The Contract: Sunshine (9 page)

She was thankful for the semi-darkness of the vehicle to mask the desperation of her situation that was setting in.  Even with an evi
c
tion notice tucked in her shoulder bag and twenty-three dollars and thi
r
ty-three cents to her name, she wasn’t going to take any more money from Yoon.  She wouldn’t feel right about accepting it, especially now.  She would feel like she was being paid for her services against the wall and she e
n
joyed that so much she probably would have paid him if she had access to her trust fund.

She chucked softly.

“What’s so funny?” Yoon asked breaking into her thoughts and already grinning without waiting for her to let him in on her humo
r
ous thoughts. 
As if she would.  NOT!

“Nothing,” she replied softly and leaned her head back against the leather headrest.  “I get silly when I’m tired.”

“Ah,” he nodded.  “Not much further.”

She snorted and laughed again.  That’s what he said when he was carrying her on his back and look how that turned out.

This time he didn’t ask.   He just chuckled and shook his head.

Oh what to do?  What to do?
  She groaned inwardly.  The smile faded to muted wretchedness.  Sunshine knew what she did was wrong regardless of how she looked at it.  Her grandmother would be so ashamed of her if she were to find out.  How many times had she heard her grandmother tell her about the small general store her grandfather’s father started back when a Black man had to worry about it getting burned down by the Louisiana Klan?  

Her grandmother taught her a lot and she never learns.  She def
i
nitely taught her better than to run out of a restaurant without paying the bill.  She would remind her that she was stealing from the restaurant owner’s children’s mouth. 

Sunshine wasn’t even allowed to take anything off the shelves of the chain of grocery stores her family owned without paying for it and she learned that the hard way.

She was nine and her mom was on husband number two
—
the academy award winning actor
—
when she was sent off to a new boarding school.  Finally, the most popular girls noticed her and if she wanted to be their friend, she had to take them to one of her family’s grocery stor
e
s.

Sunshine had gone into the store, pumped up with pride and showing off by flashing her identification and telling them she was going to o
w
n that store one day.  Perplexed on what to do, the manager let her and her new “friends” shop.  Unbeknownst to her, he also was making a phone call to the corporate office.

The girls got their goods and called her a “sucker” for her troubles as they giggled and ran away with their bootie in tow at her e
x
pense.  Tearful and embarrassed, Sunshine was on her way out the door when she was caught by the shoulder and escorted to the manager’s office for her grandmother’s assistant to fly in on the pr
i
vate jet to escort her back home until her mother returned.

Myrna
—
what her mother preferred her to call her
—
was in Cannes with her current husband at the film festival and Sunshine was anxious for her to return and rescue her from her grandmother before she came up with some way to chastise her for her actions.  She had been thinking on it for weeks and Sunshine was terrified at what she would come up with. 

Sunshine preferred to be spanked like her mother would do to her and get it over with.  But her father’s mother was too well-read for corporal punishment.  She disciplined with what she called, “life le
s
sons.”

By the time Sunshine’s mother returned from Cannes, she was looking for husband number three and she had to get use to being in her Nana’s strict care once again. 

For her audacity to steal
—
yes it was still stealing since the ma
n
ager of that store had to account for every product that was on those shelve,
her “friends” had done one hundred dollars and thi
r
ty-nine cents worth of “shopping.” 

She prayed that they had choked on everything they took from the grocery store while she was spending her summer break lear
n
ing her “life lesson” by picking up trash in the parking lots of all the
Dupree Food’s
grocery stores; under her grandmother’s driver’s supervision of course.

As soon as her phone was charged, she would try to reach her mother first and tell her she needed the money she promised to reimburse her.  Then she would hopefully buy more time with her apartment ma
n
ager by being only two hundred dollars short instead of not paying at all.

In a way, Sunshine was relieved Yoon didn’t believe her about being an heiress.  It had been years since she threw her name around to get away with something.   There was only so many “life lessons” a poor girl could take, but her she was again on the ultimate “time out” from her grandmother.  She wasn’t going to think about the why.  She’d dwe
l
led on the past quite enough for one evening.

Any fear she had that Yoon was being nice to her for any other reason than he felt he owed her for helping him with Leslie was put to rest as long as he believed she lied about who she was..

Sunshine’s eyes closed.

That was the crux of her life.  Her mother paid men to try and seduce her so she could get married and have a child to secure the future of Dupree Food’s as stipulated in her father’s will.  At first Sunshine couldn’t believe her father
—
the only one that she felt wanted the best for her and loved her no matter what
—
would require such a thing in order for her to gain her inheritance. 

Cedric Dupree had left his daughter a final private video explai
n
ing to her why he had put stipulations on her inheritance: 

Princess, it is my dream for you to know true love in your life.  I knew it once and if my first wife hadn’t died...well, you know the story.  I can’t be too bitter for if I hadn’t met and married your mother, I would never have you...the purest thing I’ve ever done in my life.  I look at you and I’m so proud.  I thought I could not have children and when I had long given up, I was blessed with you. 

It is my final wish for you to find a good strong man, not as in physical as much as in character. Pumpkin, you will need a man that has established his own presence in the world.  You need a man who is as concerned about your welfare as he is his own.  A good man won’t care about nothing but you.

