Just Perfect! (Persaud Girl)

by Teisha Mott

  They sipped the lemonade that Theresa had brought out, and Jeremy told her of some of the shenanigans he had gotten up to as a teenager.

  “You better hope your bad behaviour doesn’t rub off on Caitlin!” Samantha told him, after hearing about the time he had attempted to sell his father’s car.

  “Can I tell you!” Jeremy agreed. “Or our ass will be grass! Just thank God I am older and wiser now.”

  They were both quiet for a while. She wished she knew what Jeremy was thinking. She wondered if was thinking about all the antics that Caitlin was going to get up to as she grew from being a little girl to a teenager then an adult. Caitlin was going to be a perfect child, Samantha decided. She was going to be polite and obedient, with good manners. She was not going to be anything like Serena, her cousin Kamilla’s almost three year old daughter who did not know the meaning of the words ‘no’ or ‘stop’, and who was more obstinate than any child had the right to be. And, of course, she was going to be out of this world cute – heart shaped face, dimples and straight teeth. The thumb sucking habit would have to be nipped in the bud.

  Samantha sighed. It felt really good, being so close to Jeremy – snuggled up in his arms on what was probably the warmest, clearest, most perfect summer night that God ever made. All the stars in the world were out and the moonlight cast a shadow over the pool. Her head was on his chest and he was stroking her hair. This was way too random, she thought. No one could have told her a year ago, or even a month ago, that she would be lying like this with Jeremy Malcolm. But here she was, feeling warm and comfortable and safe and loved with a man who she once thought was a pompous, arrogant ass, caught in a moment that she never wanted to end. She sighed again. It would end when he went back in two weeks. A horrible thought came to her. What if, like Micah, after a few months he decided they were too far apart and he found someone else? What if he got distracted by Jen? What would become of her and Caitlin?

  “Jeremy?”

  “Mmh?”

  “When you go back, please don’t forget about Caitie and me and start running around with some ugly woman!”

  “Please!” Jeremy scoffed. “I am not Micah, and I sure as hell don’t date ugly women!”

  “Yes, you do!” Samantha challenged. “You dated Jen!”

  Jeremy frowned. “Trust me, I didn’t ‘date’ Jen!”

  Samantha made a face. “Eew! You and your cougar. What you gonna do when she puts in her request for a booty call?”

  Jeremy took her hand and locked his fingers with hers. “I’m going to tell Jen that this particular boy toy is off the market, because I’m in love with a beautiful, smart, classy lady, who is having my baby!”

  Samantha looked at him. “You are in love with me?”

  “You know I am, Sam. A lot of things about us might have changed since that night in Infierno, but how I feel about you isn’t one of them!”

  “Yeah?” She felt all warm and fuzzy inside.

  “Yeah,” he whispered.

  “That’s cool!” She closed her eyes, as his face came closer to hers. He was going to kiss her again. They were going to create another perfect moment to add to the collection she stored in her mind and pulled out at nights while she lay in bed. This would be filed under ‘first kiss after he told me he loved me sober’. That would probably be the most perfect of all…

  “Here you are! What are you doing out here?”

  And their moment was over, properly ruined by Andie, who chose that second to come home from Nathan’s. She just plunked down in the deck chair next to theirs with all her Columbia manuals and course booklets, and chatted nonstop about the courses she planned to take in the first semester, and coming home in November for graduation, not aware that now, she was being a third wheel.

  Now, Samantha realised that Andie was very aware of what she had interrupted.

  “None of your business!” She said, arranging and rearranging her pathetic tiles in the rack, hoping a word would appear out of nowhere.

  Andie was indomitable. “Were you kissing?”

  “No!”

  “Of course you were. Are you two up to funny business?”

  “No, Anne Dru. We are not up to any funny business!”

  “Like hell you’re not!” Andie rolled her eyes. “You can’t be left alone for five minutes!”

  “We were only talking.”

  “Talking? While smashed in one deck chair suctioned to each other?”

  “We weren’t ‘suctioned’ to each other…”

  Andie continued, as though her sister hadn’t interrupted. “The two of you are like a pair of sixteen year olds in heat! No self-control whatsoever. Can you imagine what would have happened if I hadn’t come back when I did!”

