Patrick

He groaned and held his head in his hands as he got off the bed. He had imbibed too much of the cheap liquor and was paying for it in spades!

*****

Breakfast was already underway when he ventured downstairs. He could see the maid hovering around the large oak table as she served his parents their breakfast of oatmeal with blueberries and sprinkles of cinnamon. Breakfast was a formal meal at the Copeland’s place and you would never see them having the meal in the smaller dining room.

“Darling, you are late,” Linda Copeland said in a desultory tone as she waved the maid away. She was in her late fifties with ash blonde hair and blue eyes that her son had inherited. “Late night?”

“I was just having some fun, Mother.” He shook his head as the maid came around to ask him what he wanted and poured himself some of the strong black coffee. The thought of food made him feel queasy.

“I was expecting to see the report from the sales team yesterday,” his father said. William Copeland was a hard-nosed business man and had turned his grandfather’s and father’s software company into a billion dollar one in the thirty years since he had taken over from his father. Patrick was the second in command, and his father had told him that he was willing to retire as soon as he settled down and stopped flashing his di*k around.

“It was sent to your email.” Patrick drank down the coffee and felt the caffeine making its way into his blood stream.

“I will look at it as soon as I am finished here.” William looked at his son briefly. Patrick had inherited everything from him except his black eyes but was taller than him by a foot. He was also more muscled and less ambitious and did not seem to want to settle down. “We were thinking that an engagement party for you and Sophia would tie in with the merger of the Japanese computer company in July.”

Patrick’s blue eyes narrowed as he lowered his cup. “That’s next month!”

“I know. It is now the second week of June, so you have enough time to pop the question. The boards are raising eyebrows about your goings on, Patrick.”

“Why don’t you tell them to go screw themselves?” he said furiously, banging his cup on the table, his blue eyes flashing.

“Patrick!” His mother looked at him in horror hoping that the staff wasn’t lingering around to hear.

“Watch your language, young man,” his father told him grimly, putting aside his spoon to look at his son. “They have every right to be concerned. You are behaving as if you have no care in the world! What if I should drop dead tomorrow? They want to know that you can be trusted to take over the running of the company.”

“So, my expertise as vice president is in question?” Patrick felt like slamming his fists into something hard. “They are a bunch of old dried up men who have no idea how to live their lives. Fine, Dad, if settling down is what it is going to get them off my damned back then so be it!” Without another word, he strode from the room.

“He needed to be told,” William Copeland said mildly as soon as his son had left the room.

“Of course,” Linda said a little uneasily. She had never seen her son so angry before and hoped he would not go and do something foolish!

*****

Carrie stared at herself in the full-length mirror in her room. She had taken two pregnancy tests and they both read positive, and she was thinking of going to the free clinic. She had not said anything to her mother about it or to her best friend Sheryl because she was avoiding the questions. Marty was going to be furious with her, and she could not blame him, but she was an adult who had made a mistake and she was going to fix it. She had no intention of getting rid of her child. It had been conceived in extreme passion and that was good enough. She quaked as she thought about telling the father. She had read up on his family and had found herself trembling with the realization of the powerful family they were, and worst, his name had been linked to a woman with old family wealth, Sophia McBride, a genteel blonde beauty whose family owned ice cream stores all over the country.

Carrie’s bre*sts had gotten larger and fuller and highlighted her lush figure with its gently swaying hips and curvy bottom. Her skin looked different, the cocoa-like smoothness taking on an extra glow. She had inherited her thick natural black hair from her mother and had decided not to put any chemicals in, so it was naturally curly and came to her shoulders. She had large dark brown eyes that maybe were her best features and a full bottom lip that leaned towards pouty. She was not tall but was a petite 5’2” and her last relationship had fell through when she had decided that life was too short to be seeing a man she was not in love with. With a sigh, she moved from in front of the mirror and got ready to go to work. Very soon, she was probably going to have to stop. She had every intention of telling Patrick about the child, she just has to wait for the right moment.

*****

“Darling, you are not enjoying the meal?” Sophia asked the man across from her softly. After the flare up at home this morning, he had invited her out to dinner with him after the tennis match and had seen her face lit up. She was probably expecting him to pop the question. Maybe he should, he thought idly as he stirred the fork around his beef wellington.