Nothing 01

“I-I'm scared of dying...” Ms. Young's voice cracked upon her confession, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

The seventy-year-old matriarch of the Young Family from the real-estate business had once again visited our hotel to avail my service. It's not a secret that I'm quite a star among widowed, old maiden, and all sorts of female guests who were senior citizens. I'm in charge of them in terms of pampering, listening, and comforting.

Let's be frank, I'm no saint. I also do stuff most people would find odd and erroneous. I don't care as long as these females give me all that I deserve for rendering them my service.

I placed the cup of chamomile tea, one of my absolute favorites because it's good for soothing stress, atop the small round table wherein Mrs. Young and I was sitting face to face. She was a heavy smoker and thus was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.  The illness was starting to take its toll on her health and it's very noticeable. Her cough was worse than the last time I recalled, and she kept wheezing. In fact, we had to stop a lot of times during our intercourse due to her frequent chest pain and shortness of breathing.

I don't care if others would think I was dirty by bedding rich old women as long as I'm well-compensated. I'm making sure I'm doing it safely too. Sexually transmitted diseases were amongst the things I really don't want to get from this setup.

Mrs. Young loved classic cars and her vintage Mercedes-Benz had already been promised to me. She would also leave half a million dollars in my bank account. If my clients cannot afford to pay me at least a million in Philippine peso, their sexual requests, of course, wouldn't be granted. I'm worth that much.

I reached for her hand and held it gently as I gave her an assuring smile.

“Sweetie, I'll be here for you always, and I'll stay even after you leave me...” I trailed off purposely. I wanted to make it sound like her death would cause me so much pain. I grimaced at that thought inwardly. Of course, that wasn't true.

She slowly smiled at me, obviously touched at those words I'd just given. She was tearful when she tightly held my hand with her both.

“Thank you so much for coming into my life, Baste. Thank you for making me feel young, alive, and beautiful again. I truly owe you a lot,” she told me.

I took my hand from her hold to softly wipe away her tears with my thumb. I then stood up from my seat, walked to, and stopped beside her. I crouched to place a tender kiss on her head. “Anything for you, sweetheart.”

I was eighteen when I started working here. Now that I'm twenty-five, I've already mastered the art of sweet-talking.

This hotel was owned by the brother of my mother, my uncle. This was supposedly a business for the whole family yet my mother died giving birth to me with the father I have never met nor even known. I don't intend to, anyway. My uncle now completely owned this when my mother passed away. I wasn't even paid for my hotel labor when I began working here. Uncle always reminded me that this hotel and he were the ones financing my studies and needs, so I shouldn't complain and should just repay him through working here for free. I was so mad at him for depriving me of the parcel of this hotel that rightfully belonged to me as his nephew. He was so selfish and greedy... and so was I.

I secretly rebelled against him through pampering our female clients, most especially the rich old women where I got most of my fortunes today. After many years of my secret services, I'm almost near to achieving my goal — buying this hotel and stripping my uncle of the rights he also deprived me.

“You ungrateful son of a bitch!” he furiously shouted the moment I got into his office, just shortly after he threw back at me a fistful of cold cash I handed him.

I silently clenched my fists in anger and embarrassment.

“After everything I gave you to make you the man that you are now, you're going to do this me!” he added.

“I just want to get what's rightfully mine,” I answered calmly, extremely holding back.

“You wouldn't even get this huge amount of money if not because of me! Now you want to use it against me?! How unbelievable...”

“I just want my share, uncle. Can't you just simply give it to me so that we'll get all this over with?”

“There's no way you're getting anything from me! I'm not gonna give you the thing that I've worked so hard to build up for so many years. That's never gonna happen!” he stubbornly retorted.

“But I deserve my part, too! All you see was only your hard work and efforts and sacrifices!” I shouted, releasing all the frustrations and pent-up emotions I've been keeping for so long. “How about mine?!”

“I offered not just my heart but also my body and conscience to make things work for this hotel! How come you didn't see that?” I resumed.

