Friends
Thea
I stuff popcorn in my mouth while Megan goes through a list of hot powerful bachelors. The last guy she thought she would marry turned out to be an ass. She now has to find herself another one before her parents arrange one for her. Apparently, it’s her family tradition that everyone weds when they turn twenty-one and Meg is already four years late. The problem is all the nice kind guys are not so rich and won’t cut it into her parent’s very defined standards. Stupid and so stone ages if you ask me. My father still takes the cup though.
“What about Diago?”
Carol and I exchange looks before bursting out into laughter.
“It’s not funny! He is hot.”
Megan’s defensive remark is even funnier. She is desperate but we can’t lie to her. The man is rich but a real joke. The wealth he inherited made him think he is all powerful. It only made him bold in uttering nonsense on media. Now the whole country knows that he is a wealthy airhead.
Carol and I are now in stitches and Megan is not impressed. The businessman her parents have chosen for her is a widow in his late forties. She is getting desperate and frustrated after meeting him at a family dinner last week. It is not helping that we tore into everyone she regarded as potential so far.
“I am sorry Meg, but Diago?”
I burst out into another bout because I just can’t keep my cool.
Carol clears her throat to try and recollect herself.
“Let’s see. A pompous, arrogant idiot. Are those the genes you want your children to inherit?”
I point at Carol and give a thumbs up. She nailed it.
Megan hangs her head in defeat. “Fine. What about Leo Cruise?”
I choke on my soda at hearing that name.
“Are you crazy?” Carol rebukes Megan with a hushed voice.
Leo Cruise is the country’s most powerful man right now. More powerful than the president. His asserts double every week, the numbers are crazy. My business economics knowledge tells me that he will be owning half of the country’s economy by the end of next year if he remains on the same projection.
“What? He is a man, young, rich and powerful. He meets every criteria,” Megan defends her reasons for adding him on her list.
“That he is,” I concur in a hushed tone. “And a devil himself,” I add.
“He might just add you into his graveyard for coughing in his presence or putting him in that list,” Carol adds in agreement.
“Nonsense!”
“He has killed for less. Drop it Meg I beg you,” Carol pleads with our desperate friend.
“Those are just rumours,” Megan insists. I hear he is really hot and single.”
“Really Meg? I heard that he looks as pale as a sheet with blood shot eyes. He looks like a vampire. The way people disappear around him is suspicious. Maybe he is one,” Carol responds in her usual dramatic manner.
I don’t think Leo Cruise is a vampire but there are too many questions and theories surrounding him. None paint a good picture. Too many people seem to vanish once they are believed to have met him. Everyone knows his name but not a single photograph of him is out there. Not even a portrait by those who claim to have met him.
“Rubbish! He is mysterious and hot. I hear he is a Greek god and a stallion in bed,” Megan counters while I zoom out of the conversation.
We can argue the whole day about Mr Cruise but we will never reach an agreement. He is this unknown force that keeps collecting assets. I see his name on a daily basis. My PhD project tracks every known asset in the country and he tops the charts. Eighteen trillion and still counting. Thats just what is known.
My phone rings. Carol grabs it from the table, peeks on the screen and gives Megan the look. I don’t have guess, that look says it all.
I wonder what he wants. I contemplate ignoring it but he will just come here and I don’t want him anywhere I can’t storm out.
I let out a sigh and answer. “Dad?”
“Come home for dinner. It’s important.”
That’s it. I have not seen or spoken to him in over a month. No hello my daughter, how have you been? Dad does not do those. Too much waste of time and I am probably not worth it in his books.
“What did caveman Damaro want?” Carol asks.
“Come home for dinner. It’s important,” I imitate his annoyed voice they know too well.
“Oh Lord, Thea. Are you certain that man is really your dad?”
“Ninety nine percent.”
Yes, I secretly ran a DNA test to confirm my paternity. Being my stepdad would have maybe explained the way he treated and resented me. It turned out he is just an awful ass, who should have never had a daughter.
“Are you certain that DNA lab did not mix up things?” Megan asks and I don’t blame her. Dad is the complete opposite with my stepbrother, who is two years younger than me.
“Yep. I did it twice.”
No matter how much I wished for the alternative, that man was my dad.
“Are you going?” Carol asks with a serious tone.
I shrug my shoulders. His driver will come if I don’t show up. He will literally beg me to come in order to save his job because dad will definitely fire him. If I refuse the driver, Dad will just show up here or at the dean’s office the following day. He will make insulting remarks to all the female employees and I will spend the rest of the week apologising on his behalf.
“When are you going to make yourself useful, Thea? You don’t need university to bear children and serve your husband,” Carol imitates my chauvinistic parent while I wiggle my nose at her.
“Ask Daisy here. She is a perfect wife with no education. Unlike that selfish mother of yours who did not know the meaning of submission,” Carol continues. I swear she registers every stupid thing my dad says.
“Corporate world is for man. Work is for man. It’s always been that way until all you feminists came up with your nonsense!” Megan quotes dad’s famous line. He made headlines with that.
“If you want more work, open your legs wide and have more babies for heaven’s sake!” Carol adds.
I shake my head and gulp the rest of my soda down. Believe it or not, that is my dad in a nutshell. I was never supposed to attend school beyond the sixth grade. I am selfish for getting social services to force him to let me.
