Paradise Postponed (Not Quite Eden Book 2)

by Dominique Kyle

  She tried to cover. “Oh nothing, I just assumed you two must have split up already…”

  “Lauren!” I insisted in dire tones. I felt my nails digging painfully into the palms of my hands, “Who did you see him with?”

  Her eyes flickered away. “It was probably nothing…”

  “Lauren! Who?”

  Like all girls, she was dying to tell me really, just afraid I’d shoot the messenger. She leant forward confidentially. “Daisy,” she informed me.

  “After a gig?” I surmised. When he was a bit drunk and high on the adrenaline and adulation.

  She shook her head. And that’s what made me know it was serious.

  “They were outside the Golden Disc. She was…” she lowered her eyes, “you know, on her knees…”

  It seemed like it had been forever, but it was actually still only eight o’clock. Quinn had better be in.

  Unluckily for him, he was. Unluckily for me, so were the rest of the family. The whole darn lot of them. I shut the door of his room with a snap. I didn’t feel like having to do this sotto voiced.

  “Daisy,” I hissed at him.

  “What?” He barely looked up from his phone.

  I snatched it out of his hands and threw it into the corner.

  “Hey!”

  “You’ve been seen,” I said coldly. I folded my arms.

  His eyes flickered. “Doing what?”

  “Does outside the Golden Disc ring any bells?”

  From his expression, it clearly did, but he’s such a weaselly little coward he was going to fight it to the death.

  Suddenly I just couldn’t be bothered. “Piss off Quinn,” I said, and walked out.

  He didn’t attempt to follow me which pretty much confirmed everything. He hadn’t done it after a gig because someone would have reported back to me. It wasn’t an accidental meeting. They’d deliberately gone out together somewhere where they didn’t expect to be seen.

  On the way out I had to pass Kathleen sitting at the kitchen table. She was looking down at a piece of paper that looked to me like a hospital appointment. She glanced up and for once she didn’t look at me like she hated me. Had she been crying?

  “Are you ok?” I found myself blurting it out unexpectedly. “There’s nothing wrong with the baby?”

  She hurriedly folded the letter away. “Just a routine appointment.”

  As I turned to leave she suddenly said, “Do you miss your mother dreadfully?”

  I hesitated. I didn’t know what answer she wanted to hear. A question like that was bound to be loaded. I half turned back to her. “Yes at first, of course I did. Now, not so much…”

  “You will when you have your first child,” she said.

  I beat a swift retreat before it could get any heavier, and before she could start talking gynecological.

  I lay on my bed at home, having run the gauntlet to get there. Now safely cloistered, I knew I wouldn’t be able to come out again tonight because I couldn’t face that woman’s prying. Weirdly, the main thing I felt was disappointment. All his fine words and everyone telling me he clearly adored me… And a few months later – this! But also I had sort of expected it. That’s why I’d refused to sleep with him. I wasn’t going to be yet another notch on the bedpost unless I felt he was really serious about me. If he couldn’t hang on even a few months without shagging someone else, then he wasn’t the one for me. He had just proved himself to be the shallow toe-rag that I’d always assumed he would be.

  It was Kes that came. You-Know-Who squealed up the stairs, “There’s another gorgeous hunk at the door for you Eve! How do you find them all?”

  And as Kes came into my bedroom he fanned himself with exaggerated relief, “Phew she’s a man-eater!”

  “Yes, that’s what Quinn said,” I agreed, “but I don’t know what it means…”

  “It means I felt I had to whisk my backside rather swiftly out the way,” he grinned, throwing the cute backside in question down onto the end of my bed and swinging his legs up. “What on earth is she doing to the house?”

  “I don’t know,” I said glumly. “I’m terrified it’s going to be shades of footballer’s wives…”

  He grinned even more. “Purple and silver?” He hazarded. “Maroon and orange?”

