"Briana, let's go."
"You serious?" Briana asked, eyes wide in disbelief.
"Yes," Gemma laughed a bit, "let's go."
"Thank you so much." Her legs were on fire! Nevertheless, she had no idea how she forced herself to move.
When they got out of the company premises, Gemma sat on a stool outside a stall.
"Aren't we supposed to be calling a cab or something?" Briana asked, confused and subtly blinded by pain.
"Oh, no, I called an UBER."
"Oh."
They stayed in silence for sometime, before Briana asked,
"How do you do it?"
Gemma looked up at once. "Do what?"
"You know, sweet-talk the Boss."
Gemma laughed again. She was just very sweet. "Let's just say, I know a lot about her."
"Like?"
She pondered on it for sometime, then shook her head. "It's private." She concluded solemnly.
"C'mon, tell me."
"I'm serious, it's private." Briana wanted to ask but Gemma interrupted her. "Our UBER is here." She didn't even wait for Briana, she just picked her bag and walked to it.
Briana loved secrets and she didn't even stop thinking of it when she was dropped in front of her house, nor when she lay on her bed succumbing to sleep. Jasmine was a mysterious person, after all, so it would be fun finding out her secrets.
*****
"Oh, my God!" Briana screamed the next morning while brushing her teeth. She had forgotten to tell Gemma she wasn't coming to the office today and she didn't even have her number. She was supposed to be there in 3 hours and her house was far from the office, it would take at least 2 hours to get there.
'What to do, what to do.' She chanted in her heart, pacing the bathroom floor with a hand on her forehead.
And the company wasn't in the way of the airport, if not she could have gone to the company and gone directly from there, but if she went to the office, she would have come this way when coming back.
Just then, her phone rang.
"I have no time to talk." She said, attempting to end the call and think about her life, but the person hurriedly stopped her.
"Miss Caury came down here and asked why you're not here yet." It was Abigail, she spoke in whispers like a ghost was next to her.
Abigail! Why didn't she think about it? She could have called Abigail or Christine and told them to help her relay the information. But wait... It was still 7:23am, why would Gemma be asking why she hadn't come to the office so early, for all she knew, the late hour was still some time away and it was equal for everyone. But that wasn't her goal now.
"Abigail, I can't come to office today." She told her urgently.
"Why not?" Abigail asked and Briana realized she had forgotten, she put a hand to her forehead.
"A-Bi-Gail!" She dragged the words slowly, in syllables, to make sure Abigail understood it was urgent. "You have forgotten where we have to go today? Are you crazy?!"
"Where do we have to.... Oh, fish." She said in sudden realization. "I totally forgot." She sounded less worried now. "And the thing about Gemma was a lie, she just came down and said Big Boss said everyone can stay home for the week. Apparently, people must have information, the office is empty. I was just calling, so you would come and keep me company and we might do some work together, I have a lot to do, but now you reminded me, I'll meet you there, go on without me." She finished at once.
Briana heaved a huge sigh. "Oh, thank God. I was thinking what trouble I'd gotten myself into, you almost gave me a heart attack!" She said accusingly. After all, she had stayed in the office alone and if something got missing, they would blame her of course.
But Abigail didn't sound remorseful, she was laughing and it wasn't funny to Briana one bit. She cut the call.
'Maybe it's a birthday, an anniversary or something.' Briana thought. Jasmine wouldn't have called a day off for nothing.
"Mmm!" She uttered, her voice high-pitched. She didn't care, she cared about a day or days of rest and fun.
-----
Jasmine stayed home too. She didn't feel like stressing herself out, so she remained in her room, basking in the silence.
When someone knocked and the door clicked open, a maid peered in.
"Ma'am," she started hesitantly, she felt a bit weird calling someone younger than her that. "Ma'am, Young Miss is here to see you."
She just waved the maid away, but before she left, she stopped her.
"You're fired." The maids eyes grew wide, but the Butler was standing close by and he didn't waste time to lead the maid away before she could complain.
Jasmine didn't want someone who called her like it was an abomination and expect something by the end of the Week. And she even came into her room without permission. It just was not Work Ethic!
She was in no hurry to see Kimberly, she could wait for all she cared. With that thought in mind, she rang for the maids.
-----
Kimberly was downstairs waiting for Jasmine, when the room seemed to be filled with maids, going upstairs. She stopped one of them.
"What's happening?"
"The Youngest Mistress wants to take a bath." She answered and was praying she would let her go, but she couldn't just slip away, this was the Mistress's sister and just as she prayed, Kimberly waved her away.
There was an epidemic because Jasmine wanted to take a bath?
'Interesting!' She thought with a smirk.
But the uninteresting thing was that she had to wait for 2 hours. Who took a bath for 2 whole hours with all those maids?! Or maybe she intentionally wanted to make her wait. That sister of hers!
'But that's the usual Jasmine.' A thought flew into her head.
What was that? But her mind quickly dispelled it, Jasmine just wanted to keep her waiting. But seriously, Kimberly didn't know what she was doing there.
-----
Jasmine came down to see Kimberly, gyrating, and all of a sudden, she felt like killing all of them. How dare they get to her sister! But she calmed herself and walked towards Kimberly. She stopped circling when she saw her.
"You finally come down, Sis." She sneered. Sweetly.
"Why wouldn't I?" Jasmine asked raising a shoulder carelessly. It was her house, she could go wherever she wanted. At any time she wanted. And now, she went to the home bar.
"Should you not be drinking early in the morning?" She heard Kimberly's voice, just beside her ear and she didn't know what happened. She smashed the glass cup on the edge of the bar, grabbed Kimberly's hair and held the edge of the glass to her jugular.
Kimberly's eyes went wide.
"Don't come near me." She sneered, getting repulsed and pushed Kimberly as far away from her as possible, some servants stopped and stared. What was happening?
"Get out!" Kimberly screamed at them, still in shock and only when they saw Jasmine's cool eyes upon them, did they scram.
"That was preposterous!" Kimberly turned to Jasmine. But by then, she was swirling a glass of white wine with the debris of the other one still around her.
"What's preposterous, is that you're walking into your own death." Her eyes met Kimberly's stricken one and they held, but at the end, Kimberly erupted laughing, then she stopped.
"I'm glad you know that." She turned on her heels and went to a couch, sitting comfortably. She took the remote like nothing happened.
"The crash was you." Jasmine said and Kimberly smirked.
"Good you know that." She answered, though it wasn't a question.
"You planned everything."
Kimberly glanced at Jasmine and she noticed she was being scrutinized, she felt abandoned suddenly, her face turned pale. She suddenly felt empty. "Yes." She answered despite her discomfort. Again, it wasn't a question, she just didn't know what was happening. She just felt an urge, to what, she didn't know or she didn't realize earlier.
"Do I need to tell you to get out?" Jasmine asked coolly, like it didn't matter.
"No."
What was wrong with her? She got up shakily, but before she grabbed the knob, she felt faint and tired and she was sweating. But she only fainted, when the rays of the first morning light fell on her face and she felt soft hands grab her when she fell, she only saw Jasmine's face looking down at her with the same cool, before she looked up to call the Butler. And she smiled. Was she crazy?