Winter Looked at the phone in her hand and smiled. That kind of auspicious smile that she gave when she found something quite amusing and... Fun. Or not.
She waited. Her true caller ID already showed the name of the caller, but she wanted it to seem like she was not listening—something around the 'bad network' line.
"Hello?" The caller on the other end said.
Winter did not respond. She raised a brow instead, trying to figure out how patient the other person would be before she dropped the call. Thank God her background was as silent as a confession hall.
"Hello... Hello?" The caller inquired again and Winter could hear the impatience and frustration from the other end. She heard the shuffle sound of someone playing with a piece of paper on the background and then the line went dead.
When the call ended, she dropped her phone on the floor where she was seated organizing a shoe rack, something she was doing before she got interrupted. Immediately she saw the call, she knew who it was but the person had used a different line, probably to throw her off, but her caller ID had identified the name relation. She placed two plus two and chuckled cause why NOW of all times? It's been six months.
She was calm. She knew this person would call back.
She counted to fifteen and then feeling victorious, smiled.
Her ringtone cut through her room, a contrast to how quiet it was moments ago. It was always quiet though.
Winter waited another five seconds, letting it ring out until the call was about to end and then she picked it up.
She breathed in all the calmness she could conserve as she had always practiced in time past. She was going to use that calmness on this person and figure out just how much details she would give out. "Hello."
She heard a sigh from the other end. "Hello. Is this Winter?"
Winter Smirked. "Yes, she is. How may I help you?"
"Good." The other caller said affirmatively, as if she finally got her where she wanted. "Winter, this is Emily. Do you know who I am?"
Winter was good at playing pretend just to watch how someone would unravel. But she'd figured out over the years that she preferred that people scrambled when the truths were thrown in their faces, less baggage to alter the lie that way.
She rolled her options in her head: calculating whether to give out full truths or half truths. She chose both... Or the latter.
"Emily." She said. "Emily Duke? From class 15?" She only knew an Emily and that Emily was not from class 15. She would be damned if she gave this Emily the figure of importance! But then, she rolled her other option in her head and smirked. She sure was enjoying this game. "Oh... " She cooed. "Emily. THAT Emily. The one who viewed my profile a few days ago." She wanted to ask how she got her number, but she probably knew the answer to that question and the answer was not important. She had her number as well but she would play it dumb.
"Yes. That Emily. So you do know who I am?"
"Hard not to know." You were dumb enough to view my profile without putting off your read receipt. Social media illiterate?
She could hear Emily scoff on the other side. "You have guts, I gotta give you that. You do know who Arnold is right? Why won't you leave him alone? You know he is married with two kids. I am even surprised that you have met my kids. The effontery! You've really got guts!"
Winter looked at her hand that was playing with a pen now. She did know a lot of things but she wasn't the kind of person who gave out information. Instead, she loved to collect. She would collect information from this person by giving her bits and pieces of useless information. She was sure Emily knew nothing about her. Hell! Many people knew nothing about her which she loved that way because she wanted to be amused by just how far people would treat her. The only information people could collate on her were bunch of useless info on her pages which usually entailed nothing noteworthy. She was certain that was what Emily was riding with. Emptiness and misinformation.
"I saw you the other day, I wanted to stop you. To confront you." She drew out the confront. "The luck you have that I was with my dad."
Winter was waiting. Quiet as a dove. People love to talk. When you go quiet, they end up talking too much.
"My daughter told me the other day that she met you. That you were sweet to her and playful. That she liked you."
When she mentioned her daughter, Winter smiled. She knew her. She was a sweet 7 years old girl, smooth caramel skin, intelligent in how she talked and independent. She was the type of child who was always on an adventure or another in her neighborhood. One thing that struck her was at how similar she was with her father. The resemblance, the discipline, the athletism—the height. With how tall she was now, she knew she would be taller in the future. Would probably be around a model height of 5"9.
She knew the girl. She loved the girl. Sweet little girl's name was Cassie. Casandra. And Cassie was always excited to see her whenever she was around.
She heard the woman on the other end inhale deeply.
"I've been holding back all these time without approaching you. But upon hearing that, I knew it was about time I called in and put you in your place!" The lady was annoyed, deeply. " Stay. Away. From. My. Husband!" She yelled and as if she was too loud on her end, she lowered her voice, just two octave below. "Stay away from my family, Winter! It's one thing to be a mistress and another for the mistress to be meeting my kids. You girls of this age have guts yunno. No more shame and respect. Just giving out free pussy."
