Lure

by Maya Sliver

  “William, I need to figure out certain things and that won’t be possible while I’m here. I need to leave,” I speak, taking a sip of my coffee, behaving as cool as I could, pretending that going away from him doesn’t have much effect on me. When in reality, I’m still dubious about my own head and heart.

  His smile disappears and his face becomes ashen.

  “I want to be with you, William but that can’t distance you from your daughter. Caroline needs you and you need her.”

  “Again, I say, it’s not your fault. She would have behaved the same way had she found me with any other woman.”

  “But that any other woman won’t be her best friend, will she?”

  I edge closer and take his free hand in mine.

  “She’s shocked because she’d never thought me having an affair, especially with a girl years younger than me. The best friend thing has made things even more complicated for her.”

  “Exactly. She has to understand the complex nature of our relationship. We have to give her time. Open to her all the possible options of returning home. And this is possible only if I’m not here. Me staying here with you, in this house would make things awkward and complicated for her.” I clear my throat fighting back the tears. It’s hard to stay away from William especially after sharing such a beautiful night with him. More so, this home looks like my real home and this family my own family, I can’t stay away from them as well. But then I can’t let any member of the family go astray. I can’t let Caroline part her way from her own father just because of me. I speak again, “But that doesn’t mean, we can’t see each other.”

  A painful sigh escapes William’s parched pale lips as his blue eyes study me.

  “I’ll be around.”

  “What about the piano classes?”

  “The classes will remain suspended till we sort everything out and after that I’m all yours, teach me the way you want.” I smirk and he doesn’t miss a beat in pulling me close to his rock-hard chest.

  “Keep your word for I’m not going to leave you once you’re back.”

  “I promise.” I throw my arms around him, burying my head in his chest.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  William

  It’s been three days since Carrie and Blake left the house and two days for me off work. I can’t afford the luxury of staying away from my job as a music teacher for too long. Can’t let the students suffer because of my miserable state. I’ve got to go back to work. I must get my shit together before it’s too late and the academy replaces me with another music teacher.

  After a sleepless night, I rise from the bed and head to the shower. Within minutes, I’m ready, fetching myself a cup of coffee. The moment I place the coffee mug and a plate of cheese sandwich on the table, the doorbell rings.

  Who is it?

  Carrie?

  Blake?

  A wave of happiness dashes through me. I’ll be happy seeing either, both women are my lifelines now.

  Smiling, I tread to the door and release the deadbolt. A wave of cold morning breeze brushes past me as the door flings open, bringing in smell of winter, sunshine, and happiness.

  Blake stands at the doorway with a pleasantly warming smile, wearing blue skinny jeans and a pale blue crop top.

  “Hey.” She smiles.

  “Hey. How are you?” I widen the door for her to enter.

  “I’m good.” She saunters in, and I close the door after her. Once within the privacy of the four walls, I don’t think twice, gathering the beautiful woman in my arms. “How have you been? Did you miss me?” I pull her close and claim her lips before she could answer my questions.

  “I missed you William and that’s why I’m here. Thought of seeing you before going to school,” pulling back, she replies.

  “School’s started?”

  “Yeah, Miss Maurice and students were back last night, and we’re having regular classes from now on.” She frees herself from my arms and reaches the dining table, pulling a chair for herself.

  “The group returned only last night. Does that mean Carrie abandoned the trip midway and returned home?” I pull a chair for myself before sliding into it.

  “Yeah. I believe she abandoned the trip before its completion,” replies Blake.

  “Was she upset with something or someone during the trip?”

  I know my daughter. She decides on the flip of a coin. She has the disposition of giving knee-jerk responses to things without any consideration to the consequences. It could be she had a fight with a fellow classmate. It could be she suddenly lost interest in the trip which is hard to believe because she was so excited about it that she’d been preparing for it for two months.

  “I need to find out,” Blake speaks thoughtfully.

  “I hope everything is all right with her.” I stare at the plate of unfinished breakfast and the untouched coffee in front of me on the table.

  “Trust me. I will figure it out.” A soft cottony hand lands on my forearm. Her touch brings a soothing relief to my overactive, oversensitive, and overanxious head.

  “Thanks.” I smile.

  “Now finish your breakfast. You’re looking pale and famished,” she speaks like a mother.

  “Can you fetch us some fresh coffee, please?”

  “Sure.” She smiles rising from her chair and swaggering to the kitchen.

  It feels good. Feels good to have Blake with me, around me, in this house. How fascinating it would be if she came and stayed with us forever, never to leave us, this house. The three of us together make a beautiful family. There wouldn’t be any pain or loneliness then. Every day would then be like this happy winter day and life—a bright sunny morning. If only I can bring Carrie back to us.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Blake

  As always, Westlake High is bubbling with students’ chatter. Miss Maurice and company are back from a fortnight’s long study trip and now it’s time to get back to classes, beginning today

  William drops me at the gate and then waves at me before driving away to Queen’s.

  When I enter the campus, I see my group of friends hanging in the garden. Classes are yet to begin, and they all seem to be enjoying the morning sun, chit-chatting. A few groups of students are busy bullying the new fall students.

