“Who was that cute little thing?” Tyler asked with a wink. Randy frowned. “A friend.”
“His girlfriend,” Jolene at the front desk shouted. “And a rich one, look at that” she flipped to the center page of the magazine that had a poster of Elsie. “It reads she is the next generation of a breed of designers in the making.
Tyler whistled, “If she is that, why didn’t she pay?”
He scowled and Randy told him to take it off his pay check and stop being on his case.
His boss cum friend advised, “Don’t forget and lose your head over her, she is not in your league.”
As if, Randy rolled his eyes at that notion. Elsie had always been like a young sister to him and nothing more. Having met her in her sophomore year at high school because she was Rita’s new friend from the suburbs he didn’t pay that much attention to her.
Rita and Elsie were sort of like a nuisance in his life as they would come over for chats with his nana and evade his privacy in his room. The silly twittering girls, he had called them while his young brother and sister enjoyed their company.
He chuckled; Elsie was still an innocent and not at all what he would fall for.
Chapter Two
RANDY CHUCKLED at the thought of Elsie’s talkative nature as he got into the house after work. His nana was settled on the recliner in the living room, sewing a scarf as she usually did. “Hey Nan,” he greeted and kissed her on the forehead.
“Randy how was your day?” she asked and he replied.
“Are Raff and Lilly back from school?”
His nana shook her head and continued knitting before she said, “They had sports today after their lessons.”
Raff and Lilly were twins and his young brother and sister. He loved them to bits and at the age of fifteen they always managed to give him grief at times. He smothered a laugh at the fact that when he thought of them, he thought of another girl who had literally hurled herself at him when she saw him.
“Guess who came by the garage today though it was to get her car fixed.”
His grandmother looked at him and shrugged her shoulders. He exhaled noisily; Nan at times could act all strict when she was actually one of the coolest grannies. He could see the frown starting to appear on her forehead and hoped she would not start with the whole marriage stuff.
The moment he hit twenty five it seemed to have signaled to her that he had to settle down.
“Elsie,” he said. Her face lit up as expected and she asked, “How is she, its time she paid me a visit, it has been long since I met that pretty kind young lady.”
He resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the emphasis she was making on pretty and kind.
“She is great, still the same chatter box.”
“She must be of marriageable age now,” his grandmother said and he chuckled. Now she wanted to throw Elsie at him.
“Nan she is still young and has a lot of dreams to fulfill before she settles down.”
His grandmother scoffed, “Just go and wash up boy before you ask for a hiding. I don’t know what is wrong with your generation; you delay in everything and hope that all goes well after you have messed up during the delaying phase. Like I said, I don’t want a girl turning up pregnant outside my home” she grumbled and Randy laughed.
He decided to excuse himself before the old lady had high blood pressure because of him. He needed a bath, food and rest before he went to his other job. He certainly didn’t have time to shop around for a woman.
***
ELSIE’S DAY after the garage incident was full of activity as she went from lecture to lecture and forgot about her crush. It was when she was driving back home that she decided to give Sean a call. As usual, Sean couldn’t take her out on a date because he was busy with work.
“Will you ever have time for me?” she sulked and could hear him laugh. “What has gotten into you all of a sudden? I thought you like the whole giving each other space thing. How did you put it, the heart grows fonder when your loved one is away?”
“I know what I had said Sean, but can I at least get an hour of your company.”
Sean sighed and asked, “What is going on love.”
Elsie bit her tongue and could clearly imagine him sitting back on his chair about to interrogate her. She knew the cause of her unease, meeting Randy again after such a long time. She thought she had her crush under control but she had been wrong.
“Nothing, don’t you want to meet with me?”
“Tell you what, I have a business dinner in the evening, will you please be my plus one. I will pick you up at seven.”
She huffed, “You know I hate that boring stuff, but I am game since you asked so politely.” Sean laughed before he told her he loved her craziness and hung up. With that done, she now contemplated on what to wear. She decided to drop by her mom’s boutique and grab an outfit for the formal affairs that Sean always attended. Already she dreaded meeting some of the ladies who appeared to want to cling to her boyfriend. He was a catch after all, and this dinner would for a while take her mind from straying to unchartered waters.
***
AS EXPECTED she was bored to death and demanded restitution from Sean with her eyes that were boring daggers on his back. He looked laidback and at ease in his everyday formal wear. She was beginning to doubt if he had a pair of jeans like Rita had pointed out before. She grabbed a glass of wine at the waiter passing by and gulped in down quickly before getting another one.
“Elsie,” a familiar voice addressed her. As usual Shirley was scantily dressed and having a lot of makeup that could be contained in a quarter part of her mom’s cosmetic department. What caught her eye the most though were the big hooters over her chest, Shirley had normal sized boobs before?
“I see you are spotting on some new release there,” she said, sarcasm dripping from her tongue. The woman didn’t notice at all but rather smiled and replied, “You like them? It’s been two months since I had the surgery.”