Winter raised an eyebrow, amused by how blunt the last part came out. She wanted to hand her medal because if there was one thing she enjoyed freely, it was to speak as rawly as possible. Pussy—clit and all. She was so close to chuckling out loud. So close.
" And Arnold has been a liar. Denying he's got nothing to do with you, only for me to go through his phone yesterday and saw that you two still chat. Calling him 'baby'. How can you be calling a married man baby? Haven't you got shame?"
You went through his phone. So that was how you got my number? I guess you are not a social media illiterate afterall.
"Leave my man alone, Winter. This call is a warning call. I mean it. I want you to block him and never chat him again. I want you to do that now when I end the call."
Okay... Winter really chuckled this time. As if? Have you met your husband? Blocking him is just a catalyst for him to efficiently find me at home. That ain't gonna do shit! Such a waste of time and effort.
"Do you find what I'm saying to be a joke?" Emily snapped.
"No-ooo" Winter smiled. "But I will tell you beforehand that you cannot ask me to do shit." She chuckled again.
"You think you are slick?"
"While I have found this conversation a little entertaining for my boring day, I've grown really tired of it." She yawned disinterestedly. "You've bored me Emily."
" You have no manners!"
"—Emily!" Winter snapped. She heard the intake of breath from the other side. "Manners should be the least of your concerns when you are calling someone for this kind of conversation. Don't you think?"
As if she was reassuring herself Emily said, " I will find you Winter. You are on my soil, you are so far away from home and I've got more leverage than you, more money, more experience. I will find you; and when I do, you wouldn't be so confident. I will find your job, your home... You would not be able to walk in Profare no more."
Any other person would have been terrified by this threat and Arnold had told her some time back that Emily's family were well connected and Winter getting their attention, even if she were in her right, would be a catastrophe broadcasted in daylight. Arnold had told her to remain on the background and let him handle things as he's the only one who knew them well enough to counterattack.
Hearing Emily threaten her in retrogression woke up something that had been begging to come back to the surface for a while now. Something she'd been fighting to keep afar and locked in a whirlpool of oblivion. But this, this gave it a free way— an escape even barely presented was enough to break part of it free. Her eyes went dark as familiar blood gushed through her veins and up her head in excitement.
And with that, she pressed the phone closer to her ear, looking at the half completed shoe rack and pen in her hand, delighted as hell and begging to be entertained. The words came out her mouth as a dare, a probe and a leeway. " Give me your best shot, Emily. I would like to see you TRY. "
*************
She and Arnold had talked. They had sat down and that discussion was had, the one where the serious questions were asked and truthful answers were drawn out. Otherwise, she would have walked away by now. Or not.
Emily had never contacted her. But Winter's mind was curious; she wanted to know what would happen. She knew the subtle power she held and she was going to use it to set this piece in motion.
She went to her contact list and dialled 'Bunny'.
It didn't take long for the call to be picked.
"Hiiii.." She called out excitedly.
He was laughing on the other end, as if he was speaking to someone before her call came through. "Heyyyy." He said, mirroring her excitement. "What's up? Are you good?"
"Yes, I am. Are you busy?"
"Not really. I'm here speaking with a friend"
"That's nice"
He was silent for a minute, picking up the restraint in her voice. He was always good at that. "I have time. What's up?"
Winter liked that he was paying attention, so she dropped all excitement and put on a serious tone. "Guess what?"
"Arrrgh! You know I'm bad at guessing!" He whined.
Winter smiled. "Just try."
He hummed. Took about 3 seconds and said "I really can't think of anything. Your payment got increased?"
Winter chuckled. Of course! Money. She loved money. "Dude, that's not it!"
"You are horny?"
"Dude!!"
"What? I told you I'm bad at this!"
"Of course you were going to redirect the conversation to sex!"
"Nothing wrong with sex."
"Of course!"
"I like sex. You do too. We fuck, make love and move on."
Winter's mouth was agaped when she remembered he wasn't alone. Shit! "Dude, is it wise to talk so blatantly in front of your friend?"
"Babe, he's not a kid. He is grown. You need to see his face right now—he's smiling, grinning from ear to ear."
"Of course."
The playfulness subsided from his voice, replacing it with concern and attention. "I'm bad at guessing," he said, "tell me what... I'm yours. I'm listening."
