It's 8:47 p.m., and Mia keeps pacing in her partly scattered room.
"Okay, you have to calm down mate," Beatrice said, her words carrying laughter with them.
"You don't get it, B," Mia whined, sitting on her bed in frustration.
"What don't I get? Care to explain?"
"But I told you, he said we'd be out by 10, then suddenly, he said we'd be going to his room for dessert."
"Okay?" Beatrice replied.
Standing up and going towards the mirror while in her maid uniform, Mia looked at her reflection and frustration was evident in her eyes.
"You are not helping matters B."
"C'mmon M, we are all adults."
"And that's the problem!"
"Jeez girl, you need to take your voice down."
Loosening the belt on her waist with one of her hands, Mia left the phone on speak out. Her hands worked frantically to loosen her hair, which was in a bun.
"Being out by 10 means he wants to take you on a date or uuhmmm…"
"Or?"
"You are too impatient for your personality," Beatrice commented, her face teasing over the phone as her enthusiastic voice filled the room, suppressing Mia's nervous voice.
"I swear, B, one more teasing from you, and I am going to end the call on you." Mia who had her hair cascading down to her waist level, dug her hand into her hair with her eyes closed.
"All right, alright. You win." She said and Mia could imagine her raising her hands in the air in surrender. Laughing lightly, she continued.
"He wants to take you out on a date, I think."
"But that is impossible." Mia refuted, tapping her chin while zeroing her focus on the phone like she was having a conversation with Beatrice, physically looking back at her.
"How so?" Came Beatrice's voice.
Sighing noisily, Mia said. "He can't just take me out on a date without an ulterior motive."
"And by ulterior motives, you mean?"
"This is a contract with no strings attached," Mia responded, giving the quotation marks with her hand in the air.
Sitting down on her vanity, with her back against the mirror, she tapped her right foot on the floor.
"Exactly!"
"Aarrgghh! Exactly wuuuaaatttt B?"
"He isn't supposed to be taking me out on a date if it isn't to impress his parents and whoever else is involved in this thing." Mia lamented with her hands raised in the air.
"But wait?" She paused before asking.
"Oh, now you've figured it out?"
"Never mind, I'd have to start selecting an outfit out of the numerous he got for me."
"No need for that many details; I won't be jealous even if you try."
"Duh!" Mia said with an eye roll.
"So yeah, what about the dessert in his room?"
"Are we still back to that?" Beatrice asked.
"Deal with it yourself." She said before Mia had the chance to respond.
"I will extend your greetings to Lucio. Bye! Muah!" Beatrice said hurriedly before ending the call.
"Wait, B! B?" Mia called, rushing towards the phone, but it ended before she could pick it up.
Going down on her knees, Mia gave the most dramatic cry of frustration ever in the world of dramatization.
A knock on the window jolted her to her senses. She was in a nervous wreck, her brain imagining every rubbish act there was to imagine. But who was it?
"My lady, are you all right?" Gary's voice came almost immediately after the knock.
Shit! She forgot about the possibility of disturbing Gary.
"Yes, yes. I am fine, not to worry." She said loudly to his hearing trying her best to sound as reassuring as she could.
Her fucking cousin! Leading her from the beginning only to dump her in the middle of the road with nothing to lead her on.
"If you need anything, I am a knock away missus." Came Gary's merry fading voice.
Looking at the screen of her phone with Lucio's smiling face saved as her wallpaper, 9:31 p.m. glared back at her. With a groan, she pushed herself up and walked slowly toward the bathroom with her phone in her hand.
"Starting with a shower won't be a bad idea." She said in resignation, her shoulders slumped as she let her feet make those noises she wasn't allowed to make anywhere else.
Before putting on the shower, she went through her playlist, taped on Taylor Swift's Blank Space before going gaga, singing along.
***
Driving in and packing his car in the garage, Reynold stepped down and, with one powerful force, closed his door. With his hands in his pocket, he looked at the main house, eying it as he could still see darkness enveloping it despite the bright lights surrounding the house. It felt empty.
Looking back at the servant quarters, he figured Mia would be in her room due to the light emanating from the closed windows. Suddenly, he found the emptiness of his house boring and haunting.
At the last minute, he changed the direction of his steps towards the door of her room. Just at the entrance, his phone vibrated again in his breast pocket stopping him in his steps.
Taking the phone from his breast pocket, he found the same number displaying on the notification. His irritation was growing, and clicking on the message seemed like much of a hassle to him.
Clicking on the dial button, he clicked Andrew's contact information. The first ring, the second ring, the third ring, Andrew picked up the call.
"What's up, Rey Rey?" His lively voice came.
'Is there a time he would ever sound sad?' Rey questioned himself, his right hand in his pocket, while his left hand pressed the phone to his ear.
"I have a job for you," Rey said authoritatively, his hand gripping the phone tight on remembering the nuisance who had access to his number.
On the thought of this sender being Vanessa, his hand tightened even more, his veins popping out.
"Almighty Rey, you don't have to punish me this much for sins I know nothing of."
"What if I am out on a date at the moment?" Andrew asked, in a whine.
"My life is at stake," Rey said, figuring out that was the only way to get Andrew moving.
"WHAT!?" Andrew shouted.
Rey heard things clanging on the floor, and Andrew struggled to get up with loud grunts.
Smirking despite his current emotion, he said, "Check your email." Before pressing the red button.