Carried Away Read online

There was a brief pause. “Hello, Dad.”

  Arnold smiled. “Hello, son. How are you doing?”

  “I am fine, Dad. I just wanted to thank you.”

  “It’s alright. You are always welcome. Angela already told me and we are cool with it.”

  “No, I am not thanking you for letting me stay over with the twins.”

  Arnold frowned at the phone in his hands. “I’m sorry, what was that? I thought you said you wanted to thank me.”

  “Yes, but it wasn’t for your letting me stay here.”

  “Really? Then you don’t think you should thank me for letting you stay with TnT?”

  “No, I’m grateful to you for agreeing to that. But I’m even more grateful for something else beyond just you letting me stay here with Taylor and Tyler.”

  “Really? And what is that?”

  “I am thanking you for finding the courage to make up with Angela.”

  “I am sorry, what was that?”

  “Come on, Dad,” Thomas said. “I don’t want us to go over this on the phone now.”

  “Go over? No, wait, let us go over it then. What are you referring to here?”

  Arnold heard Thomas sigh. “Okay then. You think I was not bothered when Angela took me to school this morning? And you think I didn’t know that two of you must have had some sort of misunderstanding?”

  “Which misunderstanding? We were just trying to work around something here,” Arnold lied.

  “Work around something? Really, Dad? You think lying about your misunderstanding is the best way to talk about it?” Thomas asked.

  “We were, we were, we were,” Arnold stuttered as he thought of what next to say.

  “It’s alright, Dad, don’t worry, I fully understand. I’m sure I would also not know what to say if someone found out that I had a misunderstanding with a person I should not have had any misunderstanding with in the first place.”

  “We were not having any misunderstanding, son. We weren’t,” Arnold protested weakly.

  “Yeah, that’s right. And you know what?”

  “No, what?”

  “You and Angela need to learn how to tell intelligent lies, not all these lame excuses.”

  “Me and Angela? Intelligent lies? Lame excuses? What are you talking about?”

  “Why not ask her? I cannot understand you two, Dad. I mean, did both of you agree not to tell the truth?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You sure? Because she has been denying all through the ride from school, insisting that you two were trying to work out things. She doesn’t want to agree that you both had a misunderstanding. I would say you both planned it, like partners in crime.”

  “Partners in what?”

  “In crime, dad, partners in crime,” Thomas repeated.

  “Look, do you realize that I can ask her to bring you back to the workshop at this very moment?”

  “Yes, sure, I am fully aware of that. But I know you wouldn’t want to do that because I haven’t done anything wrong. I only told you the truth, that’s all.”

  “And what truth is that?”

  “That you two are playing games so easily and so friendly because you are both partners in crime.”

  “Thomas.”

  He heard a slight scuffle. And then it was Angela on the line. “Arnold, I must apologize. I never knew he wanted to say all those things.”

  “The boy has the nerve to call us, call us, call us …”

  “Yeah, I heard it too – partners in crime,” Angela offered. “Anyway, I’ll be dropping them off so that I can get back to the workshop quickly.”

  After Angela dropped the line, Arnold rubbed his chin deep in thought. Is Thomas simply scolding me and Angela in a playful manner or does he really mean it? he wondered.

  Had it really been so obvious to Thomas that he was displeased with Angela?

  Did he now suspect that both he and Angela had made up and were now in good terms?

  Arnold sighed. Kids these days are simply something else, he concluded. They are just impossible.

  He was back in his office when a head popped around the open door. It was Angela and she was all smiles.

  “You are back already?” Arnold asked as she came in with two brown paper bags.

  “Already?” she repeated. “You sound as if I wasn’t gone that long.”

  “Well, it doesn’t seem so long to me. What do you have there in the bags?”

  “Lunch as usual. Or what else were you thinking would be in them – bolts and spanners?”

  Arnold grinned. “Or maybe something else?”

  Angela was unwrapping one of the bags. “Really? Like what?”

  “Panties and bras.”

  Angela frowned at him. “You are treading down that path again, aren’t you?”

  “What path is that?” Arnold asked as he sank beside her on the sofa.

  “You know what I am talking about, Arnold. That is a sensitive topic, you know? It almost ruined our relationship.”

  “Really? I don’t think so. It only showed how jealous I was.”

  “No, not just jealous but petty. Gosh, I never want to see you behave that way again.”

  “That is not a problem. You know what you need to do, don’t you?”

  “I know? I am sorry, but I really don’t.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to be my partner in crime?”

  Angela threw her head backward and chuckled. “Now you sound so much like Thomas. My goodness. You guys can be quite impossible, do you know that?”

  “Really? Why don’t you tell me?”

  “Tell you what?”

  “What you promised you were going to tell me – about how complicated your life was.”

  Angela was sipping from a canned drink using a straw. She looked at him briefly. “Arnold, are you really serious that you want to know all that?”

  “Of course I am serious. Why wouldn’t I be? I mean, after all, you are my employee, aren’t you? So, let us just consider this to be some background checks we are making on you.”

