The Bet (Persaud Girl)

by Mott, Teisha

  “And it’s owed to you, Mr Hansen!” Andie said passionately. “I don’t know how I can ever repay!”

  “I told you, there are no strings attached,” Nathan reminded her. “It was fun helping you. I really enjoyed spending the past few days with you.”

  And he meant it. He liked her; really liked her, but in the back of his mind was the bet. Nathan’s conscience was pricking him now. He wondered how he could ever have let himself be talked into making such a stupid, cruel bet. Andie was an innocent pawn in Jeremy’s perverse game, and he did not want to sacrifice her. Andie was saying something.

  “There has to be some way I can pay you back!”

  Nathan looked at her. His mouth uttered the words he wanted to say, but for totally different reasons.

  “You could go out with me.”

  Andie stopped in her tracks. “What?”

  “Ahem, I mean, would you go out with me?” He repeated. “I’d love to take you out for a celebratory dinner or movie…” Nathan’s tongue suddenly felt ten times larger in his mouth. “Or, y’know, we could just hang out and talk.”

  “I – I – I…” Andie stuttered. She had not expected Nathan to ask her out. “Like on a date?”

  “Well, yeah,” Nathan said. “A date. What you doin’ Saturday night? I could come pick you up and we could – y’know – go somewhere…”

  “Jeez!” Andie’s head was spinning. Nathan Hansen wanted to take her out on a date! “I - I - I …” She wished she could say something else.

  “Of course, you’d have to ask your parents first, right?” Nathan said sensibly. “I could ask your father for you, if you want…”

  “No! I’ll ask him myself,” Andie said quickly.

  “So you’ll ask him, and if he says yes, then you will go out with me?” Nathan asked, hopefully.

  Andie was totally red in the face. “I suppose…” she said.

  Nathan smiled, and his trademark dimples appeared. “Great! So call me later and let me know, okay?”

  “Okay,” Andie whispered.

  “Now,” Nathan sounded businesslike. “Where is your big sister parked? “I better walk you to her car before you float away on the cloud nine your A in GT11A has got you on.”

  “She’s by the Old Dramatic Theatre parking lot,” Andie told him. “Let’s walk the long way.” She did not bother mentioning to him that her cloud nine was not a result of the A in GT11A, but the fact that he had asked her out. She was actually going on a real date, with a real guy, and he was none other than Nathan Hansen. Andie thought she was dreaming. She decided to wait to get to Samantha’s car before pinching herself. This was one dream she did not want to wake up from just yet.

  ***

  “Mommy, if I ask you something, you promise to say yes?” Andie asked going into her mother’s home office.

  “Why does that sound like there is a no involved somewhere?” Her mother asked in return. She turned from her easel, where she was working on sketches for Izzy’s Caribbean Fashion Week line.

  “There is no ‘no’ involved!” Andie said, sitting next to her mother. She played with her mother’s long brown ponytail. “Uncle Marcus said I’ll probably get an A on my GT11A paper….”

  Mrs Persaud’s face erupted into a huge grin. “An A! I am so proud of you!” She pulled Andie up and did a little gig with her around the studio. “You’re getting an A!”

  “Mommy, it was only because of Nathan!” Andie explained as soon as her mother had let her go and she could breathe again. “If he hadn’t helped me, I would have bombed out for sure. That’s what I want to ask you.” She stopped and took a breath. “I asked Nathan how I could repay him for helping me, and he said he would be satisfied if I went out with him, like – like, you know – on a date!”

  She turned away, and pretended to study a bale of fabric in the office, so her mother would not see her blushing.

  “Andie…” Mrs Persaud looked at her daughter. “Look at me honey. You are seriously red in the face. You like this boy, don’t you?”

  Andie did not know what to say.

  “It’s all right that you like him, Andie,” Mrs Persaud said calmly. “He seems like a really nice boy.”

  “He’s only my friend, Mommy,” Andie said. She could not be more embarrassed if she tried. “I don’t ‘like him’ like him.”

  Mrs Persaud did not buy that for one minute. “Lying to your mother results in bad karma, my heart!”

