UPTOWN LOVERS by Austin MITCHEll-Chapter One

UPTOWN LOVERS By Austin Mitchell Chapter One September 22, 2001-Bobbette Greene was at Rob’s Wholesale this Saturday evening, ordering her groceries. She went across the road and spent some time waiting for a taxi when the young proprietor unexpectedly drove up and stopped at her feet. “Hi, you’re still here. I’ve seen many taxis pass and didn’t stop. So I said I’d come over and help you out.” “Thanks, apparently they are all full. I’m living in Arlene Gardens.” “That’s just up the road.” He helped her into the car with her groceries. “I’m Robert Parsons. Is this the first time you’re shopping at my wholesale?” he asked her as they drove off. “I started living here about six months ago. I’ve been getting my groceries there ever since but mostly on weekends.” “How do you like the service?” “It’s okay, I can’t complain.” “Good, that’s what I want to hear.” They had reached her house now and he helped her take her groceries out of the car and carry inside to put on her front patio. “By the way, what’s your name?” he asked as they stood at the gate. “I’m Bobbette Greene.” “Okay, next week then,” he said getting back into his car and driving off. She was renting half of a house, working at a government loan agency and going to evening school. Robert made it his duty to serve her each time and to drop her home. He also took her to the markets in Downtown, Kingston, every Saturday morning to buy her fresh produce. They soon became friends and lovers as he was now sleeping at her house and spending most weekends there. She no longer went for her groceries as he would bring them to her. Bobbette thought he was at least fifty pounds overweight and was a hulk of a man and would be a clumsy lover but he proved her match in bed. She learned that he owned a chain of wholesale stores, plus at least three petrol service stations. His father, Jervis, had died six months ago. His mother, Carmeta, had divorced the old man from he was a toddler and migrated to the United States. He was an only child. Bobbette had lived most of her life in Washington Gardens before going on her own about two years ago when she started working with the loan agency. During her high school years there had been stories circulating about her and numerous guys because of her body, an object of envy from other women, and a source of admiration from men. Her mother, Merryl, a senior nurse at a private hospital in Kingston, had even called her a slut and a tramp, labels, Bobbette firmly rejected. Instead, she told her mother that they were her friends and they liked talking to her. Her father, Castel, a taxi operator, didn’t share his wife’s opinion and felt that the boys were only hanging around his second child because they wanted to date her. Nevertheless, he had always warned her to be careful. Three months into the relationship she learned that a woman by the name of Jenna Marsden had a child for Robert about six years ago and he was supporting her. He denied that he was still seeing her, but she was apprehensive that the relationship was still going strong. Maybe it was because of his refusal to say how much money he was giving her for the little boy. They were in bed one Saturday night when the woman called. Jaimie, her son, was feeling ill and she wanted him to see a doctor immediately. Bobbette felt less than pleased that he had to leave her and take his son to the doctor. She didn’t make a face or anything like that. She wondered if it was a ploy the woman was using to see him. He returned at almost four o’clock that morning saying that the little boy was okay now and that his fever and coughing were now under control, having received medication from the doctor. She didn’t make any adverse comments as she didn’t want to sound callous. “I’m glad he’s okay. I was a bit worried about you being out at this time of the morning, darling.” “I know you would, honey. When you have small children, especially Jaimie’s age, these are the kind of things you can expect.” He came into the bed beside her. He liked spending time at her house because he couldn’t get enough of her cooking. She fed him lots of vegetables, lean meat, fruits and cereals. Most weekends she would go with him to his various business locations, especially if it was in the rural areas. Sometimes if it was too late to get into Kingston they would stay at a guest house or hotel. “Try and get some more sleep. I know you have to be up and about first thing tomorrow morning. Are you going out to the country?” “I’m staying in town. I’m dead tired after spending last night with you and then taking Jaimie to see the doctor.” They always had a vigorous session of lovemaking. He was never satisfied until she had multiple climaxes. She soon had to get a sturdier bed, one that could withstand their lovemaking. He got up and turned off the lights and she threw her arms around him. It didn’t take long for both of them to fall asleep again. *** February 