  “Oh God do you think so?” My anxiety quotient rose another notch. “As long as it isn’t pink…”

  “Quinn just told me that he’d been shagging Daisy.” Kes didn’t bother pulling any punches. “He seemed pretty spooked that you’d found out and hadn’t tried to rip his bollocks off. I think he’s worrying that you’ve retreated to plan something even worse…”

  “What, so he’s sent you round to find out what it is?” I said crossly.

  “No,” he defended, “I came round to see how you are. Although if I were you I’d keep him guessing what revenge you’ll take, just to punish him.”

  “Did you know about Daisy?” I demanded angrily.

  “No, Eve, I swear I didn’t. I can hardly believe he’s managed to keep it a secret all this time, he’s normally such a blabbermouth!”

  “How did he defend himself to you?” I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

  Kes shrugged. “He didn’t really, he just said he needed a shag and you weren’t putting out.”

  “Which can’t have been much of a surprise to you,” I pointed out, “given what you know I promised my father… And you and Siân didn’t help the situation any, what with her telling him I’d slept with Beck, and you telling him I’d slept with you!”

  He reddened. “I just-”

  I shrugged abruptly. “I get it-”

  There was a short silence.

  “How’s your own shagging going?” I asked eventually.

  “Fine,” he said in such an ordinary tone of voice that I knew that whatever had been worrying him about getting it right was a thing of the past.

  So just me left then…

  My mood didn’t improve any when Rajesh turned up at work the next day and hovered around. I caught Trev eyeing him with a not very nice look in his eyes. “Are you two an item?” He asked me.

  I shrugged and left him guessing. “What do you want?” I hissed to Rajesh, “I can’t talk while I’m at work.”

  He glanced at his watch. “Lunch?”

  I glanced at mine. “Only if whatever we eat can’t bite back.”

  “What?”

  “I got gut-ache from the chilli-fest last time.”

  He looked surprised. “Thought it was a bit underspiced myself, told my cousin he was slacking and he said that as it was all young mums and business types in he’d toned it down.”

  “Well clearly I’m a light-weight,” I dismissed. “So how about a pizza round the corner?”

  He sighed heavily, but agreed.

  “So whatsup?” I asked through a mouthful of lovely mild tomatoey oreganoey cheesy stuff.

  “It’s your brother and Sahmir,” he plunged in unexpectedly. “I think they’re dealing.”

  I stared at him, sure I must have misheard him. “Dealing what? You can’t mean drugs, surely?”

  “Course I mean drugs,” he said irritably.

  I resumed chewing to hurriedly clear my mouth. “How–? What–? I mean-”

  “They’re just round the corner from the school gates every afternoon after school giving out suspicious packages in return for money.”

  “And what are you doing round the corner from the school gates every afternoon after school?” I demanded suspiciously.

  I saw his expression. “Oh honestly Rajesh! For goodness sake! If Tariq saw you…”

  “I just want to see her face… ”

  I wasn’t in the mood for soppiness after the way my own guy had been treating me. “Well you shouldn’t have let her down should you?” I snapped.

  I ignored his wounded look. “So what are we going to do about Jamie and Sahmir?” I queried.

  “We?” He sat back as though he were washing his hands of
the whole thing. “I was just letting you know, that’s all.”

  “You’re not getting this are you?” I spelt it out. “You and I have just corrupted Nasim, according to her family, and now they’ll be thinking that my Jamie is corrupting Sahmir… It’s right against their religion to take drugs. Don’t think they even drink coffee do they because it’s too much of a stimulant?”

  He wrinkled his nose. “No I think that’s the Mormons-”

  “I thought Mormons were the ones who could have four wives?” I quibbled.

  “No I think the Mormons can have as many wives as they want and Muslims can only have four, but not in this country…”

  “Why would you want four wives anyway?” I speculated. “Sounds like a very expensive emotional minefield to me!”

  “We’re getting off the point,” he said irritably. “I don’t see what this has to do with me.”

  I was impatient. “This is your chance to get back in with Nasim. If you single handedly save her brother from himself before the family find out, she’ll be so grateful she’ll throw herself back in your arms. And it might even cut some ice with the family when they find out later…”

  “I don’t know…” He was reluctant.