  Andie looked away. Her mother decided not to tease her any further.

  “I cannot unilaterally decide whether you can go out with Nathan or not,” Mrs Persaud said, turning back to her easel. “Daddy and I have to discuss it first. When does Nathan want to go out?”

  “Saturday night,” Andie said.

  “And where does he want to take you?”

  Andie shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m sure it’s not the moon or anything.”

  “I would hope not,” her mother said. “I will talk to your father when he gets home and let you know, okay?”

  “Okay,” Andie was pleased. If her mother batted for her to go out with Nathan, it was unlikely her father would say no. “Thank you, mommy.” She gave her mother a quick hug and turned to leave the office. “I’m going to do one of Daddy’s tutorial sheets now. Mention that to him, okay? That may help him say yes.”

  Mrs Persaud watched her younger daughter as she bounced out of the studio. It was the first time she could ever recall Andie bouncing. Andie was always so depressed and unhappy and listless. It was a welcome relief to see her smiling and bouncing. Andie may look like her older sister, Janine, but that was where the similarities ended. Janine had been the ultimate extrovert. She was vivacious and outgoing and a real party animal. Even though she could be cruel and domineering, she always had many friends following her around. Andie, on the other hand, was reclusive and shy. Mrs Persaud could not recall her mentioning or taking home a ‘best friend’. She got embarrassed and cried easily, and was prone to sudden fits of rage. In fact, Mrs Persaud realised, Andie was a lot like she used to be when she was younger – before she met her Andrew. She had spent the first twelve years of her life walking in her sister’s shadow, with only her sketches to keep her company. She had been chubby, had a bad case of eczema and, compared to Janine, was really an ugly duckling. She had no friends and no desire to make any. But things changed soon after the family moved next door to the Persauds’ on Paddington Terrace. Her father, a career diplomat, had been relocated from Brussels back to Jamaica. One day, a little curly haired boy about her age looked over the hedge and saw her sitting on a rock and drawing. He invited himself over and teased her consistently for two weeks, calling her ‘fatta’. She snapped one day, punched him to the ground and sat on him until he cried and promised not to call her ‘fatta’ anymore. They immediately became best friends. He pulled her out of the shell she had hidden herself in, and married her fifteen years later.

  It now seemed to Mrs Persaud that Andie’s own ‘Andrew Persaud’ had come along. This young man had been able to pull her shy, uncertain daughter out of her shell and make her into the lively, confident girl her mother knew she could be. She smiled to herself. Andie’s knight might have come six years later than hers did, but it was much better for him to have come late, than not to have come at all.

  ***

  “So they said yes?” Nathan asked Andie. A part of him was extremely pleased, while the other part realised that he was sliding deeper into deception.

  “Mm-hmm. As long as you get me home by eleven,” Andie confirmed. “They were really happy that I had done well on Uncle Marcus’ paper. That had a lot to do with it, I think.”

  Nathan cradled the phone between his shoulder and his ear, and folded his clean laundry while he spoke to Andie.

  “Eleven is no problem,” he told her. “So I’ll pick you up around seven Saturday n
ight, then?”

  “So where we going?” Andie asked.

  Nathan smiled. “It’s a surprise!”

  “How will I know what to wear?”

  Nathan thought for a moment. “Wear clothes!” He decided. “And shoes. You must wear shoes.”

  Andie snickered. “Oh wow!” She said sarcastically. “That helps a lot!”

  Nathan’s smile became a laugh. “Tell you what, ” he said. “When I come to pick you up, if you not dressed right, I’ll let you change.”

  Andie sighed. “Alright. If I embarrass you on Saturday night, you can’t complain.”

  “I don’t think you can embarrass me,” Nathan told her positively. “If I know my favourite girl, she will look beautiful, even if she’s wearing a paper bag.”

  Andie was grinning so hard her cheeks began to hurt. She was Nathan’s favourite girl?

  “Okay, so paper bag it is, since you won’t tell me where we’re going,” Andie warned, feeling bold.

  “Just make sure you tell me what colour paper bag it will be so we can be colour coordinated,” Nathan kidded.