20,2002-Bobbette was still going to evening classes and studying way into the nights and even on weekends in order to get into college to pursue a degree. She was pursuing these courses on campus as some college students had started an evening school to help with their own living and tuition expenses. Robert said that some of those courses would be helpful to him, especially those dealing with business. All that he knew about the subject was what his late father had taught him. He now wanted some formal training, but had no time to attend classes. He had dropped out of school at seventeen when his father said he wanted more help in the business and couldn’t afford to hire it. They searched out some courses on the internet and he enrolled in a few of them. Robert’s businesses were generating so much money that it enabled him to open two more meat shops and a fast food franchise. Several of her friends were encouraging her to hook him good by even proposing to him and let him buy her a big house in somewhere like the Canrieves or Hershire Heights. She told them that she didn’t want him to feel that she was only after his money. She would take her time and he would eventually do all the things they were telling her about. Sometimes she wished he didn’t have so many businesses. Or if he did, they weren’t spread over such a wide geographical area. Whenever they were out of town she would always take along her party clothes and do her hair and nails, hoping to hit a party scene. He was dead tired most of the times and only wanted to sleep. It was more than four months now since they were going steady. She had moved from Arlene Gardens to an apartment in Constant Spring. His father had owned the apartment and it came into his possession upon his death. She was prepared to fight off any other woman who tried to intrude in their relationship. They were relaxing on the front balcony of their apartment having just eaten dinner. They had a view of Mona, Jacks Hill and the Canrieves and the magnificent homes in those places. She knew that if she stuck with this man she would soon be living in one of them. “Darling, I wish you’d lie down in one of these couches and put up your feet like I’m doing.” She knew that he had been working on his weight. He had cut out those fast food meals, but complained that he couldn’t get time to do some walking or go to the gym. His father had fought a losing battle against obesity and had died suddenly from a massive heart attack. “I’m taking it easy. Remember that I’m still young. I want to get one of those houses in the hills and move from Vineyard Town.” “Up there is cool and the soil is fertile. I’d like to plant some fruit trees and a garden instead of these.” She pointed to the few plants, they had on the balcony. “It will be done in good time, darling.” She went inside for some more orange juice. When she returned, he said. “At some point I want to get involved in politics.” “I see those people on television and they’re always shouting at each other.” “I’m thinking of starting in local government first before moving up. I want to help out this country. No matter what you hear, people go into politics to serve and not to stuff their pockets full of money as is always rumored.” “If that’s what you want, I’m not going to stop you.” “Later, when you see the benefits you’ll know that I made the right decision.” “Can we go out later on for some dancing at Brenton’s place?” “Sure, why not, but I can’t stay too late though. I have to go to Mandeville first thing tomorrow morning. There’s a guy down there who’s putting up a wholesale for sale. I want to have a look at it before I make him an offer.” Although she tried to persuade him to slow down in pursuing his business dreams, she knew that was what had helped his father to buy this upscale apartment. She only made furtive complaints sometimes. There was a tall guy on campus whom she took a liking to, but she was scared to cheat on Robert. His name was Stewart Brown and she had seen several girls around him and knew that he was popular with the women. Sometimes when Robert was out of town she had thought about him, but she knew she had to be careful. There were many women who envied her and weren’t above going to Robert with a story that she had a lover. “Do you think you can manage so many businesses alone, darling?” “I have good managers plus my accountants are first class. I have my internal auditors checking the books on a regular basis.” “Let’s go and have a nap before we go up to Brenton’s place.” “Sure, it’s not more than that?” “Robert, after last night, I would be greedy to want more and so soon,” she said as they relaxed a little more before going inside for a nap. *** September 27,2002-Bobbette was sitting on one of the concrete benches on campus going over some of her notes. She was now pursuing a two year certificate course in Management Studies. She was doing the certificate course first, then take a break before moving