Chapter4
1684 Words
Charlbi is in her bedroom, lying on her bed, rereading the text she had received from Gareth. "Why did you have to go so far away? I miss you."
Nuala walks in, shaking her head. "Darn girl, you got it bad. You got the Gareth Cartier bug and don't want to be cured unless it was by the handsome Gareth himself."
"What do you want? You only come in here when you want to borrow something," Charlbi sits up on the bed.
"True. But I love you." Nuala sits on the bed and hugs her.
"I love you, too. This has to be something I won't like. No, you can't borrow my clothes or money. Now you may leave my room." Charlbi unwraps her sister's arms from around her.
"Sister dear, it's neither one." Nuala stands up, clapping and smiling. "I have a date tonight."
Charlbi repeatedly shakes her head. "No, you don't. Mother and Father don't allow us to date until we're eighteen. You must be dreaming, let me wake you up." She pinches Nuala's arm hard.
Nuala screams and rubs her arm, "That hurts. Anyway, that's where the favor comes in. I want you to tell Father and Mother we're going to the movies. Then we'll go our separate ways and meet back up in a few hours. Please." She's pleading with her hands up in the prayer mudra position as if she's praying.
"Nope, I have never lied to our parents. The first lie I tell won't be this. Besides, you're too young to be dating. What is wrong with you?" Who is this boy that wants you to be deceitful for?" Charlbi folds her arms, waiting because she wants to have a few words with him.
Nuala walks out of the room. "None of your business."
"Don't do anything stupid," Charlbi looks at her sister's back, concerned. "She's going to do something stupid. When will she learn to listen to me?"
Her mother walks to the doorway. "Have you started talking to yourself now?"
"Not yet, just thinking out loud." Charlbi was still looking in the hall in the direction her sister had gone.
Jee narrows her eyes, looking at her, thinking it has something to do with Gareth. "Is there anything your father and I should know about?"
"Nothing I can think of," Charlbi shakes her head. "I'm going to water Gareth's plants before school. Do you want to come with me?"
"No, but hurry back," Jee walks away, mumbling, "I don't know why Bae agreed for our daughter to water that man's plants. When he knows Gareth has feelings for her.
Nuala is in her bedroom on the phone with Francesa, plotting to pretend to spend the night with her so she can go out. She doesn't care what she has to do to go on a date with Basilio.
****
Andrea had been watching Gareth during practice. He can't believe his friend is treating him coldly. He doesn't see a problem with what he arranged last night. After all, Gareth got laid by two women. He walks over to Gareth, asking if he is still upset with him.
Gareth points and shakes his head. "You don't know what the hell you did. Some asshole took pictures of me with those damn gold diggers. I asked a few of the guys if they knew them. Guess what? They did and said they were nothing but trouble. Trouble is the one thing I don't need."
"Your ass is just worried about that damn young preppy girl finding out you have been stirring someone's pot," Andrea smirks.
Gareth pokes him in his chest. "Yeah, you're right. I don't want her opening up a damn book or looking on the internet and seeing that f****d up s**t. Also, my parents. Unlike you, I have a goal when my hockey career is over. I don't want to be known as a f*****g womanizer. Like I said before, keep your f*****g distance from me and keep Charlbi out of your damn mouth. If not, I'll bust your damn head wide open."
Now all their teammates are staring at them. Most of them stay clear of Andrea because of his love for women. Andrea will screw around with any woman that gives him attention.
"Damn, man, okay." Andrea raised his hands. "I didn't think it would turn out like this. It's not that serious."
"Your dumb ass still doesn't get it. Yes, it is that serious. I bet you, one day, you will know how serious it is when women start showing up at your house with babies or telling you they have a disease that's not curable. See if you care then. When it happens, don't call me. Because all I'm going to say is, I told you so." Gareth shakes his head. "I'm done with this conversation."
Andrea is looking in disbelief at Gareth walking out of the locker room.
