chapter 5
1885 Words
The breakfast table was set at the Philips Manor. All kinds of food and fruits were available, juice and tea, snacks, bread and sausage all of it. What was not on the menu that morning was the vibrancy each family was supposed to have. Three spots were remaining to be filled on the table. One was Kristen and the others belonged to peter and his guest.
"Morning dad" Kristen said happily embracing her father.
"Morning sunshine" Cole said, "How are you this morning?"
"Great...morning mum" she said doing the same to her mother.
"Good morning Kristen are you up to something?'
"Am just happy mum not up to something, I spent the night thinking what really matters in life and it all came to you guys your happiness and health is my happiness too"
"That's good" Cole said pouring himself juice, "where is your brother?"
"Somewhere in this big house, I was thinking we have a family bonding time like a family day out being a Sunday we can go swimming and enjoy the sun talk and forgive each other you know"
The idea was good but it was not better to her mother who was staring at her the whole time.
"You father and I have plans today"
No they didn't. Or they did but Cole was not aware.
"No we don't" He said sounding surprised.
"Mum?"
"I said we have plans, I was yet to tell you. We've been back in fort canon for some time now what we need is to visit out friends, yesterday we were at the Richards and today I was thinking we visit the whites"
"Is this about Selina?" Kristen asked.
"What about Selina. Good morning everyone!" Peter announced his presence walking downstairs in a grey cotton
They all mumbled a chorus good morning.
"Apparently Mum and dad want to visit her parents moments after I have proposed a family get together"
"Let them walk around Kristen, say hi to her and the family" peter said taking a seat.
Anita walked downstairs. She looked shy but sexy in black jumpsuit and blue stilettos that she found on the bed when she emerged from the bathroom. All eyes were on her and she was feeling as though they were poking holes in her body.
"Good morning everyone" she said.
Cole, Kristen and Peter answered. Gabriella seemed uninterested as usual. She was too stiff to bend even in matters that require a tinge of courtesy.
"Peter, it will be nice if we went to the whites as a family am sure Selina will be happy to see you in person" Gabriella said.
Now that was her niche. Causing division making their children's life harder. Bringing up Selina in presence of Anita was a strategy. Too bad Peter had not told her about Selina yet. It was not as easy as it sounds. There was a history between the two.
"I think peter is busy" Kristen came to his rescue.
"Are you peter?"
"Yes of course" Peter said giving a sympathy look at his mother, "I have to take Anita home and then I have to take Kyle to this function"
"Okay then we won't go until you are free" Gabriella said serving some pancakes, "Anita, right?"
"Yes mum" she said politely.
"I can see you make my son happy, thank you"
"Welcome mum, my pleasure" she said fidgeting.
Gabriella was unfathomable. Her unfathomability was among a number of toxic skills she had perfected over the years. One instant she looked like she hated something or someone and the next she was sugar coating the hate into something like a mood swing. It comes and goes.
"Son, don't screw this up" Cole said.
Peter made a thumbs up sign to his father. They continued enjoying the breakfast silently. Peter was holding his breath just in case his mother was up to something else. He was also avoiding eye contact with Anita. He might have been not so good at love but he knew one thing about women. Jealousy. And his past was threatening to bring up lots of it from her. If possible, he wanted to erase his past with Selina out of fear of losing his perfection. How was she going to react if she found out that Selina was the kind of a bride his parents wanted for him? Poor peter, he had no idea she was the one they wanted for him.
"Thank you for breakfast Anita and I got to go, see you later" Peter said getting up.
"She is not done yet" Gabriella pointed out.
"No, am okay thank you" Anita said.
"Okay bye"
"See you later brother"
They walked out on silence. Peter was counting minutes to freedom. The farther they were from his parents the better it was for him. He got the door for her and went round the car to the driver's seat. It was still quiet as he drove out of the compound. Something was off. But with who?
"Are you okay? The breakfast went well I presume, I mean my parents were nicer" he said staring at her then at the road.
"Am fine"
"Cool, so you were...."
"Who is Selina? I could see you were scared whenever she came up and you lied about having to take Kyle to a function I saw your diary pit"
The air conditioning system of the Audi R8 might have stopped working because the inside of the car was getting unreasonably hot. Peter's scariest dreams were coming live. It was a tuff spot that where she had put him. Silence was a crime and less information was an even bigger crime. And yet he was not ready for more information.
