Uptown Lovers-Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve
Brad went shopping at the Constant Spring Mall along with Jenna. Kailen and Jaimie also came along. He saw Rick and then Celia separately cruising the Mall. Bev and Morgana went up to Sally’s hardware to help out with some stock-taking she was having.

Stewart drove to campus that Saturday morning for his rendezvous with Bobbette. He parked his car and went over to the agreed spot. She was there already, sitting on one of the concrete benches. She was dressed in a tank- top and cutoff jeans shorts which showed off her well toned legs. Both her fingernails and toenails were painted green. Stewart didn’t know the color lip gloss she was wearing, but it made her even more desirable. She had in big earrings and her cane-rowed hair was tied up.
He took a seat beside her.
“You look good enough to eat, baby.”
“Thanks, Stewie and you look so handsome and well groomed.”
Stewart laughed and Bobbette offered a wry smile.
"I suppose these benches take us a far way back."
"That's why I still believe it’s a mistake you’re making in agreeing to marry Robert.”
"I haven't agreed to marry him yet. Remember you're the one who’ll have to tell me what to do.”
"What can I tell you? I can't match that guy. I can't ask you to marry me because I can’t give you the kind of support he can give you.”
"You know what, you’re thinking about that girl, Morgan. I know I have only my hot looking body that you could always get rid of your frustrations in. How many times have you slept with her since she returned to the island?”
"You expect me to tell you that? I’ve never asked you about Robert.”
“Why should you? You know I’m his woman. You’ve always been complaining that you weren’t getting enough from her. I suppose that’s why you sought me out.”
“Why bring up those things again? Anyway, it’s you, who are telling me what your husband to be, can give you.”
"You've never even hinted at marriage. You think I like to pass Morgana on the streets or go anywhere and see her and know that I’m sleeping with her fiancé. Remember, it was because I threatened never to sleep with you again why you didn’t get married to her.”
Stewart remembered but didn’t reply, she continued.
"You don't want to hurt her. I would have been the one, who got hurt. I just invited you here to find out your true character. I bet you never marry Morgana. You’ll still be pursuing younger and sexier girls than her in an effort to preserve your youth,” she flung at him.
"We shouldn't be parting this way. I can't understand you. I should be the one who is grieving. Morgana and I aren’t even speaking to each other.”
“I'm sure I’m not the cause of you and her not being on speaking terms. You know something, I should be crying when I remember the things we’ve done together. As I said I’m marrying Robert because he can help me. I suppose I’ll grow to love him later on.”
"I’ll miss you, Bobbette, but I wish you the best."
"Stewart, if you had just given me hope, that someday I would wear your ring, then I would be willing to stick around. So it's goodbye and thanks for coming.”
She came into his arms and shed a few tears before pulling out and going to her car.
Stewart watched her drive off.
He beat his fists on the stone desks a few times hoping that nobody saw him. He felt like a big hole had been punched into his life. He would call Yasmin for her to come and sleep with him or he could go up to her house.
Damn Morgana, she was never around when he needed her. Meanwhile he would go down to Randy Chin and probably play a few games of dominoes and drink a few malt beverages to help him relax. He went to his car and drove off.

Brad went to Fort Clarence beach on Sunday with Jenna and Jaimie. Kailen also went with them.
Kailen and Jaimie were in the water frolicking and Brad and Jenna were lying on their backs on the beach.
"You have a great body, Jenna."
"Thanks, and you have a great one too. You must do a lot of exercise to keep in shape, Brad?”
"I play a lot of sports like six-a-side football and when I was in college, I used to play a lot of games.”
"Where is that girl, what's her name, Dania?"
"You are aware that we broke up. I understand that she is planning to migrate.”
"If I'm to start a relationship with you I want to know everything about you."
"I thought you knew everything about me, what more is there to know?”
"I'll know when I'm comfortable with what I know about you.”
"I’m not seeing anybody else and Dania and I had broken up before she came to fight you.”
"I'm sorry for calling you a dirty liar."
"That's okay, maybe I deserved it," he said as Kailen and Jaimie came towards them.”
"Is everything okay, Kailen, Jaimie?" Jenna asked as they listened to the music being pumped out as a show was going on.
"Let's go buy some food," Brad told them as they made their way out to where they were selling food.

