her cell phone closed and shoved it into her purse and glared at Samantha. "I swear to God, kid! I should have gone to med school!"

  Samantha smiled politely, wondering what her deal was. She wondered how many business deals had been brokered in the ladies' room at Infierno. She waited until the woman had left before sinking into the plush leather love seat. She sighed, and glanced at her watch. It was coming up to midnight. She wondered what Micah was doing at that moment. What he and Ronica were doing. Was he thinking about her? Wishing he had not broken up with her? Would he call her for her birthday? Had it been only two weeks since he had phoned and dumped her? "I think we should break up..." His words were still fresh in her mind, and her eyes filled with tears that she quickly blinked back. No. She was not going to cry. She was not going to let thoughts of Micah ruin her night out. In ten minutes it would be her birthday. She would sit in that ladies’ room until she turned twenty-two, then she would re-join her cousin and his friends and enjoy her evening. Maybe she would have a margarita. Maybe she would ask Lexie to introduce her to Phillip's protégé, Jeremy. Jen had said he was good for rebound sex. She wasn't interested in sex, rebound or otherwise, but she wouldn't be averse to -- how did Sue put it -- finding another loser to worship her.

  Ten minutes later, and one year older, Samantha made her way back to the booth. Phillip was back, and he had taken a friend. He was a tall, undeniably handsome, ridiculously toned man, with skin the colour of bitter sweet chocolate. His head was shaved almost bald, and he was smiling and showing off teeth so white that they glowed, and the most marvellous pair of dimples. Samantha stopped in her tracks.

  “You have got to be kidding me!”

  Phillip looked up and spotted his cousin. “Hey, Sammy! Look who’s here!”

  And Samantha’s world stopped turning. There in her cousin’s booth at Club Infierno sat the one person she truly despised in the world; the most obnoxious, boorish prick ever to walk the halls of the University of the West Indies, Mona campus – Jeremy Malcolm, the idiot formerly known as 'The Incredible Hunk'!

  Jeremy looked up at her and smiled. “Hey Sammy Persaud! Nice to see you again!”

  “Now I see why this place is called 'Hell'!" Samantha seethed. "The landlord is doing his rounds!"

  “You know each other?" Jen asked.

  “Of course they know each other!” Phillip said. “Jeremy left UWI a year before you, right, Sammy?”

  Samantha looked at her cousin. She looked at Jeremy Malcolm. Jeremy Malcolm was the creep who had made a bet with Nathan that he could not get Andie to sleep with him in eight weeks. Because of him, Andie almost had her heart broken. Fortunately, Nathan was not as morally bankrupt as Jeremy, and had reneged on the bet. Samantha had done her best to erase every memory of Jeremy Malcolm from her mind. She could not believe he was now standing in front of her, a smug grin on his dimpled face.

  “Yeah, I know him!” Samantha remarked. "I know he's like one of those rashes that you can’t seem to get rid of!" She reclaimed her seat in the booth, and avoided touching Jeremy as though he had a disease. "Undoubtedly, Jeremy himself has had a few of those rashes!"

  “Nice to see you, too!” Jeremy said, looking offended.

  “Come on, Sam, be nice to Jeremy!” Phillip said, giving her a playful nudge. “You know he only came out tonight because I told him you were gonna be here?”

  Samantha took the glass Chad held out to her. It contained a bright green liquid and she had no idea what it was. However, everyone else at the table, including Phillip had one, so she was pretty sure it wasn’t poison. Hopefully whatever it was would help her forget the fact that the bastard, Jeremy Malcolm was present. She downed the contents of the glass in one gulp, and it burned as it passed her throat, and tears filled her eyes. She gasped. That was some strong stuff!

  “I’d rather you not do me any favours, Jeremy!” She sneered, as soon as she could talk again.

  “Whoa! Hostility!” Jen commented.

  “It’s repressed sexual energy!” Jeremy explained. “Sammy has always wanted to jump my bones.”

