“Only the last one.” I covered my boner with my hands and started walking backwards toward the door. And before exiting the door, I asked, “Well—now that you have already called me a pervert, I have to ask you a question. . . . Can I see you taking a shower, please?”
I had my fingers crossed and eyes closed while I eagerly waited for her response.
If—and only if—she had said yes.
But she didn’t—unfortunately.
“Get out!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.
“But I even said please.” I teased her a little more. I very much liked it when she lost her temper and started throwing tantrums.
She was boiling with anger and grabbed the first thing she could get her hands on. A bottle of conditioner. She threw it right at my face like a missile, and I easily caught it. I put it close to my heart and took a deep sigh—which irked her even more.
“I need that back. That’s the last one I have. Give it . . . ,” she said while extending her hand expecting me to give her conditioner back.
“Hmm . . . How should I say this . . . ? It’s mine now. You may have thrown it as a weapon, but I will consider it as a gift from you.”—I kissed the conditioner bottle as if it was Wimbledon trophy—“But, don’t worry. I will forever cherish this. And you will get it back after I am dead. I’ll leave this to you in my will.”
And I slowly shut the bathroom door leaving her inside—resented and infuriated.
I spent some quality time with Casey for the next hour or so and we came together downstairs for breakfast. But by then, Frank already seemed to have devoured half of the stack of pancakes.
“Good morning,” I said as I pulled a chair for Casey to sit on.
Nobody answered to my greeting except Mary-Louise who was busy checking up on Amber’s hair. She was stroking Amber’s hair, trying her best to fix it.
Amber was actually right earlier. She did need her conditioner; her hair was looking like some highland castle.
“Leave it, Mom. It’s fine. I am just having a bad hair day.” Amber had lost all hopes of getting her hair fixed that day.
“Your hair is bringing back some bad memories. Frank’s mother had the same shabby hair, and she was not at all fun to be around.”
Mary-Louise shivered with the thought of her mother-in-law, but Frank apprised, “Mary, don’t speak ill of the dead. It’s not nice.”
Meanwhile, I saw Frank pouring half a bottle of Maple syrup on his stack of pancakes which gave me another idea in the arsenal of my imagination—his death by diabetes.
“Join us for breakfast, Duke.” Even after what Frank did to me on the dinner table last night, Mary-Louise offered me to join them for breakfast.
I didn’t want to fell victim to the same fate twice—and I checked with her again before pulling a chair. “Are you sure?”
“Oh, absolutely,” she said ever so confidently.
I trusted her and sat on the chair—a bit reluctantly though. And to my surprise—nothing bad happened.
How did she manage to put a leash on her husband?
I was curious. I took a sneak peek under the table and found Mary-Louise’s foot on Frank’s crotch.
I underestimated her. She was conniving; she knew how to control her man.
Frank caught me staring down under the table and couldn’t refrain himself from remarking on my shaving cut by calling me by the name of a fictional pirate. “What are you looking down there, Jack Sparrow?”
“Nothing.” I shrugged my shoulder and made an innocent face pretending that I didn’t see Mary-Louise controlling his joystick.
Frank couldn’t kick my chair down that time, but he certainly had other ways of getting back at me. “Look at the father of my granddaughter, Mary. He doesn’t even know how to shave. He is a kid himself but wants to be involved in her life.”
And I was ready to give tit for tat—like never before. Frank’s nose had turned all red because of the clothespin I put on his nose last night—and I would have been a fool if I had missed that opportunity to make fun of him.
“You know, it’s really hard to take you seriously when you are wearing a terrible hat and have a swollen red nose. You’re looking . . . I don’t know . . . like a joker.”
Mary-Louise started chuckling at my joke, and then snorting with laughter said, “Well—I for one slept well last night.”
Daddy’s girl Amber wasn’t behind as well; she also couldn’t stop herself from sniggering at his dad’s expense.
“I know that it was you—you prick. You clamped my nose with the clothespin last night.” Frank knew it couldn’t be anyone other than me and he openly accused me.
As if I was going to give in so easily.
Because I then laid out an influential defense and gave him a taste of his own medicine for humiliating me last night in front of my daughter. “Excuse me, detective. I feel bad that someone clamped your nose, but you can’t just go on accusing me of anyone else’s wrongdoing. Do you have any evidence to support your theory, detective? Oh, shoot! I forgot that you were never made a detective. I am so sorry.”
Revenge is best served with pancakes and overflowing maple syrup.
The expression on Frank’s face changed; he looked like a predator hungry to eat his prey alive. I thought I might have poked the bear and was genuinely scared of him at that time.
He roared, “You son of a bitch! I’ll wipe that smug look off your face one day.”
“Grandpa—don’t be an ass hat,” Casey said while having her orange juice which caused a chilling silence at the table.
I didn’t know why she kept saying curse words to Frank when I had specifically told her not to. I felt sorry for Frank and decided then and there that I would curse Frank only in my thoughts, and when I am alone—but never again in front of Casey.
Frank pushed his half-eaten plate of food away in anger—which made me gulp nervously. He was genuinely hurt after being called with a curse word the second time in a row since last night. “You told her to say that to me, didn’t you?”
