by Teisha Mott
“When did he call?” Bianca asked.
“Friday night,” Samantha retrieved her phone from Andie before she could delete Micah’s message.
“What do you think he wants?” Klao asked.
“I don’t know,” Samantha said. “What do you think I should do?”
“First thing you should do is change your number!” Andie stated. “Because Micah is clearly a bloody stalker!”
“Amen!” Christopher agreed from his position on the floor, where he was flipping through ‘Le Petit Prince’.
“Christopher, what are you even doing in here?” Samantha asked crossly, looking down on him.
“I’m going to watch the movie with you…” Christopher explained.
“Well, first of all, we’re going to watch ‘Funny Face’, and that’s a girl movie!” Samantha told him. “And second, you cannot hang out with us. We are adults, and you are little!”
“But there is no one else around to hang out with!”
“That, my friend, is your lot for being born last!” Klao told him. “Go play in your room or go perplex Nursey or something!”
“Being the littlest sucks!” Christopher grumbled. He pulled himself off the floor and slammed out of Samantha’s bedroom.
“Well Micah is something else, though!” Klao continued once Christopher had gone. “Where is Ronica? Why is he calling you?”
“I know where Ronica is!” Andie declared. “Ronica left him. She packed up on her broom and flew off to whichever coven she had come from in the first place.”
“Really?” Samantha was a little bit surprised and a little bit pleased. There was no more Ronica. “How do you know that?”
“Don’t worry how I know, just know that I know!”
“So should I call him back?” Samantha asked.
“I definitely think you should call him back, Sam.” Andie decided. “Call him back and tell him to go eff himself!”
“Andie!”
Andie rolled her eyes at her sister. “What? You have something better to tell him?”
“He called on Friday and it’s Sunday now,” Klao paused to part a section of Bianca’s hair that she was putting in corn rows. “You kept his message all that time. Did you tell Jeremy he called?”
“No!” Samantha declared. “Why would I tell Jeremy that?” She wasn’t going to tell Jeremy anything at all. In fact, after Friday night, it would augur her well to stay as far away from Jeremy as possible.
Klao did not answer. Instead she thought for a moment. “You want to call him back,” she said when she finally spoke.
“I don’t want to call him back, Klao!” Samantha said.
“So then why did you keep his message?” Klao instantly went into attorney mode. “And why didn’t you tell Jeremy he called?”
“Because it is none of Jeremy’s business. And I did not delete the message because…”
“Because you want to call him back!” Klao concluded.
Samantha sighed and looked away from her.
“Here’s what I think,” Klao told her. “Let us assume that Andie is right and Ronica has left. Micah could only be calling you because now that he is alone again, he wants to make up with you!”
“Wants to make up?” Samantha asked incredulously. “How could he want to make up with me? That doesn’t even make sense. He couldn’t possibly want me back now. I’m pregnant!”
“Maybe he doesn’t know you’re pregnant,” Bianca suggested.
Huh. Samantha wrinkled her nose. He didn’t know? “He has to know, Bee! Unless he has been living under a rock...”
“Not at all surprising that he has been living under a rock!” Andie commented snarkily. She could not believe that at one time she and Nathan were actually friends with Micah. “That’s where worms live!”
“That would take some balls, knowing that you are pregnant and still wanting to make up!” Bianca said. “Now the question is, Sam, if that’s what he wants, would you even consider making up with him?”
“Of course she wouldn’t make up with him!” Andie raged.
“Look this is all moot.” Samantha said. “Maybe he wants to talk to me because he wants us to be friends. Micah isn’t a totally bad person, Andie. He was your friend for years, and he and I were in love at one point...”
“He’s a dickhead!” Andie corrected. “He cheated on you and he broke your heart.”
“I’m with Andie on this one,” Bianca opined. “I wouldn’t call him back. He cannot possibly have anything remotely helpful to tell you right now. All you should be worried about right now is yourself and Caitlin. You don’t need any complications from Micah.”