  “Not even if you were the only man on earth!”

  “Sour grapes!” Jeremy remarked, winking at Samantha, and she did not know if she was turned on or repulsed.

  "Hey, c'mon. We're all here to get along!" Phillip interjected. "How about Mojitos all 'round?"

  “Where's Lexie?" Samantha asked, suddenly realising the booth was one short.

  “She went home,” Jen remarked. “And not a moment too soon, the little prude. I, for one, don’t have the stomach for a Harvard grad with a stick up her arse!”

  “Come on Jen, Lexie is cool." Jeremy said. "Lay off her!”

  “Only if I can lay on you instead!” Jen’s fingers trailed up Jeremy’s forearm.

  Samantha rolled her eyes to the heavens. Jen was flirting shamelessly with Jeremy, and she had to be at least fifteen years older than he was!

  "Mojitos sound like a great idea, man!" Marcus said, glancing at his watch. "But Sue and I have a brunch date tomorrow, so we better call it a night. Next deal - same place?"

  "You got it, bro!" Phillip gave him a classic 'man hug'.

  The mojitos came, and Samantha sipped hers as Phillip told the rest of the table his impromptu meeting a few minutes ago with the president of Spark Pictures, an Indie film company in Los Angeles. They were considering the option of buying the rights to a new best-selling novel, and were looking for an advisor. Phillip thought it would be a bit out of the box but a great new challenge for their team should they decide to take the job.

  Samantha listened intently as the conversation segued into serious work issues, as ‘the gang’ discussed business deals, corporate take-overs, privatizations and acquisitions. She was able to cipher out that Lexie and Chad were third – almost fourth year Associates, and Jen who had joined Persaud Financials as a ‘lowly Analyst’ had graduated 15 years later into one of the house’s most ruthless and respected Hedge Fund Managers. Samantha also realised that Phillip’s little jam session was more of a working night out than a party and discovered why Phillip was number one on '30 under 30'. She noticed his excitement as Chad began talking about the restructuring project he would start working on come Monday. Chad was debating the pros and cons of proposing a corporate downsizing as opposed to debt restructuring, jotting down figures on a red Infierno napkin, as he rattled off a mile a minute his analysis of the situation. Jeremy did not share Chad’s opinions, and in a tone that to Samantha’s undiplomatic ears reminded her how conceited he was, pointed out the flaws in his analysis. Phillip was agreeing with Jeremy
and congratulating him on his thorough and accurate analysis of the situation. Samantha frowned, annoyed. It was bad enough that she had to be in a club with Jeremy, but watching Phillip being nice to him after what he did to Andie was unbearable.

  Suddenly, Phillip’s cell phone rang.

  “Phillip Javar!” Phillip responded. He listened for a few moments. “Are you kidding me? No... No... Of course not... Not a problem... I'll fix it right away!”

  “What’s the matter?” Samantha asked, looking at Phillip, who looked like he was about to have a coronary.

  “That was our contact on the RPU deal,” Phillip explained. “I swear that goddamn moron, Gordon cannot add. Our figures in one spreadsheet are off by almost ten million, which means we have to recheck the entire pitch! I have to go to the office.”

  “Are you kidding?” Samantha could not believe her ears. “It’s one in the morning.”

  “Yeah but it’s ten o’clock in Mumbai!” Jen dropped her phone into her up her purse. “If we don’t go and sort this, we will lose a crap load of money. Chad and I will come with you!"

  “Is there anything I can do to help?” Jeremy asked.

  “Yeah, call Gordon and tell him to get his ass to the war room and don’t let me get there before him! And call Lexie, too. Tell her I'm sorry to disturb her beauty sleep, but we need all hands on deck."

  Samantha had never seen Phillip so livid in her life. “What about me?” She asked, and Phillip looked at her momentarily puzzled.

  “Damn!” He said, finally realising. “You need to get home...”

  “I’ll take her,” Jeremy offered.

