Catherine wakes up the next day feeling tired and tries to sleep back then she sees it is past nine.
She quietly jumps out of the bed so as not to wake her mum who is sleeping close to her, breathing faintly. She makes breakfast, takes her bath and dresses up. She eats rushly then write down some writings for her mum in a small notes and drops it on the table. It reads eat well and don't forget to use your drug. Also don't forget you have an appointment with the doctor today. Love you. She ends it with a love heart shape.
She pecks her mum and rushes down to the road.
She enters the Kingsley's compound unsure of how Bianca might reacts . She has never been late to work before. Besides it's past their breakfast time. They, most especially Bianca takes her breakfast at 10 promptly and it's already past 10.
She inhales deeply and opens the door. She sees Bianca walking out from the kitchen to the living room
'Good morning ma' she greets, her head down
'Good morning' she replies taking her seat 'you're late'. She turns to her 'hope all is fine?'
Catherine is relieved. She is not annoyed. She will never repeat this again. She promises herself
'No all is fine . I'm sorry ma it won't repeat itself again. Should I still make breakfast?'
'No don't worry with that. The boys had something from the fridge.Jonathan is out with his friends. ' She replies 'Go make my tea. I think the water should be hot by now' she orders
'Okay ma' Catherine replies and walks towards the kitchen feeling excited within. She stops when she gets to the entrance as Bianca calls her.
'Catherine'
She turns back
'I want you to clear the store today. Take out those trunks to the garage to trash them out. That place is too stuffy. I went to take the mop this morning and everything felt choky' she explains
'Okay ma'
She makes the tea and serves it to her. She goes ahead with the cleaning.
After that, Bianca informs her she is leaving for shopping. She does that every week and Catherine wonders the kind of stuffs she gets. She virtually has everything and does not use so many of them. She concludes perhaps shopping is one of the ways she saves herself from boredom and keep herself busy. Of course, it only applies to people like her — rich and sophiscated women.
She opens the store and clears out the small things on the way. There are lot of trunks at the end of the room. She moves forward to drag it outside one after the other but surprises she can't. The trunks are way to heavy for her muscle to handle. She walks out of the room to source for little help, probably from Michael or, no way! she is asking Sebastien. It has to be Michael or no one else. She makes up her mind.
She gets to his room and knocks but hears no reply. She knocks again calling his name.
'Michael, Michael' she pauses and thinks. 'It's Thursday and he should be at home right?'.She thinks to herself and brings out her phone from the pocket of the apron on her to confirm the day. 'Oh gosh!' She gently tap her forehead after seeing it's Friday and not Thursday 'He's probably at the gym'.
He attends the gym on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Thursdays and Tuesdays are is off which he spends every morning jogging round the house.
She sighs because there seems to be no other options than to ask Sebastien but she isn't ready to face him because of what had happened yesterday. She thought it hard at home and concluded perhaps it wasn't his fault that she fell even though he apologised later. Perhaps she just couldn't forgive him or appreciated his help because she wanted to use the opportunity to release her accumulated anger on him.
She walks to his door and knocks gently 'Sebastien'
'Come in'
Catherine enters inside and sees him painting. 'oh you're busy' She says and changes her mind, making a U-turn to the door.
Sebastien stops her 'it's fine. What do you want?' he asks
Catherine is a little bit surprise. His tone is not that bossy one he uses most times on her.
She turns back to him, avoiding his face 'Actually can you help me move some trunks out of the store?' she asks
Sebastien drops the paper and brush in his hand. 'Okay fine' he replies and gets up
'Thank you' replies Catherine
They gets to the store and Catherine points to the trunks. 'There'
She moves inside so they can lift them together.
Sebastien stops her and asks looking at her ankle 'how's your ankle?'
'oh!' she smiles and circles her feet round 'It's fine. Thanks'
He moves to the trunk 'Don't worry let me carry them, where do you want to place them?' he faces her
'Garage'. She replies and stops him from carrying it 'No let's carry it together'
'I say it fine' he insists and carries the trunk away leaving Catherine to wonder if this is the Sebastien she knows.
He carries the last trunk to the the garage and sits on one of the bigger one feeling tired. Catherine pours him a glass of water she brought out during the middle of the work.
'Thank you' he appreciates and gulps the whole liquid.
'I should be the one thanking you' she replies ' didn't expect this from you,' she admits
Sebastien smiles. 'I guess I'm forgiven then'
'Oh', she exclaim seeing he is referring to yesterday's incidence 'Of course l've forgiven you. Beside I should be the one saying sorry'
'For?' He ask
'You know,' she tries to explain while finding a trunk to sit, a little far away from him, ' You literally did nothing. I wasn't supposed to rest my head on your door and You didn't know that. Guess I just used that opportunity to release my anger on you' she confesses and smiles.
'Wow! guess I've been getting on your nerves' he laughs
'Uhm,' she shakes a head and replies laughing 'A little'
'I'm sorry then' he apologizes 'i thought you were one of those annoying maids,' looks at her 'guess you're different' he remarks. 'You're quite polite you know and hardworking. We've never had a young maid like you.' He pauses and continue 'Can I ask you something?'
Catherine nods 'Sure'
'Why aren't you getting a decent job? Or don't you have a degree' he questions
'Degree? Not yet. I'm still schooling. Online though' she replies
'Wow so you're schooling. Wait Michael said you're the former maid's daughter. Is that true?' he asks
'Yeah' she replies
'Your mum must be proud to have a daughter like you then' he remarks
'Guess she is' she replies 'Can I ask you something too? She asks back
'Go on' he agrees
'Why do you keep to yourself all the time? I mean you don't really come out of your room or go to parties and you don't have friends that come visit you or rather visit them. I mean no offence though you realize you can't remain like this forever right?'
Sebastien sighs 'You're getting it wrong' he utters
'Sorry?'
'I mean firstly,' he explains 'i don't just stay and keep to myself in the room but rather I draw and paint . You should know cause I do that a lot'
'But is that only...' Catherine questions back
'And secondly,' raising his tone a little and cutting her in ' I have friends and we play together everyday'
'Really?' she asks, 'when? where?' she demands
'Everytime on the phone. We play online games together.' he replies
Catherine chuckles 'Wait wait so you mean,' she pauses to laughs 'your friends are online ones? You must be joking.' tries to be serious 'You see that's it. Why don't you have physical ones like Michael?'
' Because they can't be like