by Teisha Mott
"Samantha, I am merely suggesting. Stop being so touchy!" She turned back to Jeremy. "Have you met Ravi yet dear?"
"No, ma'am!"
"Well, come, come. Let me introduce you,” Grandma insisted. "He likes to meet the young blood at Persaud Enterprises, especially the ones that decorate his granddaughter's arm. Do you mind if I borrow him Samantha?"
"Of course not. Borrow away," Samantha told her. "You don't even have to bring him back!"
Jeremy gave her a little smile before going off with Grandma. Samantha watched them make their way to grandpa, who was on the opposite side of the ballroom, clearly finished trying to one-up his best friend, Sushil Baghaloo, and was now laughing and chatting with Bianca's parents, Uncle Jeffery and Aunt Julie. She watched as Grandma made the introductions, clearly happy to inform Grandpa that Jeremy was her 'date'. Grandpa caught her eye and gave her a cheeky smile and a ‘thumbs up’. Samantha rolled her eyes at her grandfather, but could not help smiling back. At least her family liked Jeremy, and he seemed to be fitting in well with them. That would make it easier for them to accept the baby news, she tried to rationalise. She remembered that Micah had never felt like a part of her family. She remembered taking him to a New Year’s Eve party soon after they had started dating, and was miserable for the entire evening. He spoke to no one, and at the end of the evening, he had mentioned to Samantha that he felt as though everyone was talking in a language that he did not understand. Grandpa had asked her later if Micah was retarded. It had taken some time for the family and Micah to warm up to each other - something that Jeremy had managed to accomplish in one evening. He said something to Aunt Julie and Aunt Phoebe that made Uncle Jeffery and Uncle Kyle throw their heads back and laugh, and that led Aunt Julie to blush prettily. Samantha was a little taken aback. Aunt Julie was not the blushing sort. Samantha could not imagine what Jeremy could have possibly said to make her blush…
“Cut it out!”
Samantha jumped and almost dropped her glass. She whirled around and looked into the face of one of Klao's brothers. It took her a moment to figure out which twin it was. Even at 25 years old -- almost 26, they were still so identical that Grandpa didn't even bother trying to assess which was which.
"Crap, Darrin! Are you part cat? Don’t sneak up on me like that, man!”
“I didn’t sneak up on you!” Darrin told her. “You would have heard me if you weren’t busy ogling Jeremy Malcolm! Cut. It. Out!"
Samantha could not help the blush that crept into her cheeks. "Cut what out? What are you talking about?"
"Jeremy Malcolm. It's one thing that Phillip seems to have some kind of man crush on him, and that can be the only explanation why he was invited to Grandpa's party in the first place. But now I see you looking at him, with that dreamy 'I am so into him but trying to pretend that I'm not' look that girls get. I know that look, Samantha. I have been the receiving end of that look way more times than I care to think about. Whatever it is that you have going on, or whatever you plan to start, just don't. Cut it out."
"Darrin, you are so off base right now!" Samantha told him with a shake of her head. "Trust me, I am not into Jeremy Malcolm!"
Darrin didn't buy it. "It’s not so much that you are lying, but that you are terrible at it. Whenever you lie, you look like you are going to throw up, and right now, you look like you are going to throw up!"
"I'm not lying!" Samantha insisted.
"Listen to me, Sam! I know Jeremy Malcolm, and so do you. Don't get taken up by the Business School graduate - slash Persaud Financials Associate - slash I can charm the pants off any body I meet façade that he has going on. He is still Jeremy Malcolm. He is still the no good, nefarious prick who screwed with your little sister a couple of years ago. He is still the 'tap them and scrap them' wolf in wolf's clothes that he has always been. Now, I know you miss Micah, and I know you are probably feeling lonely and vulnerable and you really need a rebound, but that rebound cannot be Jeremy. He is no good for you. He is no good, period. You go there, and he is going to hurt you so bad that what happened with Micah will seem like a tea party. Think about how you felt when Micah dumped you and you raise that feeling by some exponential power and that's how you are going to feel when Jeremy decides that he is through with you, and I know you don't want to go to that place, so do yourself a favour and cut it out. Now!"
