Nelly was startled by the manner in which the car pulled over in front of her.
“Amon?” Nelly looked surprised.
“It’s me, Nelly. Why do you look so surprised?”
Why would she not be? She never knew he had such a fanciful ride.
Nelly stared down at his hands and saw him holding a rose, and a fanciful little box, possibly, containing a gift.
“Happy birthday, Nelly.”
Nelly was perplexed, she didn’t remember ever telling Amon that her birthday was that very day. She didn’t even tell anybody in the office. It was all Amanda’s doing, Amanda secretly informed Neuer.
“C’mon Nelly, you don’t have to look at me as if I’m too much of a stranger to wish you a happy birthday.”
That wasn’t it, but Nelly preferred not to say. She had a strong reason to believe it was Amanda who informed Amon about her birthday.
“Thank you, Amon.” Nelly accepted the flower and the gift box.
“Nah! Do not open it here, open it when you are home, in the comfort of your room.”
It was at that point that Nelly decided to refuse the urge of instantly trying to find out what was in the box.
“Who are you?!”
A strong masculine voice questioned from behind Nelly. It was Neuer, and that question was directed at Amon.
“You almost ran over her all in the name of giving her a gift? Isn’t that crazy?”
Nelly sprang into peace making action, calming down Neuer who was already upset and Amon who was about to get infuriated. She was actually surprised that Neuer could get upset about her birthday well – being.
“Who’s this, Nelly?” Amon asked.
“And who are you?!” The question was reciprocated from the other end.
Heavily pregnant Nelly was standing in the middle of both men, trying to relax the situation.
“I’m Amon, Nelly’s friend and who the hell are you coming out of nowhere?!”
“I’m Neuer, Nelly’s friend too. She’s with me, we came here together!”
“Nelly’s friend!” That created a different kind of awareness in Nelly. She never knew Neuer considered her as a friend.
The way Nelly looked at Neuer when he said that, he too could see she was a bit surprised. But that was what she was to him. He was just realizing that.
“Calm down, the both of you.”
Nelly succeeded in making them lock up the bile in the bloodstream. She went further to introduce them to each other –
Amon as her neighbor and Neuer as the brother of her Boss, Ma’am Sandra.
“Can you come with me?” Amon said to Nelly after telling her he had set up a small surprise to celebrate her. “It’s just going to be dinner and I’ll take you home.”
“Sorry, Mate. I think you should have told her about this quite earlier, now she’s out with me and we need to get back to the office before 4:00pm.”
It was already past three in the afternoon, the workers needed to give one more surprise to Nelly.
Amon tried to steer up another confrontation with Neuer but Nelly was quick to stop it.
“I’ll go with Neuer, my things are still at the office.”
Neuer winked at Amon as he held the door open for Nelly, he had won the showdown.
“You said I was your friend, Sir. Did you really mean it?” Nelly timidly asked as Neuer drove back to the office.
“Of course, Nelly. You are.”
Nelly was quiet for a while, not until when Neuer pulled over by the road.
“Here isn’t the Studio.”
Yeah, Neuer knew that. He looked at Nelly –
“You’re one of the happiest people I’ve ever seen in my life. I was very wrong to have judged you badly when all you do is to give your best to make people around you happy.”
“I’m happy?” Nelly never knew.
“Yes, Nelly. You are happy and strong,” Neuer laughed –
“Let’s say your happiness is also effective too.”
Neuer reached for his pocket and handed over to Nelly, a present. It was a necklace.
“No, Sir…I mean Neuer. I can’t accept this gift from you. You have done a lot for me already, I can’t.”
“And who is to say it’s for you?” Neuer laughed.
“It isn’t?”
“It’s for your unborn child, Nelly. I want to be the first to give her a gift.”
Nelly looked surprised.
“How do you know it’s going to be a girl?”
“I don’t,” Neuer responded, laughing.
“Why then are you giving me a necklace if you aren’t sure?”
“That’s because I’ve got this,” Neuer brought out a wrist watch. “Give it if it happens to be a he.”
What? There was no way Nelly was going to accept that, but she did at last. Neuer made sure he persuaded her to take the gift.
He was totally different from the kind of person he first portrayed himself to be; rude, senseless, insensitive, mannerless and so many other negative qualities Nelly attributed to him after her first two encounters with him. Now she was beginning to see that he was just like his elder sister, Sandra. He had a good heart, and was so generous just like she was.
“Anything Nelly, anything you ever need just know I’m always here, ready to be of help.”
It had been long since Nelly heard such reassuring words. Even though it had been so long, she was still in the hearts and minds of people who truly loved her. Such ones as Ash and Mr. Stratford, her dad.
Mr. Stratford took out a pill from the inner pocket of his suit. He lived on them, it was necessary if he still wanted to keep his health in check. His smile faded when he heard a knock at the door, his thoughts about Nelly had been disrupted. He missed her dearly and wondered where she was.
“There is someone here to see you, Sir.”
“I don’t want to be disturbed, tell whoever it is I said so.” Stratford said to his secretary.
“He’s insisting, he said he’s the son of Maryann.”
Immediately Stratford heard this, he got on his feet.