Clad in just her nightgown, seated cross-legged at the dining table and chewing on her pen's cover, Dalia sat thinking. She had only one thing on her mind – the exact same thing she had had since early Tuesday morning at work.She kept replaying the incident over and over in her head. But no matter how many times she thought about it, she still couldn't make anything of it. It was nothing short of a mystery and God knows she had no liking for mysteries, no matter how harmless they were. But this one was clearly far from being harmless. That was the biggest problem – the fact that it looked so threatening. What could have given her such high level of audacity?? What could have made her so fearless and confident? There were only a few possible reasons and only one was topmost on Dalia's mind, that was why she was so scared."Hey, don't you ever quit thinking?" Marks breathed into her ear as he came up behind her wrapping his arms around her neck."My thinking was what got us everything
The next day, when Marks arrived at work, the first thing he did, after going through the pending appointments which his secretary had submitted, was to send for Angela, and within minutes, he heard a knock on the door."Come in!" He called, after properly positioning himself to look like he was hard at work.The door opened and Angela entered."You called for me, sir," she said and walked up to his table."Yes, I did. Sit," he ordered without looking at her.She sat down on the sofa in his office and he went on turning pages and scribbling meaningless things, just to prove that he was busy.When he had acted to his complete satisfaction, he sighed and put the papers away. "You can see I'm very busy, but I had to call you and let you know about this as quickly as possible."Angela nodded, more out of the need to please than anything else. She really didn't understand what he meant, but she didn't want to risk losing her job and he knew it."First, I want to start by asking you a few q
When Mara got home from work, her two Leos were there at the front porch to welcome her. Little Leo was so overjoyed and kicked happily with arms outstretched, demanding to be in mummy's arms. If he could he would have flown the distance, he would have done it without thinking twice. Mara grabbed him and bathed his face with kisses, calling him all the sweet memes she was never called as a child and he laughed and clapped in joy as if he understood the full meaning of the names she was calling him.When she had exhausted her store of names, she tried to hand him back to Leo, but he protested the change, instead clinging tightly to her."Whoa! That's a strange new one. You're rejecting your favourite?", Mara said in astonishment, but Leo was chuckling."I scolded him earlier when he did something wrong," he explained."Oh! So, you're looking for someone soft who's going to give you all the petting and spoiling you want, eh? Well, you're in the wrong place, boy."Saying that, she handed
It was Saturday. On the previous day, they had taken the opportunity of it being a weekend to sleep long and uninterrupted as they usually did on most Friday nights. When they woke up on Saturday morning, it was 9 a.m. before they sat for breakfast, and from the beginning even before they sat at the table, it was clear to Leo that Mara was not in the best of moods.She seemed dull and sometimes deep in thought. He wondered if she had had nightmares during the night. Even though she was so young and looked soft and vulnerable on the outside, she was one of the strongest women he knew. She did not act her age at all and he wondered how she would be in about a decade. As far as he was concerned, any man that married her would be a very lucky man. And her son too was one lucky boy to have such a mother. He wished he had married someone like her in the first place, but instead he had been fooled by Dalia's beauty and "gentleness". It was only after the wedding that he began to get a hint o
She had read not more than a few dozen lines when her phone suddenly started ringing. She glanced at the screen immediately and was surprised to find the name of her boss at the office, Angela, staring back at her.Angela had never called her before when she was at home or on weekends. What exactly could have happened? She picked up the phone and answered the call."Hello... Hello. Can you hear me? Mara, can you hear me?""Yes, yes. I'm here. I can hear you," Mara replied, still not fully recovered from the shock of hearing the breathless and worried voice of her colleague. "Is everything ok? You sound... different?""No, don't worry. I'm fine. But I need to see you right now. Can you please come see me?"Mara was taken aback. Come see her? How? Why? Where?"But how? Is the office open today?""No, no, no. I'm not at the office. I'm near your place. Do you...""What! How do you know my place?" Mara asked in alarm, jumping to her feet immediately."Don't worry. I'll explain when you co
They stayed in each other's arms for what seemed like forever until Mara remembered that her man was waiting and broke the embrace."Look," she said taking Angela's hands in hers. "I'm all confused now and I just can't think of anything, but I will surely come up with something as soon as possible... before Monday. Don't worry, boss. Everything will be okay. We'll get out of this together and you'll be stronger for it." And then she hugged her again and held her even tighter than she had done before. From the way her shoulders were shaking, she knew her boss was crying and she couldn't help but shed a few tears herself as she felt the older woman cry on her shoulder."I'll get in touch, okay?", Mara said when they'd finally dried their eyes and recovered their composure. Angela nodded in understanding. Her heart was full with gratitude, but she just couldn't voice it out. All she could do was grab Mara once more for a tight hug.After they had hugged and assured each other as many tim
On Monday, the next work day, Angela was one of the first people to resume in the morning. She sat at her desk, impatiently checking the time every few minutes. When would Mara come to work? She was not one that came very early, but almost never came late. Maybe today would be one of those few late days, Angela thought in fear. She did not know when Marks would call her and ask for an update. It could be later today, it could be tomorrow, it could be a few hours or even minutes from now.She knew for a fact that both Marks and the CEO were in their offices and she heavily dreaded that moment when a cleaner or some other contract staff would be sent to call her. They might even decide to call her desk phone directly. Either way, both led to one thing: giving her report on what she had learned from spying on Mara so far, and she had nothing to say! The only thing she had done was follow her home and hide in the nearest abandoned building until she built enough courage to call Mara. That
"So... how did it go?" Mara asked warily when she felt Angela was composed enough to answer questions."Whew," her boss sighed. "It wasn't perfect, my dear, but it went quite well. I believe I tried my best to be as convincing as I could. I just hope and pray and wish he was convinced, otherwise I'm ruined.""I'm sure he will be. It will all be okay. Everything will be fine soon.""No, Mara,” Angela disagreed, shaking her head emphatically. “Look, you don't understand. At least, you have a boyfriend, but I have nobody. So many people have me, but I have nobody."Mara nodded in understanding, but before she could open her mouth to say anything Angela was already speaking again."If God forbid anything happens to you, your boyfriend will be there to console you at least. But if anything happens to me, my family… they'll simply forget about me and look up to the new breadwinner who will take my place.""That's not fair," Mara complained, her face showing her displeasure."Life's not fair