Lords of Underworld

I am sorry

Jeff was meticulous in avoiding a trail as he sat in the cab which took him home. He nearly lost his job due to his absence without leave. He could not tell them that he was jailed. He stopped by a little grocery store to get some groceries. He nodded at his widowed neighbor who had developed the habit of been dishabille and flashing  a coquettish smile each time he came back. He hoped someone told her  she would have been a good piece for antiquarian.

As he  put the key in the keyhole, he heard the roar of a car which he immediately recognised. He turned   and saw the Ferrari pull up. He wondered what his neighbors may have been thinking. Who was this guy who went about in cabs but had cute girls with Lamborghinis and Ferraris coming to his daggy parsonage? 

Melly came out of her car, looking pacific but radiant. Kim must have given her his address. She walked slowly and majestically to him while her attractiveness annihilated his resistance. She was a spell binding on him, her presence was hypnotizing, her eyes putting him on trance, while seeing her was like filling him up with aphrodisiac.

“ Hey.” She said casually. He was now comparing. Kim had hugged him crying, but here was the girl who put him all through inferno just throwing  a casual ‘hey’. Kim had that perturbed expression, but not Melly. No scintilla of perturbation on her face.

“ Hey.” He said casually.

She stood for a while in silence.

“ May I come in with you?” She said at last.

Jeff then realised he was just holding the door handle and did not look like he was expecting her to come in. It was done absentmindedly but at least, it showed a little of the anger he failed to express.

“ If you wish.” He said, pushed the door which made a creaking sound and went in. He put his grocery bag on the table, removed two bottles of drinks and put in the refrigerator, placed cornflakes and milk on the table then went into the toilet to drop the toiletries.

She was still standing when he came back.

“ Please sit down.” He said and  felt formality in his note.

She sat down precariously on the sofa.

“ I am sorry, I got only gin and water here. I mean, no liquitera…”

“ That’s okay.” She said.

“ Thank you for asking your father to bail me.”

“ You don’t have to thank me,”she said politely, “ you were arrested because of me. You went through all of these for me. I caused it and I am your bad luck.”

“ We don’t have to go there. No one forced me. It was my choice.”

“ I tried an aposteriori to see how they got to you but nothing made sense. I was told they tortured  you, tried  to make you say who you worked for and how you got the file.”

He said nothing, pulled off his shoes and sat on a sofa.

“ You did not mention my name, why?”

“ I just did not feel like.”

“ I am sorry.”

“You don’t have to be. How did you find me?”

“ I found you, that’s all that matters.” She looked round the room, he sensed her disgust like Kim. They had that in common, rich folks who were not used to been in places like this.

“ Do you like it here? I mean I was trying to reconcile you with Fahad.”

is better than ‘ use-yours-and-borrow=me’. It means living in this place that I pay for which may be repulsive to many is to me better than living in someone else’s place. No one will put a CCTV here. I have no truck with Fahad. It’s not a quarrel. We don’t need to reconcile. We are still buddies….”

“ But you don’t contact each other now.”

“ We are both busy. I need you to let it off your mind.”

“ But it was all my fault. When I first met you, you were this vivacious dude with slaphappy approach to life and not a buggered minded bloke.”

“ I am fine. Thank you for your concern, and you talk as if you care?”

She gave him a sharp glance as if pricked by a needle.

“ What did you just say?”

Jeff got up, moved and poured  a glass of water and then leaned on the wall.

“ I said why speak as if you care? I am nothing but a tool to you. I am lucky that you have a conscience, I should have rot in jail .You got your father to get me out because you felt  you  invited me. What I don’t understand now is why you have come here. I am of no use to you any longer. What we had is over. I am on the police watch list and your father and the cops warned me to stay clean. It’s not a crime to fall in love with you. I did not choose to, my heart compelled me to, I could not win my heart even when I tried, so I became enslaved, captured in a love tangle  with impediment elements.

You did not feel the same way. I never mentioned it, but the body language was clear. You had someone in your life, a childhood love, fine and understandable, but why humiliate me? You invited me, to be thrown at Kim like a piece of gigolo, then throw me at your rich boy friend to remind me that I  did not belong to the real Simons. Why must you invite me to witness your love and affection for each other if you knew I had a heart and would feel jealous and hurt? I don’t belong to your class. I was on the streets, stunting for quid when you were partying in a customized yacht. You were watching your boyfriend play football while I was getting a bail. I appreciate Kim who showed that I was not a piece of s**t. Now that you came two days later, I wonder if there is a dirty piece of job you want……..”

Twai!

