On Time (Persaud Girl)

by Teisha Mott

  “Time?”

  “Seven?”

  “Can we make it eight?”

  “There is usually a show on Saturday nights, and it starts at seven.”

  “I’m sorry, but seven is too early for me Saturday night.”

  Klao frowned. What was up with this dude? Friday night was impossible; seven was too early on Saturday. What was his story? “Eight can work for me,” Klao decided. She circled eight in her planner.

  “So Saturday night at eight at ‘La Fa’. And you’ll meet me there.”

  “Yup!” Klao snapped her planner shut.

  “Great!” Matt sounded chipper once again. “Looking forward to it!”

  Now it was quarter past eight, and Matt was really there waiting. Klao was a bit annoyed that she had missed the show. Sometimes there were contortionists or fire breathers or dancers. But at least she was in time for the buffet! She smoothed her hands down the front of her ruffled strapless summer print dress as she made her way to Matt. He noticed her coming and stood.

  “Sorry I’m late!” She apologised as he pulled out her chair.

  “Not at all!” He smiled, looking like himself again. “I have a sister. Trust me – fifteen minutes? You are not late.”

  Klao smiled as she sat, and motioned to a waitress, who promptly presented her with a couple of drink menus.

  “Look at you!” Matt reclaimed his seat. “Outside of your suits you look like a little girl – not more than sixteen! I like your little frock!”

  Poor simple Matt! He would never know that her ‘little frock’ was from Anne Sui, and probably cost more than his monthly salary! But she was glad he liked it. When she had selected it after the fashion show in April, Bianca had asked her if she thought she was still sixteen. Bianca had inherited grandma's innate eye for fashion, but none of her tact, so Klao had felt really bad and she had never worn her dress. It was three thousand US dollars that she would never see again. But now that Matt liked it…

  He was saying something. “Pardon?”

  “Apparently the show this evening was so great that they are having another at ten,” Matt repeated. “Or so the Host said. So you didn’t miss it after all. I kinda felt bad I could not come before eight…”

  Klao smiled. “That’s fine,” she said, eyeing the buffet table. She had not eaten since lunch, and she was starving.

  “So how was your day?”

  “It was okay,” Klao told him. “I took my puppy and we went over to my Grandma Sylvia’s house. Bianca was screening wedding planners. My cousin, Samantha, came over to help.”

  “I see! So how are the wedding plans going?”

  “They’re not, because the planner who did Andie’s wedding isn’t available, and Bee did not like even one of the others we saw today!” They ordered drinks and Klao watched the waitress sashay away trying to look professional for Ravi P’s granddaughter and her date.

  “When’s the wedding?”

  “New Year’s Day!”

  “That’s just six months away!” Matt pointed out. Can she plan a wedding in six months?”

  “If she can find a competent wedding planner! This is par for the course for us. We’ve had a wedding a year for the past three years – first, my brother Dylan, then my cousin Samantha, and then my cousin Andie got married in May…”

  “So when will it be Klao’s?” Matt asked cheekily.

  Klao shrugged and willed herself not to blush. Matt had no idea that he had ‘mashed her corn’. “Do you want to order from the grill, or join the buffet line?” She asked, quickly changing the subject from weddings.

  “Doesn’t matter. Being here with you is quite enough, even if we never eat!”

  Klao used the menu to hide her blushes. Well, alrighty then! Matt had mac! And it was not half bad! She wondered if he had more where that came from.

  “I think we should order from the grill!” She decided, putting the menu down. They make this to-die-for grilled salmon and eggplant. Are you into grilled salmon?”

  “I am very much into grilled salmon!” Matt responded with a smile. “And eggplant too. We could try those!”

  Klao closed her menu and placed their order with the waitress, who had returned with their drinks in record time. Hopefully, they would be done eating in time to watch the show from the foot of the stage. The shows at ‘La Fa’ never failed to entertain her, even though she had been seeing them for years.

  “So how was your day?” She asked Matt.

  “Very event filled,” Matt told her, folding his napkin into a swan. “I was out of town today.”

