Aggie spoke about some trip she was planning, but Esme had a hard time following along. This wound demanded attention and refused to let her put it to side.
Obviously, she still had her project, which was going to need a lot of her time, so maybe this was all for the best. If she kept busy, she probably wouldn’t even notice he was gone and would just slip back into forgotten memories where he belonged.
“You alright?” Aggie asked when the other girls were absorbed in conversation.
“Yeah, of course.”
“There’s always been something wrong with him. Actually, his whole type; they live in their own world and they simply don’t know how to act around people.”
“It’s nothing.”
Aggie looked unconvinced and Esme hated being studied like this. She didn’t want to talk about it as there was a good chance she would just have a big wail about how thoroughly guys sucked. A bit too cliché to go on about it just after a break up. But they really did, and it wasn’t just some knee jerk reaction, guys truly sucked.
“Go out and sleep with some stupidly hot guy,” Aggie said. “That always helps me, and whatever you do, don’t let that get complicated. Simple is good; simple is perfect.”
Esme smiled. That last thing she wanted was to be around another guy. Guys sucked, but she also recognised that there was something to getting back in the saddle after falling off, but right now she didn’t care. Guys were not worth the effort. All they did was disappoint you, even if you barely knew their name. You knew that your rosy imaginings on what they were were complete bullshit and they would eventually reveal their pathetic gaming habits or other equally immature vices.
“How’s the family?” Aggie asked. Esme knew Aggie was really asking after Felix, who for all intents and purposes had disappeared.
“Ugh,” Esme said. “The same. And dad’s the same now. He’s lost the plot over this woman. He invited her and her kids over for dinner last night. Dad would never in a million years go near a woman with kids. He was uncomfortable enough around his own kids, so him being all googly-eyed over this woman is insane.”
“What woman? That Bianca lady?”
“No another one.”
“Moves fast, doesn’t he?”
“Well, apparently he’s been crushing on this woman for quite some time according to Felix. I didn’t even notice. But he really is, like lost in the world of… It’s actually quite disturbing to watch how completely into her he is. This woman is going to be my new step mother.”
“So who is she?”
“Her name is Cheryl and she’s a hairdresser.”
“The one you were asking about not long ago? The one with all the nasty rumours.”
“That, as it turned out, were all started by Bianca.”
“Oh, gory,” Aggie smiled. “I thought we were bad, but these women with their backstabbing—they’re brutal. Is she horrible?”
“Cheryl? No, she’s alright. Nice, I suppose. A bit of a weird choice for dad, but he’s completely into her.”
“Seems to be a trait with the Dunbury men. They completely fall for someone in the end. You’re more sensible, though.”
“Yeah,” Esme said, not feeling all that sensible considering how hurt she was. But she had been hurt before. This would pass. It was more the anger and offense at being treated like that. Well, his loss.
She had to admit that she didn’t really understand him at all. At times, she’d seen the pressure he was under, the pressure he put himself under. But in the scheme of his life, what they’d had meant little, something to be thrown away when something better came along. Esme hadn’t felt that way; she would have fought if he’d been willing. There was little she wouldn’t have done for him if he’d needed her to, but that hadn’t gone both ways.
Granted, that was a pattern with her and guys; she invested everything at the drop of a hat, trusted implicitly. Again and again, she was let down. For a while, she’d convinced herself that he was different, but he was just like the rest. Were there any good guys in the world?
The saddest part was that her debauched brother and unrelentingly reserved father were showing that there were. What was she supposed to do with that? The most unlikely people to be lovingly coupled up were so—in front of her eyes. Well, crazy and cold hadn’t worked out for her. Was there any rhyme or reason to this? How did one pick a good man when there seemed to be no discernible pattern?
Every example of love she had seen had sprung from relationships that were the least likely to succeed—of people who could barely tolerate being in the same room as each other. In hell, was she going to live the sensible farce her mother had chosen and seemed embarrassingly content in.
What kind of relationship would Inns end up in when he was ready to settle down? Probably some acceptable English girl with a stupid accent and a pervasive love for horses. Someone with as poor fashion sense as he had. Was that what he wanted? Some girl who loved horses more than him? Esme knew the type. Her mother was muscling in on that type with her dowdy and boring new husband and their Georgian house in the country.
Esme leaned her face in her hands, unable to think about this more. The world was crazy and there was no way of making sense of it. Maybe dad was right, after all, and it was best to focus on business.
It was just hard to accept that she had to go back to class and he wouldn’t be there, seeing his empty seat every day. It sucked being the one left behind.
Chapter 63
The air was cold and damp in Inns’ dorm room. Condensation sat in big, fat drops on the inside of the window and the electric heater on the wall did absolutely nothing if he didn’t stand right in front of it. Names of previous residents were etched into the plaster of the wall. His window overlooked the neatly trimmed lawn in the common, which was a lovely sight, even the people running along under black umbrellas.
This was home; where he was always supposed to be. The conditions of these dorm rooms might risk pneumonia in the weakest constitutions, but one wasn’t here for comfort.
