"Mom, I am at work. Why are you calling me?" Micah said rudely over the phone to his mom. "Can't a mom call her son again? Why are you being so rude to me so early in the morning?" Cora replied."Why are you calling?" Micah asked, ignoring her questions. He knew how dramatic she could be and what she could do to him just because he ignored her call, and that was the reason he picked up. "Can Zara join us for dinner tonight?" "Mom, I don't know; why do you want her to join us for dinner?" "Since we can't meet her family, I invited your aunty and her husband so she could get familiar with the family," Cora said beaming with pride. "MOM," Micah said, almost screaming her ears off. "What is it? Why are you screaming at me?" Cora asked her own voice going up as well. "Why wouldn't I scream at you? I explained to you a million times why we have to keep this a secret from others, and yet you have gone to invite Aunty and Uncle? Why did you think this was okay without asking me first?"
"About the meeting with the prime minister," Isla began as she paced around the room. Elara dropped her phone to her body because she heard from her sister's tone that she wanted to say something important. "Is there something wrong? Are Dad and Mom not supposed to be going there?" Elara asked, sitting up and looking at her seriously. "It's not that..." Isla trailed off, making Elara panic a bit more. "Then what is it? Is the business still safe? Are Dad and Mom still safe? Do you think there might be trouble looming?" Elara knew she was supposed to be the laid-back sibling who does not worry, but somehow the incident she just faced had ignited something inside her that made her fearful, and she did not even know it. "It is not that; I mean, when they are out together, should we go for dinner?" Isla said she felt a bit bad that she had made her sister go through the torture. "What?" Elara's face squeezed together as she bent her mouth to a corner and her eyebrows raised. "You
"You sure chose a fancy place," Elara said as they walked in. "A fancy place?" Isla was not sure if her sister was being cheeky or serious. This was one of the least fancy places she was able to get because of how close to the time they were booking, and since they did not use their real identities while up and about, they could not get in like their dad or Ronan would. "Yeah, look at all the lights and decorations Oh my gosh, it's been a while since I've been at a place like this." Elara's three years out of her family home meant that she lived like a peasant, and Isla seeing it firsthand angered her the more to hate Micah. "Are you saying that when you were with Micah you did not have dates in places like this?" Isal asked."He said that dates were a waste of money." Elara began her eyes darting to the painting on the wall as she smiled at how beautiful it was before adding under her breath. "But he had the money to cheat on me at one of the fanciest restaurants in our part of to
"Ezra?" Isla raised her head to look at him, and truly he was standing there. "You see him too, right; this is in my mind." Elara leaned in and whispered to her sister, and she nodded. "Oh well," she said, almost yelling and looking up. "What are you doing here?" "I am here for dinner with my sister," she said playfully, waving the menu in hand. "What about you?" she continued. Ezra seemed uncomfortable as she shifted from one leg to another and then shook his head. "Well," he began and then stopped to clear his throat. She raised her eyebrow at him and wondered why it was so hard for him to just say that he was there for dinner. "You don't have to say it if it is that hard," she said and then smiled at him. "It's nice to see you anyway," she said, looking back down at her menu. She felt a bit fuzzy inside; why did seeing him do that to her? "It's not that I don't want to tell you; I just did not want you to hear like this." "Hear what?" Isla asked, being nosy and also because
"Ezra," Olivia-Marie nudged his side after she saw him spacing out. "Yeah?" he muttered, looking around. All the eyes of her five friends were firmly looking at him; they must have asked him a question, and the way they were looking at him indicated they needed an answer. He wondered how someone would have five closet friends and thought it was right. He wondered what their relationship was like. "Why are you spaced out so much?" one of the friends on a pixie cut asked. "He must be busy with work," Olivia-Marie responded, trying to create an impression that was the reason he was so spaced out. "Can you give us a minute?" she asked, sliding off the chair and asking him to follow her. "Don't take more than a minute," another friend yelled as they walked away. All the other girls began laughing, and Ezra knew it was an annoying joke he might never be able to get, and he was not ready to be bothered by it."Definitely," Olivia-Marie said before walking faster. She found a spot where t