  “Nathan, c’mon! I so hate you right now.” Andie seethed.

  Nathan laughed again. “No you don’t, you little liar! You couldn’t hate me even if you tried. I’m too charming!”

  Andie knew he was right. She didn’t hate him. She liked him a lot. Nathan asking her out on a real date, and her parents saying it was okay for her to go, was the best thing that had ever happened to her in her entire life!

  “Hey, Andie, I gotta go,” Nathan said. “We have a hall meeting tonight. Call you later, okay?”

  “’K,” Andie said, feeling all warm and syrupy inside.

  “I’m really looking forward to Saturday night,” Nathan admitted.

  “Me too.” Andie confessed.

  Nathan hung up, and Andie turned back to her Economics tutorial sheet. As she worked on the problems her father had set, her mind kept going back to Nathan and their pending date. She could not wait for it to arrive!

  91

  The Bet

  chapter five

  Saturday

  Nathan was ready for his date with Andie. The first date, he thought, was the most important. Although it was not his first night hanging out with Andie, it was the first night without the textbooks and the paper, and Nathan hoped they did not have to speak of Professor Brown, or anything related to UWI.

  Nathan had never before put so much effort in deciding where to take a girl for a date. He could not let Andie know, but when she had asked where they would be going, he did not have the vaguest idea. He had wracked his mind trying to think of what they could do and where he should take her. In the end, Fern and Shauna helped him figure it out – after all, no one knew what eighteen-year-old girls liked more than other eighteen-year-old girls. Together, they called the restaurant, and got a rundown of the items on the menu and the prices. The worst possible thing Nathan could think of was not being able to pay their dinner bill!

  Once he had made the plans, Nathan busied himself washing, waxing and vacuuming his Honda Civic. Afterwards, he moved on to finding something nice to wear. Before, he had never really cared what he wore – usually settling for jeans and t-shirts. But if he had planned on sweeping this progeny of renowned fashion moguls off her feet, he would have to step up his style game considerably. No doubt, she had inherited her mother and grandmother’s sense of style, and he did not want to look shabby. When he had his outfit down, he went shopping. He wanted to get Andie a gift. He pondered over stuffed animals and chocolates and flowers, before finally deciding on a book. He bought her a copy of Anne of Green Gables. He knew it was a kids’ book, but he thought she would like it.

  Finally, after a one-hour nap, he showered, shaved and got dressed. He wore dark blue, vintage boot cut jeans with a heather crewneck sweater and a charcoal, brushed cotton blazer. It was an ensemble he had picked out, with the help of his mother, from Izzy, NY, while on vacation in New York last August. He had been saving it for a special occasion, and his first date with Andie seemed like the perfect occasion to debut it. His hair was freshly washed and moussed, and looked shiner and curlier than usual. He splashed on some cologne, checked his wallet for the credit card his mother had given him, grabbed his car keys and was out the door by six fifteen to pick up Andie.

  Fern and Shauna were in the common area playing Scrabble with Omar and Jervis Brown, one of the first years who lived in the house.

  “Is it me, or do you guys never study?” He commented.

  “Whoa!” Fern exclaimed. “Look at you!”

  “GQ Magazine is looking for its model!” Shauna added. “Step aside, Brad Pitt – Nathan Hansen is on the prowl.”

  “Shut up!” Nathan said pleasantly.

  “Somebody’s going to drive Andie crazy tonight!” Fern prophesied. “She’s going to eat you raw!”

  “That’s the general idea,” Omar mumbled, and Nathan shot him a dirty look.

  “I’m waiting up for you!” Shauna decided. “I want a blow by blow account of what happens tonight.”

  “And you seriously think I’m going to be sharing that with any of you?” Nathan said, looking at Shauna as though he was looking at Joie. “Relax peeps. It’s just a date.”

  “Right!” Fern said sarcastically. “Says the guy who’s dressed as smooth as James Bond, and who’s taking a girl to dinner at the Bella Mia Italian Restaurant, no less…”

  Jeremy entered in time to hear the last part of Fern’s comment. “Bella Mia? You’re bringing out the big guns, eh, Hansen?” He said. “But guess what? Not for the total balance on your mother’s credit card is Andie Persaud going to sleep with you!”