  Angela smiled weakly. “I don’t know if you really want to hear all that, Arnold. I mean, like I told you earlier, I don’t want to come in between what you are trying to achieve here with this business.”

  “And I remember that I told you that it wouldn’t affect me in any way, okay?”

  “You are really serious about this?”

  Arnold sighed. He dropped his food pack and reached for her hands. He held them in his and moved closer to her. He tilted up her face so that he could look into her pretty eyes that were avoiding his. “How many times would I have to tell you this, Angela? I am serious about you, and I care as well. I know it might sound cliché, outdated, and maybe awkward for you, but I feel so strongly about you that I want to know all I can about you.”

  “Cliché, outdated, and awkward?”

  “Yes, like love, Angela. I don’t know if people still say so, but I think I am in love with you.”

  Angela shook her head and sighed. “You know what that means, don’t you? I mean those words – love. It has been so corrupted these days that I am sure people don’t even know what it really means.”

  “Maybe other people, but not me, Angela. I am serious when I say that I care for and love you, Angela.”

  She looked at him again and placed her palm on his face. “You are such a nice guy, seriously you are.”

  “You have said that before. Now tell me what I need to know.”

  “My life is quite complicated, Arnold. It is not a bed of roses –”

  “That I would have thought it to be,” Arnold cut in. “Come on, Angela. You have said so before. Just tell me what I need to know. Tell me everything.”

  “I have always wanted to have the best in life,” she began. Arnold listened as she selected each word like someone who was cautious of a statement they were making because it was capable of implicating them if they did not say it right.

  “Everyone
wants the best in their life, Angela, that is not a crime,” Arnold offered when she did not continue.

  She smiled at him and nodded. “Yes, that is what we aspire for as humans. But maybe mine was a bit different. Maybe I took it too far, you know?”

  Arnold let go of her hands and leaned backwards into the sofa. Something seemed to tell him that he needed to listen very attentively to what she was about to say.

  “I thought I had met the right man, you know, the perfect kind of man that any woman would ever need,” Angela said. “Everything seemed so perfect back then.”

  “Back when?”

  “When I was in college. We were in the same class and we were the talk of the school. You could never find us away from one another. We were always sticking together. And I mean always, as in every day of the week. We just could not get enough of each other’s company.”

  “I don’t think I blame him. I doubt I could ever get enough of your company as well. What was her name?”

  Angela frowned. “Her?”

  Arnold shrugged. “Is it wrong to assume it is a her you are talking about?”

  “And if it was a her, you think I would have gotten Taylor and Tyler?”

  “Sure, you could have adopted them or used surrogacy or something. There are so many options available these days for getting kids without going through the traditional route.”

  Angela smiled weakly. “Well, I agree with you there are. But no, they are not for me. I am a very old-fashioned and traditional kind of woman. So TnT were conceived inside me and I gave birth to them myself in the hospital.”

  Arnold rubbed his chin. “I see. Conceived inside you and given birth by you?”

  “Yes, all by me.”

  “But what of conception?”

  “What about conception?”

  “Was it artificial or natural?”

  Angela punched him. “Are you not listening to anything I have been saying?”

  “Sure, I have, old fashioned and traditional woman. But you never said anything about how your twins were conceived.”

  “So, what do you want to hear?”

  “Don’t get me wrong, anyone else might have gone through artificial insemination or something else. I mean, just to eliminate the need for a man physically being involved.”

  “I said it: you are not paying attention to me. I told you that I am old-fashioned and all traditional. So that means I conceived my twin boys with a man being physically involved.”

  “I see. What was his name?”

  “Not was, is.”

  “Is?”

  “Yes, is. He is still very much in the picture.”

  Arnold frowned and shifted on the sofa. “Wait, you mean he is still with you?”

  “No, not with me. We are no longer together.”

  “But he is still in the picture? I don’t understand.”

  “I told you my life is a bit complicated, didn’t I? Are you really sure you want to listen to all the details?”

  “I am still here, am I not? Go on. Shoot.”

  “Michael and I got married right after we left college. We hadn’t even gotten jobs before the ceremony. Can you believe that?”

  Arnold nodded. “It happens, especially when it is true love. You don’t think about it, you just go ahead and do it.”

  “And that is when reality brings you back to your senses, I guess. Not long after I became pregnant it dawned on us that we needed to start building our marriage, you know? We had to organize things because of the impending arrival of the twins.”

  “I can relate to that. Before now, it was just you and Michael living in your fantasy world so you could live as recklessly as you wanted without a care in the world. But now that kids were coming you knew you couldn’t take such chances with babies.”

  “Exactly. We had to do something and quickly, too. We began our search for jobs. But the recession was then not helpful in any way. Getting good jobs was quite difficult. We both ended up working at odd places. And in time the strain of such menial jobs began to take a toll on both of us.”

  “But you were pregnant. How could you handle menial jobs in your condition?”