  “Really?” Klao was very interested. “Where?”

  “Have you ever heard of a place called ‘Aberdeen’ way up in rural St. Catherine?”

  “Nope!”

  “Not surprising. There were hardly even roads to go there! Just precipices to the left and the right. I tell you – ‘fools go where angels dare not tread’!”

  “So why did you go?”

  “The nature of my job!”

  “As a professional do-gooder, you mean?” Klao joked.

  “Exactly!”

  “So what does a professional do-gooder do?” Klao asked, as she stirred the ‘Fauxito’ she had ordered to accompany her salmon. She had really wanted a glass of something potent, but since she was driving home, and it was night, she thought it wise not to indulge. “That is, apart from change tyres and get cars aligned and balanced?”

  “We also make sure we have extra cash on hand to pay for overpriced ice cream and dog biscuits!” Matt said cheekily. He took a sip of his ‘Safe Sex on the Beach’, a mixture of cranberry juice, grapefruit juice and peach nectar. Klao was pleased to see that he was not drinking either – a very mature decision, she thought. She also found his choice of a mocktail quite amusing, if not telling, but decided not to comment on it.

  “Well, for the record, if my memory serves me correctly, you did not have cash either! You paid with a credit card.”

  “Semantics! At least they got paid for. So how is the car?”

  “Running like a dream, thanks! And it even feels a bit sturdier on the road!”

  “Do you have gas in it?”

  “Yes!” Klao rolled her eyes at him. “I’m not a total moron, you know.”

  Matt smiled his cheeky smile. “Yes. Not a total moron!”

  “What. Ever. Dude!” Klao sipped her fauxito and licked her lips, enjoying the minty taste. She looked at Matt. He was staring at her. “What?”

  “Klao M. Persaud!” He said as though he was in awe of her, and Klao wondered if he was going to turn into a psycho any time soon. “What does the ‘M’ stand for?”

  “Melissa.”

  “Ah! Pretty!”

  “Do you have a middle name?”

  “Levi!” He told her, and Klao burst out laughing.

  “Levi? You're joking, right?”

  “Nope!”

  “Your name is Matthew Levi St. James?”

  “Yup!”

  “You are a wicked, lying son of a cutter!” Klao declared trying to control her laughter.

  “See for yourself!” Matt pulled out his driver’s license and handed it to her.

  Sure enough it read ‘ST. JAMES, Matthew Levi’. Her quick attorney eyes (or Private I eyes, as Dylan often said) also used the opportunity to note his date of birth: May 16, 1981, and his address: Long Mountain Country Club, Kingston 7. So, he was 27 – a year older than her, and he lived at Long Mountain Country Club. Interesting. It was a pity that drivers’ licenses did not show occupation. She still was not sure what, if anything, he did for a living.

  “I’m sorry!” Klao handed him back his ID, and he replaced it in his little old battered wallet. “Did your parents want you to grow up to be a Tax Collector?”

  “I think they wanted me to become an Apostle!” Matt replied, not smiling.

  “And you ‘disaquarted’ them,” Klao said, using his trite joke.

  This time he did smile. “Why do you think they are
‘disaquarted’?”

  “Because you aren’t an Apostle.”

  “Okay!”

  “Matthew Levi St. James!” She snickered. “What’s your sister’s name?”

  “Mary.”

  “Don’t tell me her middle name is ‘Magdalene’!”

  “It’s not,” Matt deadpanned. “Her middle name is Elisabeth.”

  Klao shook her head. That was un-freaking-believable! Matt’s parents had a very interesting sense of humour. She wondered what they were like. She wondered what kind of person Mary Elisabeth St. James had turned out to be!

  “Is Mary an Apostle?” She asked Matt.

  “No, she lectures at UWI and she’s doing her PhD in History.”

  “So you both disappointed your parents.”

  “No. They wanted her to become a teacher. Besides Mary wasn’t an Apostle. Neither was Elisabeth. Jesus had no female Apostles!”

