Just Perfect! (Persaud Girl)

by Teisha Mott

  Micah was looking at her, expectation in his eyes. He was waiting for her response. Waiting for her to tell him they could start over, or pick up where they left off. But that wasn’t going to happen. She looked at him, and he was not the same Micah she saw in the library all those years ago, or the same Micah she thought was her perfect person. She could not be with him. Her heart belonged to someone else.

  “No.”

  Micah looked like he had been punched. “No? What do you mean no?”

  “I mean no, I don’t want us to ‘be in love’ again, because I am not in love with you anymore.”

  “You aren’t in love with me?” Micah repeated. “Don’t say that, Samantha. We belong together. You said it yourself, so many times, and I know you still believe it. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have called me when Jeremy left, and we wouldn’t be here right now!”

  “I know we may have belonged together at some point, but we certainly don’t belong together now…” She continued.

  “Sam…” Micah did not know what else to say. This conversation was like history repeating itself. The only difference was that Samantha was now the one giving the ‘we don’t belong together speech’. “Is this because of Jeremy? Are you in love with him?”

  “Micah, you must have known!” Samantha sighed. “I can’t be with you. I shouldn’t have called you when Jeremy left. I shouldn’t have allowed him to leave in the first place. I belong with him, now. Not just because he is Caitlin’s father, but because I really want to be with him.”

  “So you’re choosing him!” Micah blinked back tears of disconcertment. “You are choosing Jeremy Malcolm over me.”

  “Yes.”

  Micah scoffed. “You know, I can’t say I’m not stunned. I mean, I honestly thought after how he treated you these past few weeks. After how he walked out on you, and he has been ignoring you… I stepped up, and I was there for you. I thought you would have remembered how good it was when we were together, but all that has happened is that you seem to love him more!”

  “Micah, please don’t make this any more difficult than it needs to be!”

  “I won’t,” Micah promised. “I just have one more question. I just need to know, Sam, if there was no Caitlin, and I asked you for another chance, would you have said yes?”

  “I think I would have,” she told him honestly. “But I’m glad there is a Caitlin, because if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have gotten to know Jeremy, and I wouldn’t have fallen in love with him! Right now, I only want to be with him.”

  Micah took a rugged breath. “I see… And what if Jeremy does not want to be with you?”

  Samantha smiled. “Then I’ll be a hot single mother like Angelina Jolie!” Micah did not smile back. “I’m really sorry, Micah!”

  “It’s alright,” Micah said. “I understand, and there are no ultimatums here. All I want is for you to be happy, and if you’re happy with Jeremy, then I’m happy for you. Just know that whenever you need a friend, I am right here, okay?”

  “Thank you!”

  Micah gazed into her face, as though he were trying to remember it. He knew it was the last time he would be looking at her like that. “Come on,” he said finally. “Let me take you home.”

  ***

  Jeremy glanced at the clock on the wall above his cubicle. It was coming up to 9:30 PM, and the office was deserted. Naturally – after all, it was Thanksgiving night, and every other staff member of Persaud Financials was off celebrating with family. Jeremy felt he was probably the only person in America that night with nothing to be thankful for.

  Samantha’s Aunt Phoebe had politely invited him to have dinner with their family, but he had just as equally politely declined. Having dinner with Aunt Phoebe’s family meant he also had to have dinner with Phillip, and he would rather be dipped in honey and tied to an anthill than have dinner with Phillip. Besides, with Andie home in Jamaica for graduation, who would he talk to? He thought he would be better off spending a few hours at the office working on the MarsBender project. With everyone out, he could work in solitude, without the incessant ringing of the telephone and barking from Phillip. He could complete the valuation of Premium Digital, and meet with their Financial Analyst on Friday morning. That would keep him out of Persaud Financials and away from Phillip if even for a few blissful hours.

  “You know they say employees who sweat more than usual, stop looking you in the eye and work abominable hours should be monitored as potential fraudsters, Jeremy!”

  Jeremy did not look up from his iMac as Jen came up behind him. He sighed. So much for being alone. “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re pulling more all-nighters than any of the other first years, you’re as jumpy as a hooker in church and you haven’t looked me in the eye in six weeks!” Jen pointed out. “Are you defrauding Persaud Financials?”