  “That is the price one has to pay for not making good plans, Arnold. There was nothing else I could do other than to work and I worked long hours, especially in the first two trimesters of my pregnancy. It was not easy. It was tough and frustrating.”

  “And Michael? How was he handling it?”

  “He was very helpful. In fact, at a point, he was juggling close to seven jobs each day. His time was always occupied that he barely slept up to five or six hours a day.”

  “For how long was he doing that?”

  “You mean how long he worked like that? He worked for months, every day and every night. For me, I had to stop pushing myself so hard when I was seven months gone. And so, I sat at home and tried to do some online jobs. But all those did not pay that much. I felt bitter and angry that I could not help out with all the struggles that Michael was going through just to provide for the family.”

  “But there was a limit to what you could physically do without jeopardizing yourself and your pregnancy.”

  “Yeah, you are right. And I am sure that Michael realized this too. But as much as he told me not to worry, my concerns began to grow.”

  “Concerns? Concerns about what?”

  “About Michael. At first, I wondered if it was just the toll of the long working hours, but then I discovered that it wasn’t just that. He was getting distant and unapproachable. Little things would make him flare up and he was not as communicative as before.”

  “What could have been wrong?”

  “How could I have known? But it was obvious that he was under tremendous pressure. And after later, he told me that he had to get us out of the mess we were in.”

  “What did he do?”

  “He traveled out of state or out of the country. I really cannot say for sure.”

  “You mean he left you with your twins?”

  “No, it wasn’t as if he ran away from us. He always sent money and called on the phone.”

  “But he didn’t tell you where he was and what he was doing?”

  Angela shook her head. “He hasn’t yet gotten around to telling me what he was and has been doing yet.”

  “Yet? Wait, you mean you are still seeing him up till now?”

  Angela sighed. “I have to, Arnold. Can’t you see? The twins need a father figure in their lives. And I didn’t want to risk getting involved with just any other man. The best thing for the twins would be for me to reconnect with their father, just for their sake.”

  The words hit Arnold like a sledgehammer. I didn’t want to risk getting involved with just any other man.

  Arnold squeezed his temple and sighed. Is she trying to say that I am a risk to her, that her being involved with me is going to be a risk?

  He felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up. It was Angela. “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah, I hope so. But I am not too sure. Why don’t you tell me?”

  “Tell you? I don’t understand.”

  “Sure you do. You think getting involved with me is a risk?”

  “No, no, no, don’t think like that, Arnold. That is not what I was saying.”

  “Well, that is what I heard from you. Getting involved with just any other man is a risky venture for you, right? Including getting involved with me?”

  Her hand was still on his shoulder. Now she moved it to his face. “You don’t get what I was saying, right? It is not just about you, but any and all other men for that matter.”

  “Any and all? Are you saying there are other men, multiple men in your life beside me?”

  She began to caress his face and even though he didn’t like the way their discussion was going, he didn’t want her to stop. “Arnold, what do you really expect from me? That I should not be admired by any other man in this town? Is that really realistic? That a woman would not have admirers even after sh
e might be married, with kids of her own?”

  “No man would tolerate such a thing, you know?”

  “No man would tolerate what – that his woman has admirers?”

  “Yeah. Maybe. I don’t even know.”

  “Is that even possible? Women are always going to have admirers, you know?”

  Arnold nodded. “Yeah, you are right.”

  “But you are not just any other man. Besides, you know very well that my life is really complicated. And still, you appreciate me like this, you want to be around me with all my baggage.”

  Arnold bit his lips as she said the truth without mincing words. “You think so?”

  “Of course I know so,” she added. “I have always known that you were into me, even when the signs were obvious that I might be committed to a man or men out there.”

  He held her hand that was still on his face. “Are you?”

  “Am I what?”

  “Are you really committed to any other men? Committed is the word here, not being admired by other men, approached by other men, or being talked to by other men; but in an active and committed relationship?”

  To his dismay, he saw her nod her pretty head slowly. He felt the floor under his feet move as if it was going to give way and he would fall through it.

  “Who is it?” he asked. “Who are they?”

  “Arnold you have to understand. I cannot just raise those twins on my own doing menial works, or even by working here in your workshop. I have to make ends meet.”

  “I know. And I am not judging you. But I still want to know all the men in your life as of today.”

  Angela sighed. “Of course there is their father, Michael Rowe.”

  “Rowe? Did you just say Rowe?” he asked in surprise as he recalled the number he had seen stored on her phone under the initials ‘Mr. R.’

  “Yes, he is Rowe.”

  “And you are Rowe too.”

  “Of course I am Rowe. I was married to Michael.”

  “You never divorced him?”

  “No, why would I? We have only been apart due to him being busy running his stuff. But we never officially called it quits.”

  He ran his fingers through his hair. “So that means you are still legally married to him?”

  “Yeah, sort of, because even he is not too sure if I still am. He is also trying to confirm if I am still interested in him.”