by Emma Vikes
"How are you doing?"
"I'm fine. Are you free? Can you talk?" She asked.
"Sure." I responded casually. "What's up?"
I took another spoonful of cereal as she began to speak.
"Well to begin, I'm sorry for the awkwardness and silence, Damian. This past week has just been crazy for me."
"Oh, it's alright. I imagine you having to deal with so much pressure at the moment. I ain't mad. Post proposal jitters? That's a thing, right? Yes, that's a thing. Dr. Damian says so." I joked.
"Why thank you doctor. I didn't know I was suffering from that. Thank you for the expert diagnosis as always." She laughed.
"Anytime. So that will be a consultation fee of $500." I continued, chuckling.
"Oh, how splendid. Do you take credit cards?" She responded, still laughing.
"Cash please? Strictly hundred dollar bills." I said in my best imitation of a hip-hop rapper's voice.
Vanessa hated hip hop music. My rapper impression was just one of the many ways I had discovered over the years of jesting with her.
"Oh please." She responded in mock disgust.
And in usual banter fashion, Vanessa and I were back on talking terms, trading jokes and playful jabs with each other as quickly as we could come up with them, the awkwardness melting away completely.
"Oh, I missed this." She exhaled in relief when there was finally a break in our comic session.
"Same here. So many times, I wanted to pick up the phone and just talk to you, especially with work and Mike Duncan. But I just figured to give you a little space. I knew you would talk to me whenever you were ready."
"What about work and Mike Duncan?" She responded instantly alert.
"Not so fast, Sonic. What's with the post proposal jitters?" I countered.
She sighed.
"I don't know Damian. I just keep wondering from time to time whether this is the right decision. Can I make a little confession? When I said I thought you were going to scold me for saying yes, the truth is I was kind of hoping and expecting you to."
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe having to justify my response to his proposal with you would have solidified my decision.”
"But I asked if you were happy?"
"Yes, and I said I was."
"So, you lied to me?"
"No, I didn't lie. I am happy... I think... hmmm. The truth is I don't know."
There was a brief pause.
“Do you love him?” I asked.
“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” She responded with a nervous chuckle.
“Well, maybe because we are all expecting that you must be in love with him for you to accept to marry him.”
She exhaled in frustration and stayed silent. Her silence however was enough answer for me. Vanessa was confused about the whole marriage proposal not because she didn’t want to get married, but because she wasn’t in love with Dylan. She probably already knew this herself, but was still trying to come to terms with it, hence her confusion.
“Ok, how about a simpler question then since the love question is proving quite difficult? So, why did you say yes to Dylan?”
“Because... well we are in a relationship. I mean it is a pretty serious relationship even though it’s been just three months. I care for him deeply and he makes me happy.” She responded and I could hear the sincerity in her voice.
I didn’t doubt her care for Dylan. She was in a relationship with him after all and seemingly very happy. But was what she felt for Dylan enough to say yes to a marriage proposal? Was it going to be enough to sustain a marriage?
‘And how much do I know about Dylan asides what Vanessa has told me herself?’
I’d asked her about him from time to time and gotten a general impression of the man from her responses. I’d even met him on one of my work trips to Chicago. Even though the trip had been brief, Vanessa had ensured that I had dinner with them on the eve of my return to New York. My ‘charmer impression’ of him had been solidified then. I’d remembered feeling the man was quite slippery which was consistent with his ‘charmer’ personality. However, other than that, I really knew nothing more.
Vanessa might not love him. But at least she cared for him, enough to say yes to his proposal. Love could grow any time after all. We just had to make sure that what she had was enough to go into a marriage with. More importantly, I also needed to get to know more about Dylan, to ensure that Vanessa wasn’t going to be making a very grave mistake.
‘I need to have a background check done on him. No need to tell Vanessa especially if there is a high probability that I would find nothing. As soon as we are done talking, I’d place a call to Horacio and have him check Dylan out.’ I thought.
Horacio was a private investigator I used from time to time, to investigate some of my cases. He was good at his job and incredibly adept at getting the information I needed. If there was something to find, Horacio was most certainly going to find it.
‘Speaking of Horacio, I should also get him to check out Mike’s client.’ I thought.
I wasn’t making any headway with my research on them after all. Maybe it was time to bring in the big guns.
“Are you still there?” Vanessa asked, stunning me out of my reverie.
“Oh yes. I was just thinking.” I responded.
“About?”
“About everything you are saying to me. What else?” I chuckled.
“And?” She queried.
“Well people have married for less. My question is do you think what you have for Dylan is enough to accept his marriage proposal?”
There was a brief pause in which I let my message sink in.
“If you think it’s enough, then by all means go ahead. If it isn’t, then you would have to let Dylan know immediately.”
I heard a scowl on the other end letting me know that Vanessa hadn’t agreed with my last statement.
“Maybe not to end marriage plans, but probably to give you more time to grow into the idea.” I added.
There was no response this time around.
“So? Is it enough?” I continued.
She exhaled before responding.
