Unwrapped by The Billionaire

by Joanna Nicholson

  He reached back into the fridge and pulled out another beer for himself. There was another hiss in the otherwise silent house.

  “Your mom won’t be back for a while. Let’s go sit out on the lawn.”

  “The front or the back?” Candice said.

  “The grass is just as green in the front as in the back,” her father replied.

  “The front it is,” Candice said. She walked out to the front lawn. The sun was still high in the sky and she sat on the grass. The road they lived on didn’t have much traffic. It was in that finicky area between suburban and urban.

  Some people had backyards, others had the view of another apartment building behind them. A long time ago someone had built a swimming pool behind one of the houses. Candice and her friends used to sneak into the pool at night and dive in until the lights of the house came on. Now the pool was drained except for some brown leaves and a thin layer of watery scum. The front yard of the house had brown grass and a For Sale sign.

  Her dad brought a little stereo outside. He turned it onto the oldies station. The two drank their beers in silence as “Little Darlin’” by The Diamonds came on.

  “Little darlin’, oh little darlin’, oh well…” sang the quartet. The number had been a doo-wop that reached number two on the billboards back when Tiffany’s father had been young.

  “This shit, it’s really nostalgic,” her father said. He crushed the can of beer down and went inside and came back out with two more. “You done with that one yet?”

  “Not yet,” Candice said.

  Her father took the beer from her hand and gave it a shake. It was still more than half full.

  “Looks like it’s almost empty to me,” he said. “Bottoms up, girl.”

  Candice nodded and took the beer back. She quickly drank the rest of the beer. It had gone warm. It tasted like piss.

  “You need to drink it fast,” her father said. “You’re not doing yourself any favors letting it sit.”

  Candice nodded.

  “These songs they remind me of the old days.”

  “Things were better then right?”

  “Nah. Fuck, no,” her father said. He took another swig of his beer. “Our problems were just different.”

  Again, Candice nodded.

  “I never told you about Julia, did I?”

  “No. Who was that?” Candice furrowed her brow, then kicked off her shoes. She dug her feet into the green grass. It tickled her feet, and she dug her toes in deeper.

  “When I was younger. Younger than you. I was sixteen or seventeen. I was going steady with Julia. She was a nice girl. Her parents liked me well enough. Good enough for a boy that would end up being a mechanic. Her parents had immigrated over. They didn’t have high hopes for Julia, but she was a smart girl. We held hands for a summer. We made out during the winter. When it came spring… well, things were in bloom. I’ll spare you the details,” her father said.

  Candice didn’t know where her father was going with this. She opened her second beer. The cold metal tab of the beer bit into her finger. It was quickly warmed though by the heat of the Los Angeles afternoon.

  “Her belly started to show in the summer. One month to the year. Her parents, my parents, they sat us down. They didn’t judge us. Your grandma and grandpa they’d just been teenagers when they’d gotten together, the same with Julia’s parents. It was the way of the world.

  “Julia’s eyes were filled with tears when they sat us down. She wasn’t worried about their judgement though. She was worried about her future. She’d been accepted to a college. She’d have to get financial aid, and getting tied down with me would have cost her about the same. She knew that college wouldn’t change the world, but she wanted an out.

  “She told me I was a sweet boy in front of everyone. Then she said that she didn’t want to have the baby. Her father was enraged. He didn’t smack her though. He sure did smack me though. Your grandpa, he just sat and watched. When your grandmother yelled at Julia’s father, my father just sat there and watched the scene unfold. I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure what to say. Julia said that she knew a doctor. That someone had told her about him. It only cost $200.

  “‘Those doctors are shit,’ my father said. ‘You just as likely to die as you are to give birth.’

  “Julia nodded. She really didn’t want that child. She said it wasn’t my fault. She said she didn’t think it would happen.

  “Her mother said, ‘Let’s not rush into things. We’ll give it another week. We’ll get the money together. Then we’ll let fate decide things.’