on to do the degree. Normally she studied with a group of friends, but she wanted to talk to Stewart alone. They became lovers three months ago and it was as if they couldn’t get enough of each other. While she wasn’t neglecting Robert she made every effort to be with Stewart. Robert was in Miami on a business trip this weekend. She loved him in a special kind of way, but Stewart was something else. He took her to parties, nightclubs, stage shows, sports bars and other entertainment venues, things that Robert was hardly interested in. Whereas she was sure about him she wasn’t sure about Stewart. She knew about two of his women, April English and Morgana Simmonds. Morgana was away in the States, but she knew that he had other women. She saw him coming towards her. He was tall and good looking with a lean athletic body. He sat around the bench opposite her. “So how’s it going, Bobbette?” “Everything’s okay. Robert is in Miami and won’t be back until Monday.” “We can spend the entire weekend, clubbing, baby and some real hot nights.” There was nobody sitting near them to eavesdrop on their conversation. “We have to be careful though. It’s a good thing I only have a cell phone. If he calls me and I’m not home, he won’t know. We should probably go to one of the less popular clubs like Reasons. A lot of people know Robert and they know that I’m his woman. I don’t want them to see me out with you and tell him. It’s a good thing I live in an apartment where everybody minds their own business.” Robert was financing her university studies plus he had bought a car for her. “By the way, Morgana sent me an email. She said she heard that I was seeing you so she was breaking off with me.” Bobbette burst out laughing, after a while she became serious. “Imagine that I caused the two of you to break up. Me, a girl, from a humble district like Burnley. We don’t even have running water or electricity there. This woman from the Canrieves, where only rich people live, is accusing me of taking away her man. That’s a laugh.” I don’t see what’s so funny.” “Because I think she isn’t being truthful. Maybe she has found some other guy over there.” “Found some other guy, she’s just been there a little more than a year now. She had to return in July for her father’s funeral. Before that her uncle-in-law was shot dead, but she didn’t come for his funeral.” He took up a pebble and threw it into some bushes. “Isn’t that enough time? Don’t forget that I know her. When I first met you, I didn’t know that you were her boyfriend.” “What would you have done, leave me? Anyway, I never liked her all that much. Before she went away, her mother and her aunt wanted me to get engaged to her but I turned them down.” “How long did she spend out here when she came to her father’s funeral?” “About a week.” “That should have given both of you enough time to re-kindle your relationship.” “She told me that she had heard the rumors and that she was going to write me.” “Maybe if you had gotten engaged to her she would marry you once she was finished with her studies.” He looked at her. Although she was dressed in her office uniform she still looked exotic. She had on a gray pants suit, her hair was straightened out and she had in big earrings. He didn’t know what color lipstick she had on, but they made her lips all the more desirable. “That wouldn’t have stopped her breaking off with me when she heard about me and you.” “I hope you aren’t accusing me of being the cause of you and your girlfriend breaking up.” “Nothing like that, I would only marry a woman who was as loving as you. I only went around with her because her mother begged me, but I couldn’t get her to spend weekends with me or even a sleepover.” “I told you that I know her. I thought she would have become a nun the way she used to behave.” “Maybe it was I who changed her mind. I was the first guy for her. She used to feel uncomfortable at first when we did it, but after a while she started loving it. I even threatened to leave her, but she said that her parents would be angry if she ever spent a night with me much less a weekend.” “I can bet that if I went around I would find quite a few girls willing to admit that you were their first lover.” He laughed. “Morgana is the only girlfriend, I’ve ever had.” “What about April? I don’t want to be in anymore fights with her over you. Is she your sweetheart now? I need to know. At least I know that I’m not your steady girlfriend.” He looked around. All the benches were now occupied with students doing one thing or another. They were now talking in low tones to prevent themselves from being overheard. He stabbed his toe on a small stone. “Morgana was my unofficial fianceé, but now that she has broken off with me, I don’t have a main woman. April knows that, so why would she be trying to pick a fight with you over me?” “I have a man whom I’m cheating on with you. I know that April doesn’t have a steady guy. I think it’s reasonable to assume that she believes