Chapter 3 #2
I have been unlucky in love. While I attended WHCC, I met a guy called Manny, who swept me off of my feet with his Portuguese accent and dark skin.
He was Brazilian, loved dancing, and took me to cute little restaurants to share arepas, tacos, and tostones.
His brown eyes seduced me into long nights of kissing in the back of his car, and his lips brought excitement to my body.
I never reached the height of tension I’d experienced with Jack, but I definitely fell for Manny.
It also didn’t hurt that Manny was a nanny for a number of kids in Whispering Haven.
I thought he was deep, soulful, and kind.
We made love after three months of dating—in a cheap hotel near Niagara Falls—and while it didn’t blow my mind, it was fun.
And the following weeks were filled with more fun, as Manny wanted to try new positions and other toys.
I was more than happy to go along with it.
I was even ready to introduce Manny to my parents and sisters.
He’d already met Brielle and Willow, and they’d liked him a lot, especially as he loved to take us all salsa dancing and helped us learn the moves.
But then he started getting called to different nanny jobs at all hours of the day and night.
It turned out that Manny the Nanny was actually Manny the Gigolo, and he’d been practicing new moves with me to try on his clients.
I still feel sick, thinking about it and all the drama and stress I went through.
I had to go to the clinic to get tested every three months for a year just because I was so nervous about STDs.
And the sad fact was that Manny didn’t even think he was in the wrong.
He offered to split some of his earnings with me if I stayed with him … like I was some sort of gigolo trainer.
The whole thing felt demeaning and depressing, and to this day, I still resent the fact that he was my first. Not that any of the subsequent men were any better.
“How is Manny the Nanny, by the way?” Brielle asks like she’s genuinely curious, and I just roll my eyes. “Would you have preferred your first to be Jack?”
“No, I’m glad that donkey wasn’t my first,” I lie.
For years, I wondered what my life would have been like if he hadn’t discovered my age that night and we’d made mad, passionate love in some fancy hotel—because I had no doubt that he’d have taken me to the Ritz or something.
Jack, for all his faults, was a classy man, but also, from what I could tell, he was a bit of a playboy, so I very much doubted that he was taking randoms back to his penthouse.
And I was certainly a random. I wasn’t under any illusion that we would have gotten into a relationship, but I still would have enjoyed the experience. Very much.
“Jack the Donkey. Ha-ha. That’s funny.” Brielle giggles again and eagerly takes a glass of red wine from Willow, who also has a bag of potato chips in her hand. “Thanks, Willow.”
“You’re welcome.” She settles on the end of the couch and holds her glass up. “Here’s to us, here’s to being in Manhattan, and here’s to making our dreams come true.”
We clink glasses, and I take a sip of the Merlot she poured.
The liquid slides down my throat easily, and I lift my legs up onto the coffee table.
I look around the living room, which is decorated beautifully, and stare out at the city lights through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
I want to pinch myself. I can’t believe this is real.
“We’re in Manhattan, girls,” I say, almost in awe. “We made it out of Whispering Haven … at least for now,” I add.
If we don’t get the funding for the bed-and-breakfast, it is likely that Brielle and I will have to go back home.
We don’t have rich boyfriends or jobs that can support us in the city.
In fact, since we left Whispering Haven Bed it’s so annoying.”
“We’re twenty-five now. We live our own lives.” I grab some of the salt and vinegar potato chips from the bag and take another sip of wine. “We just need to be able to make it work financially.”
“We can do it.” Willow sounds positive. “All our lives, we wanted to leave Whispering Haven … and here we are. We’re going to make something of ourselves. We’re going to open our own bed-and-breakfast.”
“But where?” Brielle asks the question that has been in the back of our minds for the longest time. “We still haven’t narrowed down the options. Last time I checked our joint Google Doc, we had seventeen different locations on the list.”
“ ’Cause we thought it would be years before we had enough money to even plan that far ahead,” I admit with a laugh. “We do need to figure it out though because we won’t have an accurate number for the house purchase unless we know the area.”
I look over at Willow. “How will Sebastian feel if you leave the area?”
“He’s willing to go wherever I go. He just wants me to be happy,” she says with a smile. “He’s lovely.”
“I mean, he’s all right.” I laugh. “He did marry you for revenge and almost break your heart.”
“But we got over that.” She giggles. “He’s lucky I’m forgiving.”
“Yeah, he really is.” I nod, thinking about everything he put her through.