  I see Caroline sitting on the green grass with Ben, Katy and Candice. As usual, she’s busy picking at grass blades. She looks lost in her thoughts, intermittently smiling absently and sparingly participating in the banter, appearing reluctant.

  Yet, Joshua is nowhere to be seen.

  I reach them and plant myself next to Candice so that I’m face to face with Caroline.

  “Hey everybody,” I chirp, “How was the trip, guys?” I slap a hand on Candice’s arm looking at Caroline who doesn’t bother to look at me. All the time, her gaze is burrowed on the green of the grass, her hands picking weeds and blades and throwing them away.

  “It was ahhsome,” Katy and Candice both yell in unison and then they begin blabbering about their madcap escapades during the visit to the horticulture resort of Winterlake.

  A few minutes later, Joshua arrives and sits next to me. “Hey.”

  “Hi, how are you?” My focus shifts from Katy and Candice’s endless chattering to Joshua’s serene face.

  “I need to talk to you,” he whispers against my ear.

  “Sure. Go ahead.” I shift my posture and now I’m facing Joshua.

  “No. Not here. Can we go, somewhere else?”

  “Somewhere else?”

  “Yeah. Please.”

  “Okay, let’s.”

  We both rise from the ground.

  “Excuse us, guys. We’ll be back after a short while.” Joshua tips his cap as we walk past the group. I study Caroline while walking past her, and she glowers at me offensively.

  God. She’s touchy. Still snappish about me dating her dad. Let me get this out with Joshua and then I’ll talk to her. I know it’s not as easy as it sounds but then I mus
t initiate conversation in order to explain my relationship with William.

  “Blake, you’re here?” finding myself lost, Joshua asks,

  “Yeah, I’m very much here. Tell me what you want to talk about?” I speak as we reach the not-so-crowded backyard of the school, and I park my ass on an old wooden log. Joshua never sits. Instead, he paces the grassy field back and forth.

  Why is he behaving like a jittery mess?

  “What’s the thing, Josh? You look tense. Is everything all right?”

  “Blake, I got to tell you something.”

  “Then speak up. I’m all ears.” I reach out to him and touch his arm.

  “Blake, would you like going out with me?”

  “Oh, such a simple thing. I always love to spend time with you Josh. Tell me when we are going.”

  “It’s just the two of us—you and me.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, I want to take you out for dinner,” he speaks with some hesitation, touching his shaggy hair and flinching.

  It’s a blow to me. I can’t believe Joshua asking me for a formal date, not just any date but a boyfriend-girlfriend kind of date. How could he? I’ve always treated him like a friend, more so a brother.

  “Josh… are you serious?” I stammer, voice choking in my throat, head spinning.

  “Yeah. I only realized a few days ago. Actually, it was after Caroline’s confession of her feelings to me that I found out it’s no other girl, but you and it’s been always you, Blake.”

  “Shit. What did you tell Caroline?”

  He’s quiet, perhaps reading my thoughts.

  “Tell me, Josh. Did you tell her we are dating?”

  “Yeah. There’s no point hiding. We’d been hanging out together, going for dinners and parties together, spending quite a lot of time together except recently when you stopped everything. You even missed the trip. You’ve been missing school activities most of the time, and I realized how much I miss you. Where were you, Blakey?”

  “Damn.” Now, it’s my turn to stand and pace nervously. “Look, Josh. I… I mean I can’t go out with you. I’m…” I search for words as shock and anxiety don’t let me frame a proper sentence.

  “Are you dating someone?”

  “Yeah,” I speak after a brief pause.

  “Who? Do I know him?”

  “William.”

  “William Wild?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Caroline’s Dad?”

  “Yes.”

  “Shit.”

  His jaw clenches. His foot kicks some imaginary dust before his disappointed stare meet my eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Josh. You’re a nice guy but…”

  “I never knew you’ve got a fetish for old men.” A sly grin runs across his face.

  “Mind your tongue, Josh.” I feel anger coating my insides.

  “I apologize.” He raises his hands in surrender, smirking, chewing the gum clumsily. “I should have known this. You always needed a Daddy, Blake, didn’t you? Is William Wild babying you well?”

  “Fuck off,” I shriek.

  He laughs a malicious laugh.

  “Fuck the shit outta here or I’ll smash your face.” I stand tall, meeting his eyes hard, pushing my chest out. I would have never believed Joshua talking such shit to me. Indeed, jealousy is a dangerous bitch that pushes you to zones you never belonged to.

  I know it’s jealousy that’s making him speak in that manner. I feel sorry for him, but I can’t help but say no to him. He has to deal with the heartbreak so does Caroline.

  Now, I know what Caroline meant by being heartbroken. I’m able to connect all the dots. All the pieces of the puzzle seem to be clicking into place, magically.

  Caroline confesses her feelings to Joshua. Joshua tells her that he loves me. Heartbroken Caroline abandons the study trip midway and returns home only to find her best friend with her dad. All events together act like a major blow to her, shock after shock and that too within a gap of only a few hours. She can’t contain herself and leaves the house.

