Aggy looked to where Elsie and Sean stood and sighed relieved that the fireworks were not about to blow up. That sad demeanor had been a dead giveaway that Elsie wasn’t happy with Sean after all and now with Randy staring at her in that manner, she realized that the feelings were mutual; Randy was also in love with her daughter.
For a while she had thought it was a one sided kind of thing and hoped Elsie would be happy with Sean. She wasn’t going to see that now.
What she had been dreading happened. Randy asked for a dance from Elsie and her fiancé nodded and watched them go to the dance floor.
“Randy what is going on,” Elsie asked in confusion while Randy didn’t reveal anything but rather took her hand and placed it on his shoulder. Elsie stared at him, God he looked handsome and seeing him without his beard, cleanly shaven and wearing a suit was proving to be making her senses reel from the shock. It had been a while. When she spotted him across the room she had thought that she was dreaming and her heart had leapt at the sight of him in a suit and looking like one ready to conquer the world.
“Give me a minute of your time and I will never ever bother you again.” He twirled her around before she moved back into his arms. “It’s not a good time Randy, you have been avoiding me for weeks and now you show up like this.”
“I am sorry,” he smiled and she nodded. He knew and she knew she couldn’t resist him. Sean was dancing with Nita and the room was rather a bit crowded as people appeared to love to dance so they easily slipped out of it.
“Do you know you are so beautiful,” Ethan asked Aggy and watched her giggle like a teen. “I could mistake you for being Elsie’s sister than mother” he whispered before kissing her. He had managed to take her mind off her daughter. He scowled when he saw Elsie slip out after Randy, maybe his wife had been right, Elsie was still young to know what she wanted. Aggy wouldn’t be too happy if she realized that she had gone, hopefully it was just for a minute and she would come back.
He twirled his wife around shrugging off his thoughts from his daughter, and concentrating on Aggy who was glowing. Love did that to people. He looked to his mates slowly dancing with their wives and Dominic who appeared to be lonely. Dominic suddenly smiled and he knew what had made him that way before he saw her, his beautiful wife Juliet had made it after all.
It was some minutes after Juliet arrived when they heard angry voices above their loud music and some guests peered through the windows and it dawned on Ethan that what his wife had been dreading must have taken place.
He looked to where Sean had been dancing with Nita and nearly swore before he pulled his wife and they went outside. Sean was getting into his car, Elsie trailing behind and Randy clutching her arm. He said something to her that made her flinch. He angrily answered the phone and Elsie made a dash for it when he was doing so to her car so she could follow Sean. For a second Randy looked dejected, he got into his car and drove away except to the opposite direction.
“What is going on?” Aggy asked. Grace, had come out first at hearing the commotion hence she turned to Aggy and angrily stated, “Your daughter broke my son’s heart. He caught her making out with that boy. Do you know anything about it?”
She glared angrily at the couple as the other relatives joined them outside.
“Look Grace, let’s not cause a scene, we can talk this out away from prying eyes,” Aggy begged.
Grace scoffed, “I should have known, like mother like daughter,”
“Look here that’s my wife you are talking about,” Ethan angrily cut in.
The tension was palpable as the parents for the children who had run off from their engagement glared at each other. The only one who appeared not to be interested was Sean’s father who was still in the hall chatting with his colleagues while outside, daggers from everyone’s eyes were being thrown around.
Pastor Garret managed to intervene before things got out of hand and made some of the guests who had come out due to the fact that they liked gossip, return back into the hall while he was left with the parents. His cousin wasn’t helping at all, the supposedly mature father Luc was chuckling and remarking, “Scandals never end in this family.”
He glared at him and Luc stopped laughing but rolled his eyes instead before he followed the rest who had gone into the side room that was usually used as an office at the venue they had hired. Greg groaned and went back to the hall to apologize to the guests before dismissing them. Hopefully none of what had happened would find its way into another of the so called sensational papers.
***
“SEAN I can explain,” Elsie said trailing behind him and weeping. She hadn’t wanted to hurt him like that and on their engagement to top it all. He was her friend above everything else and he needed her. She wasn’t going to think about Randy’s threat that if she left with Sean that would be the end of them. They will never be together again.
Sean abruptly stopped and whirled to face her before holding her by the shoulders.
"How do you explain that away Elsie" he angrily asked and she flinched. He let go of her and put his hands in the pockets of his trousers still glaring daggers at her.
"I swear it will never happen again" she choked out a sob and Sean scoffed. She was testing his patience as she usually did, this time what she had done couldn't be fixed. They were to be married for God's sake and he had caught her making out with someone else, who did that, just let it slide and moved on.
"I have been a fool, thinking you and Randy were nothing more than friends, for how long have you been in love".
Elsie looked away still teary eyed.
"How long Else" he bellowed and she flinched again before looking up to him.
"I have been in love with Randy for a while now."
He looked at her in disbelief, which meant when he asked she already knew that she was no longer interested but told him to relax, it was nothing.
"And what is this Elsie that we have" he motioned with his hands between the two of them. "Why didn’t you mention that you couldn’t be married to me because you were in love with someone else?"