  Klao did not get a chance to counter him, as their waitress appeared at that moment with their grilled salmon and eggplant. It looked and smelled divine, and Klao instantly felt one hundred times hungrier. She picked up her fork to dig in.

  “Can we grace first?” Matt asked, covering her hand with his.

  “Go ahead!” Klao blushed. She could not believe that Matt had to remind her to grace. She listened as he offered quite an eloquent blessing on their meal, requesting that God ‘bless the food to their bodies, and their bodies to His service’. She decided to commit that one to memory and use it next time she had dinner with her family. They would be totally impressed.

  “So who’s older – you or Mary?” Klao asked, dousing hot pepper sauce all over her dinner.

  “Mary. By five minutes. We’re twins – although she acts like those five minutes are five years!”

  “Twins!” Klao tasted her salmon, and it was not fiery enough, so she put more hot pepper sauce on it.

  “How can you pepper your food so vigorously?” Matt asked in awe. “You’ll overheat your blood!”

  “That is medically impossible!” Klao said, putting a final dash of pepper on to her eggplant.

  “Still, are you going to be able to eat it?”

  “Of course! It’s not too hot!”

  “Well, probably not compared to you…” Matt wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

  Klao did a double take. Did Matt just imply that she was hot?

  “My brothers are twins,” she told him, although she was positive he already knew that.

  “Yes,” he nodded. “The infamous Persaud twin doctors – Dylan and Darryl.”

  “Darrin,” Klao corrected. “And my father is one of twins, too. He and my Aunt Phoebe…” She frowned. “I think I once heard that Grandpa had a twin brother, but he was stillborn.”

  “You have twins in every generation. You’ll probably have twins too.”

  “Dylan and Darrin have a greater shot than I do. Thank God! I would not want to have twins!”

  “Don’t you like children?”

  “I like them, but one at a time. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I want more than one, or two, so they will bother each other and leave me alone. I would not want them at once.”

  Matt nodded. He did not say anything, but looked at his meal. Klao wondered if she had turned him off by saying she did not want a whole bunch of children, and definitely not twins. She did not care. Although she had no plans to have children with Matthew Levi St. James, at least he knew up front where she stood on that issue.

  “Do you like being a twin?” She asked Matt.

  He frowned. “I don’t know anything else, so I cannot say. It is okay now that we are adults, but when we were teenagers, most of the time I could not imagine that we were of the same specie, much less twins! Mary and I had nothing in common…”

  “Except shared genetic material!”

  “Except shared genetic material!” Matt agreed. “We are closer now than back then.”

  “What changed?”

  “Separation. We split up for university. We had never been apart before, and it was hard adjusting.”

  Klao nodded. She could understand that. A few years before, Dylan had gone on a mission trip to Mozambique. He has spent six months in Africa treating communicable diseases, and Darrin, left at home, had wandered around as though he had lost his shadow. He seemed like half a man until Dylan returned – or until he met Synclaire. Klao was not quite sure which, since both events had coincided. All she knew was that for a while when Dylan was away, she was sure Darrin would have folded up and died.

  “Where did you go to university?” She asked Matt.

  “Mary went to UWI. I went to La Sierra University, in Riverside, California.”

  Klao looked at him. “La Sierra? Sounds like a party college!”

  “It does, doesn’t it?” Matt agreed. “And a big plus was that it’s only like 60 miles from Los Angeles – if I really wanted to get my party on!”

  Klao rolled her eyes. Get his party on? Really? “So what did you major in – Fung Shui? Seashell Art”

  Before Matt could answer, they were interrupted by the host.

  “Excuse me, Ms Persaud. A bottle of wine from a gentleman at the bar…”

  Klao looked over at the bar. An older gentleman was sitting there. He waved and smiled and Klao waved back. She had no idea who he was, but she assumed he must be a friend of her grandfather’s.

  “Who is he?” Klao whispered to the host.

  “Paul Risoa.”

  The name was not familiar.

  “Shall I open it?”

  “No,” Klao instructed. “We’re not drinking tonight. Give him my regards, please, and keep it until I am ready to go…”

  “As you wish, Miss!” The host nodded to Matt and walked away.