“No, absolutely not,” I told the truth—but he wasn’t convinced at all.
“You told your daughter to call me an ass-hat even after what I did for her. If it weren’t for me, Amber and Casey would be in a homeless shelter now trying to get their hands on a piece of bread.”
“And I appreciate what you did for my family—”
“Your family?” Frank scoffed. “Do you even know what it takes to take care of a family?”
“Love, care, and money—and I have all three of them now,” I said as I pulled out a white envelope from my jacket and slid it along the table towards Frank.
Well, the white envelope was all part of the plan I had put together the night before. I knew Frank would never miss a chance to remind me how he took care of Casey and Amber until I put into his slot of the mouth what he wanted—and shut him off forever.
“What’s this?” He made a weird face while opening the envelope and then looked back and forth at Mary-Louise and Amber with surprise. “It’s a $20,000 check—”
“Give me that!”—Amber snatched the check from Frank’s hand and carefully looked at it to find some discrepancy—“He must have upped his game and branched out into check fraud.”
I didn’t think that Amber or Frank would ever be convinced of the genuineness of the check, but I still tried and simply said, “It’s real.”
“Even if it’s real, we don’t need your money,” Amber said and tried to tear off the check.
But Frank snatched it back from her and shouted at the idiocy of her daughter. “Are you having a bad hair day or spoiled mind day?” He smoothened the wrinkled check with his palm and further said, “You don’t just get on to tear a $20K check.”
“Mr. McCarran—I can’t thank you enough for taking care of Amber and Casey in my absence. I can though reimburse you for the amount you must have spent so far on my family. I know you are an honorable man—and probably won’t take it. Bu
t please accept it; it’s your money, after all.”
I was thankful. I was apologetic. I was respectful.
Frank didn’t know that my net worth had crossed his many-folds than what he could have possibly imagined. But he still had his suspicions and asked, “Will it cash out?”
“Of course! Let me tell you what. I myself am going to the bank to withdraw some cash. Why don’t we carpool together and I’ll cash this for you?”
“Sounds good.” Frank grabbed his coat and was very eager to get his hand on the $20k.
I was just trying to get cozy with Frank to spite Amber. And as anticipated, Amber was not happy with Frank carpooling with me. “So, what are you—his best friend now?”
“Until the check gets cashed—yes—but after that, we are back to square one.”
“That sounds fair,” I said as I shook Frank’s greasy hand. “That’s what I like most about you, Mr. McCarran. You don’t run from your true feelings. You don’t hold back and bluntly say what’s in your mind.”
I—and even Frank—knew for sure that Amber was not happy with accepting my money. But the expressions on her face were saying more than meets the eye. I somehow had the feeling that she still loved me but was just holding back because of my shady past.
“Oh, don’t be like that, Amber. Weddings are expensive.”
“If only you had paid for the first one, you would have known about this,” Mary-Louise mumbled without making eye contact with Frank.
But Frank heard that—oh, yes—but responded only by rolling his eyes and silently went outside to wait for me.
“Oh, and Amber, I am taking Casey to Taylor today. There is a carnival going on in there, and I thought Casey might like it.”
“Yay”—Casey clapped with a cheer—“Thank you, Daddy.”
“Sweetie—don’t just wait here. Go get dressed. I’ll be back in half an hour to take you there.”
Casey quickly went up the stairs, but I could see that Amber was not comfortable letting Casey go with me that far.
And she said with a tone, “Taylor is 30 miles from here.”
“So, don’t wait up,” I said casually. “I would have invited you too, but geez, your hair . . . I don’t want to scare the children; they would think that a witch is on the loose.”
Amber didn’t say anything—she didn’t need too. I could see her ears turning red—the classic sign of her getting angry. She removed her flip-flop and threw it at me. She should have had known better after this morning’s conditioner mishap that I would catch the slipper too. Which I did.
“I wish you had thrown yourself at me”—I looked at her and took a deep sigh—“but beggars can’t be choosers. You can also collect it from the executor of my will.”
“Eww . . . yuck . . .” She felt disgusted when I kissed the bottom of her flip-flop.
But she didn’t know that not only I worshipped her but also the ground she walked upon. I kept it in my jacket where it belongs: close to my heart.
“Good day.” I slightly bowed my head for Amber and Mary-Louise and came out of the house to drive Frank to the bank.
Frank was true to his promise. As soon as the check was cashed, our relationship was back to normal. He refused to get in the car with me and took a cab home. I guess the environment was none of his concern when it came down to his ego.
When I got back, Casey was all dressed up in her floral dress and carrying a lunch bag slung over her shoulder. Mary-Louise had taken the liberty to pack us some snacks for our long journey and pasted multiple sticky notes on the bag itself instructing me not to feed any sugar to Casey. I thanked Mary-Louise for her gesture, and then, Casey and I were off to Taylor.
We reached there after three hours, and from the look on Casey’s face, I knew it was right of me to choose this place to visit. It was a day to remember; we had a lot of fun. I had never seen Casey so happy; her feelings couldn’t be explained in words.
