“Ah ha!” Beatrice said, as if she’d caught me in a lie. “That’s very unfortunate.”
“Beatrice,” Asher said. “Really? I understand you want to be thorough, but I think this is going a bit far.”
“It’s not, really, Asher. You need to understand where I’m coming from. Do you want a high school drop out for a child? Do you want a son or daughter who will only ever strive for mediocrity? A liberal arts major? Someone with their head in the clouds, never willing to put forth the effort to succeed?”
I interrupted, I had to. “There are plenty of people who had their head in the clouds and succeeded,” I said. “If you look at best selling novelists, you’ll see a trend towards great dreams. Also, technology as a whole wouldn’t be anything without dreams and aspirations. Scientists, engineers, architects…”
Beatrice scoffed. “Writers prey on people like you, Jessika. They write their silly dreams on paper and make you think you can change the world. The entire entertainment industry is like that, actually. And along with that comes technology, and those scientists and engineers and architects you’re so fond of.”
Asher frowned. “We make our money from the entertainment industry, Beatrice, or have you forgotten? Vacation resorts, high class hotels, and Landseer Enterprises other projects?”
“Of course, Asher.” Beatrice rolled her eyes, treating this like a trifling matter. “There is a large difference, though. Most people have dreams, but they fail to follow through with them. You and I are the lions who prey on those people’s dreams. We give them hope, an inkling of it, and feed off of their laziness. They pay for luxury when most of them can’t afford it, and in turn we give them more and more. We…”
“I think that’s enough for the night. Thank you for this, Jessika. Beatrice and I really appreciate it.”
“Dinner was wonderful,” I said, feeling awkward. “I hope I responded to your questions alright…”
“Yes,” Asher said. He smiled at me even while Beatrice looked as if she couldn’t wait for me to leave. “It’s late and you’ve been drinking. Do you want to stay in the guest house for tonight?”
“Asher!” Beatrice said, suddenly alert. “Do you think that’s…”
“It’s no problem,” he said, interrupting her. “There should be everything you need there, but if you want I can have Jeremy drive you home.”
I nodded. “I am getting tired, so if you don’t mind, I’ll stay. Thank you very much.”
Beatrice glowered at me as I left. Asher said nothing except to bid me goodnight, but once I walked through the door I heard them arguing in the smoking room. Jeremy was waiting for me in the hallway, looking hopeful.
“How’d it go?” he asked. “Anything exciting?”
We walked down the hallway towards the dining room and the front door. “Is she always like that? I don’t think I could stand it,” I said.
Jeremy laughed. “Yes, mostly. Beatrice is… Beatrice. I don’t think she’s a bad person so much as she’s different. She doesn’t like me, either, but her and Asher seem to get along.”
I paused mid step. They… yes, they must get along. They were married, afterall. And even if they didn’t see each other often, they talked. He called her, I knew. They’d talked on the phone soon after I first met Asher, and they must have called each other between then and now, too. He’d mentioned multiple times how he’d talked to Beatrice about this or that, and it just struck me as a typical thing. They’d talked, yes, but I never really imagined they enjoyed it.
I don’t know why I never thought about that, but I didn’t. Now, though, I realized maybe I was wrong about everything. Maybe they did like each other? Maybe, while their marriage wasn’t one that I would enjoy, they enjoyed it? Maybe…
“Hey there, lady?” Jeremy said, snickering. He tugged on my arm, urging me onwards.
“Sorry,” I said. I went along with him, through the dining room now. “I just… I can’t imagine what it’s like for them. I don’t know if I’d want to do it.”
“Sometimes you don’t have a choice, you know?” Jeremy said. “It’s not so easy to stop when you’ve started, especially for people like Asher and Beatrice. You and me, if we were married, it’d be different. No one cares, there’s no problems. I mean, there’s problems, but they aren’t as big. With Asher and Beatrice, everything is a hundred times bigger. There’s more reason to stay together and less reason to leave, you know?”