The Fat And The Thin Of It

by Julie Croft

Bob sat at the table on deck, but Hassan and Abel remained standing just behind Bob’s chair, their hands loosely folded across their groins. Ahmed sat back with his cane resting across his lap, and Bob threw the folder he was carrying onto the table between him and Ahmed before leaning back in his chair and rocked it back and forth on its back legs.

  “What’s going on, Ahmed? How the fuck do you know Jackie?” Bob’s voice was low but harsh.

  Ahmed pursed his lips and let the silence hang between them for a few moments, but when he answered, his voice was just a low as Bob’s, but far harsher. “First of all, Mr Walker, I would appreciate it if you didn’t use such language on my vessel. Please.” He took a breath before continuing. “Secondly, my meeting your wife was for various reasons, but none that you should worry about, Mr Walker.”

  “Why should my wife interest you, Ahmed? Did you want to gloat about how you fu… ruined our lives?” Bob’s voice rose slightly, but he tried to keep it controlled.

  “Mr Walker, you are the one responsible for ruining your lives. I have no wish to gloat about anything as – I can assure you – I am not overjoyed at your relationship with Lola.” Ahmed’s voice was more controlled than Bob’s; for the time being, at least. “That being said, my only concern is that she be happy, and if she is in love with you and carrying your child, you have to take responsibility for her.”

  Bob continued to rock back and forth on his chair while he glowered at Ahmed. “Dear God, I rue the days I employed your daughter and met you, Ahmed.” He snarled.

  “Indeed,” Ahmed said with a clenched jaw. “It was an ironic twist of fate that you should be screwing my daughter while trying to screw me also – in a financially metaphorical way, of course.”

  “You should watch your own language, Ahmed.” Bob sneered before he leaned forward onto the table on both elbows. “What if I was to say that I don’t want to stay with Lola? What if I was to say that I wanted to go back to my wife?” he paused before adding, “And, what if I was to say that I would tell Lola a little story about a married Catholic woman and a Muslim magnate back in Marbella about thirty years ago?”

  It was unperceivable to Bob, but Ahmed raised an eyebrow just enough to be visible above his sunglasses to Hassan, who quickly stepped forward, grabbed Bob by the neck and smashed his head down onto the table with such force that Bob’s head bounced back up like a ping-pong ball. Bob looked at Ahmed in dazed surprise, and when the blood from the cut between his eyebrows began to dribble into his eyes, he wiped it away and stared at his bloodied fingers with even more surprise.

  Ahmed hadn’t moved an inch. He sat impassively clutching his cane across his lap, and when Bob saw the blood on his hands, he said quietly. “Mr Walker, I sincerely encourage you to tell Lola, but not before I check you have provided decently for your wife.”

  Ahmed pulled the folder towards him and opened it. “Hassan, pass Mr Walker a napkin, if you please, but make sure it is disposable.”

  Hassan did as he was asked, and while Bob dabbed at his forehead Ahmed checked the paperwork inside the folder. “Hmm, Mr Cambre did a very thorough job, I am glad to see.” he flicked over the pages. “Yes, yes… all in order. All your wife has to do is sign the papers and she has her alimony and her account.” He eyed Bob over the top of the paperwork. “Your wife made very meagre demands, Mr Walker. She should have asked for twice as much if he had the slightest notion of what you are worth.”

  Bob had no interest in answering. He sat quietly, dabbing at his head and checking the amount of blood he was losing. Christ, what a fuck up everything was! All he’d ever done was try to enjoy himself while he was away from his family, working his guts out and amassing a little nest-egg for when he retired. Okay, so maybe he should have kept his dick in his trousers a bit more, but what was he to do? He had to live up to the life-style of the people he did business with, and if there were women involved it wasn’t really his fault.

  As he sat there, looking at his blood, he supposed he should have let Jackie join him in Marbella when she’d suggested it. But there again, he justified himself by thinking that she wouldn’t have fitted in with the crowd he moved in. It was a very bad phrase, but ‘she would have cramped his style’ was the only way to describe her. She wasn’t the most sophisticated of women, he had to be honest, but he loved her, he now realised, very much.

  He didn’t want to be with that loud-mouthed Lola, not in the slightest. True, she was a good lay, but she was unbearable to be with if it wasn’t in the sack. He loved going home to Jackie, unwinding and forgetting about Marbella and golf clubs and high-class party soirées, having good food cooked for him and just being himself.