I wish I had been a younger man when you came into my life so that I might have had more time with you; check out the man myself; walk you down the aisle at your wedding.  But who believes they will die of cancer and in their mid fifties.

I know you were hoping to gain this money to get your freedom from your mother and your grandmother, but I know you.  You are more like me than I care to admit.  Like me, your personality gets swa
l
lowed up in the strength of the two women in our lives.  Your mother will have you depleted of funds before you know it. 

I chose a year because I think that would be long enough for you to know if it’s a real marriage or not.  If you have a child in the first year, all the better, but I won’t push it. 

Decide on a career of your own.  If you don’t want to be a part of the running of the stores, then don’t and don’t let your grandmother order you to do it.  This is why I did this where not even she, with all her infinite power and self imposed wisdom, can intervene what is to be your ticket to independence and happiness.

Sweetheart, don’t marry a cuckold man like your father.  Take your time and search for a strong man that will allow no interference in your lives from your grandmother and mother.

I hope what I have done is for the best, because that was my i
n
tention.  Forgive me if I was wrong.  It would kill me all over again to know I only made things harder for you.  I love you and I will always be watching over you, Princess Sunshine.

Sunshine thought she had come close to fulfilling her father’s wish at least twice in her thirty years.  But her grandmother had proved to her she was a bad judge of character.  It was the second time she thought she was in love she found out her mother was the reason these men had come into her life.  She didn’t realize telling them about her inheritance was defeating instead of helping her in her quest for a good man.

Why should these men take a year out of their lives, taking care of you in a loveless marriage waiting for money and you may not choose to stay with them after you gain your inheritance?
Her grandmother said.

With my offer they have a sure thing.  Now, Sunny Girl, if you tell your bitch of a mother to stay out of this matter, you might actually find a man that really loves you, but if she goes around telling every man about it, what is the point of the matter?  You should have never told her that your father left you anything.

Oh, my.  Child, you didn’t know your mother was behind this rash of men so interested in you.  Plain as you are, you should have known better.  I thought I taught you better than this.

Tears slid out of the corners of her closed eyes leaving a wet trail along her cheek.  She kept her head turned away from him.  Behind her lids it seemed as if extra light was now streaming through the car wi
n
dows. 

She opened her eyes and saw they were no longer on the main highway. She hadn’t felt it when he veered off.  Sunshine quickly wiped her face dry.  Had she snoozed off?

Yoon slowed and stopped for the light to change.  She looked at the clock on the dashboard and wherever they were it was about twenty minutes from the downtown area.

“Sunshine, were you sleeping or are you so quiet because I hurt your feelings by saying I know you’re lying about being the Dupree Food’s heiress?”  Yoon asked. 

The light changed and she looked down at his strong thickly veined hand shift the gearshift from one gear to another.  Her heart flu
t
tered as her thoughts revisited the intimacy of his touch.

What could she say?   If she denies it’s a lie, he wouldn’t believe her.  If she said it was the truth, she would be the liar he thought she was.

“I’m not upset about it,” he assured her.  “What right do I have considering my approach?  I sincerely apologize.”

Covering her hand resting on her knee with his own hand, he squeezed it briefly before removing it to shift gears again.  Her hand felt warm and tingly from his touch and she found herself wanting him to touch her again.

“I understand how it feels to be desperate,” Sunshine spoke so softly she saw him lean more towards her in the bucket seat.  Louder she said, “Especially today when I was hiding out in the ladies room before I ran out.  I was so scared; I also stayed in there because I couldn’t stop using the bathroom.”  She laughed softly.  She could laugh now but it wasn’t so funny a few hours ago.

“I wondered how you were keeping yourself busy in there,” Yoon laughed with her.  “I thought maybe you were enjoying those chocolate mint Andes they keep in there.”

“How did you--” She halted abruptly.  She knew how he would know.  The kisses they shared.  Her fingers fluttered to her neck where she felt a prickly heat creeping up the side.

He smiled knowingly at her, “I admit I enjoyed the candy from
Piccolo
Bellissima
more this evening than I have any other evening that I’ve eaten dinner there.”

With a saucy wink his way, Sunshine said, “You’re welcome.  I bet I was the best company you ever had there too if Leslie is an e
x
ample of your previous dinner dates.  Maybe next time you will actually order me dinner.”

“I thought I did,” he stated with a significant lifting of his brows. Yoon’s lips widened with a slow, secret smile before saying, “You and your horny preacher man.”

“Seems like he wasn’t the only horny man there tonight,” Su
n
shine murmured, cutting him a side glance.

A twinkle of streetlights caught his eyes as he glanced her way.  It was brief for he had to return his attention to the rode as he drove another block and turned left but the indefinable emotion she saw there for that quick second made her curious to what he truly thought about her and her actions this evening.

He stopped at a security gate entrance to a lush condominium community and pressed buttons on the key pad causing the large white gates to swing wide and close behind him as he passed through.

“This is nice.”

“Nice?”  He balked and pushed a button on some gadget ove
r
head.  “It’s better than nice.  I always make sure I buy the best.  Wait until you see the inside.”