He was forced to swallow the rest of his words as she sprang up and used her palm to slap him. The impact of the shock was more than the pain. It was the least  action he had anticipated from her. Her eyes grew larger, panting and gasping, she grabbed him and he felt the lilac soft lips traveling towards his with a crush and rush. When he heard the crashing sound of the glass he used to drink water, it reminded him of the jug that crashed when he was with Kim but this time, he was not thinking of picking the pieces . He let it go. He wanted this like a man stranded in an Arabian desert for one week wanted chilled water.

*****

Melly stared at  Jeff as he lay with his eyes closed on the three-sitter sofa. He looked childishly innocent, his firm lips tightly closed. The lips! She could not believe they had their first kiss . She could still feel the sweet caramel praline taste, and the sparks of electric flux . She had withstood it for long, trying to believe the feelings was not real, it was not there, but she knew in her deep psyche that she  wanted him. It was there, but she refused to recognise it. She barely looked at him the first day they met, but his rover blue eyes with penetrating powers hard sent sputtering sweet sensation inside her.

She became scared and tried to ignore him. She almost succeded until he appeared again. Even when she recognised him as the cops came, she  wanted him out of her sight but the flash memory, fate brought them together. How could she want him so bad  and want him out of her life? What was wrong with her? Why did she have to keep reminiscing about the short time they spent in the villa? It was romantic even when they both pretended it was official. Was it because she was crossing the line? The line? Yes, the line. There was a line and it was red.

Now as she lay close to him, she respected his level of control. She could see that he wanted her, he wanted more than dalliance, but he did not go further. They both wanted to do it, but that invisible boundary was there, it was so thick and difficult to cross. They just kissed and he fell asleep like it was a sleeping drug.

“ Hey.” He whispered and she came back to life. He smiled, crinkling his handsome face into an adorable façade. “ Thank you for sending me to this nap. It washed away my lassitude, restored my Strength and made sound my heart but I’m yet to wake up from this dream.”

“ Dream?”

“ Yes. I had a sweet dream that I got the girl of my dream in my arms and we…..”

She crossed his lips with my finger.

“ Did you not get slapped in the dream?”

They laughed. She touched his cheek softly, regretting why she slapped him.

“ I am sorry.” She apologized.

“ It’s okay. I was shocked though.”

“ And a gentleman like you did not beat me up.”

“ Beat up a woman? That is beastly.”

“ I could not stand you saying those things. I wanted to tell you to stop, that it was all misconceptions, you were so assertive and I was feeling horrible, terrible, but I could not move my lips, I could not move, it was like plunging me into water and I can’t breath. I had to stop you, I did not plan to slap you. I don’t know what got into me. “

“ If what happened next would happen again, then I change my name to Slap-me-Melly.”

She giggled.

“ I don’t blame you for feeling the things you felt.” She said softly, still touching his cheek.  “ I did not intend to humiliate you. I had invited you because I wanted to reconcile you with Fahad. Kim asked me to make sure I invited you, I did not tell her I had that in mind but she made you feel  you were brought for her. I must confess, I wanted you guys to date just….to escape from you, to have a reason not to fall in love with you. I did not expect Steve to do what he did. I knew you liked me but I feigned not to. I could see it in your eyes, volumes of unspoken words emitted from your eyes, your smile was a radiation of hidden feelings, and your  actions spoke love. You were willing to do anything for me, even risk your life. You were tortured, yet you did not mention my name even when you felt I used and humiliated you. What kind of man would refuse a million dollars when he had no money?” She paused. “ I did not go with Steve to watch him play. I declined. I came for you but saw my dad and stepped back. I was trailing you, not in my Ferrari but an SUV when he dropped you but Kim was there before me. You asked how I found this place out, now you know. I trailed you guys and don’t tell me what went on between you guys with the loads of food and hours spent inside. Kim was so worried she may have giving you a welcome back …….”

“ You were watching us?”

“ Hmmhh.”

“ Whoa! About me and her, nothing happened, I swear. I enjoyed her company just because I felt lonely and rejected but nothing more. It’s you and you alone I wanted and still want.”

That came as a relief. She had a lot of imaginations that day.

“ My dad was shocked when you refused the gift and there is something about you that struck me…..you are real.  When you told me that you were a sales boy and all those things belonged to your friend, I developed for you a kind of rare respect.”

“ I’m blushing. This is too much for the boy.” He covered his face jokingly.

“ Thank you Jeff for everything and get those grubby ideas out of your head because the next time will be a slap, not followed by a kiss but another slap, then another slap then a kick downstairs.

“ Yes, ma’am.” He said. “ If you knew I loved you so much and my being a pauper did not stop you from caring , why were you fighting it?”

A one million dollar question!

She hesitated, feeling her heartbeat increase in tempo, and then withdrew her hand from his face.

“ Because even if I care,” she said, “ it’s of no use because we can’t  ......can't be together, Jeff."