She really needed to escape, but the lady followed her when she moved for another wine glass. “Don’t you think you are drinking a lot today, I mean you have been on the bender before and we wouldn’t want that to happen again.” A raised brow was targeted on the wine glass she was holding. “I have it under control Shirley and there is no need for you to worry about me,” she snorted back. Shirley was Justin’s big sister, the Justin that she made a lot of mistakes with in the name of love. Shirley was just a year older to Justin and seemed to love to goad her over her past misdeeds. “It has been seven years now so that’s rather old to be bringing up my lapse in judgment.”
“Well you might say seven but I heard all those years can be lost in an instant,” Shirley flicked her fingers for emphasis. “Sooo slow down on the booze” she finished with a fake smile pasted on her face.
“By the way did you see Justin, he is here.”
That had Elsie reaching out for another glass. For a second she had managed to forget about her past but her subconscious wasn’t letting her this time, since this was the day she always dreaded the most every year.
The pain of it had slowly faded but the impact seemed to still linger at the recess of her mind, and with Shirley mentioning Justin, she doubted she would survive.
A hand touched her shoulder, startling her as she turned and sighed in relief when she realized it was Sean.
“Hey love.” He swiftly took away the glass and she wanted to protest. “I think you have had enough for the day.” He whispered in her ear and nodded to Shirley before walking away with her towards the door.
Once they were outside he asked, “What has gotten into you Elsie?”
Let’s see, naughty thoughts she was having about Randy, meeting infuriating Shirley and being told her once upon a time lover boy was at the function also.
“Nothing was just having fun,” she feigned a frown and failed dismally. She could feel that the wine had loosened her up a bit and she was no longer nervous. She could do it, brave her meet
ing with Justin as she usually did. While he stared at her with that knowing glimmer in his eyes, and a slight curl on his lips as he happened to know her in more ways than she could ever have wished.
Gulping in a few breaths of the cool fresh air, she glanced at Sean who was leading her away from the building to the car, she knew they weren’t any hopes of going back to that party seeing how determined he was. Sean knew how out of control she could be and had swiftly left with her before she caused havoc. “Since we attended your stuffy dinners why don’t we pass by a club also?”
“I have work tomorrow and you have school.”
“You know what Sean,” she stopped and turned to face him before poking his broad chest, “You don’t have a fun bone in your body. All you think about is work, work and more work. Do you even find me desirable or when you look at me, am just a case study for you to do.”
She was toying with his tie and Sean grabbed her hand.
“You are drunk,” he muttered.
“I am drunk in my love for you.” She pulled his head by the tie and kissed him. Sean pulled away, “No Elsie not like this.” She scoffed, for a Compton he surely acted uppity tight; she turned away from him and resumed walking to the car.
He had to keep her in the seat throughout the drive as she would poke her head and start yelling.
By the time they got home, she had calmed down and was softly snoring away, having dozed off. The only times she ever got this way was when... his mind came to a dead still. Why had he been so insensitive? He had totally forgotten the date since he had been busy with work. This was the day when she had the accident and almost died.
He had met people who appeared to have overcome the guilt but on this day Elsie seemed to relieve it somehow as it surfaced back. He got off the car and moved to the passenger door before he helped her out of the car and carried her to the door. Her mother opened it and let him in before he walked towards her room.
He greeted her after placing her on the bed. “That bad huh,” her mother asked. “I had forgotten about it and it just clicked when we were coming back.”
“She was happy in the morning and I thought she had forgotten” her mother replied. “Thanks Sean for bringing her safe and sound. She is lucky to have you in her life.”
“It’s no bother Mrs. Ross I care about her,” he whispered and walked out of Elsie’s room.
Aggy watched Sean leave the house before she shut the door after him and went back to bed. Ethan had finished changing Eric’s diaper and was rubbing his belly as he dosed off. “How did it go?” he asked.
"Same as always, you know when you have that hope that it will not happen again and then subconsciously she remembers.”
He tucked Eric in before walking to his bed. “She will be fine; I mean seven years is a long time.”
Aggy shook her head and scoffed, “You don’t know Elsie, and she will keep beating herself over it till the day she dies. It’s like that insurance advert with those monsters. It grows and bursts and starts growing again for the next year.”
Ethan smiled at that analogue before he pulled his wife into his arms and tenderly kissed her. “Let’s be grateful for today that the incidence has passed until next year then” he said before he shut his eyes and dozed off.
***
ELSIE WOKE up with a pounding headache and a vibrating phone the next day in the morning. Her mother had placed a packet of aspirin and a glass of water on the side of the bed. She reached out to it, popped one pill and gulped down the water before she answered the phone. It was her uncle Garret. “Hey love, your mom informed me that you had travelled down memory lane yesterday,” he said after she greeted him.
“It’s one of those things Pastor G,” she answered and could hear him chuckle before he commented, “How many times have I spoken to you about self-condemnation. It’s not good. Whatever happened in the past should stay there. It’s no use beating yourself over it and you are not doing anything wrong by moving on with your life and living princess. You are receiving what God has given you by his grace and accepting that Christ paid it all with his precious blood.”
