by Denise Daye
“It’s pretty strange. We barely talk to one another; yet we have to have horrendous weekly dinners together where neither of us says anything. I’m pretty sure she can’t stand me and I… well, I can’t stand her either.”
“Damn. But after six more months of this you can divorce her?”
Ben took a little sip from his glass.
“Pretty much. If we both stick to the contract. But if one of us breaks it, the other gets everything.”
“Phew…” Roger huffed and pounded the content of his glass. He was quick to pour himself another. “Is she after it all do you think?”
Benjamin let out a sigh. “Hard to say. It’s a lot of money. Who wouldn’t be?”
Roger scratched his chin. “How about setting her up with some other guy? I know a few. There could be cameras and stuff,” he stretched his hands out in the air like some visionary film director. “You could blackmail her with that. It’s foolproof. I should know.”
Benjamin’s smile was back. Roger was ridiculous. “I don’t even want to know why you ‘know’ that. But it won’t work.”
Roger through his hand in surprise. “Won’t work? Dude, that worked with a monk before.”
“Maybe,” Benjamin muttered, “but I don’t think I’ve ever seen her with a guy before. She works at a homeless shelter. Holds herself to standards no-one else can ever reach. Despises injustice.”
“She almost sounds kinda cool. Your mom must go crazy with your new wife around. The new Mrs. Radcliff… mingling with the homeless and addicts.”
Your wife. It still felt strange hearing it.
“That’s the worst part of it all. I have to keep them apart as much as I can. It’s a ticking time bomb on top of the usual ticking time bomb my mom is. Thankfully she left to go boating with friends, but she just came back, and I can smell war in the air. Something big is going down soon.”
“Damn… What the hell was your grandpa thinking?”
Benjamin said nothing, his eyes on the thumbprint he had left on the smooth glass. “He wasn’t thinking at all,” he muttered, his focus still on the glass as everything else blurred out. They sat in silence, the rain pattering against the windows, accompanied by low rumbles. He saw Roger sit up and glance in his direction.
“Nah. Doesn’t sound like Elijah Radcliff to me.”
“What?” Ben looked up; his brows raised high.
“I mean, that man was a genius. Brilliant. He built an empire from dirt and dust. He didn’t do anything without running it from every angle possible.”
Ben thought about this for a second. What Roger said was true, and yet it was obvious that his grandpa must have lost his marbles when he wrote his will. Gone nuts—from genius to insane. He was about to ask Roger to elaborate on those strange remarks a bit more, when their conversation was interrupted by light footsteps coming from the living room. Both men shifted their gaze in that direction. Benjamin almost dropped his drink when he saw who it was.
“I understand you guys want to do a bit of bro talks and stuff, but I am getting bored in there,” Sarah said exposing her immaculate white teeth. She looked stunning, as always. Her long dark hair was put up into a bun and she was wearing a crème, short summer dress with sleek leather boots. Coming from one of New York’s oldest and richest families, she was considered aristocracy in Manhattan. Benjamin had an on and off casual relationship with her, one he had not perused in a few months as Sarah had started to ask for serious dates—something he could not give her, which he was very clear about from the beginning.
“Sarah. What a surprise to see you here,” he said tuning to Roger with pursed lips. Roger innocently shrugged his shoulders.
“Well you aren’t answering my calls… if that is even still your number?” Her voice had a scolding, arrogant tone to it. No doubt, this was a woman whose looks and wealth had gotten her accustomed to getting everything she wanted. Everything but Benjamin, which in her eyes probably only made him more interesting. Is this what Ava thinks of me?
“I’m sorry, Sarah. But I was a bit busy with funerals and weddings lately.”
She walked up to him and took his glass from him to drink from it. Benjamin was okay with that as he still had to drive anyways and was done with drinking.
“Oh, come on now. I’ve seen the girl in the papers. Your grandfather could have done a better job at picking someone to tame you.” She pressed her body against his, her soft breast pushing against him. Her eyes glittered as she ran her hand through his hair and down his muscular chest. An icy feeling instantly spread through his stomach. Guilt? He rose and stepped back, gently removing Sarah’s hand from him.
“I gotta go,” he said turning to Roger, who just stared at him, his eyes narrowed, his mind working hard at something.
“Oh boy,” Roger mumbled to himself all the sudden as he shook his head. “Come on my friend, I’ll walk you out,” he added as he strode back to the front door, drink still in hand.
“Call me,” they heard Sarah yell after them. Both ignored her.
“I’ll see you around,” Benjamin said to Roger stepping out into the rain as he held his coat over his head for cover. Rain was angrily bouncing off to both sides, some drops still attacking him on his head.
“Yeah, I’ll call you for another drink soon.” Benjamin nodded and rushed off when Roger called out after him.
“And Benjamin…”
He stopped and turned to face Roger once more, rain streaking down his handsome face and arms.
“I didn’t know… Won’t happen again,” Roger added. Benjamin frowned. He had no idea what the hell that was supposed to mean, but that was Roger. He threw him another nod and sprinted to his car. Time to go back home to experience another awkward evening with the new Mrs. Radcliff.