"Why are you coming back alone?" the girl with the pixie cut asked as Olivia-Marie approached the table. "Yeah, something urgent came up so he couldn't stay longer." Olivia-Marie lied as she slid back into her chair. "Did you guys make out at the back?" another girl asked, pointing to the direction she was coming from. "What are you saying?" Olivia-Marie pretended to blush as if something had really happened. She could not let these girls know that she and Ezra's relationship was rocky and not what they thought. At first, they always thought that she was making him up since there was never any evidence. No pictures, no gifts, no physical boyfriend to show, and now that he had shown up, they were a bit convinced, even though some of them still had doubts about it. Olivia-Marie had always wanted to prove she would be the first to get married in their crew, so it would not be unlikely that she was staging the whole thing. "I thought he would stay a bit and maybe pick up the tab," t
"Sooo...""Isla, can you please not talk about Ezra?" Elara said that because she knew that was what her sister was about to bring up. "Oh my gosh!" Isla exclaimed as if something surprising had happened. "How did you know what I wanted to talk about?" "Because before we left the restaurant, you have been itching to talk about it." "But still, how do you know what I was about to talk about?" Isla asked, still shocked at her sister's skills. "The same way you were able to know that that one out of those girls at the table was getting married." Elara closed her eyes and rested her head, and the car went slowly over the express. Elliot's one rule for all of his drivers was driving within the minimum speed. "I just don't understand it," Isla said as if she were talking to herself when in reality she just wanted to know why her sister and Ezra broke up. They were the perfect high school couple. The school they went to was only for the rich and wealthy, so when Ezra confessed to Elar
Ezra walked into his room with his tie that was always perfect but was now scattered on his neck and his hair disbelieved. He was holding his suit jacket in hand and looked like he had been drinking even though a drop of alcohol had not dropped on his tongue in weeks. He threw the jacket in hand to the bed and sat on it slowly. He had been searching for years, and yet Elara had not turned up. Why was she turning up just a few months before his wedding? When he saw her, all the emotions he had when she broke up with him eight years ago came rushing back. Elara was the first woman he had looked at and liked, and it had stayed that way. When he finally worked up the courage to ask her out, it was a relief that she felt the same way. They were kids according to their parents, but he thought it would stay the same way forever until the day after graduation."I waited a day after graduation to do this," she murmured as they sat in the garden of her house. "And I said we should do this ou
"What is bad? What is very bad?" Ronan murmured. He was about to speak when she began talking. "This" she pointed between them shaking her head. "This is wrong on all levels and should not be happening between us" " Huh?!" He was confused. He did not think anything had happened between them to make her react like that. "I work for you, you are my boss. This is wrong" "What is wrong?" "You know what I am talking about" she said and he shook his head. The room fell silent with his eyes going from left to right on the tablet in hand. He finished and looked up at her with a dazzling smile that can make the heart beat crazily fast or even stop breathing all together. "Want to go for dinner tonight?" "Yes..." She trailed off as she realized what was happening. She had said yes without thinking about it. "No sir, I meant no. I do not want to go to dinner" she began the words pouring out at once. "Are you sure?" She did not know if the expression on his face meant that he was t
Noelle stood in front of Ronan's door. The memories of everything that happened yesterday flooded her mind. She spent the entire night tossing and turning and when her alarm went off this morning she was very close to calling in sick. The thought quickly left her mind when the possibility of him showing up in her neighborhood to check on her taunted her. She did not need Felix to see him there, she knew he was always watching her somehow and Ronan showing up at her doorstep was not good news for them both. She was glad that his office and hers was away from public eyes or else everyone would have wondered why she had spent over ten minutes contemplating whether to go in or not. She rubbed her hand on her skirt and raised it ready to knock. The door flew open before she could knock. Her hand hung in the air as she cleared her throat looking from side to side. She never knocked once and now she was about to knock. He looked at her with furrowed eyebrows and then turned on his heels.