"I was still confused Sean because I love you too?"
"Can you even hear yourself woman?"
He knew it looked like he was chiding his child instead of fiancée yet he couldn’t control the anger churning inside of him. And to think he had felt guilty over being attracted to her friend when she was doing more than just chatting. She might have been sleeping with him for all he knew.
"What is it that he has, that I don't have, hmmm" he grabbed her pulling her by the waist and kissed her to inflict pain.
"Sean you are hurting me," Elsie wept and tried to wiggle from his grasp.
"Is it the sex that is good?" he still held her firmly and Elsie gasped.
"No Sean, please don’t do this, you are not like this."
Finally she managed to get out of his arms and they stared at each other, one sad and tears running down her face, and the other with red rimmed eyes, seething with fury.
"Go to him," he spoke and turned away.
"I can't."
He whirled back to face her. "What is wrong with you? What do you want?"
"He told me to choose, if I followed you that is the end of us."
Sean raised his hands and dropped them in defeat. He moved close and heaved in a deep breath and out. Unclenching his hands that had been balled in a fist he asked, "Should I be happy that you chose me, should I be grateful. Tell me what I should feel. Are you a bloody martyr of some sort?"
He looked at her as she wept. He was hopeless when it came to women crying and would have preferred the fiery Elsie to this weepy one.
He sighed and pulled her in his arms. "Why can't you be with him, I am fine with it."
She looked up, "You know why."
He swore when she said that. She was settling because he knew her past that haunted her at times.
"Why didn't you tell him?"
"I was scared"
"So you figured out that since am a Co
mpton and we don't stay faithful to our women will be even in the relationship. You with your past and me with my women on the side."
She gasped in shock at that statement, when said aloud it sounded so wrong.
"Elsie I told you that I don’t want to be like the men in my family, but you want that right. A loveless marriage, and don’t say you love me, you don’t do what you just did to the person you love."
Since they were outside the house that his father had given to them as a gift, Elsie sat on the step and Sean followed suit.
"I am sorry Sean?"
He nodded.
"I am pathetic."
"We are a pathetic bunch,” he said and she glanced at him, wondering what he meant.
"Will you be ok?" she asked him and he nodded.
"I am sure am not the first guy to be dumped at his engagement party," he chuckled. Her phone started ringing and she reached out for it. It was her mother, she was worried. "I am fine ma. I am with Sean right now."
His phone rang and he answered it while Elsie continued with hers. After he was done with the phone call, he stated, "I am not going home today. I don’t know about you, but I am sleeping here for the night, not in any mood to answer some questions."
He stood up and unlocked the door to their house. So much for trying not to be like her scandalous family, she thought. She stood up and followed him into the house.
Chapter Eleven
RANDY PACED up and down the corridor of the hospital and savagely pulled at the constricting tie around his neck. He was angry with himself and also at the fact that he appeared to be too late. His nana had been on his case telling him to stop things before they went far, except he thought if Elsie was serious about him she would come back. She had created the whole mess and she had to clean it up.
The doctor opened the door to the ward and motioned for him to get in. “How is she?” he asked and looked at nana lying on the bed.
“She is fine; she just experienced a mild stroke. I will write out a prescription of drugs you will have to get from the dispensary for her. She will also have to come for physiotherapy for her hand to be worked on so that it functions the normal way it used to.”
Randy nodded and the doctor smiled at him before she left the room.
“Nan, you gave Lilly and Raff a scare,” he chided and the old woman chuckled.
While in the midst of talking to Elsie and a furious Sean who had walked away, Lilly had called and informed him that Nan fainted and they were failing to revive her, she was hysterical and he couldn’t do anything apart from attending to his family first.
“What happened to your eye,” Nan asked in a loud enough voice barely the woman who had almost gone to be with the Lord. The eye was red and slightly swollen. Randy laughed. “The young man can surely throw a punch” He answered.
“You should have dealt with this before the engagement party.”
He scoffed and settled back next to her. “I wish I hadn’t gone there,” he wearily said.
“Why?”
“She chose him again. When push came to shove, she left me and chose him.”
“Ooh Randy.” His nana reached out to him with her functional hand. “Don’t strain to move. I will let Lilly and Raff sleepover at Rita’s place for today. I will come and see you in the morning. Don’t die on me,” he jested. “We still need you.”
Nana laughed quietly, “I am strong my boy, once I get off this bed, you will regret ever thinking that I am weak.”
He bent over and kissed her on the forehead before he left.
***
ELSIE OPENED her eyes and stretched on the bed. Sean had occupied the main bedroom last night while she took the guest bedroom. She had discarded her dress on the chair before dozing off. She looked like a wreck and she knew it. She leapt out of bed and attended to a need at hand and washed her hands and face afterwards, grimacing at the mascara that had run over her face the previous night.
Getting into the shower, she let the warm water sooth her and could hear a few sounds coming from the kitchen once she was done and wore her dress again. She should have listened to her mom, when she advised her to leave a change of clothes last week when the Senior Compton gifted them with the house.
They had joked a bit with Sean yesterday both claiming that his father was likely to take back the house, seeing they were not going to get married.
