On Time (Persaud Girl)

by Teisha Mott

  “Actually, no!” Ricard shook his head. “Don’t tell Bianca, but we are throwing Tevin a burlesque party!”

  “Burlesque? I’m impressed! But…” Klao was cut off by the sound of the buzzer. “Oh, that must be Matt now.”

  “So I guess that is my cue to go back to my hotel!” Ricard said standing, as Klao went to get the intercom.

  “Don’t be silly!” Klao shooed him to sit back down. “I’d love for you to stay and meet him!”

  Ricard reclaimed his seat. “Okay. But I won’t stay long. I’ll just say hi and give you two your privacy.”

  Klao opened the door to let Matt in. She was surprised to see that he was wearing his tattered jeans and shirt. He looked cross and tired. She had kinda hoped that he would be nice and dressed up in his church clothes. She had wanted to show him off to Ricard, but now he looked more like a bum than the dynamic man of God she had described earlier.

  “Hey Matt!” She smiled, trying to mask her disappointment. He stood in stark contrast to Ricard Shalkowski that evening.

  “You would not believe what just happened…” Matt began. He stopped when he saw a strange man sitting on Klao’s couch. A good-looking strange man. Matt was not one of those men who were afraid to say that another man was attractive, and this particular man made that remarkably good looking African-American actor, that Mary was always creating excitement about – what was he called? Terrence Howard – appear as though he was not trying. He had skin like honey and wavy black hair, and amber eyes. Looking at him looking so smug in his dark washed Izzy Man jeans and his Ralph Lauren shirt made Matt feel dirtier and scruffier than he actually was. Matt felt something stir in him – a mixture of jealousy, unworthiness, embarrassment, and anger. He did not know who this man was, but he knew that this man had class and flair, and he looked like Klao. Not physically, but he looked like the sort of man that would match Klao Persaud far better than he could.

  “You must be Matt!” Ricard got off the couch to greet Klao’s friend, who was staring daggers at him. “Klao has told me so much about you!”

  “Klao never said she would be having visitors tonight!” Matt commented, not trying very hard to suppress his rising anger.

  “Well, I wasn’t expecting company,” Klao told him, wondering why he was getting cross.

  “I just popped in unannounced,” Ricard continued. “Klao and I go way back to the teenage years. I knew her when she was still a dizzy little Mount Alvernia High girl!”

  “Well, I guess it is time to move out of the past; wouldn’t you agree?” Matt said meanly.

  Ricard glanced at Klao, surprised. Clearly, this was not the same sweet, kind man who Klao had described earlier. “It’s getting late. I should go,” he decided finally. He turned to Klao. “I’ll give you a call before I head back to Ocho Rios?”

  “Please do!” Klao accepted the light kiss he placed on her cheek before leaving.

  She turned to Matt, who was scowling like a thundercloud. “What is the matter with you?”

  “Nothing is the matter with me, Klao!” Matt snapped. “Sorry I broke up your little walk down memory lane. I’m going home.” He turned towards the door.

  “What? Why?” Klao was confused.

  “Who was that guy?”

  “If you had bothered to ask before, I would have told you he is my friend Ricard. I knew him since we were little. His father is one of the Attorneys for Persaud Enterprises!”

  “What was he doing here?”

  “What do you mean what was he doing here?” Klao was positive Matt was losing his mind. “He came here to see me!”

  “Oh, so that's how you do it now, Klao? You entertain any man your mind tells you to at any hour of the night in your little Tinkerbelle nightie? What? Did you forget that I was coming over?”

  “No, I did not forget that you were coming over, Matt. I…”

  “I cannot believe this!” Matt raged. “I come here to spend time with you and find you cuddled up with some overdressed yuppie who just happens to be your childhood sweetheart? That’s just great!”

  “Ricard is not my childhood sweetheart!” Klao yelled. “He is Tevin’s best man. He came in from St. Ann for a work thing and he stopped by to see me! What the hell is wrong with you?”

