From Pasta to Pigfoot (29 page)

Amma took in the distressed expression on Faye's face and the triumphant look on Clarissa's and acted swiftly. Gently removing Faye's plate from her hands, she transferred the spinach stew onto a clean side plate before handing it back.

‘You know Clarissa,' she said mildly, ‘if you're not planning to eat anything else, you should go and sit down. You're holding up the people behind us.'

With a sulky pout, the other girl stalked off and the others went back to their table.

Faye touched Amma's arm. ‘Thanks,' she whispered gratefully, not sure how to explain what had just happened.

‘Take no notice of that girl,' Amma said, shaking her head in exasperation. ‘She just likes to get attention and she scratches like a cat if she sees anyone around Rocky.' She giggled and added in a whisper, ‘I warned you that dress would get you into trouble, didn't I?'

They strolled back to their table, eager to tuck into their food. Waiters circulated between the tables with
trays of drinks and one in particular seemed very taken by Faye's long legs. After his fourth attempt to refill her glass, after she had barely taken a sip from it, Sonny glared at him and he scurried off.

Edwin finished eating first and sat back in his chair. Looking around the table, he cleared his throat noisily. ‘Okay, everybody, I've got some news.' He glanced at Amma nervously and she took a last bite from her plate and looked at him enquiringly.

‘What news?' She wiped her mouth carefully to avoid smudging her lipstick.

‘I got my American visa yesterday,' he replied slowly, avoiding her eyes. She sat in silence while Baaba hugged him excitedly and the two men slapped his back in congratulations. JB was practically hopping up and down with joy. In his excitement, he dropped his guard and his accent reverted to a normal Ghanaian intonation.

‘Yes, my brother!' he chuckled, his gold dentistry flashing in the dusk. ‘You are lucky, eh! I tell you. The way they keep refusing me a visa, unless I find a chick with a foreign passport, I'm stuck in this place!'

Everyone fell silent and he suddenly realised what he had said. He glanced nervously over at Faye. She struggled to keep a straight face and chewed delicately on the remains of her chicken, pretending she hadn't heard anything untoward.

Amma hadn't said a word since his announcement and Edwin turned to her, trying to disguise the anxiety in his voice.

‘Aren't you going to congratulate me?' He injected a
note of bravado into what sounded more like a plea than a question. She stared at him, expressionless.

‘Congratulations,' she said coolly. ‘I'm glad you got what you wanted.'

Sonny, clearly eager to avoid any conflict, excused himself and moved off in the direction of the suede miniskirt. Baaba, on the other hand, put down her cutlery and watched the interchange with interest.

Edwin had taken Amma's hand and was pleading with her. ‘It's not that I want to leave you, but you know how hard it's been for me to get a good job here. Look, if I can work for a year or two over there and maybe do a postgraduate course, it will make all the difference when I come back.'

‘Come on, Amma! It won't be forever,' Baaba chipped in helpfully.

‘How do you know?' Amma glared at her, her eyes flashing in anger. ‘
How
do you know it won't be forever?' Her voice broke, and with a sob she leaped out of her chair and rushed into the house.

There was silence around the table. Dropping her napkin onto the table, Faye stood up. ‘I'll go and find her.' She smiled sympathetically at Edwin who now looked completely miserable. Baaba shrugged, for once at a loss for words, while JB kept his eyes down, still unable to look at Faye.

She walked back into the house; the living area now deserted with all the partygoers still outside eating. The music echoed around the empty dance room as she walked across the hall and headed for the veranda. Rocky, on his
way out of one of the side rooms, came to a halt when he saw her and she walked over to him.

‘Have you seen Amma?'

He shook his head. Struck by her anxious expression, he asked curiously, ‘Why, what's the matter? Isn't she feeling well?'

Faye sighed. ‘She's a bit upset, that's all. Edwin has just told her he's got his visa to go to America.'