  “Surprisingly everyone agreed and fate decided. Julia miscarried. She stayed in her room for the entire week. I only found out about the miscarriage after the week was up. She didn’t want to talk to me. Her parents didn’t care about me.

  “Julia and I didn’t talk that much after that. She went off to college. Then she moved out of the country. She sent me a postcard a few years later. Your mother and I had gotten together by then. I started working at the shop. Fresh grease was under my nails and I still didn’t know what a fuel jet was, what a venture pipe was, or what the throttle valve was. It was all a carburetor to me.”

  “What did the postcard say?” Candice asked. She took another sip of her beer.

  “It was from France. It had a Paris stamp in the corner. It said, ‘I never wanted the child. It was the best thing that could have happened to us. Sometimes I think about what would have happened if I’d had it. I would have made you miserable. We both deserved better. Paris has great cheese. You should see it sometime.’” Her father picked up his can of beer and drained its contents.

  “Wow,” Candice said. She looked out at the green grass of the lawn. A wind blew and she could differentiate each blade of grass. It was no longer a uniform mass, instead she could see each individual plant. Every blade of grass had a different color of green. She blinked for a moment, and the grass turned into a uniform mass once again. Her father got up from his seat and went inside. He came out with two more beers.

  The Ronettes came on the radio. The trio came from Harlem and had sung together since they were teenagers. When “Be My Baby” came out, it rose the ranks and hit number two in the Billboard Hot 100. The song was backed up by Cher.

  So won’t you, please

  Be my, be my baby, Be my little baby

  My one and only baby, Say you’ll be my darlin’

  Be my, be my baby, Be my baby now

  Wha-oh-oh-oh

  The trio of women sang. Their vocals were harmonized, and you could tell from the recording why they were able to tour with the Beatles. It was beautiful and sad. For a moment, Candice felt a pain for a period that she didn’t live in. She imagined her mother and father meeting. She thought of Julia sitting in café shops in Paris. She thought of classic cars driven to milkshake stands and old Coca Cola ads.

  The sun began to sink on the horizon and gave the green grass of the lawn an orange hue. Candice’s mother pulled up to the house around seven o’clock. Candice and her father were still sitting on the grass.

  Her mother hugged Candice, who was slow to get up because of the beers.

  “How long are you staying?” her mother said.

  “A couple days. Maybe ‘til the end of the week,” Candice replied.

  Her mother nodded and caught sight of her father’s eyes. Her father looked away for a moment. “Well, luckily I was planning on cooking. How do you feel about tacos?”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  “Well, any child that says no to tacos is no child of mine,” her mother said with a laugh.

  Her mother went inside the house and Candice could hear her move about the kitchen. Her father drained his beer and went inside. Candice continued to sip her beer. It started to taste warm as the sun began to sink below the horizon.

  Chapter 9

  That night Candice had no dreams. When she woke up she felt better. She hadn’t checked her email yet. She didn’t know what was h
appening with work, but she trusted that if something did happen Tiffany would let her know.

  She lay in bed until noon. The covers were heavy on her body and she liked the why they folded onto her. She wondered what she should do with her day besides languish in bed forever.

  Her phone buzzed on her nightstand a little after noon. It was Alex.

  Heard you were in town. How do you feel about going ice skating? he texted.

  That sounds fun, she wrote back.

  Well I’m free to take to the ice whenever you want.

  Give me an hour or so.

  Sure. Want to meet me there or should I pick you up, he wrote.

  Candice paused for a moment. She didn’t know if anyone was home and she didn’t know if her father knew about her and Alex. She didn’t know if she wanted him to know either. It seemed a bit taboo. Candice wasn’t sure why it felt that way, but she felt like she was slinking out of the house when she was making plans to meet with Alex.

  I’ll meet you there, she wrote.

  Okay. It’s over in Pasadena. The ice skating center there.