  “I can’t do it on my own,” I said. “I’m scared of Tariq.”

  He looked undecided. “Ok,” he said at last. “I’ll do you a deal. If you come along to a family wedding with me next weekend and pretend to be my girlfriend for the day, I’ll help you sort out your little brother and Sahmir.”

  I raised my eyebrows.

  “My cousin’s been blabbing about our last lunch and now all the family think I’m over Nasim and want to meet you, and I couldn’t quite bring myself to disabuse them of the assumption…”

  “You’re such a coward!” I condemned fiercely.

  His long dark eyelashes lowered for a moment.

  I chewed fiercely on my mouthful for a moment. What was there to lose? “Ok, it’s a deal,” I agreed.

  As I rode back after work, I was worriedly mulling over what to do. Should I challenge Jamie outright? Or keep quiet and go with Rajesh to spy on them one afternoon? A few things were falling into place though. Jamie not bothering to get a job. Jamie behaving aggressively for the first time in his life. And all those gadgets that I’d noticed in his bedroom last night when I’d stuck my head in to see what he’d done with the computer. Lots of expensive electrical gear. I’d rationalised that he must have bought them with his earnings from the band, but after they’d paid the expenses and then shared out the booking fee amongst the five of them, Jamie was lucky to take home twenty quid.

  I parked up my bike in our drive and glanced over the hedge up at Quinn’s window, but if he was home I couldn’t tell. I slung my lid over my arm and walked up the path. As I opened the front door of our house I was completely unprepared for the scene that greeted me. I stood stock still in shock.

  Dad was yelling abuse at Jamie and knocking him across the room. Ladders were tipped over and pink sheets were tangling around their legs. Jamie fell and Dad loomed over him plucking him up by the shoulders and shaking him violently.

  I dropped my lid on the floor and ran over to them. I lunged at Dad’s arm and hung on it. “What the hell’s going on?” I yelled at them.

  Dad shook me off but my presence seemed to pierce the red mist. He threw Jamie down and Jamie sat on the floor, his face all contorted up with contempt, wiping a trickle of blood from his nose. More blood was trickling from a cut on his temple.

  “I got a phone call from Sally’s parents today,” Dad snarled.

  I stared at him, unable to imagine what it could possibly be about.

  “Sally’s pregnant.”

  I stared at him appalled. “But she’s only fifteen.”

  “Exactly,” he agreed. I could see some of the rage was seeping away from him but the other emotions weren’t. “You disgust me,” he directed forcibly at Jamie.

  Jamie was beyond sensible behaviour. He projected violent scorn at Dad with his eyes and sneered, “Am I supposed to care?”

  Dad went for him again and I grabbed at Dad. At least that stopped him from hitting Jamie more than once.

  “Oh God, Dad, what are we going to do?” I uttered as the full import began to sink in.

  “He’s going to do the decent thing,” Dad said grimly, “and support her and the baby.”

  Jamie’s lip curled. “Don’t be stupid, she’ll get rid of it.”

  “What if she doesn’t want to?” I said.

  “Why on earth wouldn’t she want to just get rid of it?” Jamie said.

  “You really have no idea do you?” I snapped. “Don’t you care at all what she’s going through?”

  I looked to Dad as Jamie remained sullenly silent. “They’ve requested a meeting.” He told me heavily. “Me and Jamie at their place. I don’t know how I’m going to manage the shame of it! I tried to bring you both up right, I really did!”

  “I know Dad,” I soothed. “You’ve been a great Dad, really you have…”

  Jamie was beside himself. “Yeah – a great Dad – bringing home that evil witch to rip our home apart!”

  I could see Dad was on the verge of going back to ripping him apart and surprised myself by hearing myself saying angrily, “Shut it, Jamie! Dad has as much right as the rest of us to have a relationship, and he would have been able to have one years ago if he hadn’t had to look after us, so shut your fat mouth and show some respect! We promised Dad we wouldn’t have sex till we were eighteen and you’ve gone and broken your promise.”

  “You promised,” he said sulkily. “I didn’t.”