Samantha looked across the room at Jeremy. She looked at her cousin. She wondered whether she could tell him that she wanted to 'cut it out' but Jeremy wouldn't let her. He did not know yet that she was pregnant. Clearly, Klao had not told him or Dylan. Her parents had advised her to tell everybody the next morning at family brunch. She sighed.
"I promise you, Darrin, there is nothing to cut out. There is absolutely nothing going on between me and Jeremy Malcolm."
"Let us hope so!" Darrin grabbed a couple glasses of champagne from a passing waiter. "You want one?"
"No, thank you..." Samantha willed herself not to blush. "Champagne goes straight to my head." She glanced across the room again. Jeremy and Phillip were in deep conversation. "Do you really think he can never change?"
"He can... Just like a leopard its spots, and an Ethiopian his skin!"
"Oh!" Samantha looked at her toes that were peeping out the front of her Salvatore Ferragamo patent leather sling-backs. Darrin just confirmed what she knew all along. Jeremy was still Jeremy, and he would always be. Forget that he fixed her plates and had the bartender blend her fruit juices. He was, as Darrin said, no good, and more specifically, no good for her. Notwithstanding, a little fission of something that felt like disappointment bubbled in her stomach.
Darrin sighed. "Look Sammy, I get it. Jeremy’s one of those men that even other men find encouraging. It isn't your fault that you find him attractive! Just find him attractive from a far."
Samantha did not respond. Already, she had already gotten too close to Jeremy. Closer than Darrin could ever understand, unless he was part dolphin with super ultrasound powers. She wondered how he would react when he found out. Man, he was going to be pissed, probably even more than Phillip. Chances are, neither he nor Dylan would speak to her again.
"C'mon," Darrin said, breaking her thoughts. "This party is for old people. Dylan and the others are hanging out in the Blue Lounge. I bet he is in there telling them about his ridiculous plan to spend six months in Mozambique. Let's go chill with them!"
***
Jeremy glanced at his watch. It was coming up to half past one in the morning, and it seemed as though Ravi Persaud’s birthday party was not going to end any time soon. He wondered whether he would still be able to party into the night when he was 78. Right now, he was less than one-third that and he thought he had enough. In any event, he was only there because he thought he could spend even a little time with Samantha, but she had spent the entire night either avoiding him or telling him to go away. He had counted eight that night - two 'go aways', three 'leave me alones', two 'stop talking to mes' and one brand new 'can you please stop hovering over me? Your cologne is making me nauseated!' It was time, he thought, to go home. Not just to Nathan's apartment, where the one night on the sofa bed that Nathan had grudgingly proffered had turned into one week, but back to Montego Bay. Samantha did not want him around, and clearly she had no plans to change her mind, so he could not see the point of staying in Kingston. He looked around, wondering where she was. He should tell her he was leaving, even to be polite. The last time he had glimpsed her, she was with her sister and brother and cousins, taking family pictures. Next birthday, he thought, his baby would be in the picture. He would not be.
He wandered out of the ballroom and into the reception hall. He thought he had seen Samantha and Klao heading that way. Samantha was not in the hall. It was deserted, except for Phillip who was having a glass of wine and standing too close to Nisha Montrose. Guyan Montrose, Nisha’s father, was a Senior Vice President of Investments in the Kingston office of Persaud Financials, and Nisha, he recalled was a year ahead
of him in undergraduate, and also majored in Actuarial Sciences. He also recalled that it did not take much goading or alcohol to get Nisha out of her clothes, so it was very likely that Phillip would get ‘lucky’ that night. He thought he should warn his friend though, because rumour had it that Nisha Montrose had caught mononucleosis so many times that it was possible that she was now immune to it. He waited until Nisha had excused herself from Phillip before approaching him.
"You better tread lightly with that one!" He advised. "She has been around way too many times!"
"Who, Nisha?" Phillip responded. "Nah, man. Too common, even for me. You having a good time?"
"Yeah, but I think I'm gonna take off now. Have you seen Samantha? I wanted to let her know I am leaving.”
Phillip smiled. “Do you remember when you were my friend? Back in the good old days before you became obsessed with my cousin?”
