Chapter 8
1035 Words
Evans drove his Ford into his five acres large compound, and watched from his rearview mirror as the remote controlled gate rolled shut behind him. His house stood in the centre of the land, with a garage large enough to house his five cars in the front, and a community sized swimming pool and barbecue area at the backyard. Despite the size of his house, Evan preferred to live alone. The staff that kept the mansion clean and tidy were assigned shifts from morning till evening and closed for the day by 5:00p.m. The only member of staff who had reason to ever sleep in the house with him was his chef. And that was only on some weekends. Once he was done cooking and stocking up the freezers with food that could last a week or two, Evan could handle it from there.
The cold night air hit his face as he stepped out of his air conditioned car into the natural environment. He had gone for a long drive after work to clear his head. On the way, he had spoken to his sister, Rebecca, who was away in Switzerland, managing the affairs of the company in Europe. She had been quite inquisitive about the interview of the applicants who had applied to be his secretary and when he told her he’d hired somebody, she pestered him for a name. He didn’t tell her though. Knowing his sister, she would get Alice’s number from Edith and pester her on what he liked and disliked, and might even try to matchmake them. The last matchmaking she’d done for him had ended in a lot of tears and regrets. He wasn’t going to let that happen again.
The smell of food wafted into Evan’s nose as he walked in through the front door. Curiously, he followed the scent to the dining room where he saw his mother, Genevieve, arranging plates of food on the dining table.
“You’re home, Evan,” she squealed in excitement, and went over to hug him.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in Switzerland?”
“Is that a way to greet your mother, Evan Sterling?”
“I’m sorry, Mum. It’s just that I wasn’t expecting you. I’d have asked Reginald to stay over and cook.”
“Nonsense. I have hands too, and they’re not for decorations. I made us dinner. I knew you’d be too exhausted to microwave anything for dinner tonight. Rebecca told me you were interviewing potential candidates to fill in the position of that horrible Grace girl who couldn’t do her job well without thinking YOU were her job.”
“Rebecca might as well give a press conference announcing to everyone that I conducted an interview for a new secretary today,” Evan said, sitting down. There was a large plate of grilled chicken beside a big pot of shrimp fried rice on the table. For dessert, Genevieve had baked a pumpkin pie that lay in between the plate and the pot. It looked like they were having a banquet.
“So…did you find any replacements then?” Genevieve asked, serving him a helpful portion of rice.
“Yes, I did. Her name’s Alice and she’s a really clumsy person. Unfortunately, she was the best of the rest I interviewed and I think she has the potential to improve her overall work lifestyle. That’s why I hired her.” Evan did not realise how much he had missed his mother’s cooking, until he put a spoon of rice in his mouth. Genevieve stood watching him chew and savour the food before she dished out hers and sat down to eat.
“Are we haivng a feast, mum? Why’d you make so much food?”
“I know there’s a lot of space in your freezers, young man. No one’s asking you to finish everything today. But careful how you gulp down the rice. We still have dessert and you know in the Sterling’s household, dessert never leaves the table untouched.” Evan chuckled. That had always been a rule right from when he and his siblings were little. No matter how full everybody was, Genevieve made sure her dessert platters left the table empty.
“I haven’t had anything to eat at all today, Mum. There will be plenty of room of dessert,” he replied. Evan had already finished a plate of rice and was helping himself to another serving.
“So what’s your new secretary like? Alice, right?” Genevieve asked. Evan sighed loudly. Why were his mother and sister getting obsessed over who he hired? To him, their concern wasn’t relevant. It wasn’t like Alice was going to work in their family mansion where they’d see her everyday.
“Okay. Alice has two eyes, a nose, two ears, a mouth for talking…” he began. Genevieve smacked his arm hard with her soft hand and let out a snorty laugh.
“Who doesn’t have two eyes and a mouth?”
“Some people don’t. That’s why they can’t see when they’re getting into shitty situations, and they can’t talk their way out of it either.” Genevieve burst into another fit of laughter. She always had a healthy sense of humour and it was one of the things Evan loved about her. His mother laughed at all his jokes.
“You’ll never change, Evan,” she finally said, placing a huge slice of pumpkin pie infront of him.
They finished the rest of the dinner in silence and while Evan prepared one of the guests’ room for his mother, Genevieve tidied up the kitchen. When he was done, he met his mum in the living room, all dressed up.
“Now now, I don’t want to bother or intrude in your privacy. I’m going to Pamela’s house for the weekend. She’s baby sitting her twin grandbabies and God knows I can use some excitement while I’m in town,” she explained to Evan, before calling her personal chaffeur to come get her.
As Genevieve got into her Mustang, she replied a text Rebecca had sent to her while she was cooking: HER NAME IS ALICE.
- Writer