Rolf was able to find the photographer and met him at the Manolo Coffee Shop. He called Gareth to meet him there also. Gareth is trying to make his way into the shop, but he's bombarded by a crowd of young girls trying to autograph and take a picture with him. Rolf loves seeing s**t like that. It means his cash flow isn't coming to an end anytime soon. After a few minutes, he goes out there, swatting the ladies away.
Gareth sits at a table, catching his breath. "Tell me about this person."
Rolf orders two Cafe Crema, then he tells Gareth the man they're meeting is Hamza. He doesn't know much about the man. Except he goes to different nightclubs and bars, taking pictures of celebrities, hoping to sell them. If he had to take a wild guess, he and the women would also blackmail some of them.
Gareth drinks his coffee. "I'll do the talking. I want this clown to know that I'm not fooling around with him."
"Well then, you handle it," Rolf winks at the waitress. He thinks she's flirting with him, but is trying to get Gareth's attention.
She turns her head and thinks, "Not a chance in hell."
A few minutes later, a 5'9 blonde-haired man walks into the coffee shop and chuckles when he sees Gareth "leicht verdientes gold" (easy money). He walks to the table and sits down. "I'm a busy man, can we hurry this up?"
"Then don't order a coffee. I'm also a busy man," Gareth snarls. "Now, let's cut the crap and get down to business." He points at the man, "The pictures and the negatives you took of me. I want them right now."
Hamza rubs his hands together. "Money is my favorite subject. I'm thinking 932,000.00 Euros, and I'll hand everything over to you."
Gareth's jaw tightens. "Okay, one million is yours. If you double-cross me, I promise you will regret the day you were born. Rolf, don't let him out of your sight until you have the negatives and every last damn picture of me. Then I'll transfer the money to his ass."
Rolf hit Hamza's arm. "Let's go and get this over with."
"Nice doing business with you, lover boy," Hamza said with a baleful laugh.
"Son of a b***h" Gareth clenches his fist, looking at Hamza and Rolf. He stares at Hamza until he's out of his view."I would have paid more if I had to."
*****
Three months later, Gareth returns home, and the only face he wants to see is his beautiful young Asian doll. When he drives up his driveway, he's disappointed when he doesn't see her in the front yard. Gareth walks into his house, pouting when someone jumps on his back and whispers in his ear. "Welcome home."
He chuckles. "I thought you had forgotten about me," Gareth walks to a chair and, with his back turned to it.
Charlbi steps off his back into the chair. "I'll never forget about you. Welcome home. You were gone too long. But as you can see, your plants are still alive. Seriously, six months is a very long time to be away from home." She jumps to the floor.
He's staring at her. His plants are the last thing he's thinking about. She has said his name several times, then she snaps her fingers in his face.
"I'm sorry for staring. I miss seeing your beautiful smile," Gareth looked at a young girl, blushing. He smiles, looking at her ears. She's wearing the earrings he had given her for her birthday. Then it came to him that in about six months, Charlbi would be eighteen. "I brought you something, a gift." He gave her the wrapped present.
She unwraps it and frowns. "A cuckoo clock. You bought me a cuckoo clock," Charlbi smiles, looking at him confused. "Thank you."
Gareth is trying not to laugh. "Make sure you're holding it when it coos. That should be in about twenty-one minutes."
"Oh, okay," she slides her long brown hair behind her ear and clears her throat. "I can't stay too long. My Mother will be knocking on your door. That won't be a pretty sight. Especially not now after they discovered Nuala had been sneaking out of the house, among many other things. Anyway, I'm not going to bore you about that. My Father told me to ask you if you would join him tomorrow at noon for a game of chess. It seems I'm not the only Phan who missed you."
"Tell your father I'll be there. When are you going to tell your parents and me about your plans after graduation? You're always avoiding the question when I ask you." He lifts her chin with his finger and looks into her eyes.
Charlbi rubs his shoulder. "I promised you'd be the third person to know. I'm telling my parents the morning of my birthday. I'll tell you that evening at my party. I'm expecting something special from you."
"Special from me," He mumbles, looking at her walking out of the house. "I wonder what that could be." Gareth rubs his chin.
- Writer
