Victoria felt something was missing, but she just didn’t know what. She had all the money in the world, close friends and parents who loved her enough to support everything she did completely free of charge. Could there be more to life? Maybe Apple would release a new iPhone soon… Victoria was lying on her bed on Thursday afternoon thinking about when she should book her next appointment to get her hair done, when her mother knocked on her bedroom door and let herself in without waiting for a response.
June Brooker entered the room and immediately pursed her lips. She didn’t like to see Victoria idle. She didn’t want Victoria to work, but she felt like Victoria should at least make maintaining her appearance a full time job. Now, the girl was just lounging on the bed as if there was nothing to be done.
“Good afternoon, Victoria,” June said, folding her arms.
“Good afternoon, Mom,” Victoria replied, sitting up straight the moment she noticed her mother. Her mother was very big on manners. She took offense to the slightest infractions that she perceived as disobedience. She had expectations about how Victoria was supposed to conduct herself and if these expectations weren’t met, her wrath would soon follow.
June often spoke in an overly formal tone with Victoria. It was as if she was intentionally highlighting her emotional distance from her daughter. “I would like to inform you that you will be attending an important party your father and I are having tomorrow. We’re inviting some big names and expect to see some pretty big donations,” June said to Victoria. She made sure to wrinkle her nose in general disapproval.
That was one of Victoria’s parents’ problems. They never asked her permission for anything. They simply planned her entire life out for her. Victoria had no say in her schedule or anything. They tossed her around like a basketball, showing her off at garden parties, cocktail hours, and fancy dinners. They bragged about Victoria’s most certainly minor achievements, and enjoyed having their beautiful, young daughter as their show pony. Neither June nor her father Harvey showed any interest in who Victoria was beyond what she had to offer them.
Victoria couldn’t stand that she had no choice but to agree with whatever her mother or father wanted. They supported Victoria financially in every way. She’d never even built credit or had a job! She tried not to reveal her distress at the fact that she had to attend another stupid party. That would only ensure her mother’s anger and she wasn’t prepared to deal with it.
“I’ll be there, Mother,” Victoria said.
June was about to leave but then stopped again. She couldn’t bear to leave Victoria in a room without making some kind of snide comment.
“I hope you wear something tasteful, dear. I know that you lack modesty sometimes, but it’s really more appropriate to cover up. Oh also, dear, I will need you to actually speak to your father at these sorts of things. You know Harvey works really hard, and he absolutely misses seeing you. Try not to eat too much so you can fit into a nice dress tomorrow,” June said.
Finally content that she’d said her piece, she waited for Victoria to respond before leaving.
“I think I know how to dress myself,” Victoria grumbled.
“Careful, dear. Don’t forget, your father and I do let you have everything you want around here. You’re quite blessed,” June warned. It was more like a threat than a warning despite her neutral sounding tone. Victoria’s mother wasn’t difficult to figure out. Victoria knew her parents weren’t above making good on their threats, too. She’d had a few mishaps when she was sixteen years old that had scared her from crossing her parents every again.
Her mother finally decided it was time to leave the room. She sashayed out and closed the door behind her politely. Victoria was absolutely furious. Who the hell do they think they are? Victoria thought. Her face was getting hot with anger. Her mother always managed to push her over the edge. She wanted to defy them, but her mother was right. They really did pay for everything she had. Victoria was a total dependant. She had no choice but to attend the stupid garden party that she had absolutely no interest in. The comments about her body didn’t even register. Victoria was well used to her mother’s critiques.
She hated that she lacked independence like this. She hated that her parents had pressured her into making so many decisions that further entrenched her in further dependence, and now she was powerless to do anything but obey them. They had adequately prepared her to live a life of being pampered. But Victoria had no skills to speak of. She was a professional at spending money, but quite incompetent at making it.
A part of Victoria wanted to be free, but she didn’t know how to obtain that freedom. She didn’t really know how to make decisions on her own. All she could do was enact a small series of rebellions and hope that her parents would acquiesce to her wishes in some way or another. But when they wanted something, they were determined to have it. And they wanted her to attend a garden party.
Her parents might have been able to control the way her Friday went, but they couldn’t control the rest of Thursday. Victoria needed a distraction. She decided to call up her two best friends, Rachel and Tiffany. A girl like Victoria didn’t necessarily have many friends outside of her tax bracket. Rachel and Tiffany had similar lifestyles to her. Rachel Levin was a half Jewish, half black girl. She had curly blondish hair, green eyes, and deep caramel colored skin. She loved throwing her looks in everyone’s face, and her money, too. Rachel’s Jewish father was incredibly wealthy. For her bat mitzvah she had received over $30,000 in cash. That wasn’t it, she also got a brand new car, access to one of the trust funds, and an all-expenses-paid vacation for her for best friends to Thessaloniki. Needless to say, that girl put Victoria to shame when it came to spending.