The first two weeks of their arranged marriage had to be the slowest fourteen days of both their lives. They both agreed on one thing at least: the constant rain made it worse.
How do you spend evenings with someone you don’t like? Ava had asked herself this multiple times. For her it wasn’t just “someone,” but “some people.” Lucy had decided to make her hatred more obvious—more than ever. Ava hadn’t given her much thought at first, but it was clear now that she was as much of a headache as Benjamin, maybe even worse.
On the bright side, Ava told herself over and over again, an account had been opened for her and a huge deposit made. ‘Her allowance,’ the lawyer had called it, but that felt more like sugar-coating the real issue. She had a feeling that this was just the beginning. Lucy and Benjamin Radcliff had probably all kinds of secret weapons in their toolbox to make her leave before the six months are up and ultimately rob her of her father’s home and peaceful retirement.
Ava frowned, feeling a bit depressed. It didn’t help that today she had to call child protective services on one of the homeless for showing up with a little girl who was extremely underweight and analphabetic. Somehow, they had managed to slip under the radar with one another, father and daughter. The mother had died a while back and he was all the kid had. But at the same time, the streets were no place for a small girl, so Ava had no choice. The screams and cries of both of them when the girl was picked up by the police and CPS still echoed in her ears.
She sighed and stared at her plate, oblivious of the man sitting across the table.
Benjamin sat opposite from her and wondered what the hell she was thinking. Probably how to spend my inheritance once she gets it.
Roger had texted him earlier asking how things were going and Benjamin had mumbled that it was up there between “shitty” and “the worst sort of” bad. He’d asked if they could go out for drinks, but Benjamin had declined. The guilt of Sarah making a move on him was still fresh and who knows what other trouble Roger might get him into. He was a fun friend, but he was also not the kind you would let babysit your kids.
Benjamin just couldn’t shake off that awkward feeling of sitting across from someone who d
idn’t want him there—whom he didn’t want there either. It somehow started to bother him immensely that she hated him so much.
Time for a snappy remark. “So how does it feel?”
She looked up from her plate “How does what feel?”
With a cocky grin, he answered. “You know, having dinner here, with me, in this place.” He gestured around him, the mighty pillars of the castle-like dining hall towering high above them as a fire was crackling in the fireplace. He was sitting at the far end of a long, wooden table that would remind most people of a knight’s dining hall.
“I know I am not particularly exciting to you, but the hall is not the usual place you frequent I assume?”
She pressed her lips tight. “I have my dinners at home and when I feel like it, I eat outside, at a restaurant of my choice. You make it sound like I’m some out-of-place homeless person who just got lucky.”
He smirked. “Out-of-place? Maybe. Lucky? Definitely.”
Anger rose up in her, watching that relaxed smugness on his face. “Maybe I am lucky. A toast to me then. Long Live Ava Burns. May she be rich beyond belief.” She raised her glass and winked.
He frowned for only a moment before he rose and walked all the way over to her with his glass to clink it against hers. The two looked like they were caught in the middle of one big joke. An outsider would have thought it was just a nice meal between two lovers. If they only knew.
Benjamin strolled back to his seat at the other end from Ava and continued eating in silence. He peeked up to at her, but she was playing with her food again, once deeper in thoughts. Why was she so sad?
“I was just joking…I don’t know how else to deal with all of this.”
Did I just apologize?
A sad little look crossed Ava’s face and he pulled his tail between his legs again.
“It’s not you… at least not today. It’s work.”
Ben stopped eating and grabbed his wine. “Why do you even work there if it depresses you?”
“What?”
“At the shelter. That’s where you work, right? Can’t be solid pay for what you have to do there.”
“I’m a social worker. I don’t do it for the pay. And somebody has to do it, so people like you can live their lives care-free of the troubles of this world.”
Benjamin stayed quiet. Was it really impossible to have just one single conversation without it turning into a fight? At least when they were kids their fights weren’t nasty like this; they fought about who got the last piece of pie or who would get to pick the church flowers but none of those fights had pure spite at its core. He picked up his fork again and continued eating in silence. The salmon that tasted like heaven moments ago now tasted bitter, sour, inedible.
“Why do you even care?” she suddenly asked.
“I don’t,” he said in a monotone, cold voice as he pushed away his plate and wiped his mouth elegantly with a napkin. “Really. Not an eensy weensy teeny weeny little small bit. I just want to make sure we all stick to the plan without venturing into new territories.”
Her face flushed and she put her wine glass back on the table without drinking from it. “Like what? Trying to cheat you out of your inheritance?”
Leaning back in his chair, Benjamin didn’t respond to that. She gasped.
“Is that really what you think?” Her body became tense. She clenched her fist tight as she spoke. “If I’m correct you were the one knocking at my door, not the other way around. And I don’t even want to know what you mother is hatching out as we speak, but maybe you should focus your attention a little more into that direction. I’m not one of those girls who’d try to claw her hands on something that’s not hers.”
Benjamin wanted to nod as he actually agreed with her on the issues regarding his mother. She had never been a person people would easily get along with, but ever since the reading of the will she was nothing short of reprehensible. But he didn’t.
Ava pushed back her chair and stood up angrily. “I think this dinner will count as spending time together, don’t you think?”