Rocky chuckled, ignoring her frown of disapproval. ‘Well, well, so the man finally got someone to take pity on him. Oh well, it's probably a good thing – he'll have to knuckle down and do some real work for a change,' he added heartlessly.

He steered her gently towards the veranda. ‘Let's take a look out there,' he suggested. The record had finished playing and it was quiet as they headed for the double doors leading out to the veranda. Just as they approached the doorway, a deep male voice could be heard from the other side of the partially open door and they both automatically froze.

‘You have beautiful hands,' said the husky disembodied voice; the words drifted over the silence to where they stood. ‘You hold my heart in between these beautiful hands of yours. Don't crush it, please.'

From where Faye stood, Sonny was not visible but she could dimly make out the outline of the girl in the suede miniskirt. The girl tugged at Sonny's hands and led him out into the garden, where they disappeared into the darkness.

Embarrassed at witnessing the scene, Faye turned
around swiftly and bumped into Rocky's hard chest. He held her firmly for a long moment before lifting her chin gently with his hand and looking anxiously into her eyes.

‘Are you okay?' His voice was gentle and his eyes were narrowed in concern.

He has
incredibly
sexy eyes, she thought staring up at him. She nodded dumbly.

‘I wanted to tell you what a dog that guy is, but I didn't think you would believe me,' Rocky sighed, his thumb gently caressing her chin. ‘I'm sorry you had to hear that.'

‘Don't be sorry,' Faye said softly. ‘I'm not.'

Rocky looked at her quizzically for a moment. Without saying another word, he bent his head and softly kissed her mouth. She moved into his arms with a small sigh, her lips parting under his.

Holding her tightly against him, he wrapped his hand inside her silky hair and held her head firmly as he kissed her over and over again. Her senses swimming, she kissed him back, oblivious to the sound of footsteps entering the room.

‘Er, Rock, old chap…' Stuart cleared his throat loudly. ‘The people want some music,' he said, shrugging in silent apology.

Rocky lifted his head slowly, his eyes fixed on Faye's bemused face.

‘No problem,' he answered calmly. ‘I'll put another DVD on in a minute.'

‘Okay, mate. See you outside, eh?' Stuart said awkwardly before hastily leaving the room.

The spell broken, Faye moved out of Rocky's hold and smoothed down her hair with shaking fingers. He, on the other hand, looked completely unperturbed.

‘Do you want me to say I'm sorry?' he asked gently. She shook her head slowly and he nodded thoughtfully.

‘Good, because I would be lying if I did. I've wanted to do that for a long time.'

She smiled tremulously at him and her heart literally skipped with joy.

He sighed. ‘Having said that, I'm not the dog that Sonny is and I don't think I should be abusing my parents' hospitality by fooling around with their guest.'

Faye looked at him speechlessly. ‘Well, thanks a lot!' Her voice was high with indignation when she could finally get the words out and she glared at him furiously. ‘I'm going to look for Amma, so you can continue with your DJ duties without worrying about abusing anybody's hospitality!'

‘Faye, hold on a minute…' he started. Ignoring his outstretched hand, she turned away before he could see the hurt in her eyes and stormed back outside.

She almost ran into Amma as she reached the front door. Amma was clearly distraught and her eyes were wet with tears. Forcing back her own emotions, Faye put a comforting arm around her friend.

‘Come on,' she sighed. ‘Let's go home.'

14

Cultural Tensions

Faye sat on her favourite wicker lounger, her long legs folded beneath her, and flicked moodily through one of Amma's magazines. A cool morning breeze blew across the veranda and in the distance Togo could be seen watering the grass, his skinny legs wet with the spray from the hosepipe.

She still burned with indignation at Rocky's casual dismissal of a moment she thought had meant something and for three days now since the eventful party, she had managed to avoid being alone with him and evaded his attempts to talk to her privately. Amma was being equally cool with Edwin, who phoned several times a day pleading with her to hear him out.