  Matt was getting angrier and angrier by the second. That was Tevin’s best man! That was Ricard Shalkowski! That was the one who Darrin – or was it Dylan – said Klao had ‘hooked up with’ the night of Bianca’s engagement party. “So what did he stop to see you for? A booty call? Are you sleeping with him?”

  Klao thought she was going to faint. “What?”

  “Are you sleeping with him?” Matt repeated. “You hooked up before, after Bianca’s engagement party. Is he your little friend with benefits? Are you getting from him what you are not getting from me?”

  Klao would have slapped him if she could reach his face. “I never ‘hooked up’ with Ricard – not the night of Bianca’s party and not ever! How dare you! I haven’t done anything! How can you just come in here and start accusing me like this? Why would you assume that I am sleeping with him?”

  “Your brothers said you did! They wouldn’t lie!”

  “And I would?”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time!” Matt said snarkily. “Just last week you told me that you missed the time because your trainer came, and then I learned from Sheena that you were actually ‘arms up’ with some guy at the gym!”

  “So now Sheena is spying on me?” Klao could not believe what was happening. She had wanted to have a nice quiet evening with Matt, and suddenly, for no apparent reason, they were having a really bizarre fight.

  “What are you saying – that Sheena is telling a lie on you? You weren’t cuddled up with some guy at the gym, and you didn’t lie about seeing your trainer that night?”

  “That is not the point!”

  “No, the point is that you should tell me the truth. You owe me that much, Klao!”

  Klao looked at him darkly. “I don’t owe you a damn thing, Matthew. I am not your girlfriend!”

  Matt looked back at her, his eyes as angry and dark as hers were. “So what are you, Klao? If you are not my girlfriend, what have we been doing for the past few months? Because, I thought…”

  “Whatever ‘you thought’, you thought wrong!” Klao could not have been more incensed if she had tried. “You come into my house, acting some sort of jealous punk boyfriend, and you are rude to my guest, and you start yelling at me for no viable, justifiable reason. You have the temerity to call me liar and a skank. Who the hell doyouthinkyou are, Matthew Levi St. James? You know what? I don’t care who you think you are, but I know who you’re not. You’re not my boyfriend.”

  “Klao…”

  “How could you be?” Klao raged. “Look at you! Look at you in your old man jeans and your T-shirt that you must have owned since you were sixteen. I am Klao Melissa Persaud. My family is on Forbes 500. Did you seriously think that someone like you could actually be the boyfriend of someone like me? You are a sloppy, unkempt, unrefined simpleton. You will never fit into the Persaud family. Forget not being in the same ilk. We aren’t even from the same planet.”

  Matt felt as though she had kicked him in the stomach. She had just verbalised his worst fear. She had just said the same thing to him that Pastor Young had said earlier – that she was Klao Persaud and he would never be good enough for her. He knew he had let his insecurities and his earlier anger start this fight, but Klao had certainly taken it to a new level. Tears sprung to his eyes.

  Klao saw the look of hurt and pain on Matt’s face, and immediately regretted her words. Her hands flew to her mouth. “Oh my God, Matt! I am so sorry…” She reached out and tried to put her arms around him.

  “No…”

  “Matt, I…”

  “Don’t say anything else, Klao,” Matt advised her. “You’ve said enough.” He turned to leave.

  “Matt, please… I didn’t mean it! I’m sorry!”

&nb
sp; Matt turned to look at her. Her eyes were filled with tears that were about to spill over. “You know something, Klao, you’re right. I’m an unrefined simpleton. I don't wear Izzy Jeans and designer shirts or drive a fancy car. My family is not on any lists. We don’t own hotels and banks and magazines and fashion labels, and I cannot afford fancy this and that. But I am honest and I work hard. I love my family and I love God. And you know what else, Klao? I came here tonight to tell you that I love you. I loved you from the first day that I saw you and I would have done anything for you.”

  “Matt…”

  “Tonight, I put everything that meant something to me on the line to be with you. But in your opinion, I’m not good enough for you. And if you feel that way, there’s nothing more that needs to be said. I better leave now.”

  Klao couldn’t stop the tears that fell from her eyes. “Matt, please wait.”