Rick was at home on Sunday afternoon. Celia had cooked breakfast and dinner. They had eaten both meals around the same table without uttering a word to the other.
Later, as he was relaxing in one of the lounge chairs, she came and stood over him.
"Aren't you going out? See, I'm not a bad girl after all. I’ve been cooking your breakfast and dinner all this time although we aren’t speaking to each other.”
"I live in a house with a woman and we sleep in the same bed for more than a week now without touching each other. Me a hot blooded male, here she is accusing me of being unfaithful to her. You’re just tempting me to go out and look another woman,” he said, taking her hands and she fell on top of him.
"Rick, let me go. Go and look for your girlfriend."
She tried to wriggle out of his hold, but he held her tight. Rick began to kiss her and fondle her breasts, which had fallen out of her bra. She started to protest, but when their tongues met and he cupped her breasts and began kissing her nipples, her hands fell to her side. She made one last attempt to pull out of his hold, but he refused to let her go. Finally, she gave in to his caresses.
"We can't do it here, not at this time of the day."
"Nobody will see us," he said as he tried to feed more of her breast into his mouth.
"Are you crazy?" Celia cried. Her voice made Rick realize how turned on she was.
She jumped up, took his hands and led him into the spare bedroom. They undressed each other, both falling on the bed with Rick on top of her. Rick’s muscular body was in sharp contrast to Celia’s bottle-shaped body Her skin was flawless and her breasts well developed for such a slim woman.
Rick continued where he had left off and they shared hot kisses. He then began licking her nipples and playing with her most sensitive areas. Celia kept moving her body in a slow dance to his caresses. Finally, she pushed his hand away and took the condom and roll it onto his member.
Later Celia and Rick were lying in each other’s arms, enjoying the afterglow of their love feast. They were wondering at what had kept their passions bottled up for so long.
"What's to become of us?" Celia asked as she rolled over to her side of the bed.
"We’ll have to try and work things out if we don't want to go the way of Brad and Dania.”
"Yes, Rick."
That was all he heard her say before she dropped off to sleep.

Monday evening Stewart took Morgana to Bob's entertainment complex. Morgana noticed the change in him. He asked her about her mother and about Bev and the problems she was having with Rory. They spent most of the evening dancing. They were having some drinks at their table when Morgana said.
"I can't believe you've changed so much in one week. Last week you looked a shadow of yourself, but now you’re looking like the real Stewart, the man I fell in love with."
Stewart beamed with pride as he looked at his woman declaring her love for him.
"Everything's all right now. I always love the way how you stick it out with me, it’s nothing, darling,” he assured her.
"Okay, Stewie, I'll take your word for it," she said as they headed for the dance floor again.

Tuesday morning as Celia was getting ready to go to work after another night of some intense lovemaking with Rick, her cell phone rang. Rick had left before her as he could hardly awake.
"Celia, Teddy here, what’s happening? It looks as you want me to come up there and do that guy something."
"Teddy, I told you not to call me here. As for threatening Rick, I told you to stop it. I don't know why I ever got involved with you in the first place.”
"Remember when your man was away, I was the one taking care of you. Listen, I want to see you this evening. You'd better come to Betty’s Hideout,” he told her and ended the call.
Celia finished dressing for work and went down to her car. As she reversed out of her parking lot she nearly collided with an oncoming cyclist.

Rick was in his office Tuesday afternoon when Bev called him.
"Hi, what's up, Bev."
"Rick, we have to talk. Can we meet this evening? I'm leaving campus early.”
Rick wasn’t sure he wanted to talk to her after what happened on Sunday night. He and Celia had spent half of Monday night making love. Things seemed to be back on the level between them again.
"Okay, but what’s it about though?"
"How can you be asking that? You don't want to see me again, is that it? You never used to behave that way. It’s about us,” she said and ended the call before he could answer.
Rick didn't know what she meant about us. They had shared a few kisses. She had let him fondle her breasts, but had pushed him away when he tried to caress her legs.

Rick drove to campus and parked. He saw her talking to some friends; presently she came over to him.
"Hi," he said. "You look great."
"Thanks and you are looking so good."
They stood a moment appraising each other.
"Rick, I don't want to keep on seeing you. I've heard a lot about you and Celia. I even heard that she and Dania went to fight a girl they thought Brad was fooling around.”
"What did you hear about me and Celia?"
She waved his question away.
"I'm going to be honest with you. I've known Celia for a very long time and I don’t want to be the cause of any break-up between the two of you.”
"Are you afraid of Celia, or that she might attack you?”
"I like you a lot. I only wish that we had met under different circumstances, but you can always call me and we’ll talk.”
“I don't know how to take this, but I always respect a woman’s wishes. I’ll see around.”
He took her hand and shook it before going to his car.