Sonny had also called a few times, puzzled at Faye's unusually curt responses to his usual teasing banter. One positive outcome of the party, from Faye's perspective, was the disappearance of JB from the scene. Since his unguarded outburst at the party, he had made no effort to
call her. Pratt by name and prat by nature, Faye thought in exasperation, wondering how on earth Edwin and Baaba tolerated him.

Baaba, in stark contrast to her girlfriends, had been in a state of uncontrolled excitement since the party. Stuart was clearly smitten with her and had already taken her out twice. The previous evening, after instructing him to drop her off at the Asantes' house, Baaba had spent almost an hour filling them in on every detail of their evening.

‘Oh come on, you two, you're depressing me!' she said grumpily. Polite interest was not a good enough response to her state of romantic euphoria.

‘Amma, I know what's wrong with you – although I still think you're overreacting – but Faye…' She looked at her through narrowed eyes. ‘What's your problem?'

Faye shrugged and said nothing. With the exception of Clarissa, Baaba was probably the last person she would have chosen to talk to about her mixed-up feelings for Rocky. But when it came to men, the other girl was as sharp as a razor.

‘Well, I doubt if our Sonny could make you look so miserable.' Baaba eyed Faye appraisingly. ‘So I suppose it's Rocky.'

Still Faye said nothing, and Baaba gave a loud sigh. ‘Oh well, I suppose it was bound to happen,' she conceded, feeling magnanimous now that her love life was clearly superior to both of theirs. ‘I don't know what happened, but I know from experience that Rocky can be very difficult to pin down. If I were you, I'd concentrate on Sonny – after all, you're here for what, another week and a half? Two
weeks? Just have some fun and don't go looking to get your heart broken,' she added helpfully.

‘Oh, Baaba just shut up!' Amma said in irritation as Faye winced visibly. Baaba's words, although not exactly diplomatic, hit home as the truth. Even more miserable than she had felt before, Faye had remained silent until Baaba had taken her leave, completely exasperated by their long faces.

As she sat staring out at the back garden, Faye tried to put the events of the other evening into perspective. If she was honest, she thought guiltily, a tiny part of her did appreciate Rocky's respect for her as a guest of his parents. Given the same situation, she was fairly sure that such a sentiment would never have occurred to someone like Sonny. But what had hurt far more was that he had labelled what had happened between them in such an offhand way. The complicated mess of feelings she had when it came to Rocky, she thought resentfully, could not simply be described as ‘fooling around'.

Her feelings about Sonny were far less complicated. Although she was still shocked at his ability to chase two women at the same time and at the same party, she recognised that what she had really been attracted to was the light-hearted and, at least so she had believed, uncomplicated attention he had showered on her. Although she was still irritated by his behaviour, she knew she didn't care enough about him to stay angry with him.

Her thoughts were disturbed as Amma walked out onto the patio with her bag slung over one shoulder. She still looked downcast and Faye dismissed her own troubles
and smiled affectionately at her.

‘Where are you off to?' She eyed the handbag with curiosity. Amma had hardly left the house since the weekend, keeping to her bedroom or lying on the sofa in the living room listening to mournful love songs.

Amma replied with a wan smile. ‘Mama's asked me to go to the bank to deposit a cheque for her. Why don't you come with me? I haven't been a very good tour guide lately.'

Faye shrugged and tossed the magazine onto the table. ‘Okay, why not? Just give me a minute to freshen up.'

Up in her room, she ran a comb through her hair, noting with satisfaction that the hairdresser's handiwork had held up. Her jeans, although faded, were clean, emphasising her long legs. She changed quickly into a long-sleeved white blouse in soft Indian cotton with leather laces at the neckline and tiny glass beads dotted around the bodice. Slipping on a pair of flat brown leather sandals, she dug her small brown leather purse out from the drawer before going back downstairs.

Auntie Amelia was in the living room writing out a cheque for Amma and smiled at Faye as she walked into the room.