That's it. Winter knew he was hers by heart. She knew if she called him to come, he would drop it all and appear before her. She knew that, but she was also gracious because she never demanded much. She was always patient, giving him the space he needed, never made unreasonable and unrealistic demands, understood his needs and things that were important to him. She never took it for granted. Never took him for granted.
She would have taken her time to say what she wanted to, but she needed this event to be facilitated quickly. Her period of grace was panning out and with it, silent resentment. "She called."
She heard the small pause in motion from his end, if that could be heard. Or was it felt? " Who called?"
"She! I don't need to say her name.You know who I am talking about."
" Are you sure?"
"I am."
Another pause. "What did she say?"
"She threatened me."
This time, the silence was extremely loud. She couldn't tell if it was because he was shocked by the news or that he was becoming furious, but he went silent for a while.
When he spoke, his voice was calm. Too calm. He asked the same question, "What did she say?"
"A lot of things."
"Like what?"
See? Winter didn't like this. He was trying to gather information from her while she was trying to see what information he would give out. They somehow mirrored each other in that regard; that they were information leeches and suckers.
When he noticed that Winter was not going to tell him anything, he tried in his own minor way to sedate her; to appeal to her mind. "Don't listen to her. Whatever she told you are lies."
"They don't seem to be lies."
"They are!"
"She went through your phone!"
He paused. "I suspected."
Winter narrowed her eyes. "You did?"
"Yes. I left it with my daughter last night to browse, I slept off. She must have gone through it then cause I noticed some of my apps were left on chats I didn't open. I thought it was my daughter."
"Fine. Just fine." She was salty. "So what are you going to do? I was threatened."
"Don't take it seriously. They are just words."
"Just words?" She was furious now, feigning furiousness. "She knows where I work?"
"Not true."
"She does!"
"She doesn't. Whatever information she got, she got from my phone, which pretty much has little to nothing of you. Most of our conversations are made by calls. We rarely chat."
That was true. But still, "Why now?"
Another pause and a shuffle. "Something happened which I can't tell you for now."
Winter scoffed.
"I'm sorry babe. But I'm trying to separate you as much as possible from my divorce case. Don't worry about anything. I will call her and have a talk because she has no right to call you. I'm even surprised she did that."
" Be surprise for me too cause that makes two of us."
"I'm sorry babe."
"See, you were the one one who told me she is well connected and her family are linked too. You told me to be wary of her that I do not have the capacity to fight her if she decided she was going to come at me. I have been wary, minding my business. Now , that threat has come to my doorstep and you expect me not to be scared shitless?"
"No." He affirmed her feelings. "Did you tell her anything? Did you say anything to her?"
Winter could have lied here and said no, but like she knew, she loved to see the reactions of people to her honesty, cause she was really tired of the lies. "Yes."
"What did you say?"
"I told her to do her worst."
She heard the long progression of his intake of breath, probably he was rubbing his temple at this point, a habit he adapted whenever he was stressed.
She waited for him to speak first.
His voice was too calm, a disparity to the anger boiling in him. "Why did you do that?"
Winter did not answer .
"Babe," he started, "I know you are upset and this wasn't in your bingo card for this year. But even at that, don't you think you could have avoided it by cutting off her call when you discovered it was her?"
"I wanted to hear what she had to say. I am not a coward. I won't back down from a fight."
"That's what I'm saying!" His voice raised an octave, but not too much to be considered a shout. "You won't back down and you don't want to avoid it— you do not have the leverage to protect yourself from her. I do! I have the leverage to protect you from her. Every move she makes would be documented and used against her. You telling her to do her worst directly would give her ideas. She wouldn't come to you directly and then I won't have that evidence to prove she did it. Do you have the recorded call?"
" No."
"See? Lack of evidence." He groaned. "If she calls again, don't pick up. End the call. Avoid it. But I don't think she would once I've had a chat with her cause she has no right in that regard. But as a cautionary measure, please avoid it as much as possible. Okay?"
" Okay."
"She won't do anything for now. That I can assure you of. She can't make a move. Calling was her own desperate way of grasping at straws, tackling the wrong problem." He inhaled and exhaled. " I will call you back later babe. Okay?"
Winter was a bit disappointed at how the conversation turned out, but she nodded in agreement. "Okay."
"Okay." He exhaled again. "I love you. I will see you later."
"Okay."
"Okay."
A few seconds passed like he was waiting for her to say I love you backbefore he ended the call...but it never came.