by S M Mala
‘I hear you my friend.’
Just watching his son, Murray knew something had changed since the morning. Jake’s eyes were following Hatty all around. She seemed fine mixing with the people she loathed so much, and even stopped to talk to the women she had once said she’d put a spell on to grow beards. He noticed how they would quickly glance at each other then look away, not smiling but as if waiting for a moment to be alone.
He knew that look.
He understood that feeling.
He now feared for the two people he loved most in the world, hoping history would not repeat itself and Delores wouldn’t notice.
Murray could see they’d fallen in love.
It’s when she looked straight into her eyes Delores knew something had changed with Hatty. She wasn’t bothered by the people looking at her. She didn’t seem to care about anything other than when she looked at Jake. Her expression changed to something Delores had never seen before.
‘Are you having fun?’ Delores asked suspiciously as Hatty smiled brightly and nodded, sipping her drink. ‘What’s been keeping you busy over the past few weeks?’
‘My new work room. I’ve been coming here but you’re teaching when I arrive. How’s it all going?’ The smile Hatty revealed was dazzling and she seemed genuinely interested. ‘Is Bennett trying to look up your skirt?’
‘That young boy is a handful though he keeps saying he’s missing you,’ Delores replied and examined Hatty’s beautiful face, her hair cascading over her shoulders.
Then she caught Jake looking over at Hatty and she knew it immediately, the same expression Murray used to have when he looked at Eloise.
A look of pure love.
Something tore at the insides of Delores.
Her eyes followed him and she knew where he was, who he was talking to and smiled at his laugh. Hatty wanted to go home to be alone with Jake. To touch him and experience the feeling she had done that afternoon. She now understood why people would become addicted to sex. Discreetly, she glanced over her shoulder at him and their eyes locked for a second. It was like an impact in her chest knowing she wanted him so much.
‘You’re a fool,’ said Gabriel walking up to stand beside her as she shook her head. ‘He’s using you.’
‘And you’re a fool for thinking I’d change my mind because of your pep talk.’ Hatty glared at Gabriel. ‘I’ll tell him what you said to me last night.’
‘Go on,’ he shrugged. ‘Nothing wrong with giving a friend advice especially when I can see they’re jumping head first into a car crash relationship.’
‘I like you Gabriel, you are a friend but sometimes you’re so pessimistic. I don’t need looking after I just need love.’
‘Hatty, Hatty,’ he said, turning her so she’d face him, Gabriel’s gentle eyes staring at her. ‘Please be careful, you promise me. I worry about you. I see these people, hear the gossip and it troubles me.’
‘Don’t worry,’ she smiled seeing his genuine concern. ‘And as you’re my shrink who I don’t pay for, then I should let you know something.’
‘You fucked the American,’ he said with a smirk.
‘How do you know?’ she said, glancing quickly around.
‘How can anyone not notice?’ he laughed. ‘Be careful Hatty. He’s damaged goods too.’
‘I’m not damaged!’ she snapped, thumping his shoulder before rubbing it. ‘And if I am then maybe, just maybe, he doesn’t mind a reject.’
‘I’m here if you need me, you know that? Call me anytime. You know I care.’
‘You want my screwed up mind,’ she smiled and saw his little grimace. ‘I don’t need you to worry about me.’
‘One day you might.’
‘Then one day, I’ll be in really deep shit, won’t I?’
Coming up to nine, Hatty wanted to go home and she spotted Jake talking as she waved to indicate it was time to leave. He quickly stopped what he was doing and walked over to her.
‘You can stay,’ she said, looking deeply into his eyes. ‘I can get a lift-.’
‘No,’ he said, looking around. ‘I’ve been ready to leave for about an hour.’
‘Let’s say goodbye then.’
Hatty walked around and saw Murray but couldn’t find Delores. He was laughing with Frederick and Elena, so Hatty waved goodbye as Jake followed her. They jumped into the jeep and drove off, without saying anything.
Half way home, he turned off the road.
