"Oh, I thought that no one was around so I had given up and decided to go home." She responded. Her hair hung low on her shoulders, as her black handbag was hoisted on one. She had on a black three-piece suit, the same in design as the white one she had worn the previous day. The dark blue stilettos on her feet contrasted well with her attire. As for her cologne, Shallon could have already smelt her from the door.
"No, no... I was just taking a quick shower." She told her, looked along the road, and then continued once again. "Would you mind coming in? It's pretty cold out here."
"Oh. That would be just great." Layla said as she walked toward the preacher's daughter. She climbed up the porch, hugged her, and got in. Shallon closed the door.
"And to what do I owe this visit, from the brand ambassador of Rashuk Clothes? Advertising your products here or what?" Shallon asked as she sat across her while they were in the living room. There were two couches present, a glass table in the middle and a large television to their right on the wall, just above the inset fireplace. She had pulled out two glasses and filled them up with warm mango juice and placed them atop the table.
"No... my advertising days are over. You know when you have these upcoming youths who have the energy and more potential, you have to give them the chance to shine their way up the ladder of success."
"Oh, so the youth do come there?"
"Yeah, lots of them. We have models, just normal college guys, little children too. I mean we offer a wide range of varieties of goods and services to our customers, you know that."
"Yeah, I do." She said. "I was just looking for a job, kinda."
"You want to work for me?"
"No, no, no... not me. I'm looking for a friend. Well, it's actually my boyfriend. I guess this new life came like whoosh and now here we are on a new stage of life you know? So the little we can do to try and get some cash for our future, then the better."
"You speak so certainly of the future. It's like you had everything figured out." Layla said. "Okay. You know what? Tell him to fill up some documents over on our website. If his résumé is fit to my company's standards, then he might even get a higher paying job."
"Really? Great!" Shallon shrieked happily. "Thanks a lot, Mrs. Layla."
"Glad to help where I can." She told her.
"Either way, I guess, you were not here for job hunting," Shallon mumbled. "Why are you here?"
"Oh..." Layla began. "I was wondering if we could talk."
"Talk?" She inquired decisively. "About what?"
"My son, Ethan." She told her. "I believe you know him."
"Yeah." She answered, feeling embarrassed about the subject in the room. "What about him?"
"I was wondering if you would tell me how you know him or how you two related to each other."
"Why are you asking?"
"Just a mother, looking after her son." She took a sip of the warm drink.
"I feel this is awkward already," Shallon said, looking uneasy. "I dunno... it's weird."
"Weird? How?" Layla asked.
"I mean you're the mother of a guy who we studied with back in university and he ended up doing some horrible stuff to Elena by the end of the semester. What can get weirder than that?"
"I'm not asking you to tell me of what the school and the world knew him of. I'm asking you, how you know him, personally."
"This really feels so uncomfortable. Okay, so Ethan... Ethan was a good guy, charming, simple, sweet, and loving. He was so rich but acted like the poorest guy on campus, I mean have you ever... wanted a one-package of a man, and waited for it your entire life? Ethan was that package essentially Mrs. Purcell. And when I saw him for the first time ever, I told myself that yeah, this's the guy I want. I used to tell myself that." She paused. "As you know, he never had any eyes for any girl except Elena and... I, I basically became jealous of her. I was her friend, I agree but was jealous all the same. After all, I am just as human as you are."
"I agree." She told her as she brushed back her loose hair strands back her ear.
"Fate did its thing, and I never got to have anything with him, nothing special anyway. He was a nice guy, all years through university, he was I won't deny. But then that one night. He changed everything in a snap. What he did to her, and how she trusted him. It was just too horrible. Sometimes I wonder if that could have been me. And all those horrors would have befallen me. He's a monster, a dangerous one. He deserves what he got and he's where he's supposed to be." She took a short pause. "So Mrs. Layla, that's what I think of your son."
"Oh," Layla said. She grabbed the glass once again and took another sip of the mango juice. "Thank you for your honesty, Shallon. I appreciate it." She put the glass back on the table. "I was wondering if you could tell me how he was during that night, of the farewell party... from what you observed."
"Like what? He was the host. He was cool, presentable, and not that drunk and he had Elena basically all night. Whatever happened to him, happened while he was out of the party."
"So what do you mean? That you saw nothing suspicious while there? Not at all? In the whole of the night were you close to him at all? Like really, really close?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Too many questions. I, I dunno. I mean it was a party. Proximity to people is one of the least of the things people consider when at a party ma'am. Why are you asking these questions anyway?"
"I'm gonna cut straight to the point Shallon," Layla told her, as her eyebrows drew closer. "Are you alone?"
"Yes? Yeah, I'm alone."
"Okay. Ethan said that you handed him and Lance some drinks. Drinks that they drunk to celebrate something only both of them knew."
"Um, yeah. I did. It was Ethan's celebration of the life ahead with Elena. Lance said that in court. Is there a problem with that?"
"Here's the problem... you were never to serve drinks that day, according to Ethan, as he had his own waiters to do the work. Yet you were dressed in the waiters' uniform, and served." She studied Shallon's face. Her eyes were wide, and her lips parted.