“I think so.”
“This isn’t a matter of I think so, Vanessa. You need to be certain about your decision before you proceed. I’d advise you to take some time and think about it. Let me know what you arrive at. Ok?”
“Ok.” She responded. “So, what about Mike Duncan?” She asked almost immediately, startling me with the fact that she hadn’t forgotten.
This time I was the one who exhaled in frustration. After a brief moment, I began to talk.
CHAPTER 10
Vanessa
AS SOON AS THE CALL ended, I stood up from the bed and headed to the bathroom.
For a brief moment, I had been tempted to cancel my existing appointment with Lisa. We were supposed to have a little girl’s outing this weekend to enable her get away from home and have some much-needed relaxation time; away from wifely and motherly duties.
Knowing how much well the getaway would do for her, I decided to stay the course. Cancelling all because I wanted to stay in and review Damian’s line of questioning didn’t seem like a good reason to deny my friend an opportunity to relax.
‘I could always go ahead to do my thinking when we get back.’ I reasoned as I stepped down from the bed and headed to the bathroom. I needed to get ready as Lisa was going to be coming through anytime soon.
A sigh of satisfaction escaped my lips as soon as I stepped into the shower and had the hot water streaming down all over my body. My muscles relaxed as the warmth began seeping into my skin.
‘That’s the stuff!’
Slowly I’d begun lathering my skin with bath gel, getting to sigh even deeper with satisfaction. I always cherished my bath on the weekends, as I was able to spend more time pampering my body than I would have on a weekday.
With the time constraints on weekdays, it was simply a bath
which didn’t last very long. On weekends however, it was the whole works; exfoliation, facial mask, body wax, manicure and pedicure, in short by the end of the weekend, I always felt like a born-again human being.
In a way, it was also my routine of coping with a stressful week and making sure that my body got all the pampering and relaxation it needed.
However, now that Lisa was most likely on her way, I was going to only have time to take a long bath. The rest I could do later when we got back.
After what seemed like an eternity, I emerged from the bathroom in a bathrobe and with my towel tied around my head. I walked straight to my dresser and sat on the stool ready to cream my body.
As I picked up the body lotion, my mind began to ease back into the conversation I had with Damian just moments ago.
‘Now is not the time. There would be time for that when I get back.’ I began to scold myself just as I heard the chime of the doorbell downstairs.
“Shit!” I exclaimed already knowing who it was.
I dropped the lotion and stood up to go get the door.
“I’m coming.” I screamed as another chime greeted me as soon as I arrived downstairs.
I opened the door to see ‘vacation mode’ Lisa standing in my doorway with dark shades on, complete with an overnight travelling bag.
The shock on her face at seeing me still in my bathrobe definitely matched mine as well on seeing her with the getup.
“What the hell? I thought we were just going to spend the day together?” I queried.
“What the hell? I thought you would have been ready by now?” She queried right back almost instantaneously.
“And what do you mean by just going to spend the day together?” She continued.
Now I was the one confused.
She had sent me a text message after close of work on Thursday, asking that we spend Saturday together. I had obliged knowing that asides the fact that she needed time to relax, I also needed a whole day to myself as well.
By Friday morning, she’d mentioned it in passing and I had assured her that we were still on for Saturday. Now Saturday had come and it seemed I hadn’t exactly gotten the message she’d sent. It wasn’t like we hadn’t spent the night away before – in fact we’d travelled on mini vacations several times – but I wasn’t aware that was the plan I had agreed to.
‘Or had she just changed the plan and assumed I’d follow through as well?’ I thought.
As my mind struggled to make sense of the situation in front of me, Lisa had already pulled out her phone and began scrolling through it. My immediate guess was that she was looking for the text message she had sent me.
“Listen... Hey you, I’m thinking of going away this Saturday. You down?’ She said, reading her text message to me.
“Your response? Sure. Don’t mind time away. Where you wanna go? Never mind. Surprise me. Saturday loading. Whoop whoop. Smiley face.” She finished before lowering her phone to glare at me.
I remembered the message clearly but I had definitely interpreted it differently.
“Well I thought going away this Saturday meant we were going to spend the day having some alone time. In my defense, if what you meant was for us to spend the night away, you could have as well said you were thinking of going away this weekend. That would definitely have been clearer.” I argued.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” She responded as she pushed me aside and walked into the apartment. “If what I meant was a day’s outing, I definitely wouldn’t have used the term going away. I’d have most likely said, do you wanna hang out this Saturday? And you very well know that.” She continued as I shut the door and turned to face her.
“Well I guess I’m going to have to start getting ready for a weekend getaway.” I conceded.
“Not like you are even ready for a day’s outing.” She fired back.
My mouth dropped open before I gathered my wits and responded.
“Keep running your mouth. You’d end up going alone if you are not careful.”
My response brought laughter to her lips as her hands went up in surrender.
“Good.” I smirked as I began heading for the stairs, expecting her to follow close behind me.
“At least I can continue with my preparation while you help me pack.” I continued.