I even let her had one cotton candy—she was so persistent—but on the condition of not telling her mother. I hoped that she might prove me wrong at that time, and be true to her promise for once. I hadn’t had to worry about her sugar rush, and the tedious task of making her sleep; on the way back, she fell asleep in the car itself.
We reached back at eleven in the night, and by then, everybody was asleep. With Casey in my arms, I slowly and silently climbed the stairs so as not to wake anyone up. I tucked Casey in her bed, kissed her goodnight, and closed the windows in her bedroom before coming downstairs to crash on the couch.
I woke up the next day with the nice aroma engulfing me. It seemed like a blended fragrance of chocolate, shea butter, and white lilies—the ones I could recognize. Nobody had even bothered to wake me up. Not even Casey. I guessed she might still be asleep after yesterday’s tiresome day.
I stood up to go upstairs and wake Casey up—but almost stopped at the first stair. The nerve in my temple started to flex with anger when I looked around the living room.
And I had to sit back down.
The room was filled with samples of flowers, gift basket, rolls of ribbon, different shades of beige tablecloths and whatnot. Amber and Walter probably had early morning meetings with wedding vendors and brought samples back with them. They didn’t even have the slightest decency to at least wait for the divorce to be finalized. I was so depressed with Amber pushing the wedding preparation in gear that I ate an entire box of Belgium chocolate from the sample to make me feel better.
I went upstairs to meet Casey and knocked on her door.
“Casey . . .”
The door was already open; so, I entered her room. Her bed was made up, room was tidied up—but she was not there.
She must have woken long before. . . . Maybe she is helping her grandma.
I left to look for Casey in the kitchen. As I was going back downstairs, I heard laughter coming from Amber’s room and thought Casey might be with her. The door was already half open; I didn’t bother to knock and opened the rest of it.
And I saw the most heavenly thing behind that door which made me drop on my knees hard.
Chapter 10
Wow!
I was in tears—my mouth wide open.
I couldn’t move. I was nothing more than a bump on a log at that time.
This was bound to happen as I was seeing her like that for the first time in my life.
I got married in the courthouse and was deprived of that view—all thanks to Frank. He was so much against our marriage that no one from her family even bothered to be present at the courthouse on the happiest day of our lives.
It was just three of us: I, Amber, and Shiv Sundaram Venkateshwar Iyer—my pot dealer and the only witness to our marriage. His long signature will forever belittle signatures of Amber and mine.
Amber was in front of me in her wedding dress with a bouquet in her hand, and Mary-Louise was helping her with the train of her dress. I tried to tell her how beautiful she looked in that wedding dress but it appeared that I had lost my voice.
Mary-Louise knew that I was dazzled by Amber’s beauty—or possibly in a trance. So, she tried to make herself heard and loudly asked, “Are you all right?”
But she failed to get a response out of me. I was on my knees, dumbstruck, and seeing Amber checking herself out in the standing mirror.
“Looks like someone is in love!” Mary-Louise said in a singing tone with a hope that Amber would show mercy on me.
But she didn’t.
In fact—the thought of me loving her gave her the chills. She absolutely took offense to her mother saying that and objected, “Mom, how could you even say that?”
“Because it looks like so.” Mary-Louise hadn’t lost hope yet and further continued with her efforts to bring Amber and me closer. “No doubt, you look like an angel in this wedding dress—more than enough for a man to look at you with awe. But it’s not enough to make someone lose his mind unless that someone is absolutely mad for you. And that is what Duke feels for you.”
“Will you stop with this nonsense already?”—Amber paused and took a deep breath to pull her fraying nerves together—“You are my mother—not his. Stop taking his side.”
“A mother doesn’t differentiate and gives the love where it’s due.” Mary-Louise had some wise thoughts, but not something Amber was ready to pay heed to. She then continued, “Well, at least, let me pick him up. The poor guy is on the floor for too long; his knees will get sore.”
Mary-Louise came ahead and offered her hand to pick me up, but she probably was not aware of the grave condition I was in. She had to put her back into pulling me up. She somehow managed to pick me a little, and then eventually dragged me somewhat more until she made me sit on a chair.
“Should I call a doctor or a hypnotist?”—Mary-Louise paused to catch up her breath—“He looks serious.”
“That won’t be necessary. All he needs is a shock.”
Amber put her bouquet down and came close to cure me off her doing. After all, it was she who bewitched me; she had to take some responsibility for the state I was in.
“Give me some room please, mother.”
Mary-Louise stepped back and stood a little far from me. But then she got awfully concerned for me after seeing Amber popping her knuckle. Mary-Louise had a premonition that Amber didn’t have the best of intention in her mind for me. “What are you thinking of doing to him?”
“Like I said, he needs a shock,” Amber said and delivered a thunderous slap across my face which I was sure made the thin walls of her bedroom tremble and blew the cobwebs away.
My face was twitching.
Ears were ringing.
And some black spots were flying before my eyes.
But apart from that—everything was all right.
Who knew a slap could also be used for the medicinal purpose?
“Thank you,” I said in a weak tone.
“You are welcome,” she replied and delivered another hard slap across my face—but on the other cheek this time. “This will even out your face,” she said with an evil smile on her face.
Hard Redemption: A Second Chance Romantic Comedy Page 8