Sarah did not know how she was supposed to react to the news; was she supposed to be happy for her daughter? Was this supposed to be a thing of joy? She searched her face but Zara kept a straight face. She wanted to know what her mother was thinking before she told her that she was excited for the child."Aren't you going to say anything?" Zara asked when she did not say anything. She feared that her mother thought she had made a mistake by actually getting pregnant."I don't know what I am supposed to say," Sarah confessed. "I mean, it is a good thing that you are pregnant if you want to but I thought your husband and his mother would not like something like that." Sarah paused and shook her head. "Are you happy? Do you want the baby?" she asked.Zara pressed her lips together and nodded. She had not thought about it before but now that she was thinking about it, she was sure that she wanted to keep that baby no matter what the Swansons said."Okay then, I guess I am happy for you but
Zara lay in bed staring at the ceiling; her mind flashed back to when she had gone to her parent's house and what had happened. Her father blamed her for his misfortune, even though he had been the one cheering her on when she wanted to get into this marriage. Somehow he was convinced that his marriage to Micah was going to be their ticket out of poverty; the only problem was that Zara did not pick a good target and that was the reason he was upset. After the fiasco at the wedding, he quietly dropped his resignation letter on Elliot's desk and left without a word. He said he had too much pride to still stay there after all that had happened."Pride is for those that have money to survive," Sarah had screamed in his face when he told her."I knew you would react this way; that was the reason I processed the resignation before telling you," he said smugly."How then do you intend to survive?" Sarah asked him. "Are you going to get a new job?" she asked and he shook his head. Sarah reali
"You do not need to take me home; I can go by myself." Noelle stopped and turned to him; she smiled faintly as she wondered how she was going to get any sleep. Everything that happened today happened so fast that she had been barely able to comprehend any of it. Ronan confessed to her in the morning and then again in the evening in front of his family. She was not sure if his family would accept her as they did; after all, everything was easier said than done but still, they seemed to be warm towards her all night."Wait up!" Clara called after them. They both stopped and turned to the woman speed-walking toward them. She stopped and turned to Noelle with a smile on her face. "I know that we seem far away because we are rich," she began air-quoting the word rich with an eye roll. "But we are normal people and one thing I want for all my children is for them to settle down with someone who loves them as much as they love them. I am not saying this to put any pressure whatsoever on you;
The entire table went silent as they heard what Ronan had just said. If they had been eating, particles of food and water would have been flying across the table. They all had stunned expressions on their faces, including Noelle, who sat there upright and unable to move.Elliot was the first to recover. He cleared his throat, looking from Ronan to the girl. "Why are you asking us? Shouldn't you ask the woman you want to date?" "I want to ask her, but she has so many excuses as to why we can't be together," Ronan replied, smacking his lips together. "Then what can we do to change her mind? Giving you our blessings does not make her want to date you," Clara said. "It's her choice, and if she says no, then no it is." "But yet no one has answered my question," Ronan replied. "If she agrees, would you two agree as well?" "Bringing her here and asking us this kind of question right in front of her is a bit..." Clara trailed off for lack of better words. "You know that we have never disap
"This better be good," Elara said as she walked into the kitchen. She was preparing for her date with Ezra when she got a message from her brother. He said it was urgent that they all had to be at dinner tonight; she had to cancel on Ezra, who said he understood when she could hear the sadness in his voice."Are you worried about it being good or are you worried about our brother? I have known him for a hundred years now and this is the first time he is requesting for us to gather," Isla replied, popping a chip into her mouth."He told me he had a guest and I guess this has to do with the guest" Clara replied. She had been overseeing the cooking going on in the kitchen when Ronan called her, telling her that he had a guest he wanted to treat to dinner and he seemed to want to start any rumours with the restaurant. She had asked him to bring them home without thinking about it. Whoever it might be, she was eager to meet them. She turned to her daughter, who was eating, and snatched the
"Dinner? I can't have dinner with you," she said and he frowned."Well, do you have anything else you have to do? I can wait and we can have dinner later," he said and she wondered if he was the same person she spoke to in the morning. She leaned into the table and shook her head."I told you that our relationship is strictly professional so why would I have dinner with you after work?""You can assume that this is overtime," he said, turning the char and standing up."Am I going to be paid for overtime?" she asked and he nodded."If you want, then you can write a report and I will sign it," he said, moving over the table so they could be side by side."So what is this? A dinner or work?" She asked, dropping the tablet to the table and folding her hand across her chest while turning to face him. "Is this about work to personal life? Why are you willing to pay me to have dinner with you?""Because I want to have dinner with you and this seems to be the only way to get you to do it.""W
'PULL AWAY! YOU SHOULD NOT BE DOING THIS, THIS IS WRONG ON ALL LEVELS' She screamed to herself in her mind but she could not bring herself to pull away; instead, she was leaning in more to the kiss and responding as if she had been starved for such a long time. She had wanted to kiss him to know what it was like; it had been one of the thoughts that plagued her so much. now that she had it, she wondered how she was supposed to survive not doing it again. It was more than what she had imagined it to be.Ronan pulled away and sat still looking at her. "You did not pull away; you kissed back," he said with a chuckle."Is this a joke to you?" she asked, hearing the chuckle. She already felt bad for what she was doing and now she felt even worse that he laughed. She should have saved her dignity and pulled away, slapped him across the face while asking him to act like her boss. Instead, she gave in to her desires and kissed him and now he was laughing in her face."You have gotten it all w