Possessive about Rosa

4

As I stated earlier I hate taking cold showers especially in the mornings it's a kind of punishment you won't even want to give to your enemies, it's brutal. Gasping I scrubbed my body with the loofah, my eyes closed, I shivered as a cold gust of wind hit my wet body, the day I got a good job with a nice pay I'm gonna make sure I have warm water in my shower. I thought.

Washing the soap off my body I dried my body with my green towel and wrapped it around my body stepping out of the bathroom, as I walked in the bedroom the cold wind hit my body making me gasp and rising goosebumps on my body. I looked up at the ceiling to see the fan was turned on, shivering. I walked beside the oval mirror and turned the switch off of the fan. I sat on the bed and got under the covers to some warmth. 

Tears welled up in my eyes thinking of how miserably I live, I have a roof over my head and some food to eat but that's not it. Having basic needs is not everything, there are some luxuries that count under basic needs like warm water, a television, and some snacks stuffed in the kitchen. I'm not being ungrateful but it is what it is, I work all day long for thirty dollars, and still I'm unable to live my life, I feel like dying sometimes.

I threw my legs on the floor after cursing the universe for being cruel and pulled out a red frock with yellow polka dots and a deep neck. I removed my towel from my body and held the frock against me and stood in front of the mirror. The frock ended just above my knees and was sleeveless. I smiled looking at myself and thinking that maybe it wasn't all cruel there are good times too. 

I wore my undergarments and then slipped inside the frock, it showed my curves and my cleavage looked just fine. I admired myself for quite a while before the worst happened; I remembered what happened yesterday.  I don't want anyone thinking I'm giving signals wearing this frock or I'm used to being treated like I was treated yesterday or I'm playing hard to get.

"You're a brave woman, start acting up." 

I remembered Guzman saying it to me, I took a deep breath looking at myself in the mirror and nodded. I'm a brave woman and yesterday wasn't my fault, I wasn't giving any signals and I'm not going to feel ashamed of myself for what was his fault. I told myself in the head looking in my eyes in the mirror. I'm strong. I know I'm.

I brushed my brown locks and tied a high bun, I applied some red lipstick and twirled in the mirror laughing to myself. I slipped in my black heels and walked in the kitchen, smirking as the heels made a sound when it came touch with the floor, strangely it boosted my confidence. I ate the half cinnamon bun from last night and left for work after locking the door behind me.

I didn't see any cops investigating the alleyway today, I can get used to this, getting up and going to work with no negative thoughts or anything. Today the four blocks didn't seem that much, I was pushing open the door of cafè in no time. I smiled at Leona and walked to the lockers, today I decided to take a black coffee and green Apple muffin, I looked in the chilled for some leftover marmalade and I found two cups, I took one and left one in it. 

"You're awfully cherry today, you got laid last night?" David cringed. He wasn't a morning person and he hated working the morning shifts but had no choice than suck it up.

"What? Is it a bad thing that I'm happy? Unlike you." I rolled my eyes dipping a piece of muffin in the marmalade and eating it carefully so I wouldn't drop any on my clothes.

"Keeping in view that it's not even seven in the morning, yes it's irritating that you're happy." He groaned and the groan turned into a big yawn. 

"What did you do last night when you got home?" Leona asked David from her seat behind the cash counter.

"I had a project to complete for Lydia, I was searching stuff about the solar system and s**t, did you know every planet is their own moons and what blew my mind was that Jupiter has twenty one moons, I mean what the heck? How would those many moons look like in the sky." He ranted making us all laugh, I stopped laughing as I saw Mads walking through the door. 

"Am I late?" His eyes shot up at the clock above Leona's head on the wall.

"No. She's early today." David rolled his eyes, yawning again. 

"So what I'm early, I'm never late." I said offended.

"True. But you arrive like ten or five minutes before and then stuff your face like a starved woman sometimes you even burn your tongue while having coffee. There are even times when you don't eat and get light headed." Mads shook his head pouring coffee and taking one raisin and oatmeal cookie and sitting on my stool behind the counter.

"You're disgustingly acute but yeah okay whatever." I said embarrassingly. 

"She's embarrassed." Leona chuckled.

"Mads take one more." She pointed at the cookie.

"One is enough Leona." He said blushing, it was no secret how much he loved that cookie.

"Take it." She said sternly, making Mads nod meekly.