  “Why are you here, Jen?”

  “The better question is why you here!” Jen hoisted herself on to his desk. Her short, Tory Burch tweed dress rode up, showing off her thighs. “It’s the holiday, luv! I’m sure you and I could go somewhere and be thankful for each other’s company…”

  Jeremy pretended not to get her innuendo. “Well, in the first place, I’m Jamaican, and we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. In the second place, I have a lot of work to do, and I’d be really thankful if you would leave me alone to do it in peace!”

  Jen slid off his desk, and looked at him, hands on her hips. “What’s the matter with you?” She questioned. “You went away for the summer and came back a prude? Are you having some sort of midlife crisis?”

  “I think you have cornered the market on midlife crises!” Jeremy told her pointedly. He copied a formula into a series of cells and cursed under his breath when the entire sheet came up with N/As. He had made an error in the original formula, and now he was going to have to do the entire thing over.

  Jen rolled her eyes. “I will not take that personally if you pack all this up and come have a drink with me.”

  “Not interested!”

  “C’mon duck!” Jen pleaded. “You’ve been working too hard. You must take some time off and relax…”

  “I was relaxed until you came in here, Jen!” Jeremy tried with his formula again. Again it came up with N/As. He resisted the urge to punch the computer. This was a stinking rote formula. Why was he messing it up?

  “Dahling, that spread sheet isn’t going anywhere and you’re not going to get it right while you are so worked up!” Jen pointed out, almost reading his mind. She squeezed his shoulders. “Give it a break and let me take you for a drink!”

  Jen was right, he decided. He was wound up tighter than a rubber band. He never knew he could be so stressed out. He was stressed out with work, with Phillip, with trying to avoid Samantha... If he wasn't careful he was going to get high blood pressure. Imagine being the youngest Associate at Persaud Financials to stroke out and die at his desk. That was a scary thought... Maybe he should indeed take that drink with Jen! The MarsBender project was not going anywhere, and he was already ahead of schedule on it anyway.

  “Fine! One drink!” He conceded. “And you better promise to keep this evening PG -- got it?”

  “Whatever!” Jen gathered her bag as Jeremy shut down his computer.

  An hour later; Jeremy was positive that deciding to go out with Jen was the right thing to do. For the first time since he came back to New York, he could feel his tensions melting away. He had managed to forget about all the angst with Phillip as he and Jen laughed and talked and discussed a myriad of topics that had nothing to do with Mergers, Acquisitions or Persaud Financials. Jen was cool, he thought. She was as old as the hills, irreverent as the devil, and absolutely delusional when it came to her age, but she knew the best places to hang out. Just how she had managed to find the only piano bar with Cajun and Caribbean cuisine,without a cover change just a stone’s throw from his old college apartment was beyond him, but somehow, there they were.

  “Isn’t this
much more fun than being cooped up in the office like some kind of hermit?” Jen asked, motioning to the waiter to refill their drinks.

  “Much!” Jeremy confessed. “Thanks, Jen. I mean, with all the stress Phillip’s had me under lately, tonight is just what I needed.”

  “Dahling, Phillip gives all his Associates a hard time,” Jen reminded him. “Don’t take it personally!”

  Jeremy scoffed. “Trust me. What’s happening with me and Phillip is definitely personal”

  Jen did a double take. “Is it now? Do expand!”

  Jeremy took a sip of his drink. He wasn’t sure whether he was comfortable telling Jen why he really thought Phillip had it in for him.

  “Come on!” Jen insisted. “Let’s hear it. Did you snog one of his girlfriends?”

  Jeremy sighed. “Do you remember his cousin, Samantha? We took her to Infierno for her birthday last April?”

  “Yes, I remember her. Pretty girl – a bit on the uptight side…”

  Jeremy nodded. “She’s pregnant.”

  Jen looked at him confused. “So?”

  “So….” Jeremy looked away from her, a bit embarrassed.

  Jen’s eyes opened wide with realisation. “Ohhh! When? Over summer?”

