by K. Z. Riman
Oh, she was mocking me all right. It sent me chills. It sent messages all over my body and I began feeling rather thrilled about it. She had not forgotten all those times I had made her life a living hell. “Right.”
“Mommy! Mommy!” The boy rushed towards her and leaned his wet head against her chest, wetting her thin blouse. I swallowed hard, waiting for him to move so I could perhaps get a glimpse of what she had been hiding since she entered the campus years ago. “Uncle Scott is coming with us to get a dog!”
“That’s wonderful, honey. Now, let’s go and I shall give you a shower.” For a second, I caught a glimpse of her breast. Her nipple had stiffened as it caught some pool water. I cleared my throat and changed my position on my seat as I avoided following her with my gaze.
“That girl raised a fine young boy,” Mother said, as she took a sip of her orange juice. “You can’t tell that Sean grew up having almost nothing.”
“Well, Kelsey is an educated woman. She is bound to raise well-mannered children,” I said, drinking some water to cool me off.
“She is going to raise him better here with all the resources we have. As his grandmother, I will provide Sean with everything he needs.”
Was she staying here for good? “Has Kelsey consented to leaving him?”
“No mother would agree to that. She will never be able to accept a day without her son, so she is staying here, as well,” Mother replied, smiling victoriously as if her plans of rebuilding the family had worked well. “It will take time to convince her, but she and her son are here now so it should be easy. Please try and not torture her. I do not want her taking my grandson away, just because she could not stand your endless need to taunt her.”
Mother had always known how much I loved bullying Kelsey around, though not the reason behind it. She found that very childish of me, gratifying her needs to scold me about how I should be more like Seth.
“I have grown past that,” I lied. In fact, I wanted to taunt her more now than I ever did in my life, and it would not be a living hell. If she would let me, I would take her to the clouds. She would not resist even an inch of me.
“You should have.” Father walked over, drying his hair with a towel. “On Monday, I shall introduce you as the new Vice President of Productions to the board.”
That was why Father had urged me to study pharmacology. For a year, I would be in charge of his productions, as the one before me failed in all the decisions he made. The only thing I loved about that man was that he was smart enough to invent sex in a pill, creating a drug that would drive anyone wild, believing he would die if he was not able to consummate rapture. Funny, though, how the pill flopped, like him. Many of its test users ended up getting diarrhoea or other illnesses, staying in bed for over a week.
“Wonderful,” I said in a sarcastic tone.
Father contained his scowl before turning to Mother. “What about Kelsey? She needs a job as soon as she quits her two jobs in Brizhania.”
“Two jobs?” My pulse suddenly leaped, imagining how that must have been for her. Then again, why should I care? “Gracious.”
“Apparently, she leaves Sean with her best friend before going to her waitressing jobs.” Father shrugged his shoulder in disbelief. “I tell you, she could not take care of Sean on her own. She is better off staying with Sean, with us.”
“That is why she is here now.” Mother beamed. “I admire her courage. I really do, but it is wrong for her to think she could handle this without any family to help her, or without a man by her side. She never married. She never entertained any suitor.”
“Good for her,” I murmured. Good for me, too.
“You can say that.” Father heard me, despite my valiant attempt to cover my mouth with a glass of water. “You will need to interview some women to be your executive secretary on Monday afternoon, so do not plan anything for then.”
“Are you sure you will let Scott do the choosing?” Mother was paying too much attention. I could not even stifle a groan without her catching it. “You could just shove a blonde in front of him and he’ll get it over with.”
I shook my head. No matter how I wanted to tell her how wrong she could be at times, I just couldn’t. She was stubborn and most of the time, mean, to get me to behave. By behave, I meant be like Seth.
“Well, he has to respond to one of the applicants,” Father said.
“I’ll take Kelsey then,” I said, and the words were out of my mouth even before I realized it.
“Kelsey?” Mother narrowed her eyes, trying to catch me as if I was into some kind of trick.
I probably was. Having her as my secretary would mean more time to spend with her. “Yes. She isn’t a blonde. She is my late brother’s girlfriend and she needs a job. You said it yourself, Father, she is going to help you run the company until Sean is ready. Having her as my secretary will help her learn what the business is about.”
Father nodded. “Perhaps that is a good idea.”
“You will drive her away.”
“Oh, Mother, please!” I stood up and waved my hand dismissively. “Why would I do that?” I swear if she kept doing this, she would drive me away.
“I wish that since you have returned to us a man, a man you shall be,” she said, before looking away. “All right then. Perhaps her job with you will make her feel how much of this house is her home. Make her stay, Scott. I mean it!”
Unknowingly, she was asking me to do whatever it took, so Kelsey would not leave my side.
Chapter Three
Scott: Taking Kelsey Out of Her Misery
It took me one day out with my family to realize that nothing much had changed since I was last here. We were walking down the orange brick path to get to the only pet adoption center in the city, for Sean’s dog.
“I want to call him Max,” the boy announced as we headed towards The Pavilion, where they served five-star cuisine outdoors, perfect for the occasion and for the extra company.