The third member of their trio, Tiffany Bautista, was a slightly less wealthy, tan skinned Cuban girl. Her parents had fled Cuba yet still managed to make quite a bit of money once they entered the United States. She was a little bit more down to earth than Rachel. She seemed to be the grounding force of the group. Rachel was the queen bee, Victoria was somewhere in the middle, and Tiffany was the one who got pushed around. Yes, these high school dynamics were maintained well into their 20s. Once you got into the habit, it was hard to break out of it. Tiffany, Rachel and Victoria didn’t have very much else to do besides shop, gossip and engage in bizarre, childish power struggles.
Victoria was desperate to have her two best friends over for a few bottles of wine and packs of cigarettes. Two terrible habits that she knew her mother would hate. Victoria hit their group chat with the initiating text, “My place, 20 minutes.” Although it seemed like they lived far apart, that was only because their parents had such vast expanses of property that every single house was far away! Each of the girls had their own car, so they would have no problem getting to Victoria’s. They planned to sit on one of her mansion’s patios and smoke until their voices became deep and husky. It didn’t seem like much but these young women didn’t have too many avenues for “acting out”. At least cigarettes were better than cocaine. The three women looked down on “serious druggies” who would waste their parents money and end up living on the streets. They liked the comfortable lives they led well enough.
Sure enough, her friends arrived right on time. Rachel pulled up in her Porsche and Tiffany in her Prius. Rachel liked to make fun of Tiffany’s Prius. Mocking Tiffany was one of Rachel’s more bitchy habits that got on Victoria’s nerves. However, the three girls had a good time together once they got past Rachel’s attitude.They exchanged hugs and took their bottles of wine out back. The three women had a “special spot” where they’d gossiped and drank for years and years. Their friendship was one that people thought would last a lifetime. Now they were seating out back, they got down to business. It would be a challenge, but each of them promised they would finish one bottle of Merlot before they left.
They sat around a round table. Each grabbing a cigarette, they flicked on their lighters and took long drags of the sharp tobacco. Tiffany coughed as she
exhaled, and Rachel giggled. She couldn’t resist mocking Tiffany for her “weak lungs”. The girls took in the natural beauty of New England as the sun came close to setting. The colors of fall were already starting to settle in, even if it was only early September. Victoria couldn’t seem to hide the fact that she was pissed off at her mother. Her grumpiness bled into everything. Both Rachel and Tiffany were getting sick of the pouty expression on her face. Eventually, Rachel convinced her to spill.
“What’s the old Junebug doing to you this time?” Rachel said, snickering.
Victoria huffed, “She wants me to go to the stupid party tomorrow. I wanted to refuse and she threatened to take away my money! She has no right to do that. I think I really need to start getting more independent.”
Rachel looked at her with a sneer.
“More independent? Like a common person or something?” Rachel said. Victoria side eyed her.
Tiffany stepped in to validate Victoria’s feelings. She couldn’t always let Rachel walk all over her. “Hey Rach, not everyone is content with getting spoonfed their whole life. I see what she means. If her mother wants to control her, the best way to get over that is by finding a job, or finding a way to prove to her that you don’t need her,” Tiffany said. It was a rare moment of standing up for herself.
“Whatever,” Rachel grumbled. She didn’t like being told off.
They took huge swigs of wine. Their first cigarettes were done so they all lit another one. The flickering of their lighters made it look like they were a coven of witches gathered in the darkness.
Rachel wasn’t quite through despite Tiffany’s attempts to stop her ranting.
“Well, I guess I can see what you mean by being independent. But for me, that just means finding another bank accounts to drain. I want to live in wealth my whole life. Idiots think that means working hard, but I know what I need to do. I need to find some sucker to marry. You know John? He would make a good candidate. See, if he ever found out that I was fucking Tobias, that would ruin everything. But that doesn’t mean I don’t work hard! I work hard too! I work hard to keep my men in line so I get what I want at the end of the day,” Rachel said.
Sometimes Rachel seemed over-the-top evil. You wonder why anyone would be friends with someone like that. But Rachel knew how to have a good time. She threw amazing parties and she invited everyone. She believed in charity work. To her, charity meant inviting the losers to her parties. She was actually equally kind to everyone. That kindness just fell a little short, typically. But when Rachel wanted to be nice, she could be nice. There was a girl in her class whose entire family had lost their wealth during the stock market crash of 2009. Rachel had paid for that girl to have a prom dress flown in from Italy. Out of the blue, she would have these random acts of kindness that no one could figure out. It seemed to make up for her perpetual bitchiness.
Neither Tiffany nor Victoria quite had the energy to combat Rachel’s gold digging statement. Or to combat the fact that she was cheating on her boyfriend. Rachel didn’t seem to have a great grasp of fidelity in romance. For the most part, she appeared to be a loyal friend, so that made up for it. Tiffany and Victoria both looked the other way as she steered her relationships down the path of certain doom.
The three girls gossiped a lot more as they worked their way through the wine. They talked about what Naya Bitters was wearing at their last party, how Jim Kohn was flat broke and how Hannah Frye’s mother was actually a high class escort. The more the drank, the deeper the secrets spilled. Victoria wasn't as heavy of a drinker as Tiffany or Rachel. As they pounded back their bottles, she took it nice and slow. She savored the taste of her four hundred dollar bottle while Rachel and Tiffany drank their stress away. Victoria might not have been drinking, but she was smoking heavily. Almost too heavily.
