Jessica's Life Journey (20) - An Island in the Sun

I hear Samantha saying “Good night” and Will replying, “Good night sis, see you tomorrow”. Then the front door shuts with a click.

He notices my disapproving frown and asks: “What is the matter, Jess?”

I feel a surge of intense anger and I'm tempted to vent my fury and shout in his face: “ Don't you Jess me, you cheating son of a bitch!”, but I retain my composure and try to look dignified.

I do not wish to give him the satisfaction of seeing me acting like a fishwife and to fly off the handle.

Barely keeping my boiling emotions in control, I calmly say:

“How long are you prepared to keep up the pretence? I know all about the DNA results.”.

He looks unruffled and for a moment I suspect that he's playing for time in order to think up a plausible story to justify his duplicity.

“Ah, I didn't know you cared”, he says and this unexpected response floors me.

“Of course I do, you thickhead. We can't simply dismiss the relationship that we have built over the years.”

! care for you more than you appreciate”, I add, “I don't want to see you hurt or taken advantage of.”

I suddenly realise that the confrontation I envisaged is not going as planned. I am making myself vulnerable by revealing my true feelings.

“ But you rejected me in the first place”, he says and I can see that my words have given him renewed hope of a reconciliation.

I decide to keep up the offensive and demand an explanation for his devious conduct.

“ Why didn't you trust me with the truth?”

“Because if I told you the real reason, you would have thought that it was too far-fetched to believe it. In fact, I told Samantha that the test was positive, and let her think that she is my sibling, because I felt sorry for her, not having any other relatives, and because I always wanted a sister.”

I am about to say, “ I'll give you the benefit of the doubt William Browning” when I hear a noise in the anteroom

I rush out of the office to see if there is an intruder and notice that the intercom is switched on but there's no one at the desk.

Will has also come out and says that the noise we heard could have been a delivery man with the takeaway pizza that he had ordered in anticipation of our meeting.

Right on cue, a girl opens the door. For a moment I think it's Sam returning to the office but this one is carrying a Fortnum and Mason hamper.

“Is this your idea of a pizza?”, I ask Will.

He fishes out from the hamper a bottle of bubbly and a pair of flute glasses and proposes for the second time.

This time I can't refuse, his lips are glued to mine, thus precluding any objection coming from my mouth.

There we'll be plenty of time to establish the boundaries of our union. He knows that I value my independence and wouldn't want us to live in each other's pocket and I am aware that he wouldn't like to be tied to my apron's strings either.

One thing we agree on right away is to have a small, private wedding without any fanfare.

#

After the excitement caused by my tete-a-tete with Will, I expected things to return to normal, for Samantha to be at the reception desk the following morning but she phoned Will and told him that she had caught the Covid latest variant and was isolating.

When a fortnight passed and she still hadn't returned, I wondered whether the office's intercom not being switched off meant that she had overheard our conversation and learned that she wasn't Will's sister after all.

I wasn't unduly concerned and my mind was on other things. I was in a dream world and planning ahead to my honeymoon in an exotic location, perhaps the island of Bali, when, coincidentally a postcard from Barbados landed in the letterbox one morning. 

It said more than 'I wish you were here.

“Dear brother,
sorry to have left you in the lurch but I'm not suited to the humdrum routine of office life and I have accepted a photo shoot in the Caribbean that will keep me busy for a while. I'll see you on my return.
Sam xxx”

It seems that everything has worked out satisfactorily for all concerned. Time will tell if it is true

© Luigi Pagano 2022