that you are her boyfriend. Didn’t she and Morgana fight at least two times over you?” “I’ve never spent enough time with her for her to think that way. As I said we’re nothing more than good friends. I’ve never told her that she was my main woman. She and Morgana didn’t realy fight, they just shoved each other.” “I’m not that naïve, to believe that a woman would behave that way over a man unless she was in an intimate relationship with him.” “Be honest with me, are you and April lovers?” But Stewart shook his head. “Morgana believed I was sleeping with April and went to fight her. Now you believe the same thing just because of who April is. Both of us love to be around other people and that’s why we are always making friends.” “The way I heard it, is that it was April who was always picking a fight with Morgana and she’s the one who is always quarrelling with me. Anyway, I’m not going to press you about her anymore. I knew that you and she were friends, but I never knew she was like that or else I would never have gotten involved with you. I’ll never let you make love to me without protection.” He didn’t know what she meant by that last statement. He found it curious because April wasn’t a girl who ran around with different guys. He was one hundred per cent certain that he was the only guy she was seeing. All of the women he had slept with had insisted that he use a condom and he had always complied. Bobbette was one of the most careful girls he had ever met. She had bought one of the best brands of condoms for him. She said she didn’t want them to burst and she get pregnant or pick up any sort of sexually transmitted disease. And since her boyfriend wasn’t sleeping around, he would know where he got the disease from and her whole world would come crashing down. He looked at a guy and a girl sitting at a nearby bench. The guy was short and thick while the girl was tall and thin. They were talking very animatedly to each other, but in low tones. He didn’t know either of them; maybe they were from other faculties. It was obvious that they were lovers who were perhaps having a falling out. “When next I see April, I’m going to tell her to leave you alone. You’re the only woman I have any time for,” he tried to reassure her. She nodded, but he wasn’t sure if she believed him. “So what time are you coming by me?” “About eight o’clock, I’ll just go home, have a bath and eat some food.” “Okay, so I’ll see you then,” she told him. They shared a short embrace. Both looked around to ensure that there were no spies nearby. Even when he went to sleep with her he had to park in another parking lot as she would know some woman having an apartment who didn’t have her lover over for the night. *** November 16,2002-Stewart was feeling a bit drained this last weekend. He had been with Bobbette, April and a new girl, Haydee Clementson, introduced to him by his friend, Jose Maragh. April was calling herself his official woman based on the email he’d received from Morgana, breaking off their relationship. Despite Bobbette’s misgivings he didn’t try to stop her. He had spent Friday night partying with her and she had spent the rest of the night with him. Saturday night he had been with Bobbette but she told him that she had to leave by ten o’clock as she expected Robert home and he had left to sleep with Haydee and he’d spent Sunday with her too. He was in his office that Monday morning when his cell phone rang. April’s number came up. “Stewart, how are you? I tried calling you both Saturday night and then last night and only got your voice mail.” That’s strange; my phone was on all the time.” “Maybe you had that girl, Bobbette, with you; that’s why you didn’t want me to call you.” “Why didn’t you just come down to my apartment?” “I wasn’t sure if you’d be there and I was sort of feeling tired after Friday night.” If she was feeling tired he didn’t know why she should be calling him. “So what’s up now, April?” “I want to come and see you this evening.” He made a quick check and realized that he didn’t have a date for this evening. Bobbette mostly stayed at her apartment. He only went there when Robert was abroad or staying in the rural areas. “Sure, baby, why not. Want to do anything special?” “I heard that they have a new place opening up on Dumfries Road. I want to go and see it.” He had heard about it too. He told her that he would take her there, whereupon she ended the call. Fifteen minutes later and he was going through some notes when his cell phone rang again. Bobbette was on the line. “Stewart, why did you desert me like that, last night? There I was trying to get you, but all I was getting was your voice mail.” “I didn’t turn off my phone, Bobbette. So I don’t know what could have happened.” “I can bet that you were with April and didn’t want to talk to me.” “I would have stayed with you, but you told me that Robert was coming back Saturday night. I figured that he would have been there yesterday too. I was waiting