  Samantha shook her head. “You’re an idiot! Just be quiet and make your word. I’m not talking to you about this anymore!”

  “I don’t care if you don’t want to talk to me!” Andie said. “Just make sure that he marries you before you put out again.” She played an impressive ‘WHINERS’, earning 2 triple letters and a triple word score. “Don’t have him sampling your milk if he isn’t willing to buy your cow! Caitlin is your one and only acceptable mistake!”

  “You want to continue talking crap, or you want to come feel your niece move?”

  Andie was all about feeling her niece move. She was about to reach over and touch her sister’s belly when Rosilda interrupted them.

  “Samantha, somebody come to you!”

  “Someone to see me? Who?”

  Rosilda stepped to the side and revealed the visitor. Samantha did a double take.

  “Micah!” She gasped.

  Micah was standing in jeans and T-shirt like he always wore, his head bowed, looking the picture of embarrassment.

  “Hi Samantha. Hi Andie!”

  Andie narrowed her eyes and looked at Micah. “Hello, Micah! To what do we owe the honour?”

  “I came to see Samantha,” Micah responded.

  Rosilda looked him scornfully before excusing herself from the pool deck, muttering something about the jackass and his tail.

  “You’re here to see Samantha?” Andie repeated. “What you want to see my sister about? And where’s Ronica?” She rolled the ‘R’ around like she was speaking Spanish.

  “Don’t start with me, Andie!” Micah warned. “I read about your little problem in TATTLER, so you of all people better not start with me!”

  Andie raised an eyebrow. “My problem? You think I have a problem? You know who will soon have a problem, Micah…”

  Micah ignored her. He turned to Samantha. “I’d like to talk to you alone for a moment, please…”

  Andie did not appreciate being ignored. “Whatever you have to say to my sister, you will say it in front of me!”

  “Shouldn’t you be with Nathan picking out baby names or something?” Micah looked at her, annoyed.

  “Baby names?” Andie shook her head. “Very funny! You’re a real jerk, Micah. Although that was established from the moment you chose Ronica over my sister!”

  “Andie, stop!” Samantha ordered. “Go inside!”

  “But, Sam…”

  “Just go. I’ll be fine.” She watched as her sister reluctantly made her way up the brick on sand path to the house. “What do you want, Micah?”

  “I have been calling you for a few days now…”

  “I’m aware of that.”

  “You never answered or called me back…”

  “I’m aware of that, too.”

  “I had to argue a bit with Rosilda before she would let me in just now.” Micah sat in Andie’s vacant seat without being invited. He looked at Samantha. There was something different about her, but he could not put his finger on it. Had she gained weight? Had she been over tanning? Even under her wide-brimmed hat, he could see that she looked darker than he was accustomed to seeing her, and her face looked rounder than normal… “Rosilda was going on about not letting in every ‘Tom, Dick and Harry’…”

&
nbsp; “Well, she certainly doesn’t let in Tom and Harry. Not so sure about letting in the Dick!”

  Micah winced. He deserved that. Samantha was still pissed at him.

  “What are you doing here?” Samantha asked him.

  “I moved out of my flat,” Micah was stuttering uncomfortably. “Well, I moved out a while ago, then I was off in Florida for a while… I just came back a couple weeks ago, and moved into my own place. I was unpacking and found this T-shirt you left in the flat last year. I thought you might need it back…”

  Samantha stared at him wordlessly, wondering why he thought she would have needed that grungy old T-shirt. She did not even recall owning it, let alone leaving it at his flat.

  “Here,” Micah probed. “Take it.”

  “Thank you. Is there anything else?”

  “I heard from NYU,” he said. “I didn’t get into the PhD programme.”

  “Shame!” Samantha did not know what else to say.

  “But I got a position at BOJ. I’m officially an Economist. Started work last week. When you become the Governor, you’ll be my boss.”

  He was smiling, but Samantha did not smile back. She did not find what he said to be particularly funny. She wondered when he would get to the real reason he had shown up at her house.

  Micah took note of her stony glare. This was going to be harder than he thought. He decided to try again. “So how’s school? When you go back?”

