04
1183 Words
After work hours I drove up to Elena’s place. She'd been preparing to travel and so it became necessary for us to see since we hadn't seen each other after the night out at the club.
When I got to her house, Lily, her dog, was the first to greet me. She ran towards me while wiggling her tail out, I patted her before she ran off for the second time, this time forming a circle round me.
“Look who is here,” Elena said, standing at the front of her porch.
“Hey you silly girl, come here” Elena beckoned Lily to which she ran towards her in excitement. Elena poured some food into a bowl as the lily settled in, fully salivating at the meal.
“What are you going to do with her,” I asked, my focusing tilting to Lily who won't stop wiggling her tail as she ate.
Elena glanced up, “ Do with her? I mean I'm not relocating out of the country. I'll just be away for some time. She could be at your place till I'm back.”
“You know how Ethan is with dogs.”
“Lily isn't just any ordinary dog, you know that,”
I nodded affirmatively.
Elena led the way into her house.
“Remind me, how long will this trip last again?” I asked, glancing at the boxes stacked up together.
“A month or so, it's more like a tour. So realistically a month is just me trying to be fair to myself.”
“You certainly won't need all these, will you?”
“Of course not,” Elena responded with a side giggle.
On the big screen was a movie playing, I rested onto the sofa, closing up my eyes for a bit to catch my breath.
“You good?,” Elena asked, with worry lines etched over her forehead.
“I'm good, I thought I'd see you before you travelled.”
“Of course, why won't you?”
She continued unboxing some of the clothes from her box into another box meant for travel.
“You shouldn't be here,” the voice of the stranger echoed once more in my head.
I was yet to tell Ethan about the job. I just couldn't help but think Ethan might already know about the job thereby sending the stranger who had approached me.
“So how did the other night go?” Elena asked, her back directed towards me as she stacked some clothes into a box.
“How did it go?, I mean you left me to be with a man.”
“C'mon girl, that's why it's called a party. You don't get to mingle or make new friends while seating at a place, you gotta move. What difference would it make chasing off interested persons?.”
“I know but you could have still kept an eye out but I guess the d was too good to be true.”
“Oh hell yeah it was, I'm not gonna lie to you,”
We both laughed in unison.
“But for real though, did you meet anyone?” Elena asked.
“Yes I did, one of the men that approached us came back later.”
“Those douchebags?”
I nodded with a light giggle “Well one of them isn't, he was so good you know but then I couldn't even get his name, just found his ring, I believe it could cost quite a fortune.”
“You had a one night stand!?” Elena asked, quickly turning over to face me with glaring eyes.
“I believe so but my new boss at work who happens to be a childhood friend of mine had the exact scent with the stranger when I met him today. So I'm just thinking, ‘What if he is the one?’”
“Well, I guess we'll have to find out.”
I drove home after Elena and I were done discussing.
“Why couldn't you tell me?” Ethan threw a sudden question as soon as I got into the house.
I glared at him, wondering where the question came from.
“You got a job after all I said. You even had the effrontery to talk back at me. Well, I understand and I will forgive you only when you agree to quit the job.”
“Why will I do that?” I wondered.
“I don't want you to work, you should be smart enough to respect my choice.”
“Not this time, all I've ever wanted was to have something I can be proud of, to pursue my dreams.”
“There are no dreams to pursue Violet. I'm rich enough to provide all you need. You need to worry about my ego as a man and do as I say” Ethan ordered, folding his fist into a fit.
“Maybe not today,” I responded, pushing him off as I got into my room.
Ethan banged hard against the door, spewing out curses in fits of rage. I laid on the bed and played some music.
I woke up late in the night to the sound of murmuring, I got up and searched where the murmur came from.
It was Ethan's voice from the living room.
Ethan was in the living room taking a call, he spoke in hushed tones against the phone's speaker, periodically breaking into a hearty laugh. I was pushed to walk over and take off the phone but I decided against that and observed instead.
Early the next morning I was off to work, with a determination not to allow Ethan's mischievous lifestyle spillover and ruin my day.
I got to the office and quickly settled in with the tasks of the day. Occasionally, Alex would pass by my office with some of the staff.
Alex finally stopped over and walked into my office, “Are you okay? Your face has been sullen since morning” he asked with deep concern.
“Yes I am, just had a rough morning sir,” I lied.
“Just call me Alex. Please do well to communicate with me if you're facing any trouble, I won't hesitate reaching out to help.”
“Thank you Alex,” I responded with a firm nod.
At the end of the day, Alex offered to give me a ride home but I declined, as I couldn't risk having a mix up between Alex and Ethan.
On my way home. I thought of how different things could be, maybe I needed to understand that Ethan loved service as a love language.
When I got home, I made his meal and called the laundry man to pick up his dirty clothes for a wash but along the line of putting the clothes together, a hotel card fell off to the ground.
I picked it up . The hotel card looked familiar.... it belonged to the same hotel Elena had gone to do some landscape and interior design months ago!
- Writer
