by Mott, Teisha
Andie looked at her curiously. “What are you going to be doing over by Micah?”
Samantha gave her a sly look. “That’s for me to know and you to find out! Later, little sis!”
Andie watched her sister walk away. She turned to Fern. “He really does love me?” She was surprised to find that her ears were getting accustomed to Nathan’s brand of vocals.
“He really does,” Fern confirmed. “Are you going to find him and make up with him?’
Andie smiled. “I might….”
“I think you’d better!” Fern advised. “You may never find another Nathan Hansen as long as you live!”
***
The hall meeting was over, and in Nathan’s opinion, so was his life. He had half expected in the middle of his performance to see Andie run up to the stage, and take the microphone from him, and throw herself helplessly into his arms, and tell him that she forgave him and she still loved him. Wasn’t that the way it happened in the movies? Unfortunately for him, he was not in the movies. He knew she was there. Samantha and Micah had told him. But she did not come to find him. He had embarrassed himself for nothing. He knew it was definitely time to give up on Andie, but a part of him still held on to a glimmer of hope. He sat by the door of the common area, waiting to see her coming up the walkway.
“She must come!” Omar told him. “If she doesn’t, then she’s an idiot!”
“She’s an idiot, he’s an idiot… they make the perfect little idiot couple!” Jeremy commented. “I have never in my life seen a pair of idiots so suited for each other!” He chuckled. “‘Oh Andie. I’m the idiot who stopped you from shaking...’ This is sweet!”
Nathan stood and faced him, and for the first time, Jeremy realised that Nathan was actually taller than he was. “You know something, Jeremy? I am sick and tired of you. I have never been so fed up with one human being in my entire life. You have been a thorn in my flesh for almost ten years now, and guess what? I have had it!”
“Yeah? What are you going to do about it?” Jeremy sneered, looking mockingly at Nathan.
“What I should have done a long time ago!” Nathan seethed. He shoved Jeremy as hard as he could. “That is for all the times you got me into trouble during high school!” Before Jeremy could recover, Nathan shoved him again, even harder. “That is for all the girls you have disrespected over the years, and this…” He made a fist, and served Jeremy with a left hook to his face that could have broken his jawbone. “This is for messing up my relationship with Andie!”
Jeremy fell back on to the canvas chair in the common room. Nathan looked around and realised that the entire household and Samantha had witnessed what had happened, but he did not care. He turned and marched out of the house. He walked across the hall in no general direction, with a bittersweet feeling in his heart. He was satisfied that he had finally handled Jeremy, but painfully cognisant of the fact that there was still something missing from his life, and at that moment, there was nothing more he could do to fix it.
329
The Bet
epilogue
It was nine fifteen. Nathan sat in the middle of his bed, glumly reading his Sports, Government and Society notes. Nothing he read meant anything to him. Every five minutes, someone passed his window with animated chatting, their view of his performance the subject of their conversation. Some were impressed by what he had done, but most were saying how stupid he was to make such a declaration publicly. Nathan wondered how long it would take for Preston Hall to get over his performance, and for him to get over Andie. He hoped that his performance would be a nine-day wonder. Andie was a different story – getting over her could take a lifetime.
There was a faint knock on his bedroom door.
“Come in!” He called. He looked up, and was astonished to see Andie walk in. She was dressed in faded blue jeans, and white baby tee with the tiny Izzy flower logo on the left pocket.
“Hi!” She said.
Nathan jumped up suddenly. “Andie! I can’t believe it! You - you’re here!”
“Yeah, through the biggest set up since Watergate.” She gave a small smile. “See – I have learned some American Politics after all!”
“Yes, you have,” Nathan agreed.
“I never knew I’d be treated to such a display!” Andie said. “But it seems like in recent history, every time I come down here, I get a rare treat!”
Nathan winced. “Andie, I know you think I’m some kind of a …”
“Jerk? Creep? Phoney? You can be whichever you want, Nathan, because they all fit!”
“Andie, just listen…”
“No, Nathan!” Andie interrupted. “You just listen. When you came chatting up to me, something told me that there was more to it than you just wanting, for no viable, justifiable reason, to help me with my Politics homework. But I ignored my instinct, because I just so wanted to believe that you could possibly like me…”
“Andie…”
“And you turned out to be exactly what I thought you were. You used me, and you hurt me in front of everybody!”
“Can I say something now?” Nathan asked.
“No!” Andie answered. “Because I’m not finished. I did not come in here to yell at you, Nate. I think I’ve yelled enough. I thought about it long and hard, and I decided to come in here to find you because…” She paused. “I came in here to tell you that I cannot do this anymore. I don’t want to hurt anymore. I want to go back to feeling the way I did when I thought you loved me…”
“But I do love you, Andie!” Nathan cut in. “I do. I wanted so bad for you to understand that. I mean, all that happened earlier tonight – me getting up in front of everybody like that, was to the only way to let you know how much I do!”
Andie smiled, remembering Nathan’s performance. “By the way, you were awful!”
“I know.”
“You can’t hold a note for nothin’!”
Nathan forced a smile.
She sat next to him on the bed. “It’s a good thing you’re bright, because you’d starve if you tried to make a living as a singer. That was the most humiliating thing ever.”