“Whatever you say, Princess.” She responded in jest behind me causing me to chuckle as well.
“By the way, where exactly are we going?” I asked as soon as I arrived at the top of the stairs.
“You asked for a surprise, didn’t you? Where we are going is left for me to know and for you to find out missy.” She responded.
When I wouldn’t budge at the top of the stairs, she gave me a playful pat on my butt and lightly shoved me forward. “Go get ready miss.” She said.
We walked back into my room where I headed back to the dresser, while she walked into my closet to help me pack.
By the time she emerged, she was holding an overnight bag in her right hand as well as a stack of clothes on her left. She walked over to the bed and dumped them onto it.
I spied my bikini amongst the pile and immediately blurted out, “where in God’s name are we going to?”
She simply ignored me and began folding what she had chosen into the overnight bag. I chuckled at her attempt to ignore me and knew exactly what to say to get her to speak.
“Well I talked with Damian today. We finally had that argument.” I said.
The clothing item she was folding at that moment, dropped from her hand as her head came up to stare at me.
“And?” She responded as her eyes widened.
This time, I was the one who pretended to ignore her; turning on my stool to face the mirror and back her. She moved with lightning speed and was behind me before I could react. Her hands came around my neck and she began to choke me lightly.
“Speak woman or God help me, I’m going to slay you where you seat.” She threatened.
“Ok, ok. I’d tell you.” I laughed.
She let go of my neck and came forward to sit on the dresser, so she could stare directly into my eyes.
“So? How did the argument go?” She asked.
“Well, it started with me apologising for staying away from him and...”
“Please skip to the juicy part.” Lisa responded, cutting me off mid-sentence.
“What juicy part?” I chuckled. “Ma’am, you better sit quietly and listen to my story.” I threatened playfully.
“Fine.”
“So, I apologised. We then joked around for a bit before I admitted that I was actually expecting him to question my decision to say yes to Dylan’s proposal.”
“And?” Lisa’s eyes were wide with excitement once more.
“Well he said a bunch of stuff like didn’t he ask me if I was happy and all that. Eventually he settled on asking me some questions.”
“Questions like?”
“Whether I love Dylan. And when I couldn’t answer, he asked why I said yes to the marriage proposal.”
At this point, Lisa was brimming with excitement for reasons I couldn’t yet fathom. It seemed my story was exciting her more than I’d anticipated.
“He then asked if what I have for Dylan is enough to accept his marriage proposal. Well since I couldn’t answer immediately, he asked me to think about it. And that was it.”
“Wait, What!” Lisa exclaimed in disappointment. “That’s it?”
“You sound disappointed. Is there something you are not telling me?” I asked in confusion.
“Oh no. Nothing at all.” She responded, standing up and walking back to her folding task.
“You aren’t getting off that easy woman.” I answered, standing up to my feet. “Why do you sound disappointed? And come to think of it, what did you mean by skip to the juicy part?” I insisted.
She sighed and dropped her hands to her side.
“Well I had this fantasy that you both would talk and it would finally end with you realising that the re
ason you don’t love Dylan is because you are in love with someone else.” She conceded.
“In love with someone else?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Who?” I queried.
She paused for a bit before responding.
“You are in love with Damian, Vanessa.” She said simply.
“What!” I exclaimed.
CHAPTER 11
Damian
I SAT AT MY DESK ON Monday morning, reeling from how fruitless the weekend had been. I had still been unable to find anything in my research of Mike’s client.
Even though I’d ended up calling Horacio immediately after my call with Vanessa on Saturday, he also hadn’t gotten back to me with anything as well; not on Mike’s client and not on Dylan. If there was anything to find however, I knew Horacio was going to find it. I just needed to be patient.
I’d also mentioned my work issues to Vanessa, after we’d talked about her and Dylan. She’d said she was going to do some research as well to help me with my case. She’d mentioned that she had heard something, but she needed to confirm first before getting back to me. She however hadn’t gotten back to me also. In fact, I’d called her on Sunday, only to find out that she was on a mini vacation and was returning back home in the evening. As a result, I didn’t expect her to have had time to do any research.
It seemed I was fast exhausting all available options to me on this case. I needed to come up with something and fast.
I ran my hands through my hair in frustration as I began to deliberate on any other option that might still be available.
There was still the option of trying to track Mike Duncan down as he had still failed to return my calls or messages. Meeting with him I could easily pick up on any signal emanating from him with regards to the case; that was if he didn’t first tell me what I needed to know.
I picked up the phone on my desk and tried his firm’s number again.
As usual, I reached the receptionist who proceeded to inform me after the usual shenanigans, that Mike wasn’t on seat.
“Has he been getting my messages?” I asked sternly.
She’d assured me that all my messages were forwarded to his office and that he was going to get back to me once he was free. I shook my head and ended the call. Even though I’d always known that the sleazebag lawyer was avoiding me, I hadn’t expected him to hold the charade for this long. I needed to come up with something extraordinary, if I was to succeed in chasing him down.