“I'm not obsessed with her!”
“Course you are!" Phillip disagreed. "And it’s perfectly understandable. She's pretty amazing. Just know that if you want to be with her, you better come good. You are my friend and everything, but she is still my cousin."
Jeremy looked at Phillip, feeling indeed like hypocritical scum. Phillip was going to hate him for life when he found out he had lied to him, and about the baby, and that hurt even more than Samantha’s total disdain towards him. He and Phillip had always gotten on like a house on fire, ever since he had first interviewed with him for the Summer Associate position at Persaud Financials. He did not know if it was Phillip’s Jamaican roots, or the fact that they had both done their MBA at Columbia, but they had always gotten on well. Phillip was like the big brother he never had, and the closest thing to a best friend in New York. Having a best friend was very important, and now that Nathan was talking to him again, he thought how ironic it was that just as he had managed to patch things up with one best friend, he was going to be losing another.
“Phillip, there’s something I need to tell you…”
“Oh my God, you aren’t going to come out to me, and tell me that it is me you want and not Samantha, are you?” Phillip kidded.
“I'm serious!”
Phillip looked at his friend and mentee. He looked as though he was going to dissolve into tears. “What’s the matter?”
“I need to tell you, but I don’t know if I can…”
“Although you dumped me for my cousin, we're still friends!” Phillip assured him. “You can tell me anything.”
"You are going to be my boss, and more than that, you know how long we have been friends. You trust me, and I would never want that to change, but..." He sighed. “I went and did something that I really regret. Something that I would give anything to take back, and when I tell you, you are probably going to kill me…”
Phillip was beginning to become concerned. "What did you do?"
Jeremy closed his eyes. Confessing to Phillip was a very bad idea. But he could not turn back now. "I'm going to be a father."
Phillip's eyes opened wide. "You're going to be a what?"
Jeremy could not bear to repeat himself. He looked at his toes.
"You knocked someone up? Dude... Are you crazy?"
"It was an accident..." Jeremy tried to explain.
"There is no such thing as 'accidentally' getting someone pregnant, Jeremy. You ought to have been more responsible than that. As easily as you got her pregnant, you could have caught something!"
Jeremy still did not respond. He felt like he was talking to his father all over again.
"Who is she? It’s not Jen, is it?"
"God no!" Jeremy was mortified.
"So what you gonna do?"
"I don't know."
"Do you at least like her?"
"I am crazy about her! I'm trying to help her, but she won't let me!"
Phillip sighed deeply. "Well, that rules out any hopes Grandma had of you hooking up with Samantha!"
Again, Jeremy looked at his toes. "Well, actually..."
Phillip's eyes narrowed. "Jeremy...."
Jeremy could not look at him. His heart was thumping in his chest. He finally understood what was meant by the phrase 'dead man walking'.
"Do not tell me... Is Samantha pregnant? Did you knock up my cousin?"
He opened his mouth to respond but nothing came out. He wondered whether Phillip would hit him. He wondered whether he was too old to cry.
"Jeremy!"
Jeremy finally looked up. The angry glare in his friend's eyes told him that explanations, excuses and defences were totally useless. Phillip didn't want confirmation. He already knew. All he wanted was admission. It was all over. He had no choice.
"Yes..."
***
“This is unacceptable!” Grandpa James yelled. “Absolutely unacceptable!”
“James you don’t have to yell!” Grandpa Ravi commented.
“Of course I have to yell!” Grandpa James’ voice got louder. “What are we going to tell people?”
“What do you mean what are we going to tell people?” Grandpa Ravi asked. “They are two grown adults. Samantha is twenty-two. Jeremy is – how old did Jeremy say he is, Sylvie?”
“He said he turned twenty-three last February,” Grandma Sylvia responded.
“Jeremy is twenty-three. They don’t have to explain their actions to anybody!”
“But they aren't even married!” Grandma Joyce bawled.
“Welcome to the twenty-first century, Joyce!” Grandma Sylvia said tartly.
“James, Joyce, if only you would calm down…” Dr Persaud began. “Getting upset and shouting isn't going to change anything!”
