Everyone's Ear

The big news fizzing through all the old boods is the engagement of Royce to Elyce Dubois which happened in seconds since she came back for it was inevitable that Taryn was going to arrange it and anyone who couldn’t see this coming was living in a dream world. Tiah called me and sprackled incoherently as being related to Elyce was a far scarier proposition than being related to Jazz for Elyce scared Tiah, good and proper, in fact I don’t know anyone who was not a bit wary of her. Tiah said Taryn sent Royce’s surf bimbo back to the beach quick smart, organised a dinner with the entire Dubois clan, even Ladonna and announced their engagement during the dinner, Taryn was an unstoppable dynamo who was determined to have only the family ties that she felt were acceptable for her children.

Taryn had taken Royce aside earlier and told him in no uncertain terms that Gervais would pull the plug on his entire business enterprise if he did not marry Elyce and I was not surprised for I had already worked out that Royce was not a very strong character and was not going to stand up to Taryn the way Braith did over Jazz. Tiah said after dinner Braith took Royce aside and told him to just run away, not to marry Elyce as she would be hell to live with and Royce told him he didn’t want to wind up working in the winery which is what would happen if he left. Braith who happily worked in the winery could not offer Royce help on how to set up on his own as he had never really left the family nest, in fact none of the Vanderhavens, Jago included had ever done anything on their own, they just built upon what had been handed to them.

Royce said nothing during the meal, nothing during the announcement and looked miserable when Elyce grabbed his arm in triumph while all the old boods fizzed over what a lovely couple they made. If Gervais was hoping to get a frantic phone call from me to rescue Royce he was going to be disappointed as I was not going to interfere and Royce could find his way out himself. Tiah sounded forlorn and depressed and didn’t even bring up any plans to end the relationship like she had with Braith. I asked her if she had called Coco and could hear the shudder in her voice when she replied no she hadn’t as she didn’t want to be the one to break it to her but I knew this to be Tiah rubbishspeak as she was too busy looking for her own sympathy to care about anyone else. So this must have been what Braith had been comforting Coco about as he must have known in advance what Taryn was up to and I felt a little bad I had misjudged him over Coco until I remembered that even if Nadia the viper had been fake pregnant, he never denied sleeping with her.

I decided to make two phone calls, one to tell Jazz cause despite her pretending we all know she still loves Braith and the other to Coco. I knew I had to be firm with Coco and tell her that I could not come over no matter how much she begged for I didn’t want Simon to get the idea that I was putting everyone else in front of him. I was surprised by the reaction from both, at first Jazz acted angry that Braith would have taken the time to warn Coco but not to have told her about Nadia and I was surprised that she was so bitter about him as I thought she would have still been heartbroken so I guess she is moving on. Coco on the other hand was quite composed and ready for the news as she thanked me for calling, insisted she was doing well and we had a chat about the insanity of Taryn.

Coco’s composure made her more refined and grown up, I was impressed and I told her that but she replied in a very determined voice that it wasn’t over yet for if Elyce could fight for Royce then she could fight for him too. I didn’t want to tell Coco that she had no hope of ever defeating Elyce, not with Gervais in her court but I was not going to burst her bubble so instead I told her that I was happy she had made a choice to stand up for herself.

After work I went to Simon’s hoping his sanity would be a great relief compared to the pressures of my friends and their miserable relationships but for the third time I was mistaken. I walked in the door to have Simon push several pamphlets in my face about apartments for rent as he was determined for us to move in together permanently and was wasting no time making it happen. I sat down pretending to look through them while wishing the entire time wishing that I could have just one normal, boring day.

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