“Pre - zactly!” Andie echoed. “Ignore him.”
“But if he only wants to be friends, why can’t we be friends?”
“You have enough friends!” Klao told her. She finished corn-rowing Bianca’s hair, and gathered all the plaits into a rubber hair tie. “You don’t need to add Micah to the mix.”
“So you all agree that I should not call back Micah?” Samantha asked.
“Yes!” All three girls chorused.
Samantha sighed. “Fine then. I won’t call him back.”
“And you will delete his message?” Andie asked hopefully.
“Yeah, whatever!” Samantha got out of her bed. “Excuse me. I have to pee – again!”
She went into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She played Micah’s message one more time.
‘Sam… It’s Micah. I hope I’m not disturbing you. I’d really like it if we could talk... Can you call me back… Please….’
She had not told her sister and cousins that Micah had called again since Friday night. He had called on Saturday, and then that morning. Admittedly, she was more than a little curious as to why he was calling her. He must know that she was pregnant. And suppose he did and still wanted to make up with her? Was it possible that he loved her enough to overlook the fact that she had slept with someone else? Did he really want to be with her, even after all of that? That would mean he was a really strong man. She couldn’t think of any man who would be that accommodating... And if that was what he wanted, what did she want? The thought of them being together again caused a chill to run up her spine. She was clearly attracted to Jeremy. Her heart flip flopped whenever she thought about Friday night, when he had almost kissed her. Since then she had been imagining all sorts of scenarios with him and her and their baby being a family. But Micah wasMicah. He was her first love, and there was no one in the world more special to a girl than her first love – not even her baby’s father. Wouldn’t it be something if he wanted to make up?
She sighed. Andie, Klao and Bianca said she should not call Micah back, but God knows she wanted to. Notwithstanding, she would hold off a little bit longer. Let him sweat a little. Wait and see how long it would take before he either gave up or showed up at her house.
She flushed the toilet and went back into her room.
“Did you delete the message?” Andie asked, as she settled on the floor in front of Klao, preparing to have her hair corn-rowed too.
“Yes,” Samantha lied, willing herself not to blush.
“Good!” Andie said. “Micah is clearly a mental case! I don’t know what he is calling you about. Now put the DVD in. Let’s see if Funny Face was worth all the accolades it got.”
***
August 15
“What are you doing?”
Jeremy walked into the kitchen to find Samantha struggling with a jar of something green.
“I'm buying an island. What does it look like I’m doing?” Samantha spat. She was turning redder and redder as she fought with the cover that just would not give way. She lost her temper. “Dammit, man! Stupid, stupid jar!”
Jeremy grabbed her arm before she could smash it into the wall. “Give it here,” he said, taking the jar from her. He held it upside down and tapped the bottom. “What is it that you want so badly?”
“A pickle, but the effing people a
t Heinz seem to have tightened the jar with the Jaws of Life!”
“All you need is a little patience, and a little elbow grease.” Jeremy told her. He twisted the lid of the pickle jar, and without exerting much effort, he opened it. “Here!”
“Thank you,” Samantha took the bottle, feeling foolish. She used her fingers to remove the fattest pickle from the jar and bit into it.
Jeremy was looking at her.
“What?”
"How can you eat that?"
"Because I’m hungry and it tastes good!”
“It is full of salt and God only knows what else. You need to watch your sodium. You think because you are only 22 you can’t get preeclampsia?”
Samantha rolled her eyes and plucked another pickle from the bottle. “Sure you didn’t miss your calling? Perhaps you should have gone to Medical School instead of Business School.”
“Don’t roll your eyes at me. If the breeze changes they are going to get stuck in that position forever!”
“Don’t worry about my eyes!”
“I really want to see how you are going to stop me from worrying about your eyes!”
“Whatever! What are you doing here anyway?"
"I wanted to ask you something."