“Kelsey…” Mother was extremely careful. “I have talked to your father-in-law…and we were wondering if you would take on a job here so you could…”
“I have two jobs back in Brizhania.” She could not look at any of us.
“We know that.” Mother continued, “We would really want Sean to enroll in an exclusive school, just like we did Seth and Scott when they were his age. It would be best…”
“Mother,” Kelsey started. I found myself thinking there was something different about her. It wasn’t just the way she looked or the way she spoke. She had always seemed confident and strong, so that wasn’t it. It might have been the way she conceded almost immediately when it came to her boy that made her seem different. She wasn’t a child anymore…to my advantage perhaps. “I have decided to stay here with Sean, if that is what you wish. I believe it is what Seth would want for his son, too.”
“Oh, wonderful!” Mother exclaimed with glistening eyes, and placed both her hands over her chest as if her prayers had been answered. “Scott will need an executive secretary starting Monday and…”
“Mother, I wish to find my own job.” I bet it wasn’t because she was working for her in-law’s pharmaceutical company. It was because she was going to be working for me.
Mother would never spoil her own plans. She would put up a fight for this, while concealing her scowl with a smile. “Oh, but my dear, very few companies hire…undergraduates, such as yourself, even if they have impressive skills. With us, you will be able to preserve a position, where no one could put you down.”
She didn’t need any position for that, I believed. If I was right and she was tougher than when she was younger, she wouldn’t need any of us to help her raise her child. Besides, she might be thinking that a man like Father could pull some strings and have her manage a small business if she wanted it. Ha! Dream on. He would barely do it fo
r his own son.
“I understand, but surely, Scott would be happier with an efficient and much more experienced secretary to handle his…affairs.” She was rather discreet about her words, given that she was looking at me with those accusing eyes again.
Mother was adamant. “Oh, no, no. In fact, it was Scott’s idea.” Shit, Mother. Now, I was sure she would never take the job.
“Is that so?” Kelsey responded, with an insulting raise of her brow. “Really, Scott. You shouldn’t act out of pity for me. You know you will be better off with a blonde.”
Mother chuckled as she raised her glass of wine. “She knows you all too well, my son.”
“Not too well, actually.” I could play Kelsey’s game, if that was what she wanted.
She was making me want to get her closer to me even more, without her knowing it. She teased me with the comments she had been making about me, so sure that I was still the scoundrel she met back in college.
“Oh? I suppose you have changed?” She really was teasing me.
“Any man can change, Kelsey.” I gave a choked laugh.
How could she question a man like me, whom she had not seen for six years? Were all her memories of me so strong to remind her each time she saw me that I had done nothing but try and push her away? She must be stupid to not realize that all those times, I had been stealing moments to brush her skin with the tips of my fingers, or that I had been trying to smell her hair and her scent.
“Besides, if there is one person here who seems to not have changed, it would be you, Kelsey. You are so eager to judge me by your memories of a twenty three-year-old boy, when you have been away from me for six years,” I said.
By then, Father and Mother had exchanged glances of amusement, trying to hide their smiles by drinking their wine. I knew what they were thinking and they were mistaken. Kelsey Fontez and her new smart mouth would remain to be no match for the scoundrel still living under my expensive suits.
“I beg to be proved wrong then, Mister Grimaldi.” Kelsey gave me an ironic and cutting smile as she tilted her head to her side. Unconsciously, she had flushed red all over her cheeks.
“That means you will be Scott’s secretary then?” Mother was still eager to get her to work for me, for reasons I still had to find out. I really didn’t think she knew what consequences her request could have. Kelsey was not safe near me, and that would never change no matter how much I had grown. I felt the same desire and ache to know what it would be like if I was the one who had rescued her back then and not Seth.
Kelsey blinked rapidly as she looked away from me, adjusting her skirt on her seat. Not so smart again, eh? She was dying to argue with me so much that she failed to realize she was making herself vulnerable. “Oh. Uh…”
“How about it, Kelsey?” I grinned, provoking her to take her move. She would never be a match for me. “If you really want me to prove you wrong, then take the job. You can leave your post anytime you wish. I won’t hold that against you.”
She seemed to be satisfied with that condition. “If you will be true to your word and let me go if I see at any point that we are both unfit to be each other’s coworkers, then, fine. I will be glad to work for you. Of course, as my employer, you will see my skills as they are and that my being your, shall we say, ‘almost-sister-in-law’, is not a factor in anything related to work.”
She made me laugh. How could she mention any condition that was not to her advantage? “It would be my first time to hear an employee ask that. Sure, I will be glad to treat you as an employee…and just that.” An employee I could boss around.
“That was interesting.” Father shrugged his shoulders and poured more juice into Sean’s glass. “Here you go, my boy.”
“What did they just talk about, Grandpa?” Sean asked, with a narrowed look in his eyes. He was a rather curious fellow. Like Seth.
“Mommy just agreed that you will stay with us so she can help bring our company forward.” Father had to explain it positively for the little boy.