  Great. I’ll see you at 2pm.

  I thought it’d take you an hour, Alex texted.

  Pasadena, Candice wrote back with a smiley emoticon.

  Haha, See you then, Alex wrote.

  Candice put down her phone and smiled. She was looking forward to meeting up with Alex. It would take her mind off of everything happening in San Francisco. She also couldn’t remember the last time that she’d gone ice-skating. She tried to remember if she ever actually had.

  While the hot water of the shower poured over her body, Candice tried hard to think of when she’d gone ice-skating. She couldn’t think of a time. She shrugged off the query as she toweled herself off. She got dressed in some light workout clothes and asked her mother, who was sitting in the living room watching game shows, if she could borrow her car.

  “The keys are on the counter,” her mother said.

  Her mother’s car was old but ran like it was right off the lot. Her father was constantly fiddling with the engine to increase its performance, and despite the fact that the car was at least 10 years old, it ran smoothly.

  Candice pulled onto the highway and headed towards the ice-skating rink. When she pulled up to the lot, Alex was there already. He leaned against his car with a pair of black ice skates around his neck. The hockey skates were tied with brand new white laces.

  “You just buy those?”

  “I did. Do they impress you?” Alex said. He kissed her on the cheek, and Candice’s cheeks flushed.

  “Maybe. Depends on what you can do with them.”

  “It’s a bit like the ‘motion in the ocean’ line right? But with ice skating… well, maybe it’s what you can do with the Zamboni.”

  “What’s a Zamboni?” Candice asked as the two walked into the rink.

  “It’s the ice machine. It smooths things out. Looks like we’ll need ice-skating lessons,” Alex said with a smile.

  The rink was large and in the middle of the hangar-like building. A customer service desk was at the front and a pimple-faced teenager was looking at his phone when the two came in. He looked up when Alex got to the desk.

  “I called in a bit earlier to book a private lesson,” Alex said.

  “Ah, right,” the teen said while still looking at Instagram. Candice leaned over and looked at the phone. It was pictures of figure skaters. The teen clicked on a photo of Tonya Harding. Her muscular thighs looked strong in the photo as she leapt in the air and the teen’s eyes widened with arousal.

  “Hey,” Alex said in irritation.

  “Right,” the teen replied. He put down his phone and picked up the work phone. “Hey, Beth, your two o’clock is here.”

  “I’ll need some skates too,” Candice said.

  The teen nodded, asked her size, looked at her thighs, and gave her a pair of figure skates. Candice shrugged and the two walked over to the rink.

  A woman was on the ice already. She leaped into the air and spun around like a top. She landed on her skates and rushed over. She stopped short of the two. Ice kicked up from under her blades.

  “Hey, I’m Beth,” the woman said. Her skin was as dark as the ice was white and she had a smile that was as bright as her personality. “Have either of you skated before?”

  The two wobbled onto the ice. Alex’s feet went askew and he fell onto his ass with a thud. Candice started laughing loudly. She went to help him up but was dragged to the ground along with him. The two started laughing uncontrollably.

  “I’m going to take that as a no,” Beth said. “Well, why don’t we start with the basics? How to fall properly. Falling, as you’ve seen, is natural. It’s just something that happens. We all struggle with our balance. If you think you are going to fall, bend your knees and squat. Fall onto your side, and then lean forward, like this,” she said. She fell onto her side and gently pushed herself back up.

  Candice watched closely and was able to get back onto her blades faster than Alex.

  “Come on, get up, old man,” Candice said.

  “Old man? I’m just experienced,” Alex said as he got back upright.

  “I’m staying out of this one,” Beth said with a smile. “Okay now that we are back on our feet, we’ll actually try moving around. We’ll glide around the rink a few times. March forward with a couple steps and let your body glide forward.”

  Candice picked up the movement quickly and was beginning to pick up one foot then the other.

