Esme and the Money Grab: (A Very Dark Romantic Comedy) (13 page)

An excerpt from Book Three by Paloma Meir

  I stopped in the hallway to watch Zelda pace back and forth while texting. She had an exasperated expression on her face and threw her phone on the bed and shoved a box with her foot towards the door.

  “Zelda, what’s wrong?” I asked as I made my way down the hallway.

  “Why has it taken you so long? Nobody cares that I’m leaving. I’ve been texting you all day. My bag is stuck. Danny left this morning, so he wouldn’t be tired for his first day back at school. Can you believe he did that? Why couldn’t he be tired for one day? And now Anthony wants my room, and I have to pack up all of my things and send them to my storage unit. I won’t have a home anymore. Nobody cares.” She threw her hands up in the air.

  “Zelda could you put one of your robes on?” I hadn’t noticed in the hallway, but she was wearing a long t-shirt that must have been washed hundreds of times because it was transparent. It was too much even for her.  “Here, I’ll help you with your bag.”  I made a move to pick it up, but she continued with her hysterics distracting me.

  “Why? It’s too hot in here. Anthony keeps turning the heat up.” She pushed past me to the doorway and yelled out “Anthony, turn down the heat.” She turned very quickly to me. “He can’t hear me. That’s why he shouldn’t have my room. It’s too cut off. No one can hear you down here. I don’t even know how they heard Danny and me that one time... Never mind. Anthony isn’t like how he used to be. He’s always getting into trouble. They should put him in the guesthouse.”

  “You’re not making any sense. The guesthouse is across from the pool. He’ll be even...”

  “You know the worst part, Serge? You won’t even believe this.” She moved back to her bed and folded a sweater, “My lipstick. I ordered the color a month ago. I can’t believe they did this to me.” She threw the sweater back on the bed and turned to face me. I was having problems not laughing at this point.

  “They sent me the wrong color. It’s pale pink like I wanted, but it’s a warm pink, not the cool pink. I can’t wear warm colors Serge. Look at my skin. I would look like a clown. Can you believe they did that to me? I’m going to have to travel across the world homeless with the wrong lipstick.” She screamed, back to waving her arms, her ridiculous t-shirt lifting up to lengths shorter than one of her mini-skirts. “I’m just not going to wear lipstick.”

  I thought of Carolina telling me how Danny had tapped her shoulders making her fall backwards all those years ago as she stood ranting about her inconsequential problems. I lifted my arms up, pointed my fingers and poked her very lightly on the shoulders. She fell onto her bed, and I jumped on top of her, shushing her.

  “Zelda, calm down,” I allowed myself to laugh. “You don’t need to be so nervous. You’re going to Spain. You don’t need to be scared.”

  “I’m not scared,” she yelled while thrashing around beneath me.

  “Really? Your lipstick is the problem?” I ran my hand through her hair and decided to be serious with her and not mock her make-up problems. “You’ll be safe,” I paused overwhelmed by the beauty of her face, the large dark eyes, the delicate rounded tip of her nose, the defined cheekbones that almost had a masculine quality, and her lips the same color and shape as mine.

  “I’ve never been alone before.” Her body relaxed under mine as she turned her head away.

  “You’re not going to be alone. You’ll be with your friends and busy with your fabrics.” I moved her head back, so she was looking at me.

  “What if I get scared again?” She moved her head away, “I haven’t had any problems in at least a year but what if...”

  “You’ll take your breaths like you always do, and then you’ll be okay again.”

  “What if it gets really bad? What if I can’t be alone?” she whispered.

  “Then you’ll call Danny, and he’ll go get you.” Not ideal, but true.

  “You don’t understand. I don’t want him to have to save me.”

  “Then I’ll come and get you.” I calculated in my head. I had a little over sixteen thousand dollars in my bank account saved up from summer jobs and part-time tutoring in Boston. I assumed I could find a round trip ticket for less than eight hundred dollars. I could stay in her room. Food couldn’t be that much around the University. I got excited as if I were planning a trip, and not going to help a friend. “That would be great. I’ve never been to Europe. We could get a Eurail Pass and travel around. Head up to Cern, see the LHC. Every summer a group from school go for the internship, but I always have to work. The particle accelerator...” I stopped talking because she was laughing.

  “I don’t want anyone to have to come and get me.” She moved her hand across my face, and I realized that I had the beginnings of an erection and rolled off of her. “All my therapy, Danny making all of my decisions. Sometimes I feel like I can’t even think.” She rolled on top of me, not helping me with my problem. “I could send you to Cern. You don’t always have to work so hard.” She leaned up on me making me very aware of her breasts pressed against my chest. I had a full erection. I rolled her off of me and stood up and tried to think of war and famine.

  “Call me whenever you want, text me all the time, okay? Anytime you feel nervous.” I ignored her offer. “Let me fix your bag, and then I have to get going. Movie with Marianne.” I picked the bag up and zipped it closed easily. “Fixed.” I turned to her door.

  “Serge don’t go, wait.” She picked her purse up off the floor and took out a tiny rectangular box. “Give the lipstick to Marianne. She can wear warm colors. She’ll like it. The brand is very hard to get. It's from England, and it’s made in small batches.”  She tried to it hand to me while I thought of The Battle of Okinawa.

  “That’s sweet but no.” I leaned over to kiss her on the cheek, but she shook away from me.

  “Give this to her.” She thrust the package into my hands. “It’s very exclusive. I want her to have it.” She was getting that wild look in her eyes again, so I took the box.

  “Okay, bye Zelda.”

  “I’m leaving for five months.” She grabbed my arm forcefully. “Why are you acting like this?”

  I gave up and pulled her in for a hug, making sure to keep my hips far away from her. She was having it at all, pulling me very close to her and rubbing her cheek against mine.

  “Serge," she lifted her face away from mine, looked into my eyes, placed her hands on my cheeks, pressed her lips against mine, and that’s how we stood for either one minute or a hundred years.

  I peeled her off of me, almost mad at her and all of her innocence. I could have opened my mouth, and we would have been kissing. She was right, not much thinking going on in her head. Easier than zipping up the bag, I could have taken her to her bed, taken off her t-shirt and done things to her I didn’t even want to think about.

  I looked into her eyes and wanted to reprimand her but saw nothing. She looked at me the way she always did. Everything had been my imagination. There was no lust emanating from her.

  “Have a good trip. Call me. I’ll call you and don’t worry. Danny...” I didn’t know what I meant to say. I walked out her door and did not look back.

  “Good-bye,” she called out.

  I held up my hand, waved and ran home.

  Marianne sat on the bed playing with my computer. Her plump body that had only improved with weight was hidden in her olive military style pants and oversized mustard cardigan. Her golden brown hair in two long braids, the cat eyes that looked up at me with a little smile on her face. Her hippie look I never really liked was in that moment seductive, enticing.

  I let her know that we would be going to a later showing and went at her with a fury. She loved it. She liked the lipstick too.

About the Author

Paloma Meir lives with her family by the beach in Los Angeles. When she's not taking long walks she likes to writes sordid and tortured stories of people in love. You can find out more about her on her blog www.palomameir.com. She loves her family, writing books, reading books, dresses and Twitter.

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