‘What are you doing?’ she said, seeing it was pitch black.
The next thing, Jake lunged on her and they were kissing passionately as he put his hand under her vest to squeeze her breast. Hatty wrestled him off a minute later.
‘That was the longest three hours of my life,’ he said, holding onto the steering wheel.
‘And that was a greeting and a half,’ she laughed stroking his hair, leaning forward to touch his cheek. ‘Let’s go home and make love.’
Two and a half weeks later, Hatty was sitting up in bed as Jake had his head at the foot of the mattress, looking at the ceiling. She stroked the hair on his legs and smiled.
‘Are you tired yet?’ she asked, wondering what he was thinking. ‘You seem quieter than usual.’
‘Just thinking.’
‘Are you going to tell me what’s on your mind?’
‘It’s nothing,’ he said, propping himself up on his elbows. ‘Are you sure you’re alright about it?’
‘I’m fine,’ Hatty said, knowing he was more upset than she was. ‘You have to fly out to spend Christmas with Caroline and the family, I know that.’
‘I really don’t want to go.’
‘Murray’s going so what’s the big deal?’ Hatty rubbed his shin. ‘You’ll be back after New Year and then you have five weeks until you go back to New York.’ When she said it, again her heart plummeted to the pit of her stomach but she put on a bright smile to hide the intensity of pain. ‘You have to do these interviews and especially the one at ‘The New York Times’.’
‘Ha Ha, I don’t want to leave you,’ he said frowning and she didn’t want him to go but knew her being the sensible one was the only way to play it.
‘And I don’t want you to go but I love you and I want you to be happy. It’s important to me you respect your family and spend Christmas with them.’
‘What do you want for Christmas?’ he said, throwing himself back on the mattress.
Hatty slowly crawled to the end of the bed so she could look into his eyes.
‘Lots of hugs and kisses.’
‘Come on, I need to get you a present.’
‘I don’t want one.’ She kissed the tip of his nose. ‘You’re the best present. What do you want me to get you? I can’t afford a lot but I can ask Delores for a loan.’
‘I’d like you to come on the beach with me,’ he said for the umpteenth time in the last fortnight. ‘I don’t want you to be afraid of the sea and I’m here. You were scared of making love and now you’re a nymphomaniac. Maybe a swim in the sea will turn you into a fish.’
‘You want to have sex with a tuna?’ she laughed. ‘I’m not going in and as much as I’d like to take a romantic walk on the beach with you, I can’t. It’s my problem and I’m sorry if you think it’s putting a dampener on things.’
‘Come with me to New York.’
‘You know I can’t because I’ve always spent Christmas with Delores and we have our family thing with the others. Plus she’s not happy with me so I’m trying to be nice.’
‘Do you think her and dad have had a falling out? He’s hardly spending time on the estate.’
‘Nah!’ said Hatty stroking Jake’s hair. ‘He goes off and does business elsewhere. Usually the excuse was to see his son but as you’re here, then he’s obviously a busy man.’
‘When shall we tell people about us?’ he smiled and wrapped his arms around her.
‘What’s there to say?’ she grinned, realising how much she’d fallen in love with him. ‘And you know you still o
we me a book of all the secrets you’ve found out about me since last summer.’
‘And what do you know about me?’
‘Lots,’ she laughed, straddling him. ‘You don’t like fresh tomatoes and can only take so much spice in your food. You like soccer even though it really is called football in the rest of the world. When you sleep you smile and have a bad habit of scratching your balls.’
‘As all men do!’
‘You love reading books and have lots of them in your home but I’ve been distracting you with one thing or another.’
‘Sex is a great distraction.’
‘And you’re worried you’re going to hurt me when you eventually go back to the States.’ As Hatty said it, she noticed his smile completely fade. ‘So you know, I’m preparing myself for that one too.’
‘Come to the beach with me?’ he gently said. ‘Please?’
‘I’d do anything for you but I’m not sure.’ She stroked his hair. ‘I do love you very much.’
