"Esteban, Are you alright?" His personal assistant inquired, rushing to his side.
"I am fine Susan."
"You are lying Esteban." Susan, his assistant rose to get him a glass of sparkling water. She filled the glass to the brim and handed it to him. Esteban welcomed the water and gulped the whole content. Seeing the color has returned to his face, She continued.
"...You surprise me Esteban. All the growth. How you have healed and the mention of that Mandy girl breaks down your walls. She is the girl right? The one who left you."
"Okay, I will be honest. She is the one and my walls aren't broken Susan, I am just not getting why she would return so...suddenly."
Esteban met Susan's intense gaze. A lump formed in his throat and he almost guessed what her next question would be.
"You are going to see her, Aren't you?"
There was an unexplainable sadness written on her face when she said the words. Perhaps it was because she cared a little too deep for her best friend. He had gone through unimaginable darkness when that Mandy left him. It took a miracle to return the shine to his soul— Or something that looked liked it. She couldn't believe how despite it all, Esteban blatantly refused to move on. It had been twelve years since she had known him and she knew fully well that Esteban had no serious relationship with any woman. It was always a fling with low budget models or just some middle-class lady singled out for his sexual desires.
"Susan, I just have to see her again..."
"But why! Isn't the pain she has caused you enough? You know Mrs. Clara only said that because she knew this was a reaction she would surely get. Don't fall for this!" Susan interjected, hoping she could somehow reach and convince his inner feelings to be rational.
"You are incorrigible Susan. I am not hurting myself. This is only mere curiosity if I must say. What made her return after fifteen years?"
"See what I am saying? You know how long she has left, You have all the letters she wrote to you and while you don't want to convince yourself, I know you haven't really moved Esteban. Seeing her again will only mess with your progress."
"I know what I am doing," Esteban replied, changing on the rim of the tumbler in front of him. "Cancel any meeting or appointment situated for this afternoon."
"But..." Susan protested
"No." Esteban cut in, getting up and snatching the file from her hands. "A meeting with the Sutherland company... Tell them it's rescheduled to tomorrow."
That said, Esteban headed for the door much to Susan's dismay. She grudgingly reached for the telephone to inform the company of the very disturbing news. The Amanda girl arrival also gave her a disturbing afterthought. Susan was Esteban's best friend. She and her family had believed and helped Esteban in his dark moments. Call it what it was, they practically made him who he was today. One of the reasons why the company was named Argent was because Esteban wanted to memorialize the family who made his dreams a reality. He loved them but Esteban only saw Susan as a friend but she however saw them as something more. She was the patient lad waiting twelve years for him to heal and finally realize she was the one for him but that bitch just had to show up.
***
Mandy was in the process of blending a healthy smoothie for herself to cope with the stress of dealing with a teenager when the power was cut off.
"Fuck!" She muttered, staring out the windows to see the dark clouds she hadn't noticed before. She had busied herself with cooking to avoid Olivia's unnecessary rants that she didn't even notice it was about to rain. Her predicament got worse when her daughter noticed the power supply was cut.
"Mom! It's dark here." She yelled.
"Isn't there a lamp around there?" Mandy sent, combing a hand through her hair in frustration.
"I found one but is this how we are going to live. Like nineteenth-century low lives. You said this was going to be fun."
Mandy had enough and confronted her daughter in the living room. She couldn't even believe she would give all that drama while her face buried on her phone screen.
Entitled teenagers.
"Well, the light was cut off because of the coming rain." Mandy started, cleaning her hands.
"Yeah right," Liv replied, a spoof of total disbelief in her mother's words but the heavens mocked her snarky reply when a heavy platter hit from the roof.
"See," Mandy said, giving a winning smile.
"Yeah, That makes everything so much better. There is no TV, now we can't even have light. Nothing here surprises me here anymore."
The lit torch flickered off as if sensing the bad energy around. Liv gave her mother a sinister winning smile. Mandy wouldn't accept defeat. She was losing her daughter and it wouldn't be long before her monster in law used this avenue as leverage. She had to make this place somewhat fun for her daughter. Then it hit her. There was a generator in the shed. She stepped inside, got an umbrella, and ran for the door. Olivia noticed how strange her mother was acting and proceeded to ask.
"Mom, Where are you going?"
"There is a generator in the backyard. Hopefully it has some fuel to carry us through the night if it works." Mandy replied, fondling the small umbrella and risking it in the rain. The cold icy rain pierced wildly on the plastic umbrella, beating it dirty. Mandy struggled to make it to the backyard without stepping on the slugs that were bound to ravish themselves in the downpour but it was difficult thanks to the enveloping darkness. As she ran across the slippery path, the wind knocked the umbrella of her shivering grip, sending it flying a few feet away. The harsh rain instantly went for her delicate body beating and drenching her. Mandy foolishly went back to save the umbrella but ended up stepping on a slippery slug which caused her to fall face-first into the muddy earth. In the disorientated chaos, Mandy heard laughter. The manly and familiar laugh seemed to pierce through the skies growls and the thousand splatterings of rain. Mandy lifted her mud-caked face up and was offered a hand. She did a full-body sweep on the figure. Brown leather shoes now riddled in mud, jet black pants, and a soaked white shirt that clung tightly to his body. He was holding an umbrella and when lightning struck, she had a good look at his face.
"...Esteban?"