“I’m so sorry, I’m late.” I heard a male voice say.
“It’s nothing new, Jeremy,” Ethan replied. “Now please get these files into the meeting room, check if the presentation is the right one, the usual stuff.”
Jeremy. I remembered Ethan mentioning a Jeremy Walls who was his secretary.
“Alright.” The man said and I heard the shuffling of things.
“And…”
“And?”
“And tell Beverly to run to a women’s clothing store right now and get some warm clothes. Coats, beanies, sweaters, full length jeans, scarfs.”
I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t even? that? cold. But him being considerate about me warmed my insides.
“What? Why do you need that?” I heard the inquisitiveness in Jeremy’s voice.
“Just tell her to get them.” He said shortly.
“Okay… but what size?”
I saw him scratch his head in thought through the crack in the door. “I think a little bigger than her own size.”
What? I prayed to God that this Beverly was skinny.
“Okay, I’ll tell her.”
“And one more thing. Tell her to get all the labels taken off. There shouldn’t be any signs of the clothes being new. Tell her to deliver it to that room.” He must have pointed in the direction of the room I was in.
So he didn’t want me to know that he asked someone to buy them especially for me.
“Okay, okay. Anything else?”
“Let’s hurry to the meeting room.”
They left the office and I just explored his stuff. Finally getting bored, I searched for some movies and popped in a romantic comedy one in the DVD player.
Half an hour later, there was a knock on the door. Opening it, I saw a woman who looked to be in her late twenties.
“These are Heather’s clothes. Mr. Evans said to let you have them as they were here and he thought you would be cold.” She said, making it obvious that she was uncomfortable lying to me like that when the clothes looked new.
“Thank you. Um… are you Beverly?”
“Yes, I’m Beverly Hawkins.”
I eyed her from head to toe. She was pretty slim so I figured I did not have to spend time in the gym.
I must have spent a little too much time looking at her because she cleared her throat and smiled down at me.
“If you are in need of anything, please don’t hesitate to tell me. My office is just outside of Mr. Evan’s.”
“Then can you tell me when he’s free. I’d like to have a word with him.”
“For now, he has a packed schedule but I’ll let you know when he’s free.”
After thanking her, she left. I changed into the clothes, noticing a small price tag on the jeans. Beverly did a little lousy job in making the clothes seem used. Shaking my head at Ethan’s antics, I settled on the couch to pass time by watching some movies.
I wasn’t aware of just how much time passed but there was a knock on the door again. When I opened it, Beverly walked in with a tray in her hand.
“Is it lunchtime for you guys?”
“Yes.”
“Where’s Ethan?”
“He’s on a lunch meeting with a client at a restaurant nearby.”
I groaned. “Does he ever stop working? Gosh. He’s going to get sick if he continues being like this.”
“He told me to bring you something to eat.” She said, placing the tray on the coffee table.
“Thank you.”
After having my lunch, I had no other option but to continue watching movies. At one point of time, I got bored and decided to browse through his library. Most of the books were about business so I pulled one out to see what it was all about but twenty minutes into it and I had no idea what I was reading so I fell asleep after that.
The thing that woke me up from my sleep was the sensation of me falling when actually I wasn’t. I sat up straight. I was on the bed with soft covers which were laid on me. Before I fell asleep, I remembered I was on the couch. Instantly I knew that Ethan was here.
When I looked out the window, I immediately stood up. It was dark outside. I fixed my clothes and grabbed my hoodie. I quickly slipped my feet into my sneakers and made my hair presentable.
When I walked out, Ethan was nowhere in his office. I rushed to Beverly.
“Where did Ethan go?”
Beverly seemed astonished by me. “He left for home an hour ago.”
“Dammit!” I cursed under my breath. I just had to sleep at the wrong time. He slipped away from me.
“He made sure a car is waiting for you outside which will take you home-,” Beverly cut herself off and I saw her eyes go wide. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you that.”
I chuckled at her mistake. “Thank you. I’ll leave now.”
And sure thing, a car was indeed waiting for me right outside. The driver was a woman who looked in her thirties and she beckoned to me.
When I reached home, I was expecting everyone to be at the dinner table about to start on dinner but to my disappointment it was empty.
Everyone had already had their dinner and gone to their respective business.
When I walked into the kitchen, I spotted Keith knelt over something.
“What’re you doing?” I asked.
“Fixing dinner for you,” he replied, stepping back and revealing his dish.
“I thought I’d have to cook something for myself.”
“Not while I’m here.”
“Aw thank you.” I said gratefully.
Keith brought out my dinner on the dining table and sat next to me.
“Did you eat?” I asked once we were seated.
“Yeah, sorry. After today’s work I was totally famished.” He said sheepishly. “I’m sorry I didn’t wait for you. I just wasn’t sure if you’ve already had dinner or not.”
“That’s okay. Don’t apologize. But I’m a little upset that I have to eat alone,” I pouted.
He scooped a little food in a spoon. “Here comes the airplane.” He said while making airplane noises and put the spoon in front of my lips.
I burst out laughing. “I’m not a baby.” I said but took the bite anyway.
“But it got you to laugh. Now don’t be upset because I’ll be here until you finish your food.” He assured me and I beamed at him.
At that instant we heard crunching of what sounded like plastic.
We looked up to find Ethan at the bottom of the stairs with a now crushed plastic bottle in his hand, his face stoic. Without saying anything to us, he made his way to the kitchen.
I wanted to confront him about what his problem was and why he had left me in his office and drove himself home but that could wait.
I had already wasted majority of my day because of him and didn’t want to ruin my night as well, especially when Keith was there to brighten me up.
I paid Ethan no attention when he started to go back up the stairs to his room.
Keith and I chatted for a little bit and then I decided to call it a day.