"Beautiful morning, everyone!" Dressed in a pair of black jeans beneath an oversized red hoodie, Louisa greeted with outstretched hands upon entering the office earning astonished looks from her employees. No one dared to reply for fear of a misunderstanding of any kind that may lead to being fired. She paused and frowned at silence, "didn't you hear me? I said beautiful morning," she repeated finally getting the attention and stutters she deserved before noisily squeaking her trainers on the marble floor toward the elevator. "Beautiful morning, Nerry." The latter almost choked on saliva at the sight of her boss, "uh...Miss Woods?" She called to make sure. "What? Why does everyone look like they've seen a ghost?" Nerry shook her head. "Hand me your mirror, I probably have some jelly or peanut on my cheek or something." She took a hand mirror from Nerry's shaky hands and examined her face. There was nothing on her face: her teeth were okay, her eyes weren't droopy or hadn't bags be
She had gone through a lot and he was ignorant of it. He didn't take time to know what she was going through, all he had time for was to use her for his selfish pleasure. He felt ashamed of himself. Mason subconsciously cursed himself for being a part of her ordeal. He kept rubbing her arm, listened to her heartbeat until it turned to a familiar melody. "Did you hear him out?" He calmly asked not to trigger any form of negative emotion. "I didn't want to. No justification from him will make sense and less of a wicked man." "Lou, you should've at least let him. He's probably drowning in guilt and trust me, that's the worst feeling ever," he paused to think a bit about himself, "do you realize that if not for that encounter with your mum I would've never known you? Worst still you would not exist." "I prefer to not have existed." "And I do not. There's a reason for everything, you know, and those reasons have to be known to the ignorant for the better. In my opinion, babe, you sho
How was she going to do it? Confront her so-called father. What was she going to say to him? She sighed for the umpteenth time in an hour or so while waiting for Mason and Gianna. When a knock finally kicked her out of her reverie, she jutted for the door almost immediately. Her countenance fell when Marley came in sight. "Hey," she weakly greeted. "Were you expecting someone else?" Marley walked in. "Uh, yeah. A friend." "Okay. That explains the disappointment," he read his watch, "I won't be here for too long. Dad told me what happened." Louisa said nothing. "I just came to see that you're okay." "I'm fine. Thanks." She didn't want to talk too much for she didn't want him to stay longer than ten minutes. "You know I'm always here for you, right?" He assured. Louisa nodded. "You are my one and only annoying little sister no matter what." Louisa laughed as tears flooded her eyes. She rushed to him for a hug and then a little hit on his signature tuxedo-protected chest. "I don'
Mason ordered for another one of the strongest quenchers the lounge had to offer as he sat at the bar waiting for his friend. He had gained a lot of eyes over the minutes especially the bartender who finally couldn't help but comment; "You turned into a punching bag when the night's still young? wonder how it'll get with this quantity of liquor in you." Mason gulped the burning liquid on a go completely ignoring the nosy bartender. Norton was taking too long to show up.He stretched his glass for another fill-up. Soon enough his shoulders began to bob up and down. He was laughing. A peal of bitter yet self-pitiful laughter which luckily was drowned in the almost deafening music. The bartender scrutinized him while filling his glass again. "Man, you're dead wasted," he said, worried. "Rough night?" Mason didn't stop laughing. "Did you get fired? Or perhaps Matrimonial issues or simply girlfriend issues? Break up maybe?" Mason stopped laughing to aim for the bartender's uniform, "R
No morning kisses and cuddling, little to no words uttered during breakfast, an emotionless kiss, and a nonchalant goodbye before departing to work. All that broke Zaphrina to the core. Now she was preparing Bethany's milk, her mind so preoccupied that she mishandled Beth's feeding bottle causing its contents to spill. Right on cue, the little girl began to cry from her room. Zaphrina sighed in exasperation. Nathalie who had been silently watching her was quick to pick up the bottle and assure Zaphrina that she'll take care of the mess and prepare some milk. The young mother thanked her before dashing out of the kitchen. "Here," Nathalie said, handing Zaphrina the milk she had prepared. Bethany was still wailing despite her mother's bobbing efforts to calm her. "Thank you so much, Nathalie," she sat down after receiving the bottle. Her eyes were so tired and feeble that Nathalie feared the young mother will pass out any moment soon. "Thank goodness you made it earlier today. I wou
It's been two days since her world had stopped. Apparently, since the truth had been revealed. She still couldn't believe her mind whenever it set on reminiscing. Sometimes when she slept and woke up, she would pray it was all just a dream but reality will knock her out when she would call on Gianna and receive no reply. The day after the incident, Louisa packed Gianna's little luggage and drove her to her father's where she thought the little girl will be better off until she had her shit together. Occasionally, her head would hurt just thinking too much, and will get an aspirin each time it occurred so much that she had lost count of the number of aspirin ingested. Overdose? She cared less. "Louisa." She heard someone call. The barely recognizable voice echoed in her head. A brutal knock followed. That too echoed, making her head thump unsystematically. Despite all that, Louisa seemed to know the one and only person who could do that since it's been t
Louisa's eyes wandered for a bit. She could not stay mad at Zaphrina for long not only because of her puppy face but also because they had shared a lot of things together and she had a way with words that touched her differently.She should definitely think of becoming a counselor."Marley must have told you about my encounter with Conrad.""Yeah, he did. That was an abrupt appearance from the abyss, wasn't it?""You can say that again," Louisa watched Bethany pull on her mother's breast fisting and unfisting her miniature fingers with her brilliant eyes intently gawking her mum. "I don't know what to do, no, I mean, I don't know how to go about it.""I understand. Relations should not be forced. It's a go-with-the-flow kind of thing, I don't know if you get what I'm trying to say," Louisa nodded, "yeah, so...you can meet up somewhere just like you would do with a business partner. Talk about basic stuff and eventually get into the matter at hand."
Mason took a U-turn to the pharmacy after dropping Zaphrina off. He had a good time talking about everything and anything with her, like the good old days. When he arrived at the pharmacy, the door opened before he could reach for the knob. He came in contact with a face that he had seen before; same salt and pepper bob but contrary to the last time she was in a pair of faded jean baggy jumpsuit, this time she had on a short leather skirt beneath a crop top. She smiled at him with charm and warmth then frowned. "Oh my! What happened to your face?" Mason rubbed his neck not just out of nervousness but also trying to recall the lady's name. "Got into a little fight," he vaguely retorted. "Oh, you didn't seem to be that kind of person some days back." "Don't judge a book by its cover, you know that? For all you know you might be talking to a criminal." He chuckled but the lady didn't seem to find the joke. A sad mask appeared on her b