  “Like hell you will!” Samantha shot.

  “You should let him, Sam,” Phillip advised. “I don’t want you out alone so late, and I don’t have the time to take you uptown and get back to the office.”

  “Then I’m coming with you,” Samantha decided, gathering her purse.

  “We might be all night,” Chad pointed out.

  “I don’t want to stay here alone with him!” Samantha motioned to Jeremy.

  “I’m still sitting right here!” Jeremy pointed out.

  “A fact I am trying my damnedest to forget!”

  Phillip sighed. "Look, Sam, you need to work with me here. I don't know what kind of crap I'm walking into right now, and now isn't the time for you to start acting like a bloody prom queen. You either stay here with Jeremy till I get back for you, or let him take you home. Or you can take a cab and risk getting kidnapped. Your call!"

  Samantha was torn. She was not comfortable being left in a nightclub with only Jeremy Malcolm for company but she much preferred that over possibly being maimed and murdered on her birthday. She had watched enough episodes of NYPD Blue and Law and Order to know that anything could happen in Manhattan.

  “Okay, fine!” Samantha surrendered. “Whatever. I'll stay here."

  Phillip ruffled his cousin’s messy bun. “Good girl. Now play nice with Jeremy, okay? Don’t let me see you on America’s Most Wanted.”

  “Our car is here,” Chad announced.

  Jen leaned in and gave Jeremy a kiss on his ear. “Call me tomorrow, will you duck?”

  Jeremy grinned. Samantha blushed. They both watched Jen sashay out of the club behind Phillip and Chad.

  “If ever there was mutton parading as lamb!” Jeremy commented.

  “You didn’t know that when you agreed to be her boy toy?” Samantha accused.

  “Jealous much?” Jeremy asked smugly.

  “Nauseated much?” Samantha returned, feeling strangely bothered. “Aren’t you supposed to be calling Lexie and 'that moron Gordon'?”

  “You must have the memory of an elephant!” Jeremy declared, pulling his cell phone from his pocket. He called Gordon first, who had taken a weekend off to Connecticut, and was mortified by the fact that he had to get back into the city before Phillip reached the office. She listened as he explained the situation to Lexie, who, it seemed had just arrived at her Williamsburg apartment, and judging by the number of ‘pleases’, ‘thank yous’ and ‘Phillip will appreciate its’ that Jeremy was using, was not amused that she had to go into work at that dreadful hour so Persaud Financials did not lose what Jen had deemed a ‘crap load of money’. Samantha was glad she was not Lexie. If Jeremy was using that same honey voice of his on her, she would, against her better judgement, go to the end of the earth with him! Finally, he ended his calls and shoved the phone into his pocket.

  “So, Sammy, it’s just us!” He commented.

  “Hmm,” Samantha snorted.

  “You wanna dance?” Jeremy asked, edging closer to her.

  Samantha pretended not to have heard him. She decided maybe if she pretended that he was not there, he would evaporate.

  “Samantha, I asked you to dance.” He repeated.

  “I heard you. I’m not deaf!” Samantha retorted edging away from him.

  “No, just rude!” Jeremy scoffed. He left the booth and went to the bar.

  Samantha watched him go. His dark jeans clung to his perfectly toned behind, and Samantha could make out some strong, rippling leg muscles as he strode across the room. He was too damn fine, she thought. Pity he was such a jerk. She wondered how she had not put two and two together when Jen and Sue had mentioned Jeremy from Columbia. She recalled Micah mentioning that Jeremy had received First Class Honours in Actuarial Sciences. The last she heard, he had received some big deal academic scholarship or another, and had taken it up at Columbia, where he was working on an MBA with a concentration in Finance and Economics. Evidently he was doing well. Persaud Financials recruited only the best and brightest from the top business schools. That he got a Summer Associate position there was no mean feat.

  Jeremy returned to the booth carrying some tiny shot glasses, a plate of lemon wedges, a salt shaker and a bottle of tequila.