  God, what bloody luck it was to meet Ahmed! He’d tried to get him into the new golf project, but the guy found out about the land not having the proper permission to build, and how in God’s name he found out was still a bloody mystery. Bob was sure someone had sold him out before he’d got to talk to the necessary people to get the permission, and Ahmed took it badly. And to top it all, Lola was his bloody illegitimate daughter, for Christ’s sake! Ahmed had been out for his blood – literally – but once the relationship with bloody Lola came out Ahmed then had Bob over a barrel. Still, it was probably better than getting the shit beaten out of him or landing in court for fraud, but living with that bitch was going to be like prison… God, he wanted to go back to Jackie and forget all about this shit.

  Ahmed put away the paperwork and looked at Bob and sighed. “You are a dishonourable man, Mr Walker. You dishonour your wife, you dishonour my daughter and you try to dishonour me, which is where you went unfortunately wrong. It is my duty as a human being to try to make you do honest things, such as providing Lola with a father for the child she is carrying and keeping her happy, and providing for your poor wife decently while you comply with your newly established duties with Lola. Now please, leave my vessel.” He waved a dismissing hand at Bob, and Hassan and Abel raised him off his chair and escorted him to the gangway.

  When Bob had left and Hassan and Abel had gone to change, Ahmed raked off his head-dress and leaned back with a sigh. This façade really wasn’t him, but sometimes he had to play the part where business was concerned.

  He sat staring ahead of him, hoping he’d done the right thing. He’d had to watch his daughter from afar, as Maria had forbidden him to have contact with both her and Lola when her husband abandoned his lover and returned to the marital home. He’d been away for almost four months, so when he returned to find Maria pregnant, it had been a shock.

  Of course it had been a shock; Maria’s husband had abandoned her for a man, and she’d confided to Ahmed that they’d only had ‘contact’ on their wedding night. They’d come to an agreement for the sake of their family and he’d agreed to accept Lola as his own.

  Of course he had; it had stopped the family’s tongues wagging and the continuous open questions about Maria’s fertility and the subtle whispers about her husband’s sexuality.

  Ahmed had many contacts who had kept him informed about Lola throughout her life, and he found out about her relationship with Bob from some of those contacts. Ahmed had wanted to meet him, and he’d arranged to be invited to a party of a mutual acquaintance, so when Bob approached him with his ridiculous scam, Ahmed was infuriated; how could his daughter be so blind? How could she not see this charlatan for what he was? At that moment, Ahmed determined to separate Bob from his daughter by whatever means.

  However, that was before he’d sent someone to investigate into Mr Walker’s life and had been informed about his wife, Jackie. She seemed such a pure, innocent soul, so full of life, so loving, so honest; and so unhappy. This man had been so cruel to her and it hurt his heart. Jackie deserved so much more than that modest house and meagre life-style while her husband was being so unfaithful and so dishonest.

  No, no; Ahmed would put things right. He would give Jackie a chance to be happy and also keep that man Mr Walker under control. Perhaps he was not the most adequate match f
or Lola, but she had chosen him, so Ahmed would make sure she was happy until she changed her mind.

  Ahmed got up stiffly from his chair and shuffled down to his cabin to remove his ‘work clothes’ before the ladies returned. It had taken a little hustling and bustling, but he had arranged this situation and now he had to allow things to go as they should.

  ‘Ah, Ahmed; I hope you have done the right thing, my friend’ he said to himself as he peeled off his robe.

  The Bentley pulled up on the quay about three in the afternoon, and Jackie was the first to jump out, towing three huge boutique bags with her. Jill climbed out, obviously exhausted, with a small blue jeweller’s bag in her hand. Chantal emerged elegantly, and waited for the chauffeur to get out, open the boot and pull out about ten boutique bags, four jeweller’s bags and a pile of shoe boxes.

  Ahmed was standing on deck, waiting for the ladies. “Chantal!” he called down with a smile. “You should have bought another suitcase as well! You will never get all that back home on Monday!”

  “Oh, Papa!” Chantal called up. “François is meeting me at the airport! Let him behave as a fiancé should and carry them for me!”

  “You should have got engaged to a juggler, mon