‘Are you going with Amma?' Faye nodded and her aunt smiled in satisfaction.

‘Good. It's about time she left the house and cheered up a bit.' Ignoring her daughter's frown, she signed the cheque and handed it over to her. ‘And tell Rocky that I haven't yet received my statement for last month,' she added.

‘Mama, he doesn't work on the banking operations side,' Amma said patiently, in the tone of one who had
made the same statement a hundred times. ‘He's in the investment banking division.'

‘Well, whatever,' her mother said absently, waving her off. ‘He can talk to the right person and get them to sort it out, can't he? See you both later.'

Faye frowned. ‘Are we going to
Rocky's
bank?' The outing was swiftly beginning to take on stressful implications.

‘Yes,' Amma said, as they reached the car. ‘Why, is something wrong?' Pausing for a moment, she looked at Faye over the top of the car. For the first time she noted small shadows under Faye's eyes and the absence of her usual exuberance.

‘I've been so busy worrying about my own problems that I haven't even asked you what happened at the party.' Amma cocked her head to one side. ‘You were also upset when we left; I remember now. Was it something to do with Rocky?'

Faye smiled, embarrassed. ‘Oh, it's nothing really. We just had a slight disagreement, that's all.'

Amma started to speak and then stopped herself. She unlocked the door and said cheerily, ‘Come on, let's go and deposit Mama's cheque and then we'll go somewhere nice for lunch to cheer ourselves up.'

The traffic was unusually heavy as they drove through Danquah Circle, where two vehicles had been involved in an accident on the roundabout. Amma had been speeding along the main road and slowed down after passing the crumpled vehicles.

Faye glanced sideways at her friend. She had tied her braids back into a ponytail, with one or two of the plaits
trailing loosely at the sides.

‘I think you've lost a couple of pounds, you know.' She peered closely at Amma. ‘That's one good thing, isn't it?'

Amma laughed out loud for the first time in days. ‘You're right,' she grinned. ‘Maybe I should stay miserable for a bit longer – what do you think?'

They stopped at a set of traffic lights and were immediately besieged by a posse of young boys armed with wet sponges. Despite Amma's frown, they rushed forward to clean the windscreen, enthusiastically smearing dirty water across the glass. Amma tooted her horn crossly, causing them to stop and look enquiringly at her. She waved them away and flicked on the car wipers. For a few seconds, the boys stared mournfully as the greasy streaks on the glass were swiftly cleaned away, then they quickly moved on to try their luck with the car behind.

After a few minutes drive, they stopped at another set of lights and Faye looked with interest at a large building, shaped a little like an oversized boat, at the corner of the junction.

‘What's that building over there?'

‘It's the National Theatre. It's quite a large complex that's used for plays, exhibitions and private functions. A friend of my parents had his sixtieth birthday party there last year – Mama said it was really grand.'

The lights changed to green but before she could even put the car into gear, the taxi behind her was hooting impatiently. Sucking her teeth in irritation, she turned right and drove up a busy dual carriageway. A few moments later, she turned into a gravelled entrance with
a barrier armed by security guards. After a quick glance into their car, the guards raised the barrier and waved her through to a large car park.

‘Wow, I've never seen such a beautiful bank!' Faye looked with admiration at the elegant white building in front of them. From the pretty plum-coloured roof tiles to the elegant columns, the building was an unusual combination of ultra-modern glass and chrome windows and fittings and some of the more traditional Ghanaian buildings she had seen in Accra. A profusion of colourful plants and beautifully landscaped green lawns gave the grounds an atmosphere of serenity not usually associated with the hectic world of finance.

Faye followed Amma up the wide shallow steps leading up to the entrance and past more uniformed guards, one of whom was sitting on a stool, holding a long rifle across his lap. A smiling receptionist wished them a good morning and directed them through to the banking hall.

