The Heir and the Maid

CHAPTER 4

We were standing side by side at the pool side, both in our night wears, he had a wine glass in his hand, as always, just sipping from it casually as he stared straight ahead into the pool. I knew he had something on his mind, something he wanted to talk about, be he was just quiet, it was the most quiet I had ever seen him since the day we met, not like he was a very noisy person, but he definitely wasn’t this quiet, this just showed that something was wrong. I didn’t know if he wanted to talk about it or just stay quiet so I stayed there with him quiet, staring at the ripples forming in the pool from the warm breeze of the evening. After a while, he poured another glass of wine from the bottle that was on one of the pool tables. He also poured a glass for me which I collected.

“im sure you can observe that something is essentially wrong”, I just nod in approval incase that was a rhetoric question and didn’t neeed an answer. “well you know how ive always said my mom has always been much of an ambitious person ever since I was born, its just work stuff though, but shes insisting I take on a project at work, if I do I have to start working from home”.”working from home is actually not that bad, it means you’d get enough time to rest, enough time for yourself, I mean I don’t really see the problem with that, except theres more to it than what youre saying.” I say back to him.

He looks over to me with a bit of concern in his face, I could see there was something else he wasn’t saying. “Mason is there something else youre not saying?’, he takes another sip of wine, at this point im getting anxious like something is really wrong. “she wants me to take a PA, an in-house PA, someone who would be working alongside with me here in the house.”, he says. At this point im genuinely confused, because im here thinking what could be the problem, I mean if I could get myself a PA for the amount of work I have to get done in this house I would be over joyed. “is there something wrong with that,”, I ask again. He goes over to drop his cup as if to better explain the situation to me. “shes insiting I take Becky Harrison as my PA, infact she has signed on her becoming my PA like I don’t have a choice to make in all of this. Its my company now for crying out loud, why cant she trust me to make a decision as simple as this on my own, besides I don’t know if Becky is even well trained for this,” I can see the prooblem with all of this now.

During the course of the week, while we were getting to know each other, Mason had always mentioned how he had always wantes to prove to his mom that he had everything under control with regards the company, how he was perfectlly capable of running the company and making the right decisions, but she was always trying to interfere. I guess this one was a deal breaker as it had to do with someone he would be working hand in hand with, in close proximity with, he wanted to make sure it was someone that could share the same level of rationality with, and she couldn’t allow him make this simple decision on his own, and that pissed him off.

I tried to comfort him as best as I could and helped him see the brighter side of things and see that his mother probably had good intentions as to appointing someone she claimed she knew well enough, and was capable of such position. He wasn’t buying it at first, but later succumbed to it. In no time we were making light of the situation and even laughing about it. “thank you so much Elena, I really appreciate your words of advice, thanks for listening to my little problem”, he said while staring deeply at me, we were still standing at the edge of the pool, he held my palm for a bit, then stared directly at me, after a while, he hugged me, that was the first time we were hugging each other, this time I noticed he smelt of mango, he was taller than me so I had to stand on my toes a bit while hugging him. We stayed in that positin for at least a while, then he released the hug. “I should better head inside, I have a long day tomorrow”. He says as he casually decides to leave. “also I should probably tell you I recently started using your mango shampoo and I think it actually smells nice” he says laughing. I laugh too as we both say our goodnights.

_

The remaining days leading to the end of the week where Mason would start working from home, was a busy one, Mason was barely around, he was busy making transfers of his duties to his executive director, as he was going to start working from home. He attended to a lot of conferences and would come back pretty late at night. His mother ordered I start dropping off his dinner in the room before he gets back from work, I would go over to his room early to clean it out, hoping to see him, but he would have left already. It was a pretty busy week, but as busy as it was for him, he still managed to text me some times during the day, asking what my next painting would be, what colours I would be using next, insisting I create a 3d art for him,also asking what I would be cooking for dinner. I was slowly missing his presence that week.

On the Saturday of that week, Mrs Fletcher ordered I create a very nice and big lunch as we were having guests over. I already knew who was showing up, it was Mr Harrison and his daughter, Mason has already briefed me about it, they were coming to sign the documents to mark the beginning of a partnership as she would start working as Mason’s PA. she would also be staying at the mansion. I didn’t see why they were making it a really big deal but then again its business I guess. I had cleaned out the guest room earlier in the day as that was where she would be staying. I had already started with the lunch preparation when I felt a touch on my shoulder, I looked back, it was Mason. “haven’t seen you all week”, I said, “yeah I’ve been really busy but I guess you could say im sort of free now, what are you making”, he asks as he casually washes his hand and joins in as if he knows what he’s doing. He reminds me about how much he loves cooking and begins to join me to chop the vegetables for the salad. He begins chopping the cabbages wrong and insists I show him. I go over to him and lead him by holding his hands, as im holding his hands showing him how to properly cut the cabbage, I notice that hes no longer cutting, but staring down at me. “what are you looking at ?”, I ask softly, as im also lost in his deep grey eyes. The moment is cut off as I hear a rather unfamiliar high pitched and very sharp voice that riverberates against the walls of the kitchen. “Mason what are you doing?”