Bombay Mixx

Bombay Mixx - Chapter Six - Part Four

It was like a movie but in slow motion. He walked through the crowd with determination and with the pair in tow. Amelia was dancing with one of my cousins and was unaware of the drama which was coming towards her, until she saw both myself and Anya try to beat them to their target…but it was too late!

The look on her face was a mixture of shock, embarrassment and pure rage.

‘GET OUT,’ she growled as the circle around her stopped talking and concentrated on the scene that was about to unfold.

Nobody spoke or moved for fear of getting caught in the crossfire, but this didn’t stop Geron’s bravery. ‘I’m not staying long. I didn’t want to create a scene but you wouldn’t answer my calls, emails or letters,’ he pleaded. But this fell on deaf ears as Amelia was reminded of the secret he kept from her when she saw how pregnant Elisa was.

‘I didn’t answer your attempts to contact me cos you’re a lying bastard, who doesn’t deserve my time or energy,’ she spat as she tried to walk away.

Whether it was the adrenalin or sheer stupidity, he grabbed her arm, tried to kiss her and with that Amelia punched him and he ended up on the floor with a bleeding nose.

The music stopped and the crowd moved away from the boxing match to show Geron on the floor. Holding his bloody nose, Charlize tried to help him and Amelia was left shaking the pain out of her fist.

As though shocked she had punched him, she just looked at him for a minute before she tried to walk away.

‘I didn’t lie to you but I couldn’t see them in so much pain every time a donor backed out,’ he confessed which stopped Amelia.

‘Well, you are the modern day Gandhi, aren’t you? But tell me this, how are you going to be able to live your life knowing your child is being raised by these lesbians and you cannot be a proper father to it?’ she screamed back. 

A stunned crowd, interested to see what would happen next, listened intently.

Geron rose to his feet and stopped Elisa from answering on his behalf.

‘I won’t deny it won’t be hard but I can’t do this without you. I know it’s a lot to ask but I need you now. I can’t cope without you,’ and with that Amelia went to attack him again, only this time Renesh managed to hold her back. ‘You coped just fine when you kept this from me for months so don’t give me this sob story now! Just get out with your freak show and never contact me again!’ she screamed with tears flowing down her face and rage in her eyes.

‘Amelia I’m so sorry this has happened but it’s not Geron’s fault, we asked him not to tell anyone until we got our heads round it ourselves. We didn’t want any extra pressure on Elisa. Please don’t blame him,’ Charlize tried to defend him but this just angered Amelia more.

‘Oh, so you didn’t want any extra pressure on her? How about extra pressure on me? My relationship? My life? You really need to leave now before more than one idiot is injured here,’ Amelia retorted.

Geron had just finished wiping the last of the blood from his nose when Charlize was going to continue with her defence; however, he held up his hand to stop her and got down on one knee to produce a beautiful, vintage looking platinum ring with a large white diamond surrounded by sapphires.

We all knew the question that was coming but with the revelation, the joy had been taken out of the gesture. With so many emotions in the air, it wasn’t surprising that when he asked her to marry him, after she had calmed down to realise he did actually love her and was trying to apologise for his huge mistake, she said, ‘no but we can talk after the party,’ and with that they arranged to meet at the flat. Renesh and Shilpa comforted her throughout the evening.

With so much drama, it was surprising that the party got back under way (I think the free bar also helped people forget the commotion earlier).

Dad was on the double brandies, mum’s dancing was becoming increasingly more flirty as she downed vodka shots with Anya and Dolph (who had arrived throughout the uproar and resolved their issues) and I was trying to forget my troubles by allowing Yatin to swing me round to every song as he became increasingly inebriated.

The time had come for the speeches and due to Gabrielle wanting the least amount of embarrassment, she had chosen a handful of family members and had given them all time limits.

It was unfortunate that they didn’t schedule the speeches before the amplified flow of alcohol but it was comical to see both John’s, and our family members, climbing onto the stage and then stumbling to the mic, to give slurred speeches that even subtitles would struggle to decipher!

The speeches were beautiful (in their unique, drunken way!) and the happy couple were overjoyed at the love they received, however, there was one person they didn’t have on the speech list but she wasn’t going to be denied her moment in the spotlight.

It was my Grandmother! (my dad’s mother)

All night she had a face that looked like she had been forced to suck 1,000 lemons and now, even with the embarrassed looks and pleas from my Grandfather not to go on the stage, she went with determination.

We all looked at each other and silently prayed she wouldn’t ruin Gabrielle’s evening. However, our prayers went unanswered as she tapped the mic to check for maximum clarity and volume and began her toast. ‘To my beautiful Granddaughter and her fiancé. I wish you all the love and happiness in the world.’ We all gave a sigh of relief thinking this was the end of her speech but we were wrong. ‘Marriage is a hard commitment that shouldn’t be taken as a joke. You need to commit to each other through the hard times and the bad. Nowadays, it’s too easy to break up a marriage and divorce without a thought for the children or partner you are leaving. Just ask your mum and dad. Your dad left a perfectly good woman for your harlot of a mother and he never had to answer to the pain he left behind.’ With that my mother went to drag her off the stage but was stopped by my Grandfather, who was now enraged himself and tried to take the mic away from her.

Unfazed by the attempts to get her away from the stage, she grabbed the mic one last time and announced, ‘well if you won’t listen to me, listen to her,’ and pointed to the doorway.

The crowd parted to see where this woman’s rage would end and in walked a chubby woman, dressed in a white sari with a smug look on her face.

She flicked her thick, shoulder length hair out of her face and advanced to the stage.