‘They don't really have a lot of walk-in traffic here because they deal with mostly corporate customers,' Amma explained, as they joined a short queue to pay in her mother's cheque. At the counter, the teller swiftly examined the cheque, stamping it and the pay-in book briskly before handing back the book with a polite smile.

‘I'll just call Rocky from reception and give him Mama's message before we go,' Amma said.

They walked back to the reception desk where the receptionist obligingly put the call through. Amma took the receiver from her, smiling her thanks, while Faye took a seat and flicked through a newspaper.

‘Rocky? Hi, it's me,' Amma said. ‘I'm here with Faye – Mama asked us to deposit a cheque for her.' She paused for a moment as he spoke, before continuing.

‘Oh, and she said to let you know that she hasn't received her statement this month, so can you chase it up for her?' Another lengthy pause ensued during which Amma listened intently.

‘That sounds like a good idea; we were going to go out for lunch anyway. Okay, we'll wait for you here.'

With a smile of pure mischief, she handed the receiver back to the receptionist and went over to sit beside her friend. Faye put down the copy of the
Financial Times
that she had been scanning with little interest and looked at Amma suspiciously.

‘What have you been up to? You look like the cat that swallowed the cream.'

‘The what…? Oh never mind!' Amma spoke quickly before Faye could interrupt. ‘Listen, Rocky said he was on his way out to lunch with Stuart and asked us to join them.' She smiled at Faye slyly. ‘I said yes. I hope you don't mind?'

Faye
did
mind but, at the same time, she was so relieved to see Amma looking like her old self again that she didn't have the heart to say so. Besides, a nagging little voice in her head said,
you have to face him sometime so you might as well do it on neutral territory with other people around
.

While they waited for Rocky and Stuart, Faye watched curiously as the bank staff came in and out of the reception area to pick up clients. The female employees were smartly dressed; some wore tailored suits while a number of them were dressed in dark navy skirts and crisp white tops. All
the men were in suits and murmured ‘good afternoon' as they walked past, one or two of them smiling at Amma and asking after her mother.

‘Every time Mama comes here, you should see the way some of the men rush over to help her,' Amma whispered.

‘I'm not surprised – she's gorgeous! Uncle Fred is very lucky.'

Just as Faye finished speaking, Rocky and Stuart strode into the reception area, laughing at something Stuart had said. Faye's heart wobbled as she watched Rocky walk towards them, tall and handsome in a charcoal grey suit.
He's so beautiful
, she thought with longing, while schooling her features to appear uninterested. Stuart reached them first and shook hands with her warmly.

‘Well, hello Faye,' he said, his eyes twinkling. ‘It's nice to see you again.' Turning to Amma, he kissed her on the cheek three times, complimenting her extravagantly on her pretty linen dress. Amma laughed, well used to Stuart's flirtatious ways.

Rocky held out his hand towards Faye. Despite his smile, his expression was wary. ‘Peace?' he asked gently, holding onto the hand she reluctantly extended. Mesmerised by his long-lashed eyes, she nodded, and then gave a wry smile.

‘Peace,' she said, gently reclaiming her hand.

Amma watched them in satisfaction and then punched her brother lightly on the arm. ‘So where are you two taking us, then? We're very hungry, so don't think you can get away with offering us KFC.'

‘I think we can do better than that,' Stuart laughed, and gestured to the ladies to lead the way. Conscious of
Rocky's eyes on her tight denim-clad bottom, Faye walked quickly down the steps to the car park.

A sleek Mercedes drew up and a smartly dressed driver stepped out to open the door for them. Faye, Amma and Stuart climbed into the back while Rocky took the front seat.

‘This is a seriously cool car,' Faye said, totally blown away by the array of gadgets in the vehicle. She sat back and enjoyed the smooth air-conditioned drive and the chance to see the city through the tinted windows of the luxury car. After about twenty minutes, they drove into the car park of a large hotel with four gold stars emblazoned above the entrance. A uniformed doorman pulled open one of the heavy glass doors as they approached and saluted in welcome.