  I thought back to the conversation and realised that he’d never actually said the words out loud. That had been me.

  “And then I told you to always use a condom!” Dad said heavily.

  “Have you seen the price of those things?” Jamie protested.

  “For God’s sake Jamie, if you can afford all those fancy gadgets in your room, you can afford a condom or two!” I fired at him. I bit back on confronting him about how come he had the money for them in front of Dad.

  “You can talk about broken promises,” Jamie mocked. I sensed he was trying to divert both me and Dad from the issue of the where he’d got all the booty from by going on the attack. “You and Adam are shagging each other’s brains out.”

  “For your information,” I said with quiet dignity. “Quinn has chucked me because I refused to sleep with him because of what I’d promised Dad…”

  I was disappointed to see the mixed expression that passed across Dad’s face. It was obvious that he too had assumed that I’d gone ahead with Quinn.

  “If I make a promise to you, I keep it.” I snapped at him. “Thanks a bunch for thinking my word doesn’t mean anything! You clearly have no trust in me!”

  I whirled round and ran up the stairs and left them both to it. Men are all bastards, I thought. Poor Sally.

  At work on Wednesday I kept getting distracted.

  “What’s up?” Steve Bolton asked.

  “What?” I responded vaguely.

  “That’s what I mean!” Steve pointed out. “You keep standing around with a spanner dangling loosely in one hand, staring into space.”

  I shook myself into the present. “Sorry, stuff going on at home,” I said briskly. “What were you wanting me to do with this Skoda?”

  “Not boyfriend problems then?” He probed slyly.

  I glanced sharply at him. Had he heard something? “Quinn and I split up a bit ago,” I lied coolly. “And that’s not a problem, that’s a relief.”

  He looked unnecessarily interested in the Quinn information, so I walked quickly away.

  That evening I skipped going home and went straight on to Jo’s. As we worked on the car I found myself saying, “I’ve just found out that my boyfriend has been sleeping with someone else, my Dad’s brought home a mental woman who I suspect is going to become my stepmother, and we’ve just found out that my six
teen year old little brother has got his fifteen year old girlfriend pregnant…”

  Jo barely glanced up. “Whoa – heavy. Pass me that wrench will you?”

  I felt myself relaxing. Yeah, why stress about it?

  Bowker had sent me out on my bike to pick up an urgent part for them on the other side of town and when I glanced at my watch I noticed that it just so happened to be school finishing time. So I went the long way round past my old stamping grounds. Just as Rajesh had said, Sahmir was hanging out round the corner, safely out of sight of the new security guards and exiting teachers. I drew up beside him, letting the engine tick nonchalantly over.

  He looked uneasy as I flipped the visor up and glanced up and down along the street.

  “Where’s Jamie?” I asked.

  “Your dad came to pick him up - said they had a meeting to go to.” His tone of voice held no meaningful overtones so I figured Jamie was keeping the Sally thing a bit quiet.

  “So what are you up to hanging around on your own here?” I asked innocently.

  He looked even more uncomfortable.

  “How’s Nasim?” I pricked.

  “Ok, no thanks to you!” He snapped, his eyes suddenly flashing hatred at me.

  I raised my eyebrows. “If you hadn’t been more interested in what you could squeeze out of Nasim in blackmail goodies than your chaperoning duties, there wouldn’t have been any unsuitable boyfriend for her to run away to in the first place. How did you spin it,” I needled, “to get yourself off the hook? Pretended she’d been deceiving you too and meeting him round at my place or something?”

  From the way his gaze slid away from me I divined that he’d somehow managed to wriggle out of being blamed for anything. I felt like dobbing him in to his family right now about his new line of business to get the little weasel into the hottest of hot water that he’d ever experienced, but regretfully I knew that if I did that, I’d be getting Jamie into it too, ruining the chances of my family ever being rehabilitated in the eyes of Nasim’s, and messing up my plans of re-uniting Rajesh with his beloved through her undying gratefulness for what he’d done for her brother. So I quickly revved up and roared off to avoid making a tactical error before I’d decided exactly what to do about the whole situation.