MAHALIA'S DILEMMA. (BWWM)

3

Mahalia groaned inwardly, seeing Elvira Watterson in the same seat she'd been sitting in yesterday, smiling at her like a cheshire cat.

     “Oh sweetie, it's good to see you again” Elvira said standing up and walking towards Mahalia, who took a step back. But Elvira clamped her claws—ehm, manicured hands, ehm—on Mahalia's shoulders and guided her to a seat in the dinning set on the side patio over looking the lush land and gardens.

“Seems like a beautiful day to have breakfast outside, don't you think?” Elvira asked, signalling for Sally Anne to bring the food out.

Mahalia felt tongue tied. Elvira was always the social butterfly and loveable but growing up in this household, she always made sure to avoid being sighted by Elvira.

“So how have you been? It's been years right?” Elvira asked.

Shaking her head physically, Mahalia gave Elvira Watterson her own cheshire looking smile,“Yes, ten and a half years to be precise.”

Elvira threw her bone straight, almost waist length sangria red hair over her creamy alabaster shoulders, and shook her head ruefully. “I don't think I can be that far away from family”

Mahalia shrugged, not really understanding the reason for this chitchat. “I'm guessing this conversation is leading somewhere I won't like, so I'll stop it here.”

Elvira looked taken aback by her take charge tone, and attitude but didn't let it affect her smile as she took a sip of the cool white wine one of the housekeepers dropped off along with the rest of the food.

“Heavens dear.” Elvira said, her sparkling bottle green eyes smiling. “I'm just wondering, why someone would hitchhike out of Chesterfield the way you did, didn't come back for ten years and suddenly, here she is”

Mahalia looked around the lush grounds, the beautiful walkway leading to the pool and guest house, and if you knew the lands as well as she did. You could be skinny dipping and eating fresh apples all at the same time. It felt like home.

“Home is where the heart is” Mahalia said, her eyes still fixated on the lush gardens where bees were buzzing. “I never thought I'd say it, but Chesterfield is home”

She turned to look at Elvira, “I've been running away and dodging it, but I believe this is where I'm meant to be at this stage in my life.”

Elvira smiled at her, but this time it was a genuine smile. “Well, I know at the moment your jobless and I need a manager for one of my stores, are you interested?”

Mahalia pondered the buttery offer,and that of Grant earlier. She knew Sally Anne must have been talking to these people but she didn't want the help,at least not from Grant or Elvira Watterson.

“I'll have to turn it down” Mahalia said standing. “Chesterfield has a lot of businesses and I'm sure I could find a job outside the McArthur-Watterson business empire....”

“Take a few days to think ruminate over the offer” Elvira said, with another wolfish smile, “Who knows, you might find my offer tempting.”

Mahalia shook her head, “I'll see myself out,” Her appetite was ruined and it was ruined for the whole day.

Still ruminating over the fact that she'd gotten and turned down two very lucrative job offers in one day, she missed the fact that a pair of changeable blue eyes was watching her stew and was in her line of path.

Grant Watterson steadied her on her feet, when she marched head first into him. His hands on her delicate shoulders, that showed the tiniest bit of stretch marks, from the halterneck dress she had on.

“Gosh,I'm so sorry” She started off but paused when they were at eye level. “Oh,no”

She pushed back from his touch, and gave their bodies physical space by moving more into the tightening space of the dinning table and chair, sparking a humourous flair in Grant's eyes.

“Twice in one morning, this must be a sign miss Mahalia” Grant said, adjusting the table and chair so she could have more space but Mahalia shifted so quickly that she landed flat on her behind.

“Son of a....” She trailed off when Sally Anne rushed through the kitchen doors and yelled out her name.

“Are you insane girl?” Sally Anne harsh whispered, helping her up. “You're not too old for me to still bend you over my knees”

Mahalia arranged her dress. “I wasn't going to say anything bad, auntie”

Sally Anne hissed at her great-niece and turned to Grant, who was trying so hard not to laugh at the petulant look on Mahalia's face.

“I'm so sorry, Grant” He composed himself and smiled at Sally Anne ruefully.

“It's kind of my fault actually,” Grant said, straightening his fine fit navy blue suit by the unbuttoned lapels. “I'll be on my way”

“Won't you say hi or bye to mrs Elvira?” Sally Anne asked pointedly, her arms still wrapped around, Mahalia shoulders to keep her from exiting the house.

Grant paused, looked at Sally Anne who had her head inclined to the sides like she was waiting for his excuse or something.

“She's outside, the dining area outside” Sally Anne pointed the way out, a saccharine smile on her face when Grant started out towards the direction. “You look dashing,”

When he was out of sight, Sally Anne held on to Mahalia's ear lobe. “Is that what Los Angeles has thought you, to curse at impulse and not mind the circumstances?”

“Ouch,ouch ouchie” Mahalia groaned out, and Sally Anne let go. “I wasn't directing the comment at him auntie, it was just an expression”

Mahalia rubbed her aching lobe and was transferred to when she was a kid and had disobeyed or dare say it, disregarded her rules around the house and her auntie would pinch her cheeks,or draw her lobes.

“Grant is levelheaded and just, don't you dare go disrespecting him or I'll knock you harder on your overly generous behind. Capisce?”

“Yes, ma'am.”

I'll walk you to your car” Sally Anne said, leading the way with a doggy bag in her hand. “So, what did Elvira want?”

Mahalia looked at her aunt, and that sharp tongue that always tried to put her in trouble rose up, but like always she played it down and reined it in.

