Chapter 5

Jake

I got out of the Rolls Royce, buttoning my jacket as I looked around the house I was raised. Okay, maybe house was an understatement to the huge stone mansion with many rooms and space for a small country to live in. I released the breath I didn't even know I was holding, preparing my mind for whatever it was my grandmother wanted from me. I looked at the man that had been my driver ever since I was a young boy, trying my best not to frown even though it was all I wanted to do. His constant meddling in my affairs never failed to annoy me, even though I knew it was coming from a place of concern. I had instructed him to take me to the graveyard so I could visit Victoria's grave, only for him to turn while I was busy going over some paperwork, taking me here instead.

As I opened my mouth to give him a small piece of my mind, my grandmother walked outside, looking normal for a woman who claimed to be feeling under the weather. She stood on the huge landing after the wide stone steps, waving brightly at me as a five-year-old would. I bit my lower lip hard, forcing a smile on my face.

Through gritted teeth, I addressed my driver, "We would talk about this at home."

He gave me a resigned smile and a salute, something he had been doing ever since I could remember him doing it. I climbed the stone steps, taking my time as I did.

"I am so sure I could walk faster than you are doing even on my bad days," she called out, her bright smile still on her face. For a brief second, I wondered how she was able to look more than fifteen years younger than her seventy-five. As I got to her, she turned her cheek for the customary kiss on the cheek and I did as I was subconsciously instructed.

"As usual you look handsome." she gave a wink that would have had me running for cover if she hadn't been my grandmother.

"Good afternoon to you too," I said stiffly, still miffed by her intrusion.

"That's no way to talk to your grandmother who is under the weather. Don't make me bring out the big guns." She threatened, and I shook my head, walking ahead of her into the house. She followed, laughing gently behind me as she did, making me feel like a pouting kid.

I turned and moved into the formal living room, using that to show her I wasn't staying long. I walked in only to find a young lady sitting on the seat I had already pictured myself sitting on. She looked up from her phone and smiled at me, it was quite charming and innocent, but I wasn't fooled. Nothing about this arrangement was innocent. I stopped abruptly causing my grandmother to run into my back.

"Why did you stop?" She asked at the same time I asked, rudely, if I might add.

"Who is that?"

She slapped my back before apologising to the lady, who despite my rudeness, was all saccharine. That alone was enough to discourage any future association with her.

"You," She said, her voice becoming stiff just like all those times whenever she wanted to correct me for all my wrongdoings. "Follow me!"

The strictness of the tone almost made me salute, but I buried the urge and followed her, my eyes lingering on the lady who now had her teeth involved in the smile business that was doing nothing to get me to feel anything but to run in the opposite direction.

Grandmother led me into the second huge parlour that was reserved for beatings. I immediately moved into the seat before she could direct me to sit on the lone seat. I sat down, crossed my legs and began to pick nonexistent dirt out of my fingers, giving it my whole attention.

"I would presume that the way you spoke to the lady out there is the same way your sons would speak to women, isn't it?"

Okay, with all the things she could start with, opening the berating class with that was enough to deflate my ego. I instantly felt like the kid I was not.

" I am sorry for the way I spoke to your guest. " I tried my best to hold her gaze, but the little I saw was enough for me to find another thing to look at. I focused on the mirror above the fireplace.

"I am disappointed, very disappointed in you. I called you here for something else and you came in, saw my new assistant who is finding it hard to adjust to things and spoke about her like she wasn't even in the room. I can't believe that of you." she continued like I didn't even apologise.

I took it in, accepting it as my fate for my ill behaviour.

"I'll apologise to her on my way out," I said partly because I was sorry about it and because I wanted to appease grandma.

"See that you do," she said, the stern face still on till it was no longer on and the bright smile came on again. Years had taught me never to question the speed at which she could move from boiling angry to insanely happy.

"I heard about your misfortune with your nanny-sorry, your ex-nanny." She looked like she was trying to hold back a laugh. I silently cursed my cousin for blabbing while cursing myself the most for telling her about it.

"I'll get another one," I told her, my frown returning now that I wasn't being made to feel like a child.

She waved my words away like it was a gang of flies, I looked in the direction she waved and looked back to her, my face registering my confusion.

"I have a solution for you." She stopped after that, trying to build up suspense and get me to ask her to continue. I already knew that was her plan, but still, I wanted to ask. When she saw that I didn't ask her to continue even after a minute passed, a bored look resting on my face, she smiled proudly.

"This is one of the reasons your grandfather, may his soul rest in peace, made you the head of GS. If I didn't know you well enough, I would think you're uninterested in what I have to say. That reminds me, I saw my income for last month, thank you for making me richer." she moved away from the back of the high back seat she had been resting on and sat down on it.

"So as I was saying, the solution to unwanted women crawling into your bed is you getting married. Get married, you get a wife, a mother to your children, possibility of more children, and the end to unwanted advances," she said, her eyes shining weirdly in a way that made me alarmed.

"Marriage won't stop women coming after me." The way I said it made me sound cocky, but it was the truth and there was nothing I could do about it.

"At least, it would prevent them from getting into your bed." She shrugged like she made sense and I had to agree with her wrapped logic.

"If the benefit of marriage is to stop ladies from getting into my bed, I tell you that you've failed to convince me to even think about it," I said as I would to someone proposing a new deal to me. She nodded, realising her pitch was weak and unconvincing.

"And besides, I am a grown man, thirty-seven if you've forgotten. You can't force me to do anything."

"I am not trying to force you. I just want you to at least start dating and stop sleeping around."

I shook my head as I began to argue, "I don't sleep around, I have friends that don't mind sharing my bed, and they are very few in fact." I said, hating the gigolo image of me she painted.

"Still, you need a woman. And I have some women I know if you meet them, you might like one of them to the point of dating one of them. Just give me a chance to introduce you to them. All I ask for is ten dates, with ten women of my choosing."

I stood up, buttoning the suit jacket that I had unbuttoned when I was about to sit down. I began to say goodbye, walking towards the door so I could apologise and leave.

"If you do it, I'll give you the cabin!" she suddenly said and I paused, turning back slowly to look at her. She looked victorious because she had my attention. Why the cabin, you might be thinking.

After the death of my parents, my grandfather became my idol. The cabin was where he took me when I was being rebellious. He stayed with me for weeks, trying to reach me. In that cabin, I learnt to deal with the loss of my parents, later, the loss of Victoria and him. That cabin was my second home whenever I was feeling lost or broken. I had expected grandfather to leave the house to me in his will, but he gave it to grandma instead. I had been angry about it, but I accepted it as I could use it whenever I liked. Using it whenever I liked could not be compared to owning the cabin.

"Are you serious?" I was in doubt because I knew she loved the cabin as much as I did. It was where she had her wedding night with her grandfather.

She looked turn about it, but I could see she meant what she said because she nodded.

"Very sure?" I asked again and she rolled her eyes before repeating her yes...

"Then I agree. I'll send my schedule to you and you can fix the ten dates. I'll also send my lawyer to you so you can lay down your terms. I'll go over them and sign as long as you don't add any other thing to it." My mind was already in business mode as this was a transaction, ten dates for the cabin.

"You must go for the dates and the ladies must tell me you tried to get to know them." She said and I nodded, the condition wasn't hard. I could sit in front of ten women and get to know them and get my cabin while still keeping my arrangement with my lady friends.

"Deal," I said, waved my goodbye and walked out of the room, a smile on my face as I already saw myself owning the cabin. This victory would be sweet.