‘I know,’ he said and she knew he’d not told her the same since they made love in the freshwater pool for the first time.
A little bit of her heart crumbled realising he didn’t feel the same way but the bright smile was plastered over her face to mask the turmoil.
‘You’ll be late for work,’ she said gently, getting up and quickly putting her vest and dungarees on, walking quickly out of the room hoping desperately not to cry.
He lay there, listening to her footsteps before closing his eyes. Jake’s feelings were in a mess. He didn’t want to leave Hatty and he knew he was holding back on telling her so many things. The fact she knew he was going to leave eventually and go back home made it more confusing. She seemed alright though he knew she wasn’t.
Slowly he got out of bed, took a shower and got dressed, dreading flying back to New York and worried sick about their happy bubble bursting. Murray held no punches when he told Jake they had to go back. Caroline was making a fuss and his father wanted to smooth things over.
He flicked on his tablet and went into the document with all the information about Hatty and read it again and again. There was no way he was going to tell her all of it, not if it was going to hurt her.
Jake walked down the stairs and smiled on seeing Hatty in the kitchen making scrambled eggs and trying not to burn the toast. He looked at her hair piled up on the top of her head and her dungarees hanging off, knowing he was desperately in love with her but wanting to do the best thing by not telling her again, making sure she was ready for when they had to part.
He felt sick when he thought about it.
‘What are you burning?’ he asked, walking towards her as she grinned.
‘Nuttin. Go and sit down.’
‘I’d rather stand here with you,’ he said, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her neck.
‘If you do then I’ll burn the eggs,’ she said, pushing him off as he sat at the table and waited for his breakfast, pressing the cafetiere down and pouring out a coffee. ‘And I’m good at this now.’
‘You’re good at lots of things now,’ he cheekily replied as she approached the table with his eggs and toast. Jake grabbed her waist as she leaned and kissed the top of his head. ‘Especially sex.’
‘I put that down to having such a knowledgeable teacher because…’ she smiled and he looked up into her big brown eyes and wanted to stay there forever. ‘…you’ve been such a slut.’
‘Thanks honey,’ he grinned. She walked to the kitchen sink and started washing up. Jake couldn’t keep his eyes off her and wanted to touch her again as Hatty then sat opposite him and opened up her small book examining the pages. ‘Have you finished the next lot of frames?’
‘I will today,’ she said, still looking down, drawing something on a page. ‘I have to finish cleaning up the dining room though. It’s a mess.’
‘I’ll help you this weekend,’ he said, eating her rubbery scrambled eggs.
‘What do you want for Christmas?’ she asked, looking up at him and he could see she was upset. ‘I need to give you something so you can remember me by when you go back home.’
‘I’ve got a frame already and anyway, how am I going to forget you?’ he laughed, smiling brightly at her. ‘You’re lodged in my head.’
‘You might forget.’
‘I won’t.’
‘You better not.’
Work was hectic and fun. Jake enjoyed the place and people with the added bonus he could discreetly discuss Hatty with Louisa, who was more than willing to give him help and advice on how to handle her friend and his lover.
‘She said she was preparing herself,’ Louisa replied as she sipped her ice tea and ate her sandwich at the marina with Jake. ‘She knows it’s only for nine days.’
‘It’s what she said this morning about me going back for good next year. It’s like she doesn’t care,’ he shrugged, drinking his coke.
‘You know that’s not true.’
‘I have to go back to New York eventually. I can’t stay here and she’s counting down the days and I hate it.’
‘Then tell her not to count but that’s what she does,’ said Louisa, grimacing. ‘You know you’re going to go back and will you remember her? Will you care?’
‘That’s not fair.’
Jake was instantly furious at the comment so he bit hard into his sandwich.
‘Hatty is so used to losing people she loves. She has to make sure she can cope when they go. Once upon a time she used to cry her eyes out when Murray left, even when I went on holiday, she’d get upset. Then she’d count how many days before I went, then how many days until I returned.’ Louisa let out a little laugh. ‘Jake, you know she’s in love with you and it’s her first adult relationship. She’s seen enough of my ones to know nothing lasts forever.’