"You know what, Jeremy?” Samantha asked, reaching into the fridge again. She thought she had read somewhere online that peanut butter went well with pickles – or maybe she had made up that theory. “Some time ago a guy called Alexander Graham Bell invented an instrument called the telephone. You didn’t need to come all the way here to ask me something!”
Jeremy decided not to take her on. He realised that he was actually beginning to find her snark endearing. “I was talking to my mother today...”
“Good for you!” Samantha gave him the thumbs up signal. She found the peanut butter and used a pickle to scoop up a huge dollop.
“You plan to let me talk?”
“Ok, I’m listening. You were talking to your mother and what?”
“She and my father and Jasmine are wondering when they are going to meet you. If you are up to it, could you drive down to Mobay with me?” Jeremy looked at her, hoping she would not make this drive down to Montego Bay an argument. His mother had been pressuring him for a while, wondering when she would meet the mother of her future grandchild. He really didn’t want Samantha around his father, and had been coming up with all sorts of excuses. But now, he had to swallow the bitter pill. They were entitled to meet her, and there was no time like the present since court was on holiday, and Judge Malcolm was not eternally busy. Jeremy realised that his well of excuses had dried up. His mother said they better drive down tomorrow for lunch, or else.... He did not know what ‘or else’ meant, and he hoped Samantha would just say yes, so he would not have to find out... Or beg.
“Nope!” She left the kitchen, her pickle bottle under one arm, and the peanut butter bottle under the other.
Well he should have known she was not going to make this easy! For a moment, he was tempted to just leave it at that and tell his parents that Samantha did not want to meet them, but he could imagine all the comments his father would have on that one. He followed her.
“How you mean ‘no’?” He demanded. “You are the mother of their first grandchild. They have a right to sit down to lunch with you! As it is, they’ve only ever seen you in the Gleaner style page, and all they know of you is what I told them. For all they know, I could have made you up!”
“Because you go around pretending to get girls pregnant?”
“You don’t want to see where I come from?”
“Not particularly...”
“Sam...”
“Number one, Jeremy, in my condition I need to pee every two minutes. I cannot take a four hour drive with you. And number two, I am not going anywhere alone with you. Next thing you pull a Scott and Lacey Petersen on me....”
It was Jeremy’s turn to roll his eyes. “We will stop at every restaurant between Kingston and Montego Bay if you need. And trust me, if I were going to pull a Scott and Lacey Peterson on you, I'd have done so long time. And with your attitude, no court in the island would blame me!”
“Hahaha, funny! When they want me to come?”
“Tomorrow...”
“Well obviously you have a bolt loose!” Samantha commented. “You come here at seven in the evening to tell me that I am driving to Montego Bay to meet your parents tomorrow? Why? You think I don’t have anything else to do?”
“Well tomorrow is the only day we can go, because Sunday they are leaving for their holiday, and they aren’t coming back until September.”
“Where are they going?”
“Why is that relevant?”
“It’s relevant if you want me to come with you…” Samantha was really enjoying watching him sweat. She could do this all evening.
“So if I tell you, will you come?”
“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t…”
Jeremy sighed. He might as well play along. “They are going to Barbados for their wedding anniversary. They didn’t have a proper honeymoon because when they got married, my father was still in Law School and they didn’t have money to go anywhere special, so they spent their wedding weekend in a little motel somewhere in Bridgetown. They go back there every year...” Samantha was looking at him. “What?”
“That’s the sweetest thing I ever heard in my life!”
“It is?”
“It’s really romantic. How come you grew up in a loving home with a father that sweet and romantic, and yet you turned out to be such a Lothario?”
Jeremy scoffed. She wouldn’t even know the half about the sweet and loving home that he had grown up in. She had grown up in a loving home with sweet and romantic parents. As a matter of fact, he found Dr and Mrs Persaud nauseatingly lovey-dovey for middle aged people. His home was not a loving home. He only hoped that if Samantha said yes, the judge would behave himself when she got there. He could just imagine his father going crazy, insulting him and his mother and Jasmine in Samantha’s presence. Samantha would be mortified. She would leave, deciding that she wanted nothing to do with this crazy, dysfunctional family, and he would never get the chance to see his little daughter, ever, just in case Samantha thought some of the Judge’s lunacy had been passed down to him, and he would in turn pass it to their precious, perfect baby daughter… He shook his head. That was not going to happen. His father would be nice. He was always nice in the presence of strange people – or people he knew he would have to see again.