At one point, I thought I’d have to call the cops or the FBI on him, but my fears were unwarranted. He had just been misinformed. Though I still think it was a little bit off that he’d made Willow stay in his home like some sort of prisoner.
My phone beeps then, and I see that it’s my sister Holly.
“Hold on. Let me get this,” I say to my friends and answer the phone. “What’s up, doll? How are things going?”
“Just got my SAT results back.” Holly sounds excited. “Guess what I got.”
“Um, fourteen hundred?”
“No, Katherine. Fourteen hundred is average. I’m not average.”
“Haha. I don’t think that’s average, Holly.” I laugh. “Fourteen fifty?”
“Nope.” She giggles. “Guess again.”
“I don’t know, sis. Just tell me.”
“Fifteen eighty.”
“Wow! No way. Oh my gosh! Congrats, sis. That’s amazing.”
“My guidance counselor says with my GPA and SAT score, I should gain entrance to one of the Ivy League schools if I want.” She sounds excited.
“She said I’d be an easy in at many top state college programs as well.
What with all my extracurriculars as well …
” She pauses. “I need to start sending out applications.”
“That’s awesome, Holly. I’m so excited for you.”
“There’s just one thing …” She sounds nervous, and I hold my breath. “I haven’t been approved for many application fee waivers.”
“Oh …”
“So, I can’t even apply to some of the programs without paying the fees.
I asked Dad, and he told me I can just go to WHCC and take classes there.
” She sounds sad. “But I don’t want to go to WHCC, Kat—not that there’s anything wrong with community college,” she adds quickly.
“I know you and Brielle and Willow went there, but I want to go to med school, so I really want to get into a really good premed program and be around really great minds, you know.”
“I get it, sis.” I sigh. “So, how much do you need for the applications?”
“About one thousand five hundred dollars. By November, if I want to get in my applications as soon as possible, which will help me get more in financial aid ’cause Mom and Dad can’t help and I don’t want to be drowning in debt with loans for decades.
And, well, I know you can’t really help.
I don’t want to be a burden, sis. I just … I just don’t know who else to turn to.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I say softly. “I’ll have the money by November, and we’ll figure out your tuition fees, I promise.”
“And Ginger next year,” Holly says softly. “Because she wants to go to law school and …” Her voice trails off. “I doubt Mom and Dad will be able to help her either.”
“I know. Don’t worry. Just concentrate on school, okay?”
“I will. I love you, Kat.”
“I love you too, Holly,” I say and hang up.
I stare at my friends and let out a long sigh.
“Why does life have to be so complicated?” I press my lips together and look up at the ceiling.
“My parents have always been the fun, easygoing parents, but they are so financially reckless that it makes me sick. My sisters are literally brilliant, but if I can’t figure something out, they will not be able to go to college and grad school without being in debt for half of their lives.
And I get that many people can’t afford school, but our grandparents literally gave them money to invest for us.
And if they had, we’d all have had small lump sums to help.
” I slam my fist into a cushion in frustration.
“And yet we have nothing. And all Dad can say is that he tried to triple our money, and Mom just goes along with it like it’s okay, and it’s not okay. ”
“It’ll be okay, Katherine.” Brielle rubs my shoulder. “I know it’s hard.”
“It’s so incredibly frustrating.” I down the rest of my glass of wine.
“I guess it’s time to suck up my pride and pretend I don’t hate Jack Heathcliff.
We need to get the funding for this bed-and-breakfast. I need to make this a success.
I am determined to give my sisters the opportunities that I never had.
I want them to have the educations of their dreams. They deserve it.
” I stare at my friends. “Let’s work on our plan some more and make it the most kick-ass plan ever. We need to get this funding.”
“Let’s do it,” Willow says in glee. “I’ll grab a pen and paper.”
“I’ll get my laptop.” Brielle jumps up and hurries to her room.
I grab the chips and smile to myself. This is all going to work out. I will put Jack to the back of my mind. In fact, I will try and pretend that he never came back into my life. I will pretend the past never happened.
My phone pings then, and I groan as I read the text.
Unknown: Still mad at me, Agnes? Do we need to talk it out? In case you don’t know who this is, it’s the big bad wolf.
“Ugh,” I mumble under my breath. “Just when I thought I could forget all about you, you got my number.”
I delete his text and close my eyes. I’m immediately annoyed when I see Jack’s face in my mind. I have no idea how I’m going to react when I see him again because all I want to do is wipe his cocky smile off of his smug face.