The music at Betty's Hideout was pumping away when Teddy drove in, parked, locked up his car and came over to where Celia was seated and fidgeting as she waited his arrival. He came and sat opposite her.
"What's happening, Celia? Aren’t you glad to see me? I don’t like how you’re living with this guy, Rick. I’m sure that I’m a better lover than that guy plus I have more money than he. Are you still holding the fact that you caught me in bed with Carrie against me?”
He called the waiter over and ordered some drinks without even asking her what she was having.
"I don't know why I ever agreed to come and see you."
“Why did you come down to my house the other day? You and your boyfriend were having problems, but now everything is peaceful between both of you, you don’t want to see me anymore,” he said as their drinks arrived and he took his and push hers towards her.
Celia didn’t touch the drink. She was still wondering how she got involved with this guy.
"What's happening? Aren’t you going to have your drink?"
"Drink up; I've rented a room for the evening."
"You've done what?" Celia asked, taking up her bag.
"I don't have to take this kind of treatment from you and you can phone Rick and tell him about us,” she shouted before pulling up her chair and going to her car. Teddy shouted at her, but she ignored him and drove off.

Wednesday afternoon Bev was sitting on one of the concrete benches studying when Liam Jacobs came up to her.
"Hi, Bev, how's everything these days?"
Liam was a final year economics student from Barbados, hoping to qualify as an economist in a few years time. He was a tall guy probably around twenty five years of age and reasonably good looking, Bev had always thought.
"Everything's okay Liam, I haven't seen you around lately.”
"I've been around, but maybe you aren’t looking in my direction. You know I always thought you are the most beautiful girl on campus.”
Bev laughed and Liam smiled.
"There are lots of girls up here, who are better looking than I am.”
Liam was rumored to have a lot of women. It was even being said that it was one of them who was paying his tuition fees and had bought a car for him.
"How about going to Corners this weekend with me?"
"I really have to study all weekend. What about your girlfriend, Shakira? I’m sure you’re still together.”
"You’re probably the only person on campus who doesn’t know that we’ve broken up."
Bev wasn’t taking him up though. A lot of guys had been coming on to her, especially since they heard that she wasn’t hearing from Rory.
"I'll give it some thoughts, but I have a lot of studies and I doubt if I’ll have the time.”
"Yeah, I'll call you tomorrow."
Bev looked at him going towards his car. She shook her head; no matter how many times he called he would always be getting a negative answer.

On Thursday evening Celia drove into Betty's Hideout and went over to where Teddy was waiting on her.
"I'm going to stop meeting you if you don't know how to behave,” she said before taking her seat.
"What have I done now?"
"I told you not to call me at home and you still insist on doing that. Plus the last time we met you ordered drinks and didn’t even ask me what I wanted and then you rented a room and probably wanted to order me into it.”
"What I'm peeved about is you going to live with that guy, Rick, after I told you not to.”
"I don’t take orders from anybody and you know that too,” she said. "Listen, I'd better go."
"Suit yourself, but you could be in a lot of trouble."
Celia couldn't understand, it seemed that Teddy had changed. She didn’t know what he wanted from her and she wasn’t prepared to sleep with him again, now that she had found out the type of person he really was.
"Bye, Teddy," she told him and made her way to her car.