The clock showed seven in the morning and the doors of our café opened for the customers, after six months into this job I got a hang of it and when I did finally, when no one was gawking at me from behind or grading me I thought I did well, I felt at peace when I served people food and saw smile on their faces, I didn't like when I had to say no to customers sometimes but I kind of liked it. But the pay was always the issue.

"Six lattes to go please." I nodded at the customer and asked Taylor to prepare them, in the morning no one usually worked on the other side of the counter because of the fact that the customers never sat and enjoyed their first meal of the day, rather they choked themselves on the way to work.

I heard the bell chime indicating customers were filling up quickly but I had no time to see who it was, I was pulling out three oatmeal and raisin cookie from the display case, I saw the little girl who stood beside the customer holding his finger smile at me, I waved the tong at her accidently hitting the case above and making a sound, she giggled and blew a raspberry.

"Thanks." The man with the small girl said, taking the brown bag from my hand and walking away with the girl towards Leona. 

"Good morning." My ears stood like some dog's and my eyes widened, I looked from under my lashes to see the same ring I saw on his hand yesterday, I fully looked at his beautiful face. His eyes stood out with the blue colour of his suit and his hair neatly combed back, he had a laptop bag in his and and his other hand tapping on the cold display counter.

"Hey." I finally found my voice.

"I would like an Americano and two green Apple muffins to go." He smiled, flashing his teeth at me.

"Anything else sir?" I honoured him.

"Your number would be exquisite ma'am." He smirked.

"Coming up," I grabbed the tong and bent down to pull his muffins and set them in the brown bag, I asked Taylor to make his coffee and that's when I realised a great thing. Asking him to wait I made a dash to the kitchen and opened the chiller, I hoped it was there as I left it this morning. I saw the white container filled with marmalade and pulled it out walking out of the kitchen. He's gonna love it. I thought, wrapping some tissues around the cold container I slid it inside the brown bag.

Taylor handed me his drink and some sugar sachets with it, I put the sachets in the brown bag and stapled it, looking down all the time I quickly took the marker from behind and scribbled my number on the cup and slid it towards him blushing, "there's a surprise inside the bag for you, have a good day." I winked as he walked away smiling.

I heard David whispering my name from where he stood, I turned my neck to see him smirking at me wickedly, "I see who that hunk was waiting for afterall." 

▪▪

When I pulled my phone out during break I saw three messages from an unknown number; Guzman. I shook my head blushing, he sent me a photo of him eating the muffin and the other one licking the container of marmalade and the other read, ' I'm hoping it's you Rose, I don't wanna make a fool out of myself.' I laughed while sipping a banana smoothie.

We both texted each other a lot during my twenty minutes break. He told me how boring his meetings are ahead and how his assistant is not here to walk him through his day, he asked me if he could see me after my shift and I said yes, I usually got off work early on Tuesdays. I told him if he wanted he could swing by around seven in the evening and with that my break was over and I was back to work.

"Leo you need to understand my situation, I'm not generous enough to forget that kind of money you owe me." I heard a man through the back door of the café, Mads gave me a black polythene filled with garbage to throw and return to work, Leona never showed that she owed anyone anything. The bag in my hand made a sound when I moved and they stopped talking, "is someone there listening to us?" The man asked Leona, "No, there's no one, maybe some animal." I sighed in relief.

I told myself that it wasn't any of my business to snoop on her, that it's her personal life and she can do anything with it, she can loan money and do anything and it shouldn't bother me, but it did...so I stood beside the closed door listening to them, I wanted to keep the garbage bag down, it was quite heavy but I knew if I did that they might get suspicious and find me eavesdropping. 

"You have to give me some time for me to arrange that kind of money, the banks won't give me a loan because of the divorce case, they think my divorce might come in between them and me." Her voice was pained, my hand shot up to cover my mouth in horror, how much money are we talking about here? 

"You have three days Leo or you know the consequences." The guy threatened her but strangely it sounded like he was forced to take steps if she didn't repay the money, if only I knew what happened.

"How do you expect me to pay that much in three days?" She choked, my breathing coming out in small gasps, the garbage started releasing foul smell, I needed to leave. 

"I don't know Leo, but the money is way too much for anyone to generously forget about." 

"I won't be able to gather that much even if I sell myself on the streets for three days all day long!" 

"Don't--" I ran away from there without listening any further.

