Chapter 8

Monday. 7am. Connecticut. Fern's Ave. Nov. 6.

      "Holy mess."

     The alarm had beeped. She rolled on one side of bed to the right to check the time. Her eyes were still heavy. She wasn't seeing clearly. 

     She played her right palm over her face in a swipe to chase away the remaining confetti of sleep lagging behind on her eyelids. 

     She yawned, cupping her hand to her mouth as though she was going to serve the produce of the yawn to some firm or something. 

    Twas just 7:01am. She should be up by then. She should be at her work place by 7:45am max. 

     She felt really tired. She began to sweep the smithereens of her memory into a whole. She began to remember what happened. 

    She opened her eyes widely that time. A part of her thought she was still at Eric's house. That wouldn't be funny. She would just miss the day. And she could never afford to do that. That day was a big day for her. 

    She had left Eric's place at evening. 5pm or thereabouts. She couldn't really remember. 

     He had pleaded that she spent the night but she wasn't going to. If she had, she hands down would miss the day at the office. She was damn sure. 

     Twas 7:05am. The time wouldn't even wait on her. She didn't want to stand. Meeting him yesterday was a blessing. She never thought she had such feelings for him. 

    She had thought that she was just going to observe him for a while and let go, but the sex meant more than enough to her. She would cherished it. And he esteemed it too. What else did she need?  

     Sometimes she wondered if she hadn't been giving him tough times with her questions. She was happy he always found his way around them. Even she didn't know where those words came from. 

      "Get up, Belle, Get up."

     She said to herself. She sat up on the bed and noticed something unusual by the door step of her room. 

    She stood up and walked towards it. There was a white handkerchief over something.

    From where she was standing, the package or whatever was there looked flat, or maybe heavy. She wasn't sure. She was done guessing. She needed to figure out herself. 

    She got there and bent. She wasn't afraid. Nobody could had entered her room. Impossible. She wasn't drunk when she arrived the previous day. 

     She took the handkerchief away. Damn! Twas one of her black heels. 

      "The fuck. I for once thought twas a parcel bomb."

     She sighed and picked up the shoe. She chuckled. 

     "Excuse me, where'd you come from?"

    She was talking to the handkerchief. She laughed. She could be a clown sometimes. She just had fun talking to herself and she always got a reply deep down in her soul. 

    Probably, her inner lady was smart. 

     She moved towards the shoe shelf and dropped the heel next to the second one. 

    But one thing to be worried about was the fact that she didn't buy such handkerchief. She didn't even use it. Where'd it come from. 

    Then she remembered, she was loveable and a lovely lady. She always did win the favor of many others. That was a thing to be proud of. 

    It probably was one of those gifts she didn't keep track of. She received gifts a lot. Remember she was loveable. And gifted too. By God, this time. 

      She was done bathing. She stepped out of the bathtub and made for her private in to get dress. 

     Well, her house was portable. She paid rent unlike her billionaire boyfriend or hang around mate. She couldn't say Boyfriend officially, she hadn't told him a yes yet. 

    Ignore the sex. It's more like a casual thing to her. 

     The house had a portable parlour, no dining room, a furnished kitchen and two rooms. 

    In the room where she sleeps, there was a mini inn where she did dress up. Twas like a little bit demarcated by plywood painted milk, to match with the colour of the wall. 

     She sprayed her hair after rubbing the cream. She used mixtures. O'Keefe's skin repair and Luxe. Worked better on her and kept her skin glowing. Sometimes she topped that up with Nivea white. 

   The Nivea was always neutral: not mixed with any lotion. 

     She wore the Nivea perfume, body spray and slid into her clothes. 

      A blouse stripped white and black and a black pencil trouser. Topped with a gold blazer and a pair of pumps to matched with her blonde hair. 

    The pencil trouser was little bit up the ankle, giving a perfect view of the pumps. 

    Then, another round of the body spray. 

    Then, a little show of make up and a slight lipstick. 

     She looked into the mirror and wore that slight smile which caused havoc when a guy walked past her. 

     She was good to go. A boss working for a boss. 

    She walked down the the layer of stairs which led down into her mini garage, waved Tracia bye and dodged Stanley.

    She hopped into the car and zoomed off. 

    In less than 10 minutes, she had arrived at work. She actually drove past Eric's house but wouldn't stop to say 'Hi'.

   Not on a Monday morning. That guy was a Cougar. She wouldn't risk been bitten hard and stained that early. She would remain smeared throughout the day. 

     She marched gracefully into the office.

     "7:49am Miss, Belle."

     The manager called as she checked in and walked towards the meeting board. 

     Twas a routine to hold a meeting every Monday morning. That's a little bit awkward, I know. 

    She knew too. While every firm and enterprises would have theirs 1:00PM on Friday, her firm would have theirs in distinction. Claiming to want to create a difference. 

       She nodded to apologise and walked past Stanley. She wondered. How did he get there before her?

     Did he disappear there. 

    He smiled at her but she wasn't ready for that. 

     They were actually just rounding up the meeting. The meeting was supposed to start 7:15am. Damn! She totally forgot. She mistook it for some normal days. 

    "Your bad, miss. Vivian would fill in you on that. Let's share the grace."

    She looked around the meeting room as though she knew there, as the 45 workers danced their lips over the words. She joined towards the end,

    "... You don't work well, you don't earn well. Go a go."

      They all stopped and cheered. Then the place went silent. 

    She was wondering what was going on. Even the manager was wearing a serious look. 

    Then at once, they all stood up and sang,

     "Happy Birthday to you, Ishbelle,

      Happy birthday to you."

    Oh fuck! She thought they had forgotten. 

   She started getting hugs from all of them. But she knew whose hug she was going to avoid. 

     Gifts were dropped as the hugs came on. 

    There was no better way of starting a day than that.