  “Do you know that man?” Matt threw him a surreptitious look.

  “No idea!” Klao confessed. “But this, too, is par for the course, when your grandfather is Ravi Persaud.”

  “What is that like – being a Persaud?” Matt asked. “You must have quite an interesting life!”

  Klao shrugged. “If that’s what you call it. When I was little, I did not see the big deal. I mean, my grandpa and grandma and my parents and aunts and uncles were just normal people to me. So when people were making a big fuss over us, I just couldn’t see it. I didn’t even know who Forbes was, and why he insisted on publishing my family’s net worth in his magazine…”

  “And now? Is it a big deal?”

  “To me, no! Nothing has changed. Grandma and Grandpa are still ‘grandma and grandpa’. It is great being able to afford stuff, and not worry about money, and being a part of a successful family. When I look at this hotel, and when I pick up a copy of Bella or when I hear ‘Persaud Enterprises’ on the news, I think, ‘Gosh! That’s us!’ You’d never know that once upon a time, it didn’t mean anything to be a Persaud…”

  She paused and looked at Matt. He was really interested in what she was saying.

  “My grandfather did not grow up rich. His family did not have money or education, but they had ambition, and my grandpa was determined to come to something. And he did! He was persistent!”

  “That’s what Calvin Coolidge said,” Matt nodded after taking a bite of his salmon. “Nothing beats persistence.”

  Klao nodded. “Grandpa made us recite that adage when we were little. ‘Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb...’”

  “Education will not!” Matt continued. “The world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent!’ Your grandfather is a wise man.”

  “He is!” Klao smiled. “He made sure his children never felt as though they had any special entitlements, just because they were lucky enough to be born into wealth, and my parents felt the same way. Hard work was a must; honesty was a must; and treating people with respect. Me and my brothers – we grew up
as normal as any other children.”

  “Or as normal as any children whose grandparents have their own investment bank and fashion label could!” Matt said.

  Klao chuckled. “Touché, Matthew Levi!”

  “Hey, I’m not judging you!” Matt surrendered. “I told you that wealth neither fascinates nor impresses me. I don’t care if you are a Persaud snob. You are human, just like me!”

  Klao looked at him. “Do you think I am a Persaud snob?”

  “Well, you certainly acted like one in Megamart that night. And I had not even realised you were a Persaud until you gave me your card!”

  Klao recalled the first evening she had seen Matt. It seemed like a lifetime ago. “I don’t always act that way!” Klao tried to defend herself. “That evening I was in a particularly pissed off mood.”

  “Why?”

  Klao could not tell Matt that it was because her cousin had gotten engaged and because she had no prospects. She could not tell Matt that she had ‘killed’ herself at the gym that evening, because she had hoped a hot boy who didn’t give a rodent’s furry behind whether she was Klao Persaud would have been there, but was not. So she did the next best thing. She lied.

  “My boss got on my nerves.”

  “I see.”

  “Does your boss get on your nerves sometimes?”

  “Nope!”

  “Oh please!”

  “No one gets on my nerves!” Matt told her. “Because I choose to be proactive rather than reactive. I choose the things that annoy me, and I choose what to make a big deal out of. I cannot think of anyone or anything that puts me in a – how do you put it – a ‘particularly pissed off mood’. Besides, ‘he who angers you controls you’!”

  “You sicken me!” Klao spat.

  “I don’t care!” Matt gave her an intense look. “Can I order desert once I have finished my salmon?”

  Klao wondered what kind of man this was. She did not know whether to admire him or smack him. She looked at him sitting there looking smug and self-confident, and calm and indulgent at the same time. She wanted to pinch him to see if he was real. She also wanted to pinch him to see if that would piss him off. But somehow, she knew that if she pinched him, he would pinch her back, then press on as though nothing had happened, while she sat there, icing her throbbing hand and being totally pissed off at him for pinching her. She had never met anyone like Matt St. James. He was an enigma – an enigma, she decided, that she would not mind trying to figure out.