“Calm down?” Grandma Joyce repeated. “Calm down? How can we be calm when this child has gone and ruined her life…”
“She has not ruined her life, Mommy!” Mrs Persaud disagreed.
“Don’t tell me you are okay with this, Jan!” Grandpa James interjected. “You cannot possibly be okay with Samantha and that, that, that boy having this baby!”
“What do you expect us to do, Daddy?” Mrs Persaud asked. “She’s already pregnant!”
“Well, she can get rid of it!” Grandpa James suggested.
“'Getting rid of it' is not an option, James!” Grandma Sylvia said firmly. “This family, for better or for worse, still abides by the commandments, and murder is a sin!"
"Last time I checked, so was fornication!" Grandpa James shot. "But neither you nor the child seems to have a problem ignoring that one!"
"And what good can come of covering one sin with another?" Grandma Sylvia demanded. "Have you never read the story of David and Bathsheba?"
“Then what do you suggest, Sylvia?” Grandma Joyce asked. “I cannot handle this. I cannot handle this at all!”
“Fortunately you don’t have to handle anything, Joyce!” Dr Persaud interjected. “Samantha is our daughter. If anyone is handling anything it is going to be us!”
“And we are all just dying to hear your solution, Andrew!” Grandma Joyce sounded snide. “The solution of a man who could not even teach his daughter the efficacy of birth control!”
Janise Persaud looked at her husband. The big blue vein in the side of his head was throbbing, and she was convinced that he was going to lose his cool and smack her mother. God knows she wanted to do it herself!
“I will not even dignify that with a response, Joyce!” Dr Persaud said, coolly. “Samantha is a big girl. And she sure as hell isn't going to be the first single parent in the history of the world, and Jeremy graduated from business school. He has a job. They are not worse off than anyone else in their position!"
“You mean they are not going to even consider getting married?” Grandma Joyce gasped. “They have to get married! What will people say?”
“Why do you care so much about what people say, Mommy?” Mrs Persaud asked.
“Well, somebody has to!” Grandma Joyce trilled. “And obviously it is not you, or Samantha, since she went and… and.... Oh my God…”
“Mommy, please…” Mrs Persaud pleaded.
“Well, all I can say is that I am very disappointed!” Grandpa James said finally. “I never thought that our Samantha would find herself in a position like this!”
“And you seem to have forgotten, Uncle Andrew, that I fired Jeremy – lying punk!” Phillip interjected.
“Stop being ridiculous, Phillip!” Grandpa Ravi said. “You’re not firing Jeremy.”
“He is not working on my team!” Phillip insisted. “He lied to me, and he defiled my cousin. I’m still in charge of the Associates, and I refuse to work with someone who would barefacedly lie to me!”
“He ‘defiled’ your cousin?” Grandpa Ravi chuckled. “That’s rich!”
“I’m glad you find everything so funny, Grandpa!” Phillip shot.
“This is just as much your fault as it is his, Phillip!” Grandma Sylvia said calmly.
“My fault?” Phillip’s eyes opened wide. “How is it my fault, Grandma?”
“Well, she was supposed to be in your care when she got ‘defiled’! One evening out with you and your cousin wipes out twenty-two years of stellar behaviour. I hope you are proud of yourself, 'Mr thirty under thirty'!"
“I can’t believe this!” Phillip was livid. “Samantha gets knocked up; Jeremy lies to me, and it’s my fault?”
“I don’t think it is anyone’s fault, and Jeremy is not fired!” Grandpa Ravi said firmly. “You said yourself that he is one of the best Persaud Financials has seen in years. We are not losing him to any of those other ‘mamby pamby’ investment houses. Besides, how do you expect him to support Samantha and the baby if he doesn’t work?”
“This is awful!” Grandma Joyce began to weep, loudly and dramatically.
“Mommy, please stop crying!” Mrs Persaud pleaded.
“This is the worst possible thing in the world…”
“Do you think they are going to shout all night?” Jeremy asked. He glanced at Samantha, who was sitting next to him at the bottom of the stairs with her hands over her ears in a vain attempt to block out the incessant yelling that was coming from her father’s den.