‘I don’t know what to do,’ he said honestly, putting down his food. ‘This job interview is such an opportunity and I want to see my family but the idea of leaving her for a week is killing me.’
‘I’d kill to get a chance to interview at ‘The New York Times’.’ She smiled for a moment. ‘You’re a very good journalist and you can’t stay here, your talents will be wasted.’
‘Would she come to New York, do you think?’
‘To do what?’ laughed Louisa. ‘Play housewife while you work long hours? Who will she talk to, make friends with? Will you build her a studio so she can make her frames? She’d be lost and then you’d resent her, like most men do when a woman loves them.’ He noticed she frowned, during which she stared at the man who ran the local television station sitting a few tables away. ‘It’s not fair. Anyway, why would you want Hatty to go back with you?’
‘Because,’ he said, not wanting to reveal more.
‘Jake what do you expect her to do?’ she asked, leaning forward. ‘We all know Delores isn’t going to be happy when she finds out you two have got intimate. I’d hate to think what your father would say. You can go away and do what you have to do and it’s Hatty who is left here to fend off all the gossips. I know what’s going on with my brother and Gabriel. I’m not as stupid as he thinks. Again, if people find out, it’s all talk and malicious! And talking about Gabriel, you know he slept with your girlfriend?’
‘What?’ he asked immediately confused.
‘Gina Glory Glory. He slept with her just recently. Hatty thinks it’s hilarious. She knew Gina Glory Glory goes for the boys she likes and, well, Gabriel was a red herring but that slut still went for it. Does Glory has a penis?’
‘She wasn’t my girlfriend,’ he said sharply. ‘And she hasn’t got a dick!’
‘Touchy, touchy,’ laughed Louisa. ‘Gabriel said she likes it rough. Does she?’
‘Why didn’t Hatty mention it?’ he scowled at Louisa, knowing he was the brunt of her amusement.
‘She thought you might be jealous?’
‘Of what? I’ve hardly seen Gina since I got back.’
‘Hiding Master Jacob?’
‘Thin
k what you like but I’m very happy with the woman at home.’
‘So, me child lost ‘er virginity to a white boy,’ whispered Louisa.
Jake knew he was going bright red.
‘She did things with Simon she never said,’ he said, remembering the conversation two days earlier when Hatty gave a blow by blow description about what Simon had done to her. ‘And she was only fifteen.’
‘He was very experienced for his age.’
‘How comes?’
‘Hatty never said,’ shrugged Louisa and Jake immediately knew she was lying. ‘Let the poor boy rest in peace.’
‘I wish Hatty would let me,’ he said, feeling lucky she didn’t.
‘Aunt Delores,’ said Hatty, later on in the afternoon, as she sat on the porch outside the kitchen. Delores was looking through some paperwork. ‘Why the urgent rush to see me?’
‘I think we need to chat,’ she said, still focussed on the papers.
Hatty noticed Ethel looking at her from the kitchen window and roll her eyes.
‘I need to get back to the house as I’m working on a frame I’ve got to complete for Sunday. The woman is going to pay me-.’
‘What’s going on between you and Jacob?’ Delores asked, not looking at her.
Hatty swallowed hard and bit her lip.
‘He’s my guest and lodger.’
‘And that’s it?’ Delores stared at Hatty. ‘Nothing more?’
‘What are you trying to imply?’ she said gently, not wanting to get on the wrong side of her.
‘Since the pair of you came over a few weeks ago, you haven’t come round and have been barely spotted leaving the house, other than Jake going to work and you coming here, shopping or going to that Sunday market.’
‘Have you seen my new satellite dish and television? The man’s addicted to the sport and news. Personally, I can’t see the appeal in baseball.’
‘I’m not stupid Hatty,’ Delores said sharply. ‘I know you liked Jake since the moment you set eyes on him. I told you to leave him alone.’
