MATED TO MY TWIN'S MATE

A NEW JOB

Elara rolled around idly on her bed. She'd been awake for about an hour but had no zeal whatsoever to get up. All her energy seemed to have been lost since she received her 100th rejection yesterday. She felt like an empty shell, existing not because she wanted to but because of how circumstances had placed her.

“You're still asleep?” Nana, Elara's mother asked, peeking through the door she'd left ajar the night before.

Elara's drowsy figure stirred beneath the bedsheets and began to stretch languidly; she yawned and then sat up.

“Morning, ma,” she smiled tiredly at Nana.

Nana smiled warmly back, her dimples peeking through the wrinkles on her face, “Did you get some good sleep?”

“To be honest, I don't think I did. Couldn't stop thinking about this unfortunate life of mine,” Elara murmured exhaustedly, swinging her legs off the bed and pushing her feet into the pair of slippers lying by the side.

“Not allowed,” Nana scolded fondly, “We're only allowed to speak good…”

“...and positive things concerning ourselves,” Elara chorused with Nana, and the two bubbled over with a chorus of merry laughter. Elara was already feeling better, as she always did whenever Nana was around. Nana was always brimming with positive energy.

It baffled Elara how Nana was never unsettled about things despite knowing her story and how much she'd suffered. Nana lost her husband and only child in an accident when she was in her prime and was castigated by her in-laws, accused of being the cause of their death. That was why she was sent away from where she lived.

She had to move to find a greener pasture and start her life afresh, but things didn't work out so great, not so bad either. She was able to get a small piece of land for sharecropping. This was what had been putting food on her table for the past couple of years. Elara usually helped her with some farm work but hasn't been able to for some weeks because she's been hunting for jobs.

Nana often offered to help Elara with some money for her surgery, even though the amount wasn't close to what was needed. Elara would never take money from her because she knew how much Nana struggled to make the little she did and didn't think it was fair to take someone else's earnings just because of a surgical procedure.

Nana had said if Elara didn't get the job this time, she'd have no choice but to take the money she's offering her. So it was safe to say that the job Elara didn't get yesterday was her last chance. Elara didn't tell Nana she'd gotten rejected; she only said they'd get back to her soon.

“I made breakfast already. Come have some after you've freshened up, okay?”

“I will,” Elara answered and quickly tidied things up to have breakfast with Nana.

Elara came to sit at the dining table with Nana, who was busy pouring herself some herbal tea. Elara served up a generous portion of honey-drizzled oats and ambrosial berries into her plate, pushing the strands of her hair behind her ear with one hand as she took a spoonful.

“Mhmm,” Elara nodded contentedly, “This is so good.”

Nana smiled proudly, “The berries are from the farm, remember I said I started growing them too?”

“Yes, I remember. They taste amazing… thanks to your amazing hands,” Elara gave a thumbs up that made Nana grin happily.

As their eating went on, Elara began, “I met someone strange yesterday.”

Nana looked up from her plate, already interested.

“Was it a man?”

“Yes,” Elara nodded, “I'd bumped into him. But that's beside the matter. He looked very familiar to me, and I wondered if probably we've met in the past.”

“Isn't that good news?” Nana chimed happily, “finally you see someone you might know. Did you talk to him?”

Elara pouted indecisively, “Well, I didn't. He looked like someone high profile…and I can’t really be going around approaching people with this face,” she touched her cheek.

“And what's your face got to do with that? Doesn't matter. Maybe if you see him again, you could try talking with him. Maybe that'll trigger some memories.”

“Well, I doubt I'm ever seeing him again.”

Her line of sight drifted to nowhere in particular as she recalled her encounter with him. Elara put her hand over her chest and remembered how fast her heart was beating the moment she set her eyes on him.

“Ah, lest I forget,” Nana stopped what she was doing and got up from her seat.

“What?” I asked curiously, chewing on her food as she watched Nana look through the books on the shelf. She then opened one of the books and fished out a note hidden in-between its pages.

“I told my co-farmer you're searching for a job, and he gave me this,” she said as she came back to seat, happily handing Elara the note.

“He said he's sure you're going to find a job there. Just in case that other company doesn't get back to you,” she added.

“Aww, thank you Nana! And thank him for me too,” Elara beamed, and her heart was pounding in suspense as she unfolded the note.

“That's so sweet of you guys….” Elara read through the note, and the smile on her face froze.

The address in the note was the same place she'd been to yesterday where she was also denied. She felt utterly disappointed.

“You're going to check it out right?”

“Mhm,” Elara merely smiled and squeezed the note in her palm underneath the table. She didn't want to tell Nana that her and her co-farmer’s help was of no use because she’s already been rejected from there.

“I'll go after this,” she added and continued eating her food.

“I'll drop you off on my way,” Nana offered. She had a small truck.

“You don't have to,” Elara chuckled, knowing she wasn't going to go back there.

“I insist,” Nana said.

Elara nodded and didn't argue further. She decided she'd pretend to go to the agency for the first time and then rush back to the house when Nana had driven away.

A few minutes later, Nana and Elara set-off from the house.

“Thank you so much,” Elara said once the truck was pulled over in front of the building.

“All the best,” Nana smiled heartily, helping Elara with the stuck seatbelts, “There you go.”

Elara got out of the truck and waved to Nana, “Off you go now, you don't want to be late,” she urged Nana, ready to take a taxi back home as soon as Nana was gone.

“I'll leave after you go in,” Nana smiled.

“I'm going,” Elara said.

I guess I'll have to go in then, she told herself and walked into the building. She stood at the door and waited for Nana's truck to be out of sight before walking back out.

“He’s been absent for a week!” Elara heard a loud voice say behind her, and when she turned to look, she saw it was the man from yesterday who'd told her to watch where she was going when she'd bumped into the other guy.

Rydar's manager.

“I guess we'll have to find someone else to do the job,” he added angrily. “Find someone else.”

“I'll do it!” Elara quickly announced.

Rydar's secretary looked at her, recognizing her, “You're the girl from yesterday.”

“Yes, sir,” she nodded quickly, going closer to him.

Elara wasn't going to let this opportunity slip past her. Her luck must have made her come back there.

“What do you know?”

“I'm a quick learner and am very hardworking. I'll do anything you ask me to.”

The man looked at her from head to toe with a scrutinizing gaze and shrugged, “I guess ugly doesn't matter at this point,” she heard him mutter under his breath, but Elara couldn't be more bothered.

“Come with me,” he said.