Chapter 5
Jilian arrived at her site office earlier than usual. Normally, she would pitch up at 9 bells, let alone have her favourite brine flakes, but on this unusual day, she had asked aunt Gloria not to bother about fixing it because she would be fine with some coffee and cookies at the office.
"You can send driver Chris to pick it up for you Jilly" she had attempted to persuade her, but in vain.
"Let's leave that for tomorrow, never mind aunt! I have got lots of stuff to attend to, I'll sort myself out at the office!" she explained her reason.
She often got out of bed at 6 o'clock, but by the time the clock struck 5, she was already up and about. In fact, she never got to press her back against the mattress any longer after Jason's vacation. The first thing she did was to remove the spoiled bed sheets which she stuffed underneath the rest of her dirty laundry in the washing basket. Never had she shrunk sheets in such a manner, nor felt overly gratified on the first night as had transpired. There is always a first time for everything, so they say. All she thought of doing was to mask the messy traces of her frivolous intimate adventure with Jason before aunt Gloria's entrance, but there was nothing much she could do to conceal from a person who knew and could reach every corner of that house other than just obscure the contraband exhibit. She was very respectful and considerate of aunt Gloria's feelings and almost everything that connected them. She knew very well that she might have realized that the guy whom she had introduced to her a couple of weeks ago as the site Manager had slept over. Upon his arrival for his masquerading mission at around 7 pm, she had briefly left her cottage to take a casual walk to the shops which were just nearby. She had her own keys to the gate and the house. Jilian had had such moments with male guests before in her presence, but none of them had left in the early hours of the morning as he had done. Neither had she heard the gate of their residence sliding as early nor ever peeped through the window of her Redbury cottage to eavesdrop a faint conversation as that.
"Ookaaay, so the site Manager slept here" she had muttered to herself upon catching an undercover glimpse of the two's obliterated movements from her cottage which was a few yards off the gate.
"So these guys are lovers, isn't it?" she rhetorically asked herself as she retreated from her observation spot upon realizing that Jilian had inquisitively cast her eyes to her cottage as she walked back to the main house.
Aunt Gloria had been Jilly's first housemaid ever since she felt she needed one. She had decided to hire her 3 years back when she purchased her first house in the leafy suburbs of Greylands. Prior to that, she rented a spinster apartment where she lived solely by herself. It had never occurred to her that she could need a full-time maid as she had a neighbour's to summon whenever she had any dirty laundry or daunting household chores to be taken care of. Above all, she was a well-brought-up girl who could do her own household chores, but the coming of more challenging project tasks meant scarcity in terms of time to spare for such household responsibilities for a helper.
She had worked for a number of elite people and had set herself a proven track record to warrant a one-go recommendation by any unbiased employment agent. Weeks after her landing of Jilian's Greylands mansion job, she kept receiving a chain of phone calls from prospective employers and agents. Jilian, whom the agent had said was lucky to find such a mature, honest and responsible maid, did not hesitate to meet her top-shelved payment expectations. Gloria's former bosses, an Italian couple, had returned home at short notice. The husband, who was an ambassador, got a ministerial appointment upon a cabinet reshuffle, a development that meant that they had to fly from Crushland forthwith. It was before the elapse of a month as an unemployed person when she got hired by Jilian, and had proven to be up to her resume billing. She was somewhat relieved that, at Jilian's residence, she was not going to be as busy as was the case at her previous workplace where she used to work extremely harder given the need to serve top guests and delegates who, from time to time, made courtesy calls on the Ambassador. When Jilian accepted her salary bill, which was exactly what she used to be paid, she was so impressed and could not hide how she felt.
"Thank you so much madam" she had expressed her gratitude from the bottom of her heart.
"Don't mention aunt, you can just call me Jilian or Jilly. I'm a simple person, feel free" she had responded with humility and courtesy.
The noisy gate slide had obviously given an entrance or exit signal not only to the aunt but also to the close neighbours. It was absurd to think that people were deaf to hear such a squeaky sound, let alone at such a cockcrow hour. In all honesty, she was a lady who cared so much about her privacy, let alone subtle about her repugnant mannerisms.
"I will see you at lunch, aunt!" she shouted to aunt Gloria, who was upstairs.
"Alright, have a good day, Jilly!" she responded with the same tone.
She had a knack for having her Toyota bakkie parked facing the gate so that it could not be much of a negotiation hustle as she drove out.
Having arrived early, the first thing on her mind was a steaming cup of chocolate coffee which she accompanied with ginger cookies. In the office, she had a fully-fledged kitchen to resort to whenever she felt like doing so. It was also open for use to all other members of staff, but only before 8 am and during the lunch hour. The best of them would just need the boiling jug for tea and coffee, and the microwave to warm their cold lunches.
"Madam you are so early today!" exclaimed driver Chris.
"I am always on time, Chris" she downplayed the attention as she disappeared into the kitchen.
Jilian was that kind of person who never casually gave people satisfaction. Neither was she cold nor pompous, but just whimsical. She closed the door behind her whilst Chris grabbed the bus keys that he had put on the receptionist's desk to attend to his main duty of transporting site crew, given that only 10 minutes were left before 8 bells, the time at which their duty ticket started clocking. Jilian had successfully dodged a probable bout of his extroverted indulgence. Above all, he was Jason's housemate, hence the sudden invitation of her discomfiture. What also made her uncomfortable was his open interaction with aunt Julia, whom she had bonded with well in a short space of time. She was no longer a juvenile to worry about public opinion when it came to matters of love and romance, but she never loosely flaunted in that regard. As she waited for her coffee water to reach a boil, an alert message popped up on her phone.
"Hi, I will be heading straight to the site. I suppose we are done with the survey report. If you need me, let me know. By the way, you broke my back last night, Jilian. Ummm, that was a classy romantic act" the WhatsApp message read.
She could only smile as she replied. "The report is done, let me just work on perfecting its presentation. Eish! My clits are itching Jason, you bruised me, man! Not complaining though, otherwise, you gave it to me in a very special way, and because of that, you got me wondering about what I should do to thank you. Yes! you really scratched off my sex irritation, and such a man of the match fuck attracts some kind of reward. It's a promise, Jason"
She served herself a simple and snacky office breakfast, which she had in her office, whilst pondering about the hot sex she had had with Jason. She made sure that the survey report was ready and sent before the due deadline. Furthermore, she had the Manburg/Zonex road construction project tender bid submission to work on. When it came to work-related matters, she was not only an expert, but also a busy bee. Therefore, she made sure that she attended to her email and in-tray backlog before anything else.