Four cigarettes in, and she thought her head was going to explode. Heavy and lightweight at the same time, Victoria was being transported into another dimension. Ugh. She thought she was going to be sick. Just when Victoria couldn't stand smoking anymore, Rachel and Tiffany decided it was time to leave. It was practically dark out.
“I’m sorry, loser, but we’ve got to get going,” Rachel said before kissing Victoria goodbye on the cheek. Tiffany was too drunk to say much. The two girls left Victoria sitting on her roundtable with half a bottle of wine left. She wasn’t quite ready to go inside. There was a chance she would have to face her mother, or worse, run into her overbearing father coming home from a long day at work. Victoria decided to finish her pack of cigarettes, far away from their nagging.
It was quiet. The cool New England air was seeping through her cardigan, chilling her almost to the bone. It was hard to believe that it was already September. Summer had seemed to go by so quickly. It was all a huge blur: drinking, partying, trips to the Vineyard. Victoria hoped she’d have many more of these wonderful vacations. Since she had turned 12, every summer was an opportunity for exploration, adventure and pure Dionysian debauchery.
Victoria was lost in thought when she heard footsteps and the loud noise of someone clearing their throat. She went to turn around thinking that it was her father, but it wasn’t. An unfamiliar white male stood before her. Victoria would’ve been afraid, but he was covered in dirt and holding three red roses in his right hand. Her mother loved those roses. Victoria put two and two together and quickly figured out that the man standing before her was her gardener. But what was he doing here? And why had he stopped right in front of her? Gross.
“You know it’s not good for a young lady to smoke,” he said.
Chapter 2
Victoria took a closer look at the man was invading her space. She could admit that he wasn’t bad looking, and he couldn’t be that much older than she was. Maximum five or six years. Victoria glared at him. How presumptuous of him to think that he knew what was best for her. Just because she was a woman she shouldn’t smoke? What a crap pickup line, if that was what it was.
“What exactly is your name?” Victoria said. She maintained her snooty, uptight attitude towards him. She didn’t want him to think for a second she was amused by his little line.
“I’m Craig Stewart. These cancer sticks are pretty bad for your health,” he said, smirking.
“I’m aware. But you know what is good for your health? Minding your damn business. I’ve heard it causes old men to live even longer,” Victoria snapped back. A lifetime of tussling with Rachel left her well prepared for any verbal altercation.
Craig was surprised. Firecracker. He thought to himself.
Craig laughed. He wanted to take her seriously, but there was no way he was in any way intimidated by this young, upper-class princess. He had never met Victoria personally, but he gathered that she was the daughter of the people he was working for. Victoria was unamused. She didn’t understand why this guy was even standing here. She was taken aback, though. Normally when she spoke this harshly harshly, it rid her of anyone who was troubling her. But instead, Craig seemed to find it amusing.
Craig laughed because he had encountered people far tougher than Victoria. He had grown up in extreme poverty, with decidedly lower class parents. He had to work for everything that he’d ever had. Now, he was 30 years old and working as a gardener for the Brookers. Why? Wasn’t he a little old to just be starting his career? Sort of. Craig had worked his way through college. A combination of the bad economy, low wages, and various family crises meant that he had just finished school at 28.
He was proud of himself for having done it at all on his own. Most people from his neighborhood were on stripper poles or in crack dens. Having a college degree was a big deal to him. Craig’s biggest dream was to start his own landscaping business. He had a plan for it all too. In order to do that, he wanted to network with the best of the best clients. He wanted to have contacts and clients so that when he finally got the business loan he’d been working towards, he would be well prepared to launch. He had no plans to be a failure.
Seeing that Craig’s laught
er was going to be his only response, Victoria snapped again.
“Who exactly are you?”
“Well, my official title is ‘The Gardener’,” Craig joked. Victoria pursed her lips to let him know that she wasn’t amused. In that instant, she looked like the spitting image of June. Sure, she thought it was a little funny, but she didn’t want to throw this guy any bones. Who knew what his intentions were. Victoria was a little bit out of it. All the wine and cigarettes had her head spinning like a top. Her thoughts floated in and out of her head aimlessly to the point where she hardly knew what was going on.
“What exactly are you doing here so late?” Victoria demanded to know.
“Well, your mother is having a big party and she wanted me to do a few extra odd jobs out back. I’ll do anything for a little extra cash,” he said, flashing her a big smile.
Victoria had to admit that he seemed nice enough. And she was getting lonely without her friends. The more she smoked and the more she pondered the way her parents had complete control over her life, the more upset she got. Now that her friends had left, using this gardener as a little distraction couldn’t be that bad. It was a little embarrassing to socialize with her gardener of all people but Victoria’s loneliness trumped her potential for social humiliation.
Love Over Envy: BWWM Pregnancy Romance Novel Page 13