“A job” Sally Anne eyes widened and Mahalia wanted to roll hers for her auntie's terrible acting. “Oh, don't act all surprised, like you didn't tell her to do it”

Her wagging tongue wagged and she groaned at the look on Sally Anne's face. “I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. It's just that I can get a job and other things going by myself auntie, you don't have to worry”

But I am worried, Mahalia” Sally Anne said stopping by Mahalia's sorry excuse for a car. “I know you can do it by yourself but with help you could get what you want faster and all I want is to see you happy and healthy”

“I did ask Grant for help, but I didn't ask Elvira, I know you can't stand her” Her auntie said with a smile, making her smile too. “But Chic Gal in Chesterfield does need a manager and I know you love fashion and maths so, it's killing two birds with one stone, working for Elvira”

Mahalia sighed, resting her chin on the roof of her car. She didn't want to owe the Watterson's anything, but her auntie had a point and was only trying to help. If she saved enough money without having to pay rent for two or three years, she could pay off her student loans and try again at another state.

“I'll think about it” Mahalia said begrudgingly. “But I'm not making any promises”

Sally Anne hugged her nonetheless, knowing she'd made headway and that was all that matters to her at the moment.

She'd been in Chesterfield for five days and in those five days all she'd done was check for available jobs in the hiring section of Chesterfield Chronicles, but nothing meaningful had come up.

Her strong resolve to not take either Grant or Elvira Watterson was running low along with the little saving she had left.

She sat in the floor of her bedroom, the curtains of the patio door pulled back giving her a clear view of the wraparound porch and the clear beautiful lake. She hadn't gone back there since the day, Grant almost gave her hypothermia and she didn't intend to.

But it was nice that some part of her was angered by him, it made it so easy to hate him and that weird dream she had of him the first day was gone. Now it was replaced by a more serious one where her slender long hands were always wrapped around his neck, squeezing him for the terrible cold she was battling.

She sneezed into the tissue for the umpteenth time and was close to crawling into bed to cry herself to sleep when the doorbell echoed. Mahalia groaned, her bones felt like noodles and her eyes were bleary with sleep or was it tears, oh she didn't know or care but all she did know was that she wasn't answering that door.

But whoever was on the other side was darn persistent and she knew it wasn't her auntie. Sally Anne had a key, knew where the spare was kept and would never knock, so who could it be.

Finding the strength and willpower to get on her feet, Mahalia struggled to the door and opened it without asking.

“You look like hell” Said an eerily familiar voice.

But Mahalia was too tired to answer back as she was almost falling but was caught by a taken aback Grant Watterson, who held the limp but burning body of Mahalia Osborne.

He carried her into the house and dropped her gently on the large sofa, not once breaking a sweat. Sally Anne Osborne had asked Jude Hayes to drop off a flask of her favorite mushroom soup and corn bread but Grant decided to do the job himself and irritate her since he hadn't seen her for days.

Grant Watterson got a bowl from the kitchen and filled it with cold water adding a few cubes of ice from the dispenser and a clean towel from one of the draws.

Mahalia was muttering some incoherent words but as soon as the cold towel touched her forehead she calmed down. Grant pressed the towel around her always baby smooth face, and smiled gently. He always used to nurse Elvira back to health when she was under the weather, but now he couldn't stand the sight of her.

Why couldn't he have listened to his mother and let Elvira go when he was younger. He was foolish and thought he was in love and for the first ten years of their life together, he was in love with her.

Mahalia groaned as Grant brushed her palm and fingers with the cold towel and he hushed her up, feeling terrible that she was under this condition and it was probably his fault.

A knock sounded on the door and he went to get it, Jude Hayes stood on the other side, Grant's phone ringing in his hands.

Grant looked at the phones and saw it was Elvira calling, he ignored it and switched off his phone. “I want you to go to doctor Lynch and bring her here, tell her I sent you but don't tell her why. Okay?”

Jude Hayes nodded, his lean frame, shooting to the car to go do Grant's bidding. And that was what Grant liked about Hayes, always ready to work.

He walked back in and continued with the cooling of her burning temperature, a the while wondering about his affinity for the young woman called, Mahalia.

An hour or so later, he heard his car pull into the driveway and the familiar sound of heels walking up the driveway to the door he already had open for Beatrice Lynch, his former high school sweetheart, the ugly duckling that transformed into a genius swan.

“Grant, this had better be good” Doctor Beatrice warned as she drew closer to him, her lab coat thrown over a black wide leg pant suit and a satin handless green too.

“It's always a pleasure to see you too, Doc” Grant said sarcastically, knowing he was tickling her nerves.

Beatrice Lynch, stopped two feet from Grant and watched him coyly from her specs. “You seem fine. So why am I here?”

“Were you worried?” Grant asked teasingly. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry. She's inside, she passed out a while ago”

Beatrice paused and turned around slowly, her baby blue eyes narrowing suspiciously. “She?”

“Oh, stuff those thoughts down that physician bag of yours and get in here” Grant muttered. “It's Sally Anne's great-niece, Mahalia”

Beatrice breezed past him, past the foyer and into the house, when Mahalia laid quietly on the sofa Grant had left her. Beatrice eyes watered, but she blinked them away and got to work, checking her temperature and making a makeshift apparatus to put her on drip to supplement her empty system.

It took about forty minutes for her to be done, with Grant and Jude acting as nurses to whatever it was that she needed.

“That should do it.” Beatrice said, wiping her brows with the back of her hand.

Grant sighed and ran his hands through his thick auburn mane that he was growing out, “Thank you Beatrice”

Beatrice started storing away her tools, her eyes fixated on the sleeping figure of Mahalia, that she didn't hear Grant speaking to her until he poked her shoulders.

“Are you listening , Bea?” Grant asked using the nickname, he'd given her since they were kids, but she was crying when she looked at Grant.

Grant bent down to her eye level on the sofa, looking at her. “I know, I love pulling your nerves but crying is far too much, don't you think.”

“That's my baby, right there Grant.” Beatrice finally cried out. “That's my beautiful baby girl”

****