for you to call me.” “He came back and we went out and he was here all day yesterday. I was calling to warn you that he was here.” He didn’t comment as he knew that she was well aware of the arrangements between them. Her man was now practically living with her. She got her groceries, free from any of his stores, plus she filled up her car for free at any one of his service stations she chose. He knew that he couldn’t match that. Maybe she was just using him because of his lover-boy image and she wanted some amount of romance in her life which her boyfriend wasn’t at the moment supplying. Many women were like that. They liked to be spoiled and to be entertained. They loved dressing up and going to parties, or nightclubs and to all sorts of entertainment venues to enjoy themselves. Judging by some of the outfits he had seen women at some of these events wearing he wasn’t sure whether they were dressed up or down. He had to admit that anything some of them wore they looked good in it. “Will you have lunch with me tomorrow?” “Yes, I will, Robert is going to Trelawny.” “Okay then, how about Lowe’s Cafe?” “I’ll be there. Would one o’clock be okay?” “Sure, I’ll see you then,” he said and they both ended the call. *** April 15, 2003-Stewart was dining with April. During the week they had been to Jimmy Chang’s sports bar as well as most of the night clubs. He had taken Bobbette to Jimmy Chang on a few occasions also. He and April had spent last year Emancipation Day weekend in Portland. They were at the Doyin’s entertainment complex in Liguanea. He had heard that Morgana was seeing a guy over there. Good for her he thought, he didn’t miss her as he had Bobbette and April and several other women. They were finishing their crayfish soup when the waiter came with the menu. He ordered garlic shrimps and festival while she ordered curried lobster and bammy. “This is a great place. Do you come here often?” Because of the status in his life that she had now given herself, he knew what her next question would be. “Maybe once before, but that was a couple of years ago.” “I love dining out and this place looks pretty affordable. It seems that it’s a place for lovers,” she said. Her words could be true as there were only couples dining. There were twelve sets of them there, ranging in age from mid-twenties to mid-fifties. The age range in the dining room surely was no indication of the age where romance started or where it ended. The waiter brought their food and surprisingly, Stewart asked her to bless the food before they started eating. They were halfway way through their meal when she asked. “How did you find out about Morgana and her new guy?” “Jacinth La Croix told me about them. She said that she saw them in a nightclub in Miami, they seemed like lovers to her.” Jacinth was an agent at Stafford Life and General Insurance Company. This was the company, Stewart worked with. “I hope she settles down with that guy, because she isn’t going to get you back. At least she has broken off with you, so if and when she returns you’d better let her know that you’re off limits.” “She was just throwing herself at me and claiming that she was my main woman and her mother wanted us to be friends. They were saying that if we got engaged before she went away, then as soon as she was finished with her studies and return we could get married but I turned them down. She emailed me saying that she heard that you were practically living with me so she was therefore ending our relationship.” “Did you love her?” He looked her straight in the eyes. “Maybe I did, but after I met you, it’s just you I love and not her despite her sticking to me,” he told her. They continued to eat their food. He thought that what he had just said was only partially true. He had in fact met her before Morgana, but the former wouldn’t have known that. She wouldn’t have known that he was sleeping with her before he started going out with her arch-rival. “Sometimes I feel like leaving you. Morgana has gone away and I thought I would have you all to myself, but you have this girl, Bobbette Greene, who claims that she and you are lovers. Everywhere she sees me she wants to pick a fight.” “That girl is Robert Parson’s woman. Do you think that guy’s woman would have anything to do with me? I know her, but we’re just good friends.” “Maybe, her boyfriend isn’t doing his work and she has you to help him out.” “It’s nothing like that, whatever she says. I get enough loving from you. I don’t want anymore from any other woman.” The entertainment complex had a dancing hall and already couples were on the dance floor. He had been thinking of going up to Brenton Walker’s place in Gordon Town but April said that it was a place for older couples. She chose apple pie for her desert while he had fruit cake. He paid their bill and then took her to the dance floor. Readers, if you enjoy reading this first chapter why not go to my pages at Amazon and download the whole book. Thanks.