“I deserve to be humiliated. You see, I made a bet with this idiot that I could seduce this really, really great girl. But I messed it up.”
“How so?”
“I went and fell in love with her, and had to forfeit the bet.”
“You didn’t have to forfeit,” Andie said. “What made you change your mind?”
“Would you believe me if I told you that she did?”
Andie looked away. “As if she could change anything about you!”
Nathan adjusted himself on the bed so he was facing her again. “She has changed everything about me, Andie!” He said. “You see, when I met her, I realised there were more important things in life than winning bets and proving points. I realised that I loved her too much to take advantage of her that way. I wanted her to save herself for the man she would spend forever with.” He looked away. “Whether or not that man turns out to be me.”
“Well… who knows, it might just be you after all!” Andie said, trying to sound nonchalant.
Nathan looked at her. “What?”
“Look at it this way,” Andie said. “You lost your bet, because eight weeks have gone, and you haven’t, for lack of a better word, ‘nailed’ me. And it’s not because you couldn’t, but because you chose not to. Micah told me what happened in Mobay, and why you chose to renege on the bet. That took a lot of integrity and strength of character, Nathan, and in the grand scheme of things, that makes you a much better man than I thought you were, and I am very grateful for that...”
Nathan remembered the speech that Steven Eyre had given at the Youth Forum and couldn’t help but smile to himself.
“Notwithstanding your best intentions though,” Andie continued, “all the girls on
Preston think you’re a jerk for making the bet in the first place, so you have no hope of getting any of them…”
“Sanaa still wants me!” Nathan pointed out jokingly.
“Well, I’m not so sure about that after your speech on sexual purity, and your stirring rendition of ‘Mandy’, or rather ‘Andie’, and humiliating yourself in front of all your hall mates… I mean, the way I see it, I’m pretty much your only hope on this campus. I’m nice enough to help a brutha out, know what I mean?”
Nathan smiled. “Andie…”
“Wait.” Andie interrupted. “The truth is, I’m not doing this because I’m being selfless. I’m here for selfish reasons too.”
“Like what?” Nathan asked.
“Well…” Andie whispered, as she held his gaze, “Like the fact that when I said I love you, I meant it, and that I miss you so much, and hated every minute of being apart from you. I love how I feel when I’m with you; like I’m special … like I can do and be anything I want.”
Nathan drew closer. “That’s because you are special… very special… and smart… and beautiful!” He took her hands into his. You know something?
“What?”
“I don’t think I’m sorry I made that bet with Jeremy after all, ’cause if I hadn’t, I would never have met you. It was the stupidest thing I have ever done in my life, but it turned out so much better than I could have ever imagined, y’know?”
“Yeah, in a weird kind of way, I know exactly what you mean,” Andie conceded.
Nathan kissed Andie’s palms, “So can we start over?”
“Where do you want to start?” Andie whispered.
“How about at the point when I knew I was in love with you?”
“When was that?” Andie asked.
“That night at Bella Mia,” Nathan confessed. “You were looking so pretty in that green dress with your hair in the twirly things. We were sitting under the gazebo. My arm was around your shoulder, and it felt so good…”
Andie blushed a little. Nathan got up, went to his desk and placed a CD in the player. Andie quickly recognised the music.
“Westlife?” She asked. “I thought you didn’t like them.”
“I bought it the Monday after Bella Mia,” Nathan confessed. “I would listen to it every night and think of you.”
“Are you kidding me?” Andie said, as she selected the track. “Well, if we’re going back to Bella Mia, we have to make it as real as possible…” She reclaimed her place sitting next to Nathan on the bed.
Nathan draped his arm around her shoulder as Brian’s smooth voice filled the air.
Andie closed her eyes and relaxed into his arms. “Now this is singing!” She murmured.
“C’mon, gimme a break!” Nathan said, pretending to be perturbed. “What I won’t do for love…”
“I know, baby!” Andie stroked his face. “Let’s just hope you never have to do it again.”
“I disagree!” Nathan kissed her hair. “I want to spend the rest of forever doing crazy things to show how much I love you.”
“Is that right?”
“Mm-hmm!” Nathan continued. “And do you know what else I want to do?”
“What?” Andie snuggled up closer to him.
“Something I should have done that first night at Bella Mia.”
“What’s that?” Andie whispered.
Nathan lifted her chin and looked her square in the eyes. “Only this!” He whispered back, promptly covering her lips with his. Andie’s arms involuntarily slid up around his neck, and her lips parted beneath his. With a sigh, she relaxed and gave herself up to the joy of being in his arms once more. She was just where she wanted to be, where she hoped to remain for a very long time, while Westlife’s version of ‘Mandy’ played on and on and on…
--End--
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The Bet
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Teisha Mott was born in Saint Ann, Jamaica, and holds a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Management Studies and Economics, and an MBA in Banking and Finance both from the University of the West Indies, Mona.
Her passion has always been writing, and she has penned short stories, poems and articles, several of which have won her awards and recognition.
She currently lives in Paris, France, and spends her spare time reading and travelling.
Teisha is a Seventh Day Adventist Christian, and actively involved in youth ministries.
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