Bev was home, lying down on a sofa in her room. Liam Jacobs had called her about going out with him, but she had turned down his invitation. She hoped that he had gotten the message now that he didn’t stand a chance with her. He was simply not her type. She was still trying to digest what Roxanne had told her about Brittany. In her estimation the girl was now at least six months pregnant. She had tried calling Rory again, but was still not getting through. She was glad that her short lived romance with Rick was over.
She had never felt comfortable knowing that he was Celia’s boyfriend. She wanted to jump on Rory and claw at him for lying to her. She had given her body freely to him on so many occasions and now he had let her down. She felt like crying, but she told herself that she had no time for self pity. She desperately wanted to find out if it was true, but knew it was as Roxanne wouldn’t lie to her. It was she who had told her about Brittany and him in the first place. Maybe when he was coming the baby hadn’t begun to show or Roxanne would have told her then.
Bev wondered if it would be better for her to concentrate on completing her studies and forget about men for the time being. There was Glen, but he belonged to Leona. She knew that at one time she used to see him with a lot of girls. He seemed to have put that behind him ever since he resumed his studies.
He had always been polite to her every time they met. He would greet her with a hug and a kiss and wanted to know if everything was okay. She had gone to parties in Hershire Heights and met both of his parents. She had seen the smiles on their faces and nods of approval whenever she danced with him and wondered if Leona saw it too. She was just getting up to go downstairs when her cell phone rang. She picked it up and pressed the call button. She recognized the number. It was Glen’s number. He had indeed found his phone.
“How are you, Bev?”
“I’m fine, Glen. I see you’ve found your phone.”
“It was in the back of the car. So have you heard from Rory?”
“No, he still hasn’t called. But as it is I don’t want to hear from him again.”
“I thought you two were in love. I don’t mean to pry, but you know that Rory is my friend and I consider you a friend too, and I always wished both of you the best.”
“He has this girl over there. Brittany is her name and you know Roxanne. She called and told me that the girl was six months pregnant. He has always denied that he and the girl are friends. Now I understand that he’s being pressured to marry her.”
Glen knew that something like this was bound to happen with Rory being abroad. While he had settled down early with one woman, Rory wasn’t the type of guy to do that. He knew that Bev was making a mistake in going steady with him while he was still over there. Even out here when she and Rory were going around, he had other girls, but she wouldn’t be hearing about that from him, Glen thought.
“I’ve heard about him and her, but I never believed any of it. Are you sure that it’s true?”
“I can’t get him on his cell phone, all I get is his voice mail. I saw one of his friends, Strats Grey, the other day and I asked him about Rory and he said everything was okay. If he knew about Brittany, he wouldn’t have told me. You know how men are, and I didn’t ask.”
Glen knew Strats as he had been in the same class with him and had called him before he returned home.
“I told Strats to tell him to call me or even get his phone number if he was using a new one and let me call him but I haven’t heard from Strats. I think Strats gave him my message, but he doesn’t want to call me because he is afraid that I’ve found out about Brittany’s pregnancy.”
Glen felt he was at a disadvantage. He didn’t want to criticize Rory as for all he knew he and Bev hadn’t officially broken up.
“So what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to break off with him and concentrate on my studies and forget about men for the time being.”
“Men will always be trying to date you. With your looks I don’t think you can stay single for long.”
“Try me, after what Rory did, any other guy wanting to date me had better come with something good.”
Glen knew that she liked him, but it would be foolish of him to try to fill the void and he still had Leona and it would spoil things between him and her.
“If you still love Rory it would be good for you to find out the facts.”
“I told you already that I trust Roxanne. So why hasn’t he called me or give Strats a message to give me? I’m going to have a cup of tea and a sandwich and then go to bed. Thanks for calling,” she said and ended the call.

Friday, Stewart called Morgana about spending some time with him on the weekend.
"Are you coming by me on Saturday?"
"I don't think so, Stewart."
"How about Sunday, we could go to the beach and to Corners."
"There are still a lot of things we have to settle. I agree that we might have made up, but I'm not in the mood for any loving right now.”
Stewart put his left hand under his jaw. He had to blame Bobbette for his present predicament. In the past, he had her to go to. Damn the two of them anyway, he would look a new girlfriend.
"Okay, how about me coming to take you to Corners tomorrow night?”
"That's okay."
He hoped she didn't complain when he didn't have much time for her. He didn’t know what she meant by falling in love with him. If she was really in love with him she would be willing to spend a lot more time with him.

Brad and Jenna went to Corners that evening, they saw Stewart and Morgana there. Brad remembered what he had told her. He greeted both her and Stewart.
Morgana said hello to Jenna but she didn’t know why she felt an instant dislike for the girl as she watched her dancing with Brad.
Rick took Celia to Solid Mix, Alex was also there with twin sisters. Maria and her boyfriend, Ron, were there too.
Darren took his girlfriend, Bianca, to his friend's birthday party. Sally and Monique and their respective beaus were at a party put on by Sally’s association at one of those New Kingston hotels. Bev went along with her mother.

Stan lay relaxed and looking up into the ceiling. As he listened to a nearby sound system he didn’t feel hungry and he had a lot of energy. He got up and started dancing to the music. He remembered about Bishop and the girl, who had lied on Talbert. Talbert would never do a thing like that and she had pointed him out and caused him to die. He needed money to buy some more marijuana and liquor as the money he had on him was his rent and food money. He wasn’t getting enough work as there were other cars in the district and some of the drivers were youths barely out of their teens, Stan thought. He’d probably hit Linton one day next week. He wasn’t going to touch the money he had in his bank account. Stan didn't know where Natalie was. She must have found the money he had hidden in the room. He knew that she would have moved to somewhere else where he couldn’t find her. He had furniture and appliances valued at over two hundred thousand dollars and Bishop had caused him to lose it. Stan lay thinking about three persons, the girl who had pointed out Talbert, Linton Marsh and Eric Bishop and didn’t know when he dropped off to sleep.