I knew it wasn't allowed to take the garbage from the front door, but I did. I peeked from the kitchen door to see if there were many customers, there weren't. There were four people sitting at the back of the room engrossed in talking, I took the garbage bag and walked quietly out of the door, I cursed the bell above as it chimed. I walked the small distance to the alleyway and saw Leona standing there alone with a hand on her face, I tried acting normal, I acted as though I didn't just hear her saying she'd sell herself on the streets for money.

"Leona?" I called her name as I neared her, she raised her head from her hand and looked at me, "you alright?" I asked. "Sure." She missed sniffling.

"You're crying?" I threw the bag in the dumpster and pulled out some tissues from my pocket to wipe my hands, "No, something went in my eyes and it started watering." I dropped the topic not wanting to make her even more sad.

"Why did you bring the garbage from the front door?" She asked scratching her forehead lightly, "Mads, he gave it to me and I saw a big mouse running near the back door, so I just left without going any further in the room." I willed myself to shut up or she would end up catching me eavesdropping on her.

"You didn't listen to anything?" She frowned, moving a bit closer to me. My face paled, "Was I supposed to hear anything?" I chuckled nervously.

"No, let's go and next time make sure you don't bring the garbage from the front door. If there's anything ask the boys to throw it." She said walking away leaving me behind gasping like a fish.

After I recovered from what Leona said I walked back in and took orders, served, got knocked by the group of teenagers who sat back earlier when I left the café to throw garbage, and cleaned the tables for the rest of my shift. For a person who has a lot of debt on her Leona seemed rather calm which didn't fit well with me, I mean it's the end of the month and I have to pay my rent and bills and stash some good stuff to eat and not microwave food. I felt bad for Leona, I felt bad because she had to go through this all by herself and that she didn't trust us enough to share that with us.

Taking my paycheck I walked out as I heard Leona say that she's expecting company to Taylor, I honestly had no thoughts. I was terrified of what would happen to Leona if she fails to repay that money, I was sad because she didn't tell any of us, or she might've and I don't know about it. I was trying to erase the memory out of my head when I overheard Leona and the mystery man talk.

"I've never seen Leona stay up late in the café, I wonder what it is." I heard Mads talking to David, as usual we gathered up in front of the café catching up before we left for home.

"She's an adult, she can do whatever.." David trailed off as we all heard the car park beside the café like last night, I already knew who it was and I couldn't stop blushing.

"Your hunk is here, you don't wanna go and kiss him hi? " David teased, earning a smack from me.

"You guys gotta stop hitting me, one day you just might get the favour back with a bonus." He whined, making us all laugh, from below my lashes I saw the window of the back seat lowering down a bit, I bit on my tongue to keep myself from smiling.

"Listen, David here, who's terrified of us is gonna hit us." Mads scoffed making Taylor and I chuckle a bit.

"Can we not make this about us? See there, that guy I told you about Mads. It's for Rose." He pointed with his finger to the car.

"Who is he Rose?" Mads asked, I shook my head, "No one really." I dodged off.

"Come on tell us," Mads pressed and that's when the door of the car opened and Guzman stepped out in the blue suit from morning. He had his jacket on his shoulder and his sleeves rolled up, his hair still perfect. I saw as he closed the door and leaned against the car and pulled out his phone, "Rose….Rose? I'm gonna give you a dirty slap now…" I heard David hissing.

"Isn't he the same person from yesterday?" That caught my attention at once, I turned my gaze to Mads, "Yes," I nodded.

"Hmm.." He trailed off looking elsewhere, that's when I knew I'm in trouble.

"I can--" Mads stopped me.

"No need to." He shook his head, his hand reached for the keys in his pocket, "let's go Taylor I'll drop you at your dorm, and I'm gonna give that kid who was smoking weed a good piece of mind." He looked past me at Taylor who stood behind me.

"I gotta go too! I'm making dinner for Lydia." David shrugged, I felt left alone, not because everyone has plans, no. I felt bad because Mads just judged me, he didn't say anything but his eyes said enough and that hit me.

"Okay, so no one's gonna say bye? Bye!" I scoffed at their backs. I stood there looking as Taylor got inside the passenger seat and Mads drove away without sparing me a glance, David got on his bicycle, put his helmet on and he was gone too.

Mads's reaction was exaggerated, he could've given me time to explain what it's all about, I get it he's protective of me especially after what happened yesterday but he was wrong here, I'm gonna make sure he listens to me.

"Are you alright?" I turned my head to see Guzman three steps far from me.

"No I'm not." I said walking away.

▪▪▪