  “See you, Klao.” He turned and left the apartment.

  Klao stood watching the closed door, her entire being numb with horror and shock. What the hell had just happened? She picked up Minx who was whimpering and circling her legs. Obviously, he, too, was well aware that something very wrong had just happened.

  “Oh my God, Minx!” She whispered. “What have I done?”

  283

  On Time

  chapter fifteen

  Matt tore out of Klao’s apartment complex and on to Millsborough Avenue, determined not to surrender to the tears that burned his eyes. He would not cry. He was a man, and men did not cry. Men kept stiff upper lips. He had already broken one of his life rules by losing his temper, and he was not about to break another. He took a deep, rugged breath, feeling as though he had been stabbed in the chest. He recalled Klao’s cruel words: Look at you in your old man jeans and your T-shirt that you must have owned from when you were sixteen….Did you seriously think that someone like you could actually be the boyfriend of someone like me… You will never fit into the Persaud family. Forget not being in the same ilk. We aren’t even from the same planet.

  “Oh God!” He groaned, simply because he did not know what else to say. His heart felt as though it was tearing in two. At that moment, he needed his Heavenly Father more than ever.

  The clock on the dashboard of the Tiida told him it was 9:30. He had to pick up Mary from campus. He was her chauffeur until she got her Swift back. He wished he did not have to see his sister looking the way he did. In an instant she would guess that something had gone terribly wrong, and he did not want to have to tell her that he was not good enough for Klao Persaud.

  He was right. The second Mary got into the car, she knew something was up.

  “Matt, what’s the matter?” Her dark eyes were filled with concern as she looked at her brother.

  “There’s nothing the matter, Mary,” Matt lied, as he pulled back on to the ring road. “Put on your seatbelt for me please.”

  “Of course something is wrong!” Mary countered. “It’s me you’re talking to, Matt. We shared a womb! I know when something is wrong with you!”

  “Leave me alone, Mary!”

  “Matt…”

  “I don’t want to talk to you right now, okay?”

  “Fine!” Mary shrugged. “Keep it, let it kill you. I don’t care. I would probably like being an only child anyway!” She stuck her iPod earbuds into her ears and hummed along with the recording of one of the songs she was practicing for Music Day the next Sabbath.

  Matt turned off the university campus and on to Mona Road. The road was pitch black. He gripped the steering wheel tightly and tried to concentrate on the road, and not on the fact that he and Klao had just broken up. Not that they had been together anyway. She said it: “I don’t care who you think you are, but I know who you’re not. You’re not my boyfriend.” Matt involuntarily swung the car.

  “Can you see?” Mary asked. “You want me to drive?”

  “I’m fine!” Matt snapped.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I said I am fine!” Matt yelled. “What is wrong with you?”

  “What is wrong with me?” Mary yelled back. “You mean what is wrong with you. You are the one acting like a little bitch. Are you having your period or something?”

  Matt lost what was left of his temper. “You know what’s wrong with me Mary? You know what’s wrong? I am supposed to be the senior pastor of one of the biggest Seventh-day Adventist Churches in the entire Inter-American Division. I am responsible for a church of almost 1,000 active members, and I run a homeless shelter from my own money, and my sister – my twin sister -- is doing everything in her power to screw that up for me!”

  “Me?” Mary squeaked. “What did I do?”

  “Why do you insist on fighting with Georgia Maragh?”

  “I didn’t do anything to Georgia Maragh!”

  “Mary, you attacked her in the church yard after choir practice. You threatened to slap the spit out of her mouth with the heel of your shoe!”

  “Where did you hear that?” Mary asked, feigning ignorance.

  “Mary!”

  “Alright! Alright! I threatened her!” Mary conceded. “But I only did it because she said…”

  “I don’t care what she said!” Matt roared. “She can say whatever she wants to say, but you don’t attack her. What is wrong with you?”

