Icing on the Cake

THIRTEEN

It was now exactly five weeks since that Sunday and everything was going pretty smooth between Jaden and Sylvia. He had accompanied her to shopping malls, swam with her again, and had painted with her. Or better still, she had painted with him because he was the one who had taught her how to. He played golf with Ben and Wayne on weekends and also shopped with Ashley too or Ms. Humphrey.

Now it was a Saturday and Sylvia was out with Ashley to assist with the business. It was around three in the afternoon and Jaden was in his room. He had his earphones on as he listened to music.

Suddenly, his phone rang. He took off his earphones and looked at the ID of the caller. It was unknown. He contemplated answering it for a while before finally answering the call.

“Hello?” the caller asked. It was a woman.

“Yes, who is this?”

“Is this Jaden Ludascott, please?”

“Yes.” His gut tightened as he now suspected something was wrong.

“Mr. Jaden Ludascott, this is Lily Stevens, your father’s secretary. You are needed home urgently, say like in three weeks at most.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“Um... I can’t say exactly what’s wrong on the phone.”

“Just tell me.”

There was no reply.

“Who said to call me?”

“Your mum.”

“If you’re not going to tell me whatever is wrong, I wouldn’t come.”

“Wait, please! Um... your dad is currently in the hospital. He was admitted recently for his heart condition and you’re expected to take over the business.”

Jaden swallowed. Sick? Was this a kind of trick to get him to come home or what? He wondered. His dad was never sick. And what the hell was wrong with his heart? Oh, drat.

“Uh... okay. I’ll be there in two or three week’s time.”

“Okay. Just call this number when you’re ready to come and we’ll send someone to pick you up.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

“Bye.”

The call ended and Jaden threw the phone on the bed. What was the meaning of this? He wanted to return home to meet everybody hale and hearty, not sick of a heart illness. He buried his face in his palms and cursed silently. Maybe his dad had been worrying a lot about him and that had caused him stress. Or maybe, the business had been stressing him lately. And instead of Jaden to have been there to ease off the load, he had been wasting the time stupidly.

He had known as he grew up that he was going to inherit his dad’s business, but after schooling in the U.S. he had suddenly wanted to go into music. He remembered vividly the day he had told his dad that he was not going to involve himself in the business yet. His dad had been angry, very angry, but as time went on it had died down. He left home and travelled back to U.S. and stopped talking about his roots so people wouldn’t know he was the son of Chris Ludascott.

He picked up his phone to call Keith. He answered after the first ring.

“Hey. Wazzup man,” Keith said from the other end, obviously in a good mood.

Jaden grinned in spite of news he just received. “I’m OK.”

“Long time, my bro.”

“You’re crazy, man. We talked just last month.”

Keith laughed. “Last month is a long time, Jade. Since when did you become this clueless?”

Jaden chuckled. Keith never changed.

“So, how’s your job going?”

“It still is good.”

“And how’s the ice princess?”

“She’s okay. We’re getting along better now. I even told her about my family.”

“Why?”

“One of her friends kind of found out. So, I just came out clean.”

Keith sighed. “You screwed up.”

“She was too pretty for me to continue lying to her.”

Keith smiled. “You’re still attracted to her?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“I can see what’s happening,” he said, mimicking Timon and Pumbaa in the famous Lion King in a sing–song voice.

“What?”

“And you don’t have a clue.”

Jaden laughed. “Stop it, man.”

“Someone has to tell you," he said. "You’ll fall in love and here’s the bottom line, our duo is down to one.”

“It’s not going that way for sure.”

“Yeah, that’s what you’ll say.”

“Keith.”

“Yeah, Jade.”

“Stop it.”

“Okay, but when it happens don’t say I didn’t say it.” Jaden smiled. “So, what’s wrong?”

If it was someone else, Jaden would have denied that something was bothering him. But he couldn’t tell that to Keith. First of all, there was no way Keith was going to fall for ‘it’s nothing’. And second, he already knew there was something bothering Jaden so there was no need him denying it.

“My dad’s secretary called.”

“What did she say?”

“That my dad was admitted in the hospital for a heart illness and I’m needed at home, mainly for the business’ sake.”

“Drat! A heart illness?”

“That was what she said.”

Keith puffed out a breath. “So, when are you going home?”

“Either next two weeks or next three weeks.”

Keith nodded although Jaden couldn’t see him. “That’s okay. But it’d be better if you went earlier than that.”

“Yeah.”

Keith understood that tone perfectly well. Jaden would have a hard time leaving.

“Don’t worry; I’ll join you in prayers so you wouldn’t come home with a broken heart.”