  But thank god, instead of doing something horribly maddening like losing her virginity to a random stranger when Stella left her, she chooses to go to Ben’s house.

  This is certainly a positive change. She has grown past her impatience and recklessness. She’s grown from a pampered and sheltered kid and has almost reached the cusp of becoming independent. I have high hopes about her believing and understanding my complex relationship with her dad. If not taboo, my relationship with William is not the least normal or conventional. My affair with William is unconventional and unacceptable not only because there’s a huge age gap between us but also because he happens to be my best friend’s dad.

  But then love is far above ages, rules, and restrictions of society. I got to explain all this to Caroline, and I hope she’ll understand me and think about her prospects of returning home and getting back to her dad and accepting me in her family.

  Feeling determined, I march my way back to where our group is sitting.

  “Caroline, I need to talk to you,” I speak, reaching the lawns.

  “I need to talk to you, Carz, please.” I scurry around the flock and reach her, kneeling, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Please. It’s important.” She raises her head from the book she was reading and looks at me. Without speaking anything, she rises. “Will see you guys after the classes.”

  “Sure thing.” Ben tips his white baseball cap while Candice and Katy don’t mind looking at us, let alone acknowledging our leaving. All the time, they are busy flirting with the boys who sit just next to our group.

  Caroline and I both wave to Ben and turn around. Our walk to the secluded backyard of the school feel eerily silent as neither me nor Caroline speak anything. By the time we reach the back garden, it has almost gone empty with only a few students, mostly couples, sitting and cozying behind the trees and shrubberies.

  We reach the same wooden log where a while ago I had a heated conversation with Joshua.

  “Shall we sit?” I say.

  She flinches, never bothering to listen to my words.

  “Carz, please.”

  She looks at me before slowly trudging to the log and parking herself on the wood.

  “Look, Carz. First of all, I want to tell you that there’s nothing between me and Joshua. So take that shit off your head. Stop thinking that I’ve betrayed you. I’ve never dated Josh. I’ve always seen him as a very close friend and a brother.”

  “Thanks for clearing the air about Joshua and speaking the truth about your relationship with him. I believe you, but still you’ve betrayed me,” she bawls, “You’ve betrayed me by secretly sneaking into my dad’s bed. Shit. It’s pathetic to even think about my best friend sleeping with my dad.”

  She scrunches her nose and wipes stray tears from the corners of her eyes before looking sideways. Perhaps, she doesn’t want to look at me. Perhaps, my presence is disgusting to her.

  “I love William.”

  “What?”

  “Yes, Caroline. I’m in love with him.” I reach out to her, going on my haunches. She glares at me with her oceanic blues, and it reminds me of her dad’s eyes.

  “Since when,” she murmurs.

  “I don’t know but the realization only happened a few days ago.”

  “And what about him. Does he love you?”

  I nod.

  “Fuck. You played a really astute game, Blake. You wooed him in. You seduced him, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, it’s true, I seduced him only to realize later that I’m madly in love with him.”

  “Shame on you! You seduced your best friend’s dad.”

  “I seduced him as William not as my best friend’s dad.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “Besides being your dad, he has an identity. He’s not just your dad. He’s a man that every woman wants to fall in love with. It’s not only about physical attraction, it’s his personality, his genteel nature, his sophistic
ation, his dark and moody attitude. It’s his vulnerabilities, his loneliness, his darkness that draw me. It’s his demons that make me go crazy about him. It’s not only about sex but many other things, and you know that. Have you ever wondered why I never had a boyfriend? Why I never had any affair any fling with any boy? Because I had never felt the churn of emotions inside before meeting William. Emotions that ruin my logical thinking and force me to behave insane when I’m with William. Perhaps, because of my orphaned childhood I felt drawn to him. Perhaps, I’ve always been searching for the warmth and happiness of being home. Perhaps, I feel at home with William. William have always been immune to my advances. At one point, I thought of abandoning the idea of pursuing him and going back to my old life where there’s no hope for a brokenhearted girl. But then something happened, and I realized my love for him.”

  “You pursued him?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry, Carz. I’ve manipulated a few things here.”

  And then I tell Caroline the course of events that took place over the period of past few weeks while she was away on the study trip.

  “I don’t know what I should make out of all this.” She massages her forehead.

  “Accept the truth that’s what I and William both expect from you. Come back home. He needs you more than me.”

  “And stay with you in the same house?”

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  “Everything is wrong about that, Blake. I can’t. I mean I can’t see you and Dad…” She falters

  “I know it’s hard but it’s not impossible. At least, we can give it a try.”

  “Try?”

  “Yeah. I’ll stay with you guys for a month. After a month, if you still feel that my presence in your house around your dad makes you feel uncomfortable, I’ll go back to the dormitory and get back to my old life, never to bother you and William again.”

  “Oh, so you’ll embrace martyrdom, sacrificing the love of your life.” She smirks.

  “I love you, Carz. I know how it feels to be born as an orphan. What pain, what suffering it causes. How vulnerable it can make you. I don’t want you to suffer the same fate I’ve been through. I want you to have all the love you deserve. If this is martyrdom, I’m ready to embrace it.”