  Samantha sighed, getting frustrated. “No, seriously. What you want, Micah?”

  “Pardon…”

  “What do you want?” She repeated. “Why. Are. You. Here?”

  “I thought we could just talk for a bit – like friends.”

  “We are not friends!” Samantha reminded him. “We used to be friends. You used to be my boyfriend, until one day you just decided you didn’t love me anymore.”

  “Look, Sam, I know I’m an idiot…” he began again.

  “You drove all the way up here to tell me something I already know?”

  She definitely was not making this easy. He just had to press on, despite her snark. “I made a big mistake, Samantha. Huge, in fact, and I regret it.”

  “Oh do you?” Samantha asked. “You and Ronica seemed very happy together.”

  “Ronica and I aren’t together anymore…”

  “I see. She dumped you, so you thought why not come crawling back to Samantha. She’s needy and desperate so she’ll take you back. That’s why you’re here!”

  “No, I am here because I made a mistake. Phoning you that night, breaking up with you, Ronica… It was all a very big mistake. You were just so far away and I missed you. It seemed like you would be gone forever, and I just … I just… Ronica was here and you weren’t!”

  Samantha could not believe what he was saying to her. “So it is my fault? I went to New York and you were lonely, so you decided to just forget the two years that we had, and the lifetime that we planned?”

  “I missed you!” Micah stated simply.

  “I would have stayed. You told me to go, and now it’s my fault?”

  “No!” Micah shook his head. “It’s my fault.”

  “So what do you want now?”

  Micah took a breath. “I want to tell you to your face that I am sorry. I wish we could go back. I want you to give me another chance. I’m sure we can work it out.”

  “You want a chance? You want us to work it out?” Samantha could not believe this was happening. Micah had some nerve! She had an instant flashback to that Friday night in March. It was five months before. So much had changed since then, but she remembered it like it was yesterday. She recalled him telling her he did not love her anymore; practically begging him not to break up with her; the hurt and the numb feeling in her stomach; getting into the taxi with her blue comforter; learning about Ronica; club Infierno with Phillip; sleeping with Jeremy, Micah’s effed up email; mashing out the Plan B, all because Micah had said he did not love her anymore. Now he had the temerity to come to her house to tell her he had made a mistake.

  Then it finally hit her. He did not know! He wanted to make up with her, because he did not know. He still thought Andie was pregnant. He must have been living under a rock indeed, TATTLER had cleared up that misunderstanding weeks ago, and everyone knew it was Samantha and not Andie Persaud who was pregnant. How could he not know?

  “Where have you been all summer? Before you started work?”

  “Um…” Micah was not sure why she was asking him that. Maybe she was wondering why it had taken him so long to come and beg her forgiveness. “I was in Hanover with my parents for a couple of weeks, then I went to Miami… I just came back week before last …”

  “So you haven’t been here!” Samantha nodded, a smile tugging the corner of her lips.

  Micah saw it. He wondered whether he was winning. “No. But although I wasn’t here, I thought about you every single day. I missed you every single day.” He sighed. “All summer, I had wanted to call you, or come see you… I just didn’t know what to say to you…”

  “Uh huh…”

  “But then when I saw the article about Andie being pregnant in TATTLER, I knew that was a sign that I should call you. I know it must be hard for you… I just want to be here for you… Help you deal!”

  “You want to be here for me?” Samantha repeated. “You want to help me deal? You want something to deal with, Micah? TATTLER and his ‘infallible sources’ got confused. Andie isn’t pregnant, I am.”

  Micah looked like he had been punched. “What?”

  She stood, and Micah almost fainted when he saw her bump protruding from beneath her T-shirt. “Yes. When you broke up with me, I was devastated. Everything in my life went to hell, and I made some very bad decisions. Do you know who was there for me? Who helped me deal? Jeremy Malcolm.”

  “Jeremy Malcolm?”

  “Yes, I’m pregnant with Jeremy’s baby. 21 weeks to be exact. So you want something to deal with? Deal with that and leave me the hell alone.”