It was no surprise then that Sean was almost jumping out of his seat when he laughed in excitement. “Really, Mom? We get to stay?”
“Yes, honey, we will stay.” She kissed her boy’s head and then rubbed his cheeks. “Only if you behave.”
“I will, Mom! I have my own family now!”
I could only imagine how it must have made the both of them feel—to be away from a son the whole day to take on two jobs, and to be away from a mother the whole day, just so he could eat. Kelsey twitched in embarrassment at what Sean had said, but I bet she shared his sentiment.
“Yes, you do!” Mother squeezed Sean’s cheeks before kissing him. It had been years since I last saw her this happy. Kelsey had made it happen.
After the rather interesting lunch, the boy begged that we visited the dog park right across the road from Bovaghn Mall. He was very excited to be able to play with his first dog and ultimately, with Father and Mother. He almost forgot that his mommy was there, too.
Kelsey sat under a tree and I followed, making sure I wasn’t too close to her. “You have to leave your jobs in Brizhania now,” I told her.
She flinched a little as though she was reminded of something important and ugly, and fixed on a smile. “Well, I can’t leave my jobs until I’m sure I have one here.”
“I thought it was clear at lunch that you get the job. You passed the interview,” I teased her.
“Is that what it was?” She chuckled and raised her eyebrows. “An interview? Goodness, it was rather personal, wasn’t it?”
“The chief executive of the company approved of it. I see no reason why you should not consider yourself hired.” I shrugged my shoulders.
“I will go to Brizhania tomorrow afternoon,” she murmured, staring blankly in front of her. She was thinking of something else and I saw how the thought of returning weighed down on her. Perhaps it was the thought of her leaving her job. No. She sounded too bothered for that. Whatever it was, I was determined to find out.
“Tomorrow is Sunday. Are those companies open?”
She nodded and cleared her throat. “Perhaps I could leave earlier. I still have to pack our things from my apartment.”
“Could you do that in half a day?” Surely, she will have a lot of stuff to pack. “You can take Luis with you.”
“No.” Her answer was too quick for something casual. I was suddenly overwhelmed by the feeling that she was hiding something from me. What could it be? “I can…do it by myself. I don’t have a lot of things to bring with me.”
“Your clothes?” I tried reminding her.
“Not many,” she said shyly, in a low voice.
If she didn’t have many clothes, she should go and shop. She wouldn’t ask for money from any of us now, would she? She had been refusing checks from Father for a very long time, believing that she could sustain a life for her and her son.
“You do have clothes appropriate for different occasions, right? Like for work?” I asked, looking at her cotton dress. The one she wore this morning was an even nicer fit for her body. I was not complaining. I could almost see right through the fabric, but was not appropriate for work.
She looked down at herself, and then looked away. “I’m sorry. I could not afford to buy some more expensive-looking clothes.”
“Do you only have those cotton dresses?” I narrowed my eyes, hoping I could make myself clear about how inappropriate those clothes would be for work.
“I don’t have the money to buy more clothes. Besides, I didn’t need them before. I had uniforms in my waitressing jobs.”
“Well, those cotton dresses certainly aren’t suitable for work.”
“You care about that now? As I recall, you had been making a lot of fuss about my…my virginity with your friends…”
“I wasn’t fussing about
it with my friends, Kelsey!” I snapped at her. Why couldn’t she get that out of her head? “Yes, I was standing behind the group, laughing as they did, but…”
“You never did anything to stop them. Only Seth did,” she said, and my chest tightened, hearing her. Seth! Seth! It was always about Seth with her. “What do you care if I wear something inappropriate? You are used to making me appear that way.”
“Do you think I care about that now? If it makes you feel any better, we could all lie to ourselves and say I’m doing it for the company. I don’t want to have rumors about me and my attractive secretary. Look at how much of your skin is showing.”
She flushed. What was it now? The fact that I called her an attractive woman or that I had made her realize too much skin was showing?
I grabbed her wrist and started pulling her towards the mall. “He-hey! Where are we going?”
“We’ll buy you some clothes,” I replied.
“What makes you think I want to go shopping with you?” She kept struggling, twisting her hand to free herself of my grasp, but she couldn’t. “Scott!” She hit me with her free hand. “You have not changed one bit!”
I pushed her so that she fell on her behind, on the grass. “Fine, then! Have it your way. Make every man in the company feast their eyes on you, and make every woman gossip about how you dress.”
She pressed her lips together as she stood, pushing herself to face me. “I never said I wouldn’t buy new clothes. I just said I wouldn’t buy them with you.”
“Why is that?”
She turned and left me, running towards her son.
“Feisty, your wife, eh?” An old man chuckled from the bench. “Reminds me of my late woman.” He followed her with his gaze as she reached Sean. “Don’t go letting her off the hook now. Women like her are very hard to find.”
You have no idea.
* * * *
Kelsey was even feistier when we returned home because her son teased her about her dirty skirt. She had to go up immediately to shower and change. When she returned, she had the same type of dress on. The skirt was even shorter and there were no sleeves to cover her shoulders.