Tasha took a bottle of water out of the fridge and took it outside into the garden. It was the day after the college closed for the summer. She had slept most of the day and she was ready for the research she planned to do later at night.
Her phone rang beside her on the pallet garden table in front of her. She looked at the screen and frowned at the strange phone number blinking on the screen. She didn’t pick the phone up; she left it to ring out. The phone started ringing again. She shrugged and picked it up. Swiping across the screen she said, “Hello,” tentatively, and waited for the caller to say something.
The caller cleared his throat, and she knew immediately before he even talked it was Blake Carter. She sat upright, all the hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention.
“Hello, Tasha,” he cleared his throat again. “This is Blake.”
There was a bit of silence before she exhaled inaudibly and said, “Hello, Blake.”
“I hope I didn’t catch you at the wrong time?” Blake said.
“What do you want Blake,” she snapped. “I’m busy, why are you calling me?”
“Okay, okay.” He stared, his voice not as confident as she knew it to be. “I just want to say I am sorry for the other day in Canada. I realized I didn’t approach you the right way…”
“It’s okay, Blake,” she sounded angry now. “If you don’t mind, I would like to get back to what I was doing. Have a…”
“No, no please don’t cut the line off,” he pleaded desperately. “I want to apologize too for the way I treated you seven years ago, Tasha. You didn’t deserve it. I am so sorry for all the pain I caused you then.”
“Oh…You knew I didn’t deserve it,” she scoffed and stood up. She started walking inside, not wanting neighbors to listen to their conversation. “Yet, you pulled the rug right under my feet when I least expected!” She walked into the kitchen and settled on the kitchen chair with a thud.
“I am sorry, Tasha,” he pleaded again. “I didn’t like that I had to break up with you. But you know that as the heir, I have to take up my responsibilities as the family heir even if it doesn’t go along with my plans.”
“So you just realized after all these years that what you did to me was wrong, right?” She retorted. “You never cared if I died of depression or if anything bad happened to me, you didn’t even look back?”
“I was selfish,” he started. “I know, I was only thinking about myself and my family and that was very wrong of me.”
“Yes,” she said almost in a shriek. “You are selfish, arrogant, and a son of a bitch, Blake Carter!”
“Yes, I no,” he chuckled. “You can call me any name you like, just forgive me, Tasha.”
His chuckle pissed her off. “You think this is funny right?” She stood up and started pacing around the kitchen with her seven years of pent-up anger. “Oh this is a kind of billionaire joke to you, right? Use ’em and dump them. Isn’t it?” She said at the top of her voice.
“No no, Tasha. You were not a joke to me and still not a joke to me. I’m sorry for chuckling. “You know I never enjoyed teaching,” he tried to explain himself. “I have always prayed for an opportunity to bail my family out of the mess my father made. So when his friend agreed to help us, I didn’t even mind the condition. All I wanted was to save my drowning family business empire.
His father made a very bad business deal twelve years ago and it cost their business a huge amount of money. Blake stayed for two years, struggling to get the business back on its feet. But nothing worked, they had to reduce the staff strength drastically. And since the company was their only source of income, everyone in the family was affected too.
He joined the academics. He had just earned his Ph. D. in Business Management and Financial Studies, with an MBA the year before that. Apart from being an astute businessman, he also loved studying. He thought of putting all his certificates to good use until he knew what to do next.
Stacy’s father’s intervention came three years after he started working at Cleverwood.
“Contrary to what you think Tasha, I looked for you,” he whispered. “I went back to Cleverwood and I was told you resigned. I reasoned you took that step because you didn’t want to see me.” He concluded in a rush.
“You humiliated me, how did you expect me to stay, Blake?” she said. The tempo of her voice rose higher. “You know so many people detested me then because you were with me.”
Blake was every woman’s dream on the Cleverwood campus, especially in their faculty. The staff and students of the faculty envied her for being his woman. Some brave ones even said it to her face several times without a number.
They became lovers almost immediately after she joined the teaching staff of the Faculty of Business Management of Cleverwood Private University, Buffalo. He was there a year ahead of her.
“I’m sorry Tasha,” he said sadly. “Believe me, I am. I wish I could turn back the hands of the clock.” He said in a sober voice. “I should have handled things better.”
“Yes you should have,” she snapped back, still pacing, running her hands through her hair. “Blake, I need to go back to what I was doing before your call came in.”
Before he could respond Tyson appeared at the kitchen doorway. She quickly cut the line off with trembling hands.
“Mom, are you okay? Are you fighting with someone on the phone?”
“Oh, dear Lord.” She thought to herself and quickly put her phone in flight mode. Tasha knew Blake would try to call her back. She didn’t want him to hear Tyson’s voice.
“No. I’m not fighting,” she ruffled his curls. “I’m only catching up with an old friend on the phone.”
“Are you sure, you were shouting, Mom?”
“Yes, I am sure,” she smiled to convince him. “Everything is fine.”