An Island Affair by Monica Richardson

Author:Monica Richardson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-09-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Jackson

I sat on the passenger’s side of our rented vehicle as Jasmine breezed through the streets of Gregory Town, James Cistern and then Governor’s Harbour. She gave me the guided tour of the island, pointing out the significance of every pastel-colored structure along the way. The Haynes Library, a pink-and-white building adorned with turquoise hurricane shutters, I discovered, was one of the island’s historical landmarks. It was originally built in 1897 and refurbished in the nineties.

“They have an internet café in there if you ever need to plug in your laptop,” said my beautiful tour guide. “It’s a great place to relax and chill. I avoided it like the plague when I was younger. Anything to do with reading, I wasn’t interested in.”

“I would think a girl like you would love to read.”

“No, you have me mistaken with my older sister, Alyson, or my younger sister, Whitney, who teaches little kids in Texas. I’m more interested in a great party than a great book.”

“Did you want to go to college, or did you want to do something different like your brother Denny?”

“I wanted to get away from home! Far away!”

“Why did you choose Spelman?”

“I chose Spelman because my brother Nate chose Morehouse and the two schools were close. I wanted to be near him. Nate and I are very close—only eighteen months apart. And I heard about the Greek step shows at Morehouse and how popular their homecoming was. And I heard that the parties were off the charts.”

“Okay, so you weren’t interested in a quality education at all,” I teased.

“I didn’t go there looking for a quality education, but I got one anyway.” She laughed.

“Thank goodness! It’s why we aren’t allowed to make our own choices when we’re young and dumb.”

“My first year of college was nearly impossible. I just barely passed my classes. I underestimated college. Thought if I made the right connections, I could breeze through it. It was that way all my life. My father always had a friend around the corner or someone who would look out for me. Every one of my teachers here on the island was good friends with my dad, so school was a breeze,” she explained, “but I got a taste of real life very quickly. I almost dropped out.”

“I was in my last year of law school when I dropped out of Harvard.”

“Are you serious?”

“Very.”

Harvard was a hard subject to discuss. In fact, I’d never had the courage to bring it up to anyone before. I hid behind it for so many years, ashamed. But Jasmine was as easy as a summer’s breeze to talk to. She made me feel that I could say anything, and she never judged me.

I told her everything, and she listened.

“I held on to that anger for years, only recently letting go,” I told her. “It was something you said the other day that made me think about things differently.”

“Something I said?”

“Yeah. You said that sometimes the harshest judgment comes from those who love you the most.

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