He didn't see that one coming, me shouting at him and confronting him about my contributions as well. I can sense that it surprised him a lot that he wasn't able to immediately throw a snarky comeback.

He slowly shook his head. “You don't understand me. This hotel's my whole life!”

“And so was mine! I practically grew up here. I've witnessed it all. I'm part of its growth!” I fired back.

He doesn't really understand me. He was just being selfish and greedy all over again, and I really hate it. Goddamnit!

“This is my hotel. I'm not giving you an–”

“Then I'm resigning,” I cut him off.

He was stunned at the first few seconds until he laughed mockingly.

“You can't do that. This was the only job you knew and you're only good at providing rich old women with your services and nothing more!”

I quickly advanced towards him and punched him on his goddamn face. I didn't give him time to recover from the blow, I just grabbed him by the collar then held him up. That's enough for today and for the years I've spent always following him and running errands for him. What do I get at the end? Insults and deprivation, always.

“I am so done with all your insults and selfishness! I am so done with you! I'm out of here!” I angrily shouted at his face.

I let go of him then I spun around to march my way out of his shitty office and away from his sickening presence.

“You think you can be more than who you are right now, Baste? You're not going far and anywhere! You'll forever remain as a manwhore!”

I wanted to say, ‘watch me,' but my anger got the best of me so I shouted, “Fuck you!” instead as I proudly flipped my middle finger up and without looking at him.

I'm going to build my own hotel someplace far, make a name of my own, and after all that, I am going to find a woman whom I'll settle down with. Everything I have and will be having, I'm going to share them with her and our children. I'll stop being like my uncle by then. I'll prove to him that I'm better than him in so many ways he could think of and even imagine. I will become a better family man. But for now and until then, I'll be a businessman.

I LAZILY ANSWERED Lincoln's call after putting the last duffel bag inside the trunk of my classic Mercedes-Benz. I'm moving out of my uncle's property and had resigned from the hotel. I want to completely cut ties with him. I want nothing to do with him anymore.

“So... I've heard about your resignation,” he said right away instead of greeting me.

“If you don't have a job for me, I'll hang up,” I responded, equally direct.

I'm jobless and still have a goal to meet, and thus I have no time for pleasantries.

“Are you a mind reader?” he kidded followed by his little chuckles on the other line.

I slowly shook my head as I slid inside the shotgun seat and closed the door. I hate it when he does that. His chuckles reminded me so much of our younger years wherein he was still wearing his ugly braces and acting all so dorky. He was being bullied for that before, but right now, his dating agency was earning quite a fortune. He was also able to change himself for the better.

“Lincoln, let's cut to the chase. I don't like wasting time for my dreams.”

“Sure, buddy! Well, I'm offering you a job.”

My brow arched at that. “What kind of job?”

“Hmm... How do I put it? There's this one client who called and told us that she wanted to have a family but she's too old to conceive a child–”

“I knew it...”

He chuckled again. “Dude, this is your field of expertise. I know you'll do better than my employees.”

“Continue,” I ordered him.

“Well, she's sixty-one years old and we assumed that she wants to have a husband when she said she wants to have a family. Dude, I swear, she's so weird! She said she's willing to give him her entire land in the province where she's currently residing after her death. We guessed that maybe she's really that eager to experience dating before she dies. Oh, what a poor human being!” He made it sound so dramatic to appeal to my sympathy.

I rolled my eyes then I began tapping the steering wheel with my index finger. I need more motivation to do this job.

“I know what you're thinking...” he teased and there goes his infamous chuckle once again. “Dude, we had our site visit when she signed the contract. Believe me, her land was so massive that if you decide to build a hotel there, you can triple the number!”

“And you can solely own that after her death!” he added and squealed like an excited teenage girl for her prom on the other line.

That was tempting... My own land where I can build my own hotels or even a palace. That land could be my next kingdom. Nice.

“So, I'll just have to do the husband's duties while waiting for her to die?”

“Exactly, my best friend!” he cheerfully retorted.

My lips curved up for a smirk. He was right, rich old women were my expertise.

“Sign me up.”

Boy, this will be easy.

•|• Illinoisdewriter •|•