  Nathan wanted to hit him. In fact, if he did not have only twenty-five minutes to get to Norbrook, he would have punched his daylights out. Without saying a word, he flashed Jeremy a cold look then turned to leave. “Later, guys.”

  “Wait a minute!” Jeremy said, holding him back. “Are you saying, Nathan, that you don’t want to sleep with Anne Dru Persaud.”

  “You are such a dog, Jeremy!” Fern seethed. “You think Nathan is like you?

  “Butt out nuh ‘Fern Gully’! Let him answer for himself!” returned Jeremy. “So, what you sayin’ Hansen? Doing Dr Persaud’s baby daughter is not on your agenda?”

  “Actually, right now, smashing in your face is!” Nathan grunted. He actually got away from Jeremy that time. What a prick! He thought. Jeremy almost purposely revealed the bet to Fern and Shauna. He knew fully well that if Fern and Shauna found out, then it would be all over. They would be bound to tell Andie.

  He disarmed the Civic and got in. As he turned over the engine, he decided to push Jeremy Malcolm out of his mind. He decided to forget the stupid bet, even for one evening, and concentrate on spending the time with a beautiful, interesting girl. Nathan waved to the security guard as he pulled out of Preston Hall’s parking lot, and headed towards Norbrook. It was going to be a spectacular night.

  ***

  It was going to be an awful night, Andie thought. The day she had been eagerly awaiting for two days had finally arrived, and she was not as happy as she thought she would have been.

  The day had not been going too well for Andie. She woke up some time before seven o’clock. Waking up at seven on a Saturday was unheard of for anyone in the Persaud house apart from the domestics, but Andie had been too excited to sleep. She pulled on a bathing suit and grabbed a towel and head to the pool. Apart from mathematics, swimming was the only thing that calmed her frazzled nerves. She was about to get into the water when she realised she had forgotten her swim cap.

  “Oh well,” she thought with a shrug. Swimming without her cap was not a big deal. It was the only good thing about being red haired. If Samantha got into the chlorine without her swim cap, her blonde highlights would turn green. After an hour, he
r muscles properly exercised, Andie got out of the water, wrapped herself in the towel and jogged to the kitchen. Theresa, the cook, was there.

  “Morning, Theresa!” Andie said.

  Theresa was startled to see Andie up so early. “What a way you wake early!” She commented.

  “Couldn’t sleep,” Andie explained. “I have a date tonight.” She took the slice of toast that Theresa held out to her.

  “Go and change out of them wet clothes,” Theresa instructed. “Hurry up before you catch cold.”

  Andie smiled at Theresa and ran up the back stairs to her room, eating her toast. It had orange marmalade on it that Theresa had made herself. Andie liked Theresa very much. She had been working at the house ever since Andie could remember. Theresa was an excellent cook, and very creative. She never threw anything out, and had a way of making everything taste good. Her mantra was ‘Everything had at least two uses’. She used orange peels for marmalade, and used limes for washing dishes. Andie thought that if she had not become their cook, she would have been Martha Stewart.

  Andie bumped into Rosilda on the landing outside her bedroom. Rosilda was vacuuming the carpets.

  “Hey, Rosie!” She said, hopping over the vacuum cleaner cord.

  “Don’t go into the room with the bread!” Rosilda scolded, not even responding to Andie’s greeting. “All you gwine do is crumbs up the place. And don’t go back into the bed either. I’m coming to get your sheets as soon as I finish here, and kindly put the wet towel and bathsuit in the washpan, and not on the floor please, ma’am…”

  Andie went into her room trying not to listen to Rosilda quarrel after her. Rosilda was no Theresa. She was miserable and quarrelled over everything. Rosilda and Theresa were total opposites. It surprised everyone who came to the Persaud house how well they worked together, yet failed to agree on just about everything. Mrs Persaud always joked that Nursey, the nanny who had taken care of Samantha and Andie as children, and who now looked after Christopher, was the balancing figure that kept the two from tearing each other apart.