She nodded before she realized that he wouldn’t see that since they were speaking over the phone and answered back. She spoke with her uncle for a while before she hung up feeling a bit revived.
Her phone rang again, it was Sean this time. “I am so, so, sorry Sean for yesterday,” was the first thing that came out of her mouth when she answered it.
“It’s okay love, though am beginning to have second thoughts about having your crazy self in my family.”
She giggled; he had been saying that over the years. “Are you fine though,” he asked and his concern pulled at her heart. “Yes I am I promise it will not happen again.”
She could actually imagine him roll back his eyes at that last statement. They chatted for a while before she hung up. Rushing to the bathroom after taking note of the time, she got ready for school.
Yesterday had been different somehow. She could swear she had forgotten about everything until she started berating herself over what she was feeling towards Randy.
The year of distancing herself from him proved to be of no use as she found herself back at square one. That’s when it also seemed to come back. The bad decisions that she had managed to make over her life. Like her uncle had mentioned, self-condemnation sucked. It sent one into a deeper slump. She felt she was a bad girl and she couldn’t be faithful to Sean.
She was her father’s daughter. No matter how much she tried to tell herself that she wasn’t him. Randy hadn’t been the only one in the four years she had been with Sean. They had been other guys she had flirted with and Sean didn’t mind, except with Randy it was different, he just couldn’t be shrugged off like the others as if he were nothing and it was just pure fun.
One glass of wine became two and so on. God she was a mess, she thought. It will serve her right if handsome kind Sean left her for good. She didn’t deserve anything good to come her way, she thought and sighed.
She stared at the mirror and her hair. Time she dyed it another color to mask the torment she felt in her heart. A bright shade of red would do, she thought and since her skin color boded on the lighter side, it would be perfect. With her mind made up she dressed up and left for the kitchen where the chaos in her home was in full swing.
Chapter Three
NANA WAS knitting the winter jerseys for the twins when she heard the sound of a car engine and wondered who it could be. Their hood didn’t have that many people who drove. She leaned on the window and spotted a vibrant red color of hair emerging from the car and smiled. Elsie hadn’t changed at all and still hid her feelings through her always colorful hair choices.
Moving to the door, she opened it before the young lady had reached her and stood akimbo.
“Well, well, look who decided to grace us with her presence today.”
Elsie chuckled and waved off her remark with her hands before she hugged her.
“I missed you nana and wasn’t expecting such a cold welcome.”
Nan scoffed, “You call this cold when I rushed to the door and forgot about my aching bones.” Elsie giggled and was ushered into the house by the old woman. “How have you been my dear child?” she asked.
“Great Nan, how about you and the family?”
“As you can see, they do not stop growing,” Nan motioned to the jersey she was knitting. After the pleasantries had been shared she stood up to prepare tea for the young lady. She loved her and always thought Elsie and Randy would make a perfect match. Except her grandson was too blind to see and Elsie was convinced she was meant to be with Sean. She rolled her eyes at that. She didn’t have anything against Sean Compton but she believed Elsie’s personality clashed with his.
She could already see Sean trying to control a free spirit like Elsie.
“So how is Sean doing,” Nan asked once she got back to the living room and placed the tray on the table. “They wasn’t a need for all this nana,�
�� Elsie said and smiled when the old woman rolled her eyes. “Sean is great. Always busy with work.”
“Hmmm, I expected him to have married you by now?”
Elsie choked on her tea before placing the cup back on the table. “After varsity, that was the agreement.”
Nan nodded her head and resumed with her knitting. “I have been telling Randy to settle down. It’s now time, don’t you think.” She smothered a laugh when she noticed Elsie tear at her bun but not eat it, so the young lady still fancied her grandson. “I guess it is time,” Elsie finally said.
“Don’t you have women that you would like to suggest?”
“Me?” Elsie looked incredulously at her, “I mean I wouldn’t have an idea on the kind of woman that he would want. Randy once mentioned he wanted one more of his age.”
“It’s your duty to find that lady then.” Nan said sternly before she winked. Randy came in as Elsie was trying to compose herself over nana’s suggestion. “Afternoon nan,” he greeted and kissed her on the forehead as he tended to do before he greeted Elsie and left for his room.
“Look at him, miserable as hell. All that he does is wake up, work and work till he drops. Can you believe he doesn’t even have a girlfriend? I fear he will die a bachelor and a miserable one. What he needs is a woman who will remove him from that cocoon.”
Elsie giggled. She knew Nan was exaggerating the matter and jesting. There was no way that Randy would be single. She decided to humor the old woman and announced. “We will get him hitched soon enough. I think they might be a few ladies that I can recommend; even Rita is bound to know a few also.”
“That’s settled then,” Nan happily said. Randy was getting back into the living room when he heard the last words. “What’s settled?” he asked and both ladies giggled. These two tended to act as thick as thieves and he wondered what they were up to now. He had a reprieve ever since the lockdown but now he guessed Elsie would be a constant visitor again to his home.
Sweet Crazy Love Page 3