“So will you come?”
Samantha had decided from the second he asked her that she would have gone with him. She had been wondering how he had not asked her before. It was sadistic, she knew, but she really, really liked to watch Jeremy squirm. “Of course I’m coming! I was just messing with you! What time you picking me up?”
“Can I come at ten?”
“Do you have a love affair with ten o’clock?”
“What?”
“You told me to meet you at ten for the plan B, and now you want to pick me up at ten…” Samantha reminded him.
“Aren't pregnant women supposed to have amnesia?” He asked. “How do you even remember that? And a lot of good meeting me at ten for the Plan B did!"
"Whatever Jeremy!" Samantha wiped her hands down the front of her shirt, leaving an abhorrent green stain that she was sure she was going to have to listen to Rosilda moan about tomorrow. Just as well she was going to Montego Bay with Jeremy! "We’re taking my car, and do not let me be ready and have to wait on you!"
225
Just Perfect!
chapter eleven
One thing that Jeremy had learned that summer was that patience was not one of Samantha’s strong suits, but timeliness was, so promptly at 10 he was at the house ready to take her to Montego Bay. They had been driving for two and a half hours, and they still had another hour before they got to his house. He sighed. He had anticipated a pleasant drive down to Montego Bay. In fact, it had s
tarted out pleasantly enough. They had talked for a while. She had asked him about his parents and he had given her what he thought were some useful tips. First, he assured her that Jasmine did not have ADHD, she was just a very excitable teenager. He also told her that she should always compliment his mother’s cooking. His mother was an amazing cook, and she loved to be told. Then he warned her that she was never, ever to disagree with his father. Life was much easier when Judge Malcolm thought he was right. There were many more things that he wanted them to talk about. Last night, as he lay on Nathan’s sofa bed unable to sleep, he had thought of a few -- baby names, although she seemed set on ‘Caitlin’, their last three weeks together, joint custody, child support...
But, suddenly, after their first toilet stop at the Juici Patties rest stop right before entering the Bog Walk Gorge, something had happened, but Jeremy had no idea what. All he knew was that she had gotten back into the car, and without saying a word to him, whipped her Third Generation iPod out of her handbag and stuck the earbuds into her ear, indicating that she had no intention of talking to him for the rest of the trip. And she hadn’t -- except in monosyllables, and to request the four hundred and ninety-five rest stops that she had to make. He really had to wonder how many songs that wretched iPod actually held. He had hoped she would run out of music long ago, then she would be forced to talk to him again.
Jeremy glanced at her. He couldn’t understand what had happened to make her suddenly cross at him. Had he done something, or said something? Maybe she had some trepidation about meeting his family. This was uncharted waters for him too. Samantha was the first girl he was ever taking home. He was nervous. Partly because he was taking home a girl that was already pregnant and showing, and partly because he was taking home a girl he really, really liked.
His mind went back to last Friday night in her room. That was a defining moment in their relationship -- if he could call it that -- if there ever was one. He could tell. She wanted him to kiss her. She was just sitting there, looking at him. He wondered what she had seen as she stared. He did not look any different, he knew... But there was something about the way she was looking at him, with something that looked like affection. He had been holding her hand, and there had been that urge to kiss her ... she closed her eyes, and he had leaned in, thinking this was going to be the second best moment of his life -- the best moment being when he had actually kissed Samantha Persaud for the first time. Then he remembered. The last time she had looked at him that waywas actually the first time he had kissed her. She had wanted him to kiss her then, as she did now, and he had, and it had all turned into a colossal disaster. That was the first time in his life he actually literally ran away from a woman.