After Brad dropped her off at her apartment that night Jenna decided to give Bobbette a call about her and Robert’s forthcoming marriage. She had a two bedroom apartment and she stayed in one while her niece and son stayed in the other. Brad could have slept with her if she had wanted, but when he brought up the subject she told him no. She didn’t want to give in to him as yet, until she was sure where the relationship was going. She was still in consternation about Robert's decision to marry Bobbette and what it meant for her and her son. She would be needing his support as Jaimie got older, so she thought she had better clear up certain things with his intended bride. Bobbette had just retired to bed when Jenna called. She answered the phone and Jenna introduced herself.
"And what can I do for you?" Bobbette asked. This girl had a nerve to be calling her at this time of night.
"My name is Jenna Marsden, I have a son for Robert. I understand you’re going to be married to him.”
"I don't see what that has to do with you. I can’t understand why we’re having this conversation. Seems to me that the person you should be having it with should be Robert and not me.”
"You go to hell, girl. I know all about you and that tall guy with the flat top hairstyle. Robert is a fool to be marrying you, but he’ll come to his senses one day.”
"And you go to the devil. You don’t know anything about me and you had better not try to dig any further into my personal affairs. You were only trying to trap Robert by having a baby for him and yet he didn’t want you, it’s me he proposed to.”
Bobbette ended the call not sure the girl heard her last words. She thought she ought to call Brad and complain about his girlfriend, no wonder Dania and Celia had gotten into that fight with her. Bobbette went to bed as images of Stewart and Robert flashed through her mind.
Jenna kept thinking about her conversation with Bobbette as she prepared for bed. Maybe she had made a mistake in calling her. Even if she told Robert about Stewart, she doubted if he would believe her. Her son and niece were already snoring. Finally, she went to bed, her mind on Brad and worrying about how Robert’s marriage would affect the maintenance of her son.

Brad was drinking some champagne and watching television. Jenna had refused his request to spend the night with her. Somehow he had expected such a reply from her. It showed that he still had some more work to do. Morgana must be enjoying herself with Stewart. He would stick around Jenna. If he dumped her and looked another woman, Morgana would say he was a womanizer. Damned it, what did he care what she wanted to think? She had her man and he didn’t even have a woman. He finished drinking his champagne, turned off the television and went to bed.

Kedija had moved some of her things to Linton’s apartment. She had seen some women’s items there and when she asked him about it he told her that they belonged to Flavia. They had been quickly shipped back to her. Now she was sitting in his living room, drinking some champagne while she waited for her man. They were due to go out for dinner this evening before going down to Ruddys. Despite Linton’s assurances she was feeling a bit uneasy about Arlene Martin, Ceda Dennis and Cosmore Ryan leaving the crew. Linton had told her that it was a customary occurrence in most crews but she wasn’t satisfied. Arlene had broken up with Cosmore and he just got angry and left the crew. Ceda’s boyfriend, Fitz Bethune, had complained that she wasn’t measuring up before dropping her and getting another woman, Sabrina Littlejohn, to go around with him. She had asked Linton about crew members’ women getting pregnant, but he said he didn’t think anything was wrong with that. She heard his van drive in and in no time he was inside the apartment. He kissed her before taking off his jacket. Linton always wore a suit to work and she had asked him about it, but he said that it was part of the dress code for senior positions like his.
“There are two more casualties in the crew. Sheena Britton and Waldo Masters had a falling out last night and both of them have left the crew,” he informed her. She knew both Sheena and her boyfriend, Waldo. She had heard the rumors that Waldo was very jealous of Sheena.
“Sheena and her sister, Ayisha, share their apartment. Waldo went there and saw Ayisha’s boyfriend, Duane Bembridge and his brother, Lerone, talking to them and he just got mad and trashed their living room. The two guys wanted to beat him up so they had to call the police. Sheena called me and was crying because he smashed up a television set and other equipment belonging to Ayisha worth more than half a million dollars.”
“What! How’s he going to pay for all that damage?”
“I don’t know. He’s in custody right now.”
“I’m sorry to hear,” she said and wondered how long she and Linton would last.
She mixed a drink for him and he joined her on the back patio. He would cool off, take a bath before they headed out to dinner.
“These things happen in the best of organizations or groups.”
“I suppose so, but I keep wondering about us. Why am I with a man who is a non-resident of this country?”
“Relax, Kedija, I’ve cut all ties with up North and you can call me a returning resident.”
“I think I need to know more about your life in the States.”
“What more is there to tell? I won a track scholarship and didn’t follow it up, but I was successful in getting those two degrees in finance.”
“What about your girlfriends?”
“Why are you so curious all of a sudden? I thought I told you about all of my girlfriends.”
“You know why I had to drop Flavia and Morgana and I broke up soon after we both returned,” he replied. “Come, let’s go and get ready.”
They both went into the bedroom to change off and then have a bath before heading out.
To be continued. Please visit my blog at:http://stredwick.blogspot.com