“Hey,” Sean greeted when she got into the kitchen and placed their breakfast on the kitchen counter. He was dressed in a golf t-shirt and jeans to her utter shock. Sean Compton in jeans, that was a first, she thought.
“I am surely going to miss this house,” he commented and she giggled.
“I immediately brought food and a few clothes that I had rather be caught wearing here and no other place after dad handed us the keys.”
“Darling you should have mentioned and I would have done the same. Now look, I will have to go home and face the music this early.”
Sean reached out to her hand and squeezed it. “Are you sure you are going to be fine though. I mean your prince charming dumped you. You dumped me for him and he dumped you because of me.”
“Okay, okay, Mr. Topnotch lawyer, stop rubbing that fact in,” she said in a drawl before she changed her voice to a lighter tone and asked “Are you fine with this though. You are not angry that I dragged you along all this while.” He rolled his eyes as she spoke.
“I am relieved that I dodged a bullet.”
She huffed and punched his arm. “If I knew a thing or two, I could swear you must be having a woman on the side, that’s why you have an upbeat attitude about this whole thing.” His jaw dropped and he shut it without uttering a word. Sean speechless, that was a first, she was right after all. He also had been hiding some skeletons in his closet.
“Well I hope whoever the woman is, makes you miserable like hell. I can’t believe you had been about to make me the scapegoat.”
Sean laughed and answered, “Let’s go. The sooner we deal with our problems the better. Advice to the wise girl, you indeed are the forward one. Smooching up a lover and almost stripping each other’s clothes off while you were engaged to someone else. Brr, I am shocked Elsie Cooper, who taught you to be that way.”
Elsie huffed and stood up from the chair before clearing up their breakfast dishes and they walked out of their house.
“Come here you, for old times’ sake; let me hug away your worries. I could have been doing this for you for life,” Sean stated and she giggled at that before she went into his arms once they were outside and had locked the door to the house.
“If I need rescuing, I will call you.” Sean whispered before he straightened up, smiled, got into his car and drove off. After he had left and she walked to her car a bit further away, she decided to finally switch on her phone and the messages from relatives and friends started trickling in.
One voice message, she wondered who it was and listened to it. Lilly was hysterical and couldn’t get hold of Randy. Oh God, Nan, she thought and rushed to the car before she drove to the Medical Centre where she knew nan would be, since it wasn’t the first time she had fainted for a long time like that. She was present when Nan once collapsed before.
***
RANDY SWORE under his breath when he saw Elsie and Sean in a passionate embrace outside the house. Nita had been kind enough to inform him that Elsie hadn’t gone home the previous night and she was at her place that her father in law had gifted her with. He knew the neighborhood since it was made up of new houses and only a few people occupied it. It was a quiet and good neighborhood for starting a family in. The residential stands were rather pricey and he guessed this was another ploy used by the influential and rich to segregate themselves from the rest. The more they made money, the more private they became with their lives.
Slowly passing the oblivious couple as Sean whispered something to Elsie, he drove on to the hospital. That was the last straw and he should forget about ever being with Elsie. She didn’t se
em like one ready to be with him. The fact that she still wore the same dress she had on yesterday told him the rest of what he needed to know. Her relationship with Sean ran deeper than she had said and she had spent the night with him while he worried over Nan her supposedly best friend.
***
ELSIE BURST into the ward and momentarily halted when she noticed Randy standing over his granny. “Nan, how are you feeling?” She rushed to her and gave her a hug.
“I am fine, like I keep on tell Randy also. I can’t wait to get up from this bed.” She chuckled while she sat up. Elsie helped her by plumping a few pillows behind her. She looked over to Randy and noticed the disgust he had on his face and cringed.
“Nan, I have to go to work, I will see you in the evening.” He said, kissed her on the forehead before he walked away without a backward glance to his former friend and almost girlfriend. Elsie wanted to rush to him but was stayed from doing so by Nan who clutched at her arm using her still functional right hand.
“He needs time love,” she whispered. Elsie slumped in defeat on the seat next to the bed.
“I fear I have lost him for good this time.” Nana shook her head. “Don’t you think its time you opened up a bit to him.”
“No Nan, I can't, didn’t you see the disgust he has for me. If I am to tell him, he will seize even from being my friend.” She had abruptly stood up and was pacing in the ward when Nan suggested that. “Come here,” Nan motioned and she went back to settle next to her. “Elsie, Elsie, when will you stop concluding on how a person will react before you tell them. So will you get married to Sean because he accepted that secret about you and forgo being with the one that you truly love.”
“Why do I have to mention it anyway Nan, I mean I can have a happy relationship without digging my past.” Nan tsk, tsked in disappointment. “It’s because what happened then is part of you and makes you who you are Elsie. You also see the hand of God at work, not by concealing but by exposing. I mean the apostle Paul at a later stage once said I am the worst of sinners. He had seen something more to make him say that, the grace of God over his life. When you look at your past see it as that the past and focus on the grace and the power of God to have restored you into something much stronger than what you were.”
Sweet Crazy Love Page 9