  “No. The night of her birthday. When you guys left us to go sort out the RPU situation? Phillip asked me if I’d slept with her, and I told him no, then bam – two months later she’s pregnant!”

  “Well, you sly, dirty dog!” Jen commented, taking another sip of her drink. “So, last April. So that should make her about 7 months now?”

  “Saturday she starts week 36. And we’re having a girl.”

  “Well, then!” Jen looked at him. “You not only shagged, but knocked up your boss’ little cousin. That wasn’t very bright!”

  “You’re telling me!”

  “Where is she now?”

  “Jamaica. She took the year off NYU to have the baby.”

  “So why are you here, and not there?”

  “Well, I have to work,” Jeremy pointed out. “Besides, we aren’t together anyway. We got together briefly over the summer, but it didn’t work out.”

  “No wonder Phillip’s up your ass!” Jen took a sip of her drink. “You shagged his cousin, lied to him about it, knocked her up and then dumped her?”

  Jeremy sighed. “I didn’t dump her, Jen. It’s no secret that I’m crazy about her, but…”

  Jen looked at him, waiting for him to continue. ‘But what’, he was not sure. There was no viable reason he was not with Samantha right now. Why he was not calling her every day, telling her how much he loved her, telling her to put the phone to her belly so Caitlin could hear his voice. But the trouble was Sam didn’t love him like he loved her. She only wanted them to be friends. But Jeremy did not want to be her friend. How could he be just her friend, when every time he saw her or heard her voice, all he could think was how much more he really wanted? How could he explain to Jen that despite all his bravado and ‘tough guy’ attitude, he really was an angry, insecure man, who believed he would never be loved by the people he most wanted to love him? First his father, and now, Samantha!

  “Why aren’t you together if you love her?” Jen prompted.

  “I’m not sure she’s over her ex. I told her to choose me or him and she couldn’t…”

  “You gave her an ultimatum?”

  “Pretty much,” Jeremy nodded.

  “Well, you’re an arse!” Jen noted. She drained her drink.

  “No, I’m not. I want her towantto be with me. As much as I love her I am not chasing her. And honest to God, Jen, Irather stay by myself that be with somebody who doesn’t want to be with me!”

  “Dahling, grow up. It is because you love her you should chase her. That is what men do. This isn’t one of those rubbish day time soap operas. This is real life, and in real life, when you find a woman you love, you don’t give her ultimatums, or let her go and wait to see if she will come back. You hold on to her for dear life!”

  “But Jen…”

  “But nothing!” Jen glared at him. “I cannot understand you! I thought you were smarter than this. You need to finish the MarsBender acquisition, put in your paternity leave and go home and be with Samantha and your child. Staying away is only putting that other idiot in the driver’s seat. You cannot let him win.”

  Jen’s words weighed on his mind. She was perfectly right. Nathan had told him pretty much the same thing. All he had done, getting into a rage and storming off, and not talking to Samantha was push her closer to Micah. He would be lucky if by now Micah had not made his move, and he and Samantha weren’t already back together. Because of his stupidity he was going to lose the girl he loved and his baby.

  “Why does all of this have to be so damn difficult?” Jeremy sighed. “I mean, why can’t it be simply boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl reciprocates and they live happily ever after. That’s how it would be in a perfect world.”

  “Well, hon, we don’t live in a perfect world,” Jen said philosophically. “No one is perfect, and there’s no such thing as a ‘perfect relationship’. People who claim to be in love have to wade through crap all the time. This right here is your crap. But guess what? Crap like this doesn’t take down people who are truly in love. One of those two people has to stand up and fight for the relationship every time, and since Phillip’s cousin is pregnant and hormonal, and clearly doesn’t know her ass from her head, that person should have been you!”

  Jeremy looked at her. “You could actually give Dr Phil a run for his money. So if you know so much about real relationships, why aren’t you in one?”

  Jen shrugged. “Haven’t the patience for them,” she confided. “Maybe in a few years when I’m forty…”

  “Forty?” Jeremy chortled. “You mean in dog years!”