A stack of new textbooks sat on his desk and he would start organising his work schedule soon. Some of the boys took their studies less seriously, at least visibly. Failing looked good on no one and the ideal image was to succeed without seeming to do any work. Seb specialised in this, a blasé superiority which seemed to be a hit with the girls.
Inns was back to being Tadpole, both an insult and privilege. He might be on a lower rung, but he was on the ladder. Inns’ worldly experience of people who were seen as little more than monkeys with more wealth than they deserved, while dismissed as inconsequential, was still listened to and guardedly asked about—mostly for proof of how pitiful and worthless those kinds of people were.
It was hard to explain how the people Aggie hung out with felt no chains on their own behaviour and simply did as they pleased. They stood for nothing, except their own whims. Tradition didn’t exist, stewardship for something bigger didn’t figure into anything. It was hedonistic in the purest sense of the word. But he never mentioned Esme; didn’t want them to sully or mar her in any way. Those memories were his alone and he would neatly unpack them when he felt lost and shut himself away from the myriad of social and political games that existed here.
He had one particular photo of her that he liked the most and he wanted to print it out, but he couldn’t. The boys would find it. They would tease him mercilessly, wondering if he’d been dipping his wick amongst the enemy women.
One thing that he’d learnt was that those people didn’t really see them as enemies. Aggie was right in that regard: they had moved on and forgotten, too caught up with their frivolous squabbles and paying much less heed to the things that were valued here than the guys like Seb expected. That was what the fight was against, not putting the proper ways aside to live without rhyme or reason—simply for hedonistic obsessions. They didn’t see how useless and treacherous they were.
Esme never understood. She had been raised in that environment; di
dn’t understand that centuries of tradition meant something. It was the backbone of everything—their history, their laws, their institutions. Just because she refused to see it didn’t mean it wasn’t there. Her father had learnt that lesson—taken down a peg or two when he’d carelessly stepped on the wrong toes, falsely under the illusion that his wealth bypassed everything. It didn’t. Power was still power, and they had more than most people acknowledged.
Inns pulled his jacket on as he sat on his small bed. The room just wasn’t getting warm enough, or more likely, he’d grown soft in the gentle climes of southern Spain. The pub would be warm, but he didn’t want to go this early. There was too much risk that he’d get drunk and would spill the beans about this girl he’d fallen in love with out there in the wilderness. He’d never live that down.
The End
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Other and Upcoming Books by Camille Oster
Hollywood Sirens
The glittering lights of Hollywood attracts both the ambitious and the talented, but reality is far from what’s portrayed on the silver screen. Lorraine George arrives to pursue her dream of making it as an actress, with good training and a family history in the performing arts. For others, like Mavis Howard, it means to use her beauty to escape the grinding poverty of the Okie shantytowns.
Opposed to what the young hopefuls that turn up at Majestic Studios in droves, looking to fulfil their dreams, success doesn’t necessarily lead to happiness. As Mac Darren, one of the studio’s most illustrious stars, has learned, having everything you want is meaningless until you find someone to share it with, and the studio often has its own ideas of what actors should conduct their personal lives. Being owned by a studio does present its compromises.
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The Rules of the Game – D’Arth series book 1 - Jane Burrows knows that the corporate environment is difficult to navigate at the best of times. It is especially difficult when the important account lead hates the very sight of her. Damon D'Arth is a corporate warrior who knows his way around the politics in the world for major infrastructure. Jane needs to stand up for herself and her mentor's interests.
This job is the key to Jane's future and she's been given a great opportunity, but now she needs to prove that her promotion was justified. She just isn't sure she can survive in this high pressure environment with hidden dangers and equal exhilaration. Her mentor's support is the only thing that is keeping D'Arth from ripping her to pieces.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rules-Game-DArth-Book-ebook/dp/B00AQKE0T6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1459466930&sr=8-3&keywords=camille+oster
A Pirate’s Ruse - On her eighteenth birthday, Clara Nears is forced to leave the convent that has been her home for most of her life, having no idea where to go, when a man appears to take her to her father. A man she's never know of, who turns out to be a pirate, and not just a pirate—the king of pirates. With no sons and ill health, he is now seeking an heir, but nothing would be so simple as him giving her his estate.
Ruthless and ambitious pirate, Christian Rossi, has been seeking a means of advancing his ambition and this opportunity is just what he’s been looking for. Some naïve and ill-equipped girl is not going to stand in his way. Nothing will stop him from taking Tortuga Bay.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pirates-Ruse-Camille-Oster-ebook/dp/B00TVO5IBC/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&qid=1459467297&sr=8-19&keywords=camille+oster
Done Burger – Getting a job at the local Coast Burger outlet wasn’t exactly the height of social success, but I, Pepper Minnow, was unfortunately not in the position to just hang out all summer waiting for college to start. The uniform looked like death, the customers were awful, and they even smelled worse than the burger grease at times. And then there were the co-workers, a complicated story. Riley, in particular, was just an asshole. He wasn’t ugly, but I could definitely talk myself into seeing him that way.
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