  “Shot?” He asked, careful to sit as far from her as the booth allowed.

  “No thank you. My mother says never to take drinks from asses in bars. They might roofie me!”

  “I don’t need to roofie women to get them to sleep with me!” Jeremy retorted. “Women come to me whether I want them or not! Case in point, Jen. She was on me my first week at Persaud Financials, and evidently, she has no complaints!”

  Samantha rolled her eyes. “I can see that you are still a pompous, conceited bore!”

  “And you are still an arrogant, self-righteous bitch!”

  Samantha huffed and turned her back to him. Jeremy took a shot, and gazed at Samantha’s smooth, exposed back. It took all his will power not to lean forward and kiss it. He regretted his last comment to her, but she was just so intent on hating him. They sat in silence for a while. Jeremy poured himself another drink.

  “Sure you don’t want one?” He asked. “You can’t just sit there all night like that.”

  “I guess I will need something to help me stomach you till Phillip comes back for me!” Samantha said. “How do you do this?”

  “Let me show you,” Jeremy edged a bit closer to her. “Lick the back of your hand.”

  “That’s gross!” Samantha protested, making a face.

  “I’ll lick it for you if you want,” Jeremy offered.

  Samantha did not even bother to dignify his offer with a response. She licked the back of her hand and held it up while he sprinkled some salt on it.

  Jeremy handed her one of the miniature glasses and positioned a lemon wedge between her thumb and forefinger. “Lick off the salt, drink this as fast as you can then suck the lime,” he instructed.

  Samantha lifted the glass to her lips and downed the tequila in one gulp. It tasted like liquid fire going down. “Mother sick!” She coughed, and quickly sucked the lime.

  “You okay?” Jeremy asked, taking another shot.

  “That was horrible!” Samantha said, wiping tears from her eyes.

  “Wait a few minutes then have another,” Jeremy instructed. “The second one won’t be so bad.”

  “Are you try
ing to get me drunk?” Samantha asked. She sprinkled the salt on the back of her hand, psyching herself up for her second shot.

  “Oh please!” Jeremy scoffed. “These are half ounce shot glasses and I haven’t even filled them. You’d have to be a baby for these to pack any serious punch. Besides, why would I want to get you drunk?” He wrinkled his brow a bit.

  “I don’t put anything past the person who would make that stupid bet against my sister!”

  Jeremy rolled his eyes. “Come on, Sam!” He said. “That crap with Nathan and Andie was forever ago. Aren’t they together and happy now?”

  “No thanks to you!” Samantha downed her second shot, and quickly sucked on her lime to kill the taste. She hoped that Jeremy was right about not getting drunk. Last thing she wanted was to be hung over when she saw her parents the next day.

  “You need to learn how to forgive and forget!” Jeremy remarked. “Malice keeping isn’t healthy.”

  “Neither is promiscuity, but you seem to be surviving alright!” Samantha shot.

  “Touché!” Jeremy smiled and licked some salt off the back of his hand. “And I am as healthy as they come. Show you my blood donor card?”

  “I’ll take your word for it!”

  Jeremy smiled, and Samantha could not help smiling back. It might have been the tequila, but she could feel a small fluttering in her stomach when Jeremy smiled at her.

  “What time is it?” Samantha asked, quickly catching herself. “I shouldn’t stay out too late. My parents are coming in tomorrow...”

  “Early hours yet!” Jeremy said. “Live a little, nuh! It’s your birthday!”

  “Yes it is! Happy birthday to me!”

  “Happy birthday to you!” Jeremy agreed.

  They clinked glasses and downed another shot in perfect unison.

  “So how’s NYU?” Jeremy asked, looking at her. He popped some nuts as he waited for a response.

  “Going well,” Samantha replied. Lime juice was dribbling down her arm and she dabbed it off with a napkin. “Just finished my second semester. I see you’re doing well at Columbia.”