"Peter!"
"She is a longtime friend of ours"
"With who?"
"Scott and I we were a perfect triad because our parents were friends"
"Why would you be scared of visiting such a friend? And lie about it in this case"
He needed an escape plan. It was time to put the few lessons he learned from the boys during drinking. Play the victim.
"I want to spend time with you, are you doubting me? Is that why we can't have s*x?"
"No peter, don't bring s*x into this. You know what? I don't want to talk about this anymore"
"Fine, neither do I!"
They were having their first major fight moments after they almost had s*x in his state of the art bathroom. Anita was not regretting denying him s*x. She knew there was no way he could be that perfect. None of the guys she had dated were even closer to an ounce of his perfection, smart, rich, handsome humorous with no single flaw. She had found it. Secrets. Yes everyone has secrets, we are all sick as our secrets. She understood the best one could hope for was the secrets their partner was keeping were not disastrous to their relationship but there was something about his secrets.
"Hey am sorry"
"For what peter? I think you owe your parents an apology not me"
"Am trying here"
"Try harder, like tell the truth why you are avoiding your former school mate who is hot and rich as hell" she said showing him a photo of Selina on her phone.
"You looked that up?"
"Am curious peter"
"Don't make this a big deal, I told you everything you wanted to know. If it makes you happy after I drop you at home..."
"And tell my parents why you didn't take me home last night, don't forget that one"
"I thought you were joking"
"I wasn't" she forced a smile looking outside the window.
"Okay, it's not like am s**t scared of your dad anyway as I was saying, I'll go see Selina on my own but not today happy now?"
Peter might have made his situation even worse. Talk of from the frying pan to the fire. He graduated the conflict. Meeting her alone was not among the things she would have wanted to hear.
"Why do you want to see her all on your own I thought your parents wanted to go with you?"
"A few minutes ago you were ranting on why am avoiding her now I want to see her and you still have a problem?"
"No" she said politely and sounding withdrawn.
Maybe his tone was a little overboard there. Peter realized it too late. They were already at the gate. Before they got in he needed to do damage control.
"Am sorry about that, I love you and I don't want us to fight over this, I will do as you ask. Come here" he said leaning in for a kiss.
She didn't kiss him back. The guard opened the gate for them and peter drove in the compound. He looked for amble parking under a mango tree.
"At least put on a smile, your parents are going to think I had abducted you"
She smiled. Peter was glad maybe she was not mad. A single answer from a woman was not a good sign according to her boys club. They were used to sentences, paragraphs and essays, rants and raves sometimes tears to say something very simple like...you did me wrong and I don't like it. It worked for them and she was no difference.
"Don't worry, mum and dad are not here" she said getting the door for herself.
"Come on you scared the s**t out of me!"
She was laughing when he got out of the car.
"You're lucky they are not here, come on in". She invited.
"Okay" Peter said looking at himself.
He really wasn’t dressed like a guy visiting his in-laws. Not that there was a standard dressing code for that but a pair of beach shorts and a grey polo T-shirt jwas not that great. They were met with Anita's live-in best friend Tasha.
"Hey guys!" She said happily hugging Anita.
"Hello, you must be Tasha" peter said, she nodded in agreement, "Is it true Mr. And Mrs. Brown are not around?"
"Yeah, they visited a friend in town they won't be back until tomorrow"
"Okay, I can get in but I must say am not comfortable"
"You shouldn't" Anita said marching in.
Peter looked at her sexy body as she walked in whirling her hair, he bit his lower lip in satisfaction. All of that was his. To secure it he needed to come clean about his past with Selina White, a past that not even Scott, Kristen and Kyle his best friends knew about. Before he walked in he decided to check on his friend Scott.
"My man!" Peter said happily.
"What's up dude, got that room at last? You sound happy"
"Not really but am making progress am not where I was yesterday"
"Good things take time I don't want to tell you how long mine took I might discourage you anyway why did you call?"
"This requires a seating, when are you flying back in?"
"On Wednesday, dad wants to use the jet for some personal business"
"Okay I'll find you, say hi to Amber and Arya"
"I will, reciprocate to Anita"
"Peace out, bye!"
He needed the advice of a guy who took his time choosing between good and evil. Speaking of which who missed Melissa?
- Writer