“It better…”
With determined steps, Ava crossed the room to leave through the enormous double doors behind him but stopped next to his chair. Leaning closer, their faces just inches apart and eyes locked fiercely, she whispered slowly, “...your mother...”
An eyebrow raised, a smug look on his face, he replied, “Not my main concern.”
She pressed her left hand hard on the table as a couple of maids came in to clean up the dishes, all minding their businesses but still casting sneaky glances at the two, perhaps wondering what the hell was going on with the couple’s date.
“You’re trying to get to me, but it won’t work.”
“Maybe it’s already working, honey,” he said.
For a moment, they stared at each other as the sound of the crackling fire blithely invited them to enjoy a romantic evening. But this wasn’t a romantic evening; it was a preview to what every other night might be like, and he hoped that it scared her as much as him.
With that, Ava left, too focused on her thoughts to notice that his mother had been watching her from the dark corner from the other end of the room, her face a mask of contempt.
“Blending in with the shadows like a creature of the night?” Benjamin said sarcastically. She joined him at the table.
“Glad to see you still cracking jokes as usual,” she noted with her own twisted smile. One of the waiting staff quickly offered her, with skilled precision, a glass and bottle of wine, which she gladly took even though she admitted, “I’ve already had a little too much to drink.”
Ben could see that. It was troublesome. While she drank more or less constantly, never had he seen his mother even tipsy before.
“I’m just trying to make the best of it. For the sake of my inheritance. I hope you will do the same?”
She answered with a frown. “The best of it, huh? Is that why I saw her marching off like some dejected child? How dare she live in this house and bring along her pride and contempt…” she was beginning to get flustered as she spoke, her eyes flaring up.
“Relax, mother,” Benjamin said. He gave her a reassuring smile. “You don’t have to get all worked up. I’ve got things covered. Before we know it, things will be back to normal.”
His mother eyed him with a look of skepticism. “Most of the time that means you have the intention to do what is needed but won’t follow through if things get ugly. You have your father’s kind heart. Remember the polo incident, with the horse?”
He frowned at the thought of that. He’d gotten an untrained mustang at the national polo championship after his own horse got injured. His mother and coach insisted that he tame the horse by any means necessary, but Benjamin and his father didn’t think it was the horse’s fault that it was untrained and did not want to use the riding crop at all. Ultimately, he withdrew from the match and they had lost. It was more than worrisome that she would even use this as an example. It must be the alcohol.
He cut his mother short, “I mean it this time; I’ve got this one covered. This is my marriage and I will be just fine. No need to meddle, mother. Just take a long vacation or something.”
She tightened her face. “And leave you all alone in this? No, my boy. I am here for you. I will protect your inheritance.”
Benjamin shifted in his seat. The look on his mother’s face was almost scary. She looks like some sort of evil villain. Her eyes even seemed to be glowing in the flickering light of the fire.
“Don’t worry yourself. I know you can go overboard sometimes, just don’t do something that could do more harm than good, please. For me?”
“I’m your mother,” she reminded and stood up, tossing down the glass of wine. “I can darn well do as I please. By nature’s dictation, I know better than you.” Grabbing the wine bottle, she left before Benjamin could say anything else. For a brief moment, he thought of just telling his moth
er to leave. After all, he would be the one inheriting it all. But then, that might just make things worse, spark her hatred.
Sinking deep into his chair, he let out a loud, discomfited sigh.
“This is going horribly.”
T
hey had endured another week of silent evenings and a weird-acting mother when Benjamin left the house one morning to go to work. He was dressed in a custom-tailored suit and was looking nothing short of stunning for his meeting with the investors from California.
It was a sunny morning; he might have even heard the birds chirping if it wasn’t for his mother’s ear-piercing shouts, which drowned out everything else within miles. She was arguing with someone in the driveway, behind the hedge. Without even seeing the scene, Benjamin knew right away with whom. People here usually know better than to disagree with her. Before the death of his father, he had many fond memories of his mother. Smiling, laughing, rolling with him in the grass. But that all had changed overnight when his father had passed away. From there on, his mother became known as a demanding woman who loved parties, friends, and most of all, expensive things. “Intense and demanding,” were the nicer words his staff would say about her. He had to pay most of the house staff almost double the going rate just so they would not quit the same day they met Lucy Radcliff. And yet, she was still his mother. One of the few people left in his life. So, what choice did he have but hold on to the memoires of the woman her father fell in love with? Remember the woman laughing and chasing him in the snow, as if that kinder version of herself was still in there somewhere?
“You are not driving this hunk of scrap into this place,” he heard his mother yell.
Benjamin, clutching his cup of coffee, craned his neck to see around the hedge. “What the—” he mumbled when he saw his mother jabbing her finger in the air like a magic scepter, talking loud and fast. He found Ava standing by her car and he immediately knew what the problem was. He didn’t care about the anger flowing out of his mother—she got angry over the most trivial of issues and he was used to it—but his eyes were on Ava. She, just like his mother, looked pretty upset. Her face was a light shade of pink, her eyes glaring fiercely, and her hands tightened as if ready to start dishing out blows. But no mean did he want to watch that show.