  “Bugger off! Anyway, the husband and daddy types do nothing for me. As at five minutes ago, even you stopped being appealing!”

  “Hey!” Jeremy was affronted.

  “Yes, I’m just picturing you changing diapers, smelling of formula and spit up, and pushing a buggy through central park… You’re becoming more unattractive by the second!”

  Jeremy rolled his eyes. If he had known that telling Jen he was going to be a father was all it would take to get her to lose interest, he would have done so a long time ago.

  “You need Jesus, and these drinks move through me like a damn diuretic!” He commented. “I’m going to find the men’s room. Watch my phone.”

  ***

  Samantha lay flat on her back, with the covers pulled up to her neck. It was coming up to 10pm, but she was not sleepy. Micah had dropped her home an hour ago, and then she had half listened as Nursey and Theresa moaned at her for ‘sneaking’ out of the house. Nursey promised that as soon as Mrs Persaud came home, she would be firmly reported. Samantha only rolled her eyes. What was her mother going to do – spank her? Besides, so what if she had left the house. No harm had been done. She felt fine, and as soon as she had spoken to Jeremy, everything was going to be just perfect once more. He said she should not phone him, but she was sure this time he would want to hear what she had to say, and if he didn’t, she would keep phoning him until he listened. She would tell him that she had been silly, and that she chose him, no questions asked. She would promise him that she loved him, and only him (and Caitlin of course), and she didn’t want them to be friends, but much, much more. Then, he would apologise too, tell her he loved her too, and then they would be happy again. He blood pressure would go down. Dr Creary would marvel at the medical miracle. Caitlin would stay in until December 27. Jeremy would come home and be her coach in the delivery room. He would be brave – no fainting or panic attacks, as he gently instructed her to push, then without a great deal of fanfare, they would have their Christmas baby – Caitlin Jada Malcolm. When she was rested, he would ask her to marry him again – properly this time, and this time she would say yes. She smiled as she clutched her phone. Yes, that was her new p
erfect life plan.

  Five past ten. She was so caught up in her dream world that she did not realise that New York was an hour ahead of Jamaica. She had to phone Jeremy now before it got too late and he went to bed. She would block her number before she dialled, just to make sure he answered it. Klao had suggested that a few days before, but she haughtily thought she would never stoop so low to get Jeremy to speak to her. Now, she had changed her mind. She quickly punched in the code; and dialled his number. It rang twice, and she braced herself to hear his voice.

  “Hello! Jeremy Malcolm’s phone!”

  Samantha went numb. She knew that voice, and it was not Jeremy’s. Her throat went dry, and she could not say a word.

  “Hello?” The person repeated. “Is anyone there?”

  Still, Samantha could not speak. That was Jen. Jen was answering Jeremy’s phone. That could only mean one of two things. Either Jen had stolen his phone, or they were together, and since Jen was a Hedge Fund Manager, raking in a crap load of money every year and didn’t need to steal a phone, Samantha knew it was the latter. Jeremy and Jen were together. Jeremy was with Jen. Or Jen was with Jeremy. At ten – no, eleven – o’clock at night. And it wasn’t a work night. And even if it was, they did not work together, so they wouldn’t be pulling an all-nighter together. Unless they were pulling a different kind of all-nighter.

  Samantha numbly closed her phone. Jeremy and Jen. He had done exactly what he had promised her he would not do that night by the pool. He had forgotten about her and Caitlin, and was running around with that ugly woman. He claimed he didn’t date ugly women. He also told her that he didn’t ‘date’ Jen. He had forgotten that he was ‘in love with a beautiful, classy woman, who was having his baby’. And of course he did. He was not the sort of man who stayed broken hearted for long. He was Jeremy Malcolm. Guys that looked like him, with his charm and his svelte had a million girls vying for their attention at any given moment. She almost had him. He was almost hers. He told her he loved her, but she had waited too long to tell him that she loved him too, and now he was with someone else. He was with Jen. She closed her eyes, and tried not to imagine what was happening in Manhattan at that moment. What was happening between Jeremy and Jen. No wonder he hadn’t called her all week. He was otherwise occupied.