***
“Where’s dad?” Tanesha asked as she sat on the couch and took off her shoes.
“He had to meet Senator Riley. It has to do with our trip tomorrow. He left not too long ago.” Dora responded as she watched her daughter stand and not too gently, kick her shoes to the side. She raised an eyebrow. Dora knew her daughter. She was obviously upset. “Turn around,” Dora instructed and waited till Tanesha did as she’d asked, and then unzipped her dress. “So… Who’s this Lt. Cdr. Wesley, darling daughter?” Dora asked, taking a seat on the couch and watching as Tanesha took off her jewelry.
“Mum, it’s a long story.” Tanesha was down to her bra and panties.
“Hmmm… Does it have anything to do with the way you were looking at him? Like a bitch in heat?”
“Mum!” Tanesha gasped, her eyes widening in shock as she stared at her mother.
“Ow come on Tanny.” Dora elegantly crossed her legs at the knee and looked at her daughter from beneath her long eyelashes. “Apart from the fact that I’m your mother, I’m also a Veterinarian. I know all the signs. You wanted that man so bad today. I’m actually surprised you didn’t attack him right there in front of everyone. I wouldn’t have blamed you one bit. He’s damn sexy.” Dora Ashton purred. She would have gone on with her teasing but then she realized her daughter was about to cry. “Oh baby, come here.” Dora opened her arm to Tanesha, who threw herself into her mother’s arms.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, mum.” Tanesha’s head was in her mother’s lap. “I thought he was dead. Before that, I thought he was one of my kidnappers. But he…I…he looked out for me. He…”
“Oh, so that’s how you’re calling it these days huh?” Dora drawled. “Looking out for…”
“Mum…”
“Sorry, sorry. I guess you totally forgot about Lance huh? Go on. He looked out for you and…”
“I just…” Tanesha trailed off. “What is wrong with me? Lance is brilliant. He looks like a Disney prince. He’s…he’s practically the perfect man. Why can’t I feel for…”
“…him what you feel for Soldier boy? Simple darling. Lance is not Wesley. You’re in love with Wesley. And the chemistry between you two…”
“You don’t even know the man, mum. You saw him across the room for what… thirty minutes? Forty-five…”
“I knew it in five seconds.” Dora chuckled, running her fingers through Tanesha’s long tresses. “Honey, when he got up there to give his speech, and he locked eyes with you, sparks went off.”
“Oh, crap.” Tanesha moaned. “Do you think people noticed?”
“Let’s just say I was glad your father didn’t see you when you came back from ‘talking’ to Wesley.” Dora gave quotations with her fingers. “You looked…ravished.” Dora laughed when Tanesha groaned. But then her voice went quiet. “It was also obvious you’d been crying. Your dad would have hit the roof.”
“Oh God, mum I love him so much it terrifies me.” Tanesha moaned.
“So what made you think he was dead all this while?” Dora asked.
With a deep sigh, Tanesha finally told her mother all about Skull, his really cool friends who’d tricked her into befriending them, and what Aaron and Tristan had told her that afternoon. “I’m just so hurt that he could actually go through with it…not reach out to me as he promised. It’s so painful.” She whispered.
“Oh, dear,” Dora muttered, feeling her daughter’s pain. The former first lady of Jamaica gave a deep sigh. “He was trying to do the right thing, honey. At least even when you thought he was dead, he was still looking out for you. The perks of giving the right man your cherry.”
“Mum…”
“What? It’s the truth. But much as I understand his reason for not coming to see you, I’m a little peeved that he could actually go for three whole months without this.” Dora drawled humorously, pointed her fingers from Tanesha’s head to her feet sweepingly. “I mean one would think this would drive a man to break any rules, don’t you think. In fact, I feel insulted. And that’s one thing I dislike about these military men. Look at your father…rules, rules, rules.” It almost seemed as if Dora was talking to herself.
“Err…mum?” Tanesha sat up beside her mother. “Dad virtually does everything you ask.” And that was the truth.
“I know. And it wasn’t easy getting it that way. Okay, this is what we’re going to do.” Dora rubbed her hands together with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “We’re going to make soldier boy squirm. Come on, show me what you’re wearing to the dinner.”
“You think some dress is going to make him squirm?”
“Not just some dress. A killer dress.” Dora grinned impishly?
“Hmmm… Maybe I should be going to this dinner with a plus one.” Tanesha muttered, looking thoughtful. “Now, that will make him squirm.” She muttered to herself.
“What do you mean? Plus one as in a date? You want to go with Lance?” Dora raised an eyebrow, still not catching on.
“Mum! I can’t do that to Lance.” Tanesha gushed.
“Do what?” Then Dora’s eyes widened when the full import of what her daughter was saying hit her. “Oh, you little sly minx. Want to make soldier boy jealous huh?” Dora chuckled. “Do you think that’s a good idea?”
“At this juncture, I really don’t care,” Tanesha said vehemently. “Everyone keeps telling me how he didn’t have any choice…he had to do the right thing, blah, blah, blah. Well, I’m still hurt. And I want to hurt him too, mum. Seeing him hurting just a little bit should make me feel better don’t you think? Besides, in a way, it will show me that at least he feels something too. That all this is not some act.”
Dora Ashton stared at her daughter. She didn’t think Tanesha making her man jealous was a good thing but if it was going to make her feel better, why not. Tanesha was the sort of person who found it very difficult to forgive when she thought she’d been hurt deliberately. And Dora instinctively knew that doing something which she felt would ease her pain, would help her daughter get over her feeling of betrayal much quicker.
“Alright let’s do this.” Dora got to her feet. “You, my darling daughter, are going to that dinner with a plus one.”