“You’re a definition of madness,” Jaden smiled.

“You were always my teacher.”

Jaden grinned. “Shut up.”

“Alright.”

“When will you be going back?”

Keith had travelled for business. “Friday.”

“Okay. I’ll just call my mum today.”

“That’s good. Just call me when you decide when you’re going home.”

“Okay. I’m hanging up.”

“Yeah, just don’t love her too much.”

“You’re nuts.”

Keith grinned and ended the call. He hoped Jaden would handle the business better than his dad. He just hoped so.

IT WAS NOW exactly a week and Jaden was still contemplating if to tell Wayne and Ashley about his parents or to just resign from the job. He had called Keith several times after that Saturday and Keith had told him to tell them.

Meanwhile, Sylvia didn’t know what was going on with Jaden. He had been withdrawn for the past few days and had obviously been avoiding her. He stayed in bed till he knew her parents had gone to work, and then he would slip into the kitchen, take his breakfast, and go back up. He only came down again to help the other workers and that was always when she was at work with her mum.

Today however, Wayne had announced in the morning that everyone was going to have dinner together. And she had not gone to work today. So, that meant she would have to confront Jaden today. Now, she was in the kitchen with Ms. Humphrey and Jane and Mary.

Meanwhile, Jaden was in his room and was not aware that Sylvia was not at work. He hadn’t eaten anything since morning and now it was afternoon, he decided to go down and eat. He put on a red polo shirt and a pair of white shorts. Then, he went down, entered the kitchen, and was obviously startled to see Sylvia there. Not just in the house, but in the kitchen.

“Oh!”

Sylvia looked at him and loved the surprise on his face.

“Hey.” She greeted. “Are you just waking up?”

“Nah.” He greeted both her and the other workers at the kitchen. They replied him and he turned back to face Sylvia. “You didn’t go to work?”

“No. I took the day off.”

He nodded. Then, he proceeded to make his breakfast, or better still, his brunch. When he was done, he took out a table mat and went out of the kitchen. Sylvia followed him.

“Can we talk?” she asked.

He glanced at her but didn’t stop. They both entered the dining room.

“A boss isn’t supposed to ask that.”

“Okay. Scratch that, let’s talk.”

“Whatever about?”

“An employee isn’t supposed to ask that.”

He glanced at her and dropped his food on the dinning. “Where should we do that?”

“Let’s go to the sitting room upstairs. I need the privacy, or better still, you need it.”

He considered it for a moment, nodded and took up his food. They both went upstairs to the sitting room there. He dropped his meal on the table, shifted it towards himself, and sat down on a sofa. Sylvia sat down next to him. He prayed over his food and started eating.

After a while, he glanced at her and stopped eating.

“Are you going to wait till I finish my food before you talk?”

“As a child, I was thought it was bad manners to talk while eating. Weren’t you?”

He didn’t reply immediately. “You could join me to eat.”

“Go ahead, I’m not hungry yet. Thanks anyway.”

He considered continuing eating for a while before straightening on the sofa and glancing at Sylvia. “You can start whatever you wanted to talk about.”

Her eye brows hitched up in question.

“I don’t like keeping beautiful ladies waiting.”

She rolled her eyes at the statement.

“Why have you been avoiding me these past few days?”

She had gone straight to the point.

He blinked. “Have I been doing that?” Oh, who was he kidding? That was exactly what he had been doing since he received that phone call.

Her chin went a little higher. “Don’t lie to me, Jade.”

He stared at her for a while, before sighing. “Okay, I have. I just needed to sort out few things on my mind.”

“Like?”

“That’s personal.”

She stared at him for a moment. What was that? Maybe, it could be that his girlfriend had called him saying she was pregnant. Or maybe, an ex had called.

“Okay. I’ll respect your wishes about keeping it personal. But you’ll have to let it out if it’s concerned with us, my family,” she added in case he got the wrong meaning if what she’d said. “And my mum has been asking about you.”

He nodded.

“When will you be going?”

“What?”

“When will you be going home? I thought you said you’d decided you’re ready to go back.” She was surprised at the tone he’d just used, like she’d touched a sore subject.

He calmed down. He’d thought she’d known about the phone call from his dad’s secretary. “Uh... well, I’ll be going soon. Say like in two week’s time.”

She didn’t reply immediately. Wow! That was soon. Well, hadn’t she known he’d be going back? He wasn’t going to work for her forever, was he? She let out a light breath. This was what she’d feared when she’d realized she was more than a little bit attracted to him.

She nodded as she studied him. He was keeping something. That she could tell. Although, he tried not to show it. Whatever was it?