  ***

  “Andie isn’t pregnant, I am… Do you know who was there for me? Jeremy? I’m 21 weeks pregnant… Jeremy’s baby…” Samantha’s words were pounding in his brain, making it impossible for him to fall asleep. She was pregnant and Jeremy Malcolm was the father? Micah thought a blood vessel in his head might explode. This could not be true. But it was. He saw her baby stomach. There is was, jutting out from under her T-shirt. What an idiot he was, he thought as he punched his pillow. Of course Andie wasn’t pregnant. She and Nathan had taken a vow of celibacy. But so did Samantha… But now she was pregnant, and with Jeremy Malcolm’s offspring?

  Micah looked at the clock by his bed. It was 2:35am. He had to get to sleep, but how could one sleep at a time like this? It was official. He had lost Samantha for good. To Jeremy Malcolm! Of all the people in the world that he could have lost her to, he could not imagine that he could have lost her to Jeremy – that pompous, self-obsessed Neanderthal that he had spent the first two years of their relationship protecting her from. Not that Samantha had needed much protection. She could hold her own against Jeremy. So how on earth did he convince her to sleep with him? What about her grand declaration never to have sex before she got married? He remembered when they were dating, whenever he tried to get anywhere beyond first base, she would give him a long lecture about how much she valued her purity and her desire to wait until they were married. It was frustrating, but he loved and respected her, so he never pushed; never forced her. And now she was telling him she was pregnant. 21 weeks. He had counted back on his calendar 21 weeks. That was the exact day he had broken up with her. Micah began to get angry. The exact day? They had dated for almost three years and they had been broken up for three minutes when she threw all that out the window for Jeremy Malcolm?

  He had gone over there that afternoon to wave the white flag, and ask her to be friends again. Then he could work on getting her to fall in love with him again. As he had unpacked his boxes and came across more t
reasures that had reminded him of Samantha, it became clearer and clearer that he had to have her back. But he did not want her back now. She was no longer his perfect Samantha. She was tainted. Tainted by Jeremy Malcolm. She had allowed Jeremy Malcolm to … to… he couldn’t even think it. Just thinking it alone made him want to reach into his brain and yank his inner eyeballs out.

  No. He could not have those thoughts. He loved her. She was not tainted. She had made a mistake. He had broken up with her, and she had been devastated. She said it herself. Her life had gone to hell and she had made some bad choices. And Jeremy Malcolm had been there, like the opportunistic predator that he was, and had just swooped in and taken advantage of her in a moment of weakness. Micah always suspected that Jeremy had a thing for Samantha. He saw the way Jeremy used to look at her. Now he had her.

  He sighed in the darkness of the room. He had come home that evening and googled every archived edition of TATTLER published that summer, and found that edition in July where that idiot ‘journalist’ had reported that Samantha and ‘her beau’ had announced that they were expecting their first child. The thought of Jeremy being Samantha’s beau was even more disconcerting than the fact that they had sex! It was bad enough that he had lost her, but to lose her to Jeremy Malcolm? That was never going to happen.

  2:45. He really needed to fall asleep or he would be useless at work tomorrow. But sleep would never come until he had thought of a way to fix his relationship with Samantha. They could only be friends now, if she would allow it. That was the best he could hope for. Even if Jeremy was not her ‘beau’. There was no way they could be more than friends. Not while she had Jeremy’s baby. Maybe years later, when the child was five, he could convince her to let them rekindle something, but not now. He was mature, but not that mature. Yes, he could work with friendship. And as her friend, it would be his job to get her away from Jeremy – to squash this ‘beau’ nonsense. Pregnant women were not rational. He knew that from experience. His sister had fallen pregnant by a man who already had a girlfriend. While she was pregnant, she was convinced that she was in love with him. It was not until his nephew was three months old, that she realised that he was a jackass and moved on. Right now, Samantha was just as hormonal and silly as his sister. Just as he had been the voice of reason for his sister, he would be the voice of reason for Samantha. He had to be, especially since her current predicament was his fault. Well, he did not send her to sleep with Jeremy, but that never would have happened if he had not broken up with her for Ronica. So she had messed up. So she had made one mistake. She was being punished enough, being stuck with a little Jeremy Malcolm for the rest of her life. She didn’t need to be stuck with Jeremy, too.