  “Candice, you’ll want to alternate between legs. In figure skating you lift one foot then the other,” Beth said.

  Candice increased her speed and was soon flying around the rink.

  “So push the flat part of the blade and scrape the ice,” Beth shouted. She skated close to Candice. “Push one foot out and bend your knee. Like this.” Beth demonstrated the stop and quickly came to a halt. Candice tried the same and slowly came to a stop.

  Alex was across the rink from them. “You two leaving me in the dust?”

  “If you can’t keep up,” Candice said. “What is to be done?”

  Alex’s laugh could be heard from across the rink. “I’ll have to try harder it looks like.” He started to glide towards them and began to pick up a dangerous amount of speed.

  “You know how to stop,” Candice yelled at him as he moved towards them.

  “Of course I do,” Alex said with a laugh.

  Beth leaned close to Candice. “I don’t think he does,” she whispered.

  “I don’t think he does either,” Candice replied.

  Alex stopped though. His speed came to an abrupt halt when he smashed into the side of the rink.

  “Ouch,” Alex said as he slid to the ground. “Why does stopping hurt so much?”

  “I’m not sure,” Candice said. She skated over and stopped in front of him. She looked down at him. He got back to his feet with a smile. “Look on the bright side, at least you can take a hit okay.”

  “It’s not how much you can hit but how much you can get hit and keep on going,” Alex said.

  “I think you’re mixing up your sports metaphors,” Candice said.

  “I can’t think of any good Tonya Harding quotes,” he replied.

  The rest of their lesson went well, and Alex, despite his antics early on, quickly learned how to stop. The two were laughing and giggling throughout the lesson, and Beth taught them with an easy smile. They walked out of the rink hand in hand. Sweaty but happy.

  “That was great,” Candice said to Alex. He had his skates wrapped around his neck again.

  “I’m glad you had a good time,” he said. He leaned back onto his car. “What do you have planned for the rest of the afternoon?” he continued. He put his hands on her waist and slowly pulled her to him. She could smell his body. It was a mix of his sweat and his sandalwood cologne. It reminded her of a deep forest. She could imagine her toes walking amongst flattened pine needles.

  “I can think of a
few things,” she said. She tilted her head back and kissed Alex.

  Their tongues met in each other’s mouths and Candice could feel a wave of passion move through her.

  “I want you,” she said.

  “That makes two of us,” Alex replied. He put his mouth back on Candice’s. The two continued to kiss in the parking lot for a few more minutes until he pushed her away. “Are we a couple of teenagers?”

  “Depends on how long it takes to get back to your house.”

  “I don’t think that long, not long at all,” Alex said.

  “If I beat you there you have to lick me until I orgasm two times in a row,” Candice said.

  “I might end up driving rather slow then.”

  Candice smiled and walked to her car. “You didn’t say what you’d get if you get home first.”

  “I’ll have to decide on the spot,” Alex said.

  He got into his car, and Candice could hear it rev. He pulled out and was gone before she could put directions into her GPS. She honked the horn at him and made a quick turn to follow him back to his house.

  The two took the highway. It was warm and sunny in L.A., and a few times Candice overtook him. He waved her on, as if patronizingly patting her butt. He then would speed up and beat her to the next exit, the next light, or the next intersection.

  He was the first one to pull into his driveway. He leaned on the back of his car waiting for her.

  “You drive like you skate,” Candice said. “You don’t stop.”

  She got out of the car and walked towards him. She stood in front of him outside the house and then looked at the front door. Alex laughed and paused. She made a dash for the door.

  “I made it first! I made it first,” she cried as she ran.

  Alex made a couple leaps and stepped in front of her. He put the key into the lock and unlocked the door. The two tumbled into the apartment. Alex was the first one up this time and he gently knocked her over. She fell onto her back and Alex rushed into the bedroom.

  “I got here first,” Alex said.

  Candice walked into the bedroom with a pout. “Well you won. What do you want?”