  “Matt…”

  “And when you do bullshit like that – and yes, I said bullshit – you know who gets called up for it? I do. I am the Minister, and you are my sister, and what you do affects me! Do you think it is fun for me when the President and the Executive Secretary of the Conference come into my office and tell me that my sister collared another church member who just happens to be the daughter of the first elder?”

  “Matt, pull the car over, and talk to me properly. Pastor Young and Pastor Richards came to you? Is that why you are so angry?”

  “Yes, they came to me! They came to me because my sister who is supposed to be supporting me is hurting me more than helping me!”

  “I’m sorry…”

  “You’re sorry, nuh?” Matt continued to rage. “You're not sorry yet, but you will be. I'm recommending to the Board that you be censured.”

  Mary could not believe her ears. “What?”

  “You heard me. Six months on the back bench. You will not sing, you will not take part in AY, you will not do anything, and you will publicly apologise to Georgia and Elder Maragh!”

  “Matt pull the car over!” Mary demanded. “Pull over now!”

  “Don’t tell me what to do!” Mary had never seen Matt in such a royal rage. “You may be my sister, and you may be five minutes older than me, but I am still your Minister, Mary, and I’m pulling rank!”

  “No, you’re pulling over right now!” Mary insisted. “Don’t make me grab this steering wheel, and you know I will!”

  Matt finally did as his sister told him. He pulled the car over to the soft shoulder and pulled up the hand brake.

  “Mattie, what’s really going on?” Mary asked softly.

  Mary had not called him ‘Mattie’ in years. Matt could not take it anymore. He rested his head on the steering wheel and allowed a sob to escape his throat.

  “Matthew…”

  “She doesn’t want me!”

  “What? Who?”

  “Klao,” Matt explained. “She doesn’t want me...”

  “What are you talking about?” Mary asked. “Of course she wants you. She loves you.”

  “No, she doesn’t. I’m not good enough for her, Mary. She is Klao Persaud, and I am – me… I went and overextended myself heart wise, and she doesn’t want me!” Matt stopped fighting the tears and allowed them to flow all over his steering wheel as he told his twin all that had transpired that evening – from the inappropriate meeting with the two pastors and the elder, to going to Klao’s apartment and seeing Ricard Shalkowski, and his fight with Klao. “What am I going to do, Mary? I love her so much…”

  “Come here…” Mary undid her seatbelt and hugged h
er brother as he cried over her shirt. Her heart broke right along with his. “Klao doesn’t know what she’s talking about, because you are more than good enough for her. She is a spoiled little brat, and if that’s what she thinks, then you are far better off without her, Matt! And one day she is going to wake up forty-five and married to some pompous trust fund moron who is cheating on her with a nineteen year old bleach-out face boy, and she is going to think about how she made the biggest mistake of her life when she spat in the face of Pastor Matthew St. James. And then you will have the last laugh.”

  “Pastor Young was right. It was wrong for me to be in love with Klao!”

  “Pastor Young is nothing more than a sanctimonious whitewashed sepulchre!” Mary declared. “People like him and Pastor Richards give Seventh-day Adventists a bad name. Besides, since when did loving someone ever become wrong? God led you to Klao, Matt, for one reason or another, and maybe it didn’t work out the way you wanted, but I am sure He has another plan and He will sort this out. It will all work out. You’ll see!”

  Matt smiled at his sister. “When did you get smart?”

  “I tell you all the time that I have five more minutes of life experience than you do! Those five minutes are like dog years.”

  “So what should I do now?”

  “Nothing!” Mary said firmly. “She doesn’t want to be with you. Well, you don’t want to be with her either. Move on and live your life and we will meet a new girl who will think you are the world’s perfect man.”

  “I don’t think I want another girl!”

  “Oh please!” Mary scoffed. “In no time you will be asking ‘Klao who?’ And when that time comes, I won’t even tell her how you bawled like a little girl in your car!”

  “Shut up, man!” Matt offered a wobbly smile as he wiped his eyes.

  Mary chuckled. “Are you feeling better?”

  Matt shook his head. “No...”

  “It’s alright!” She gave her brother a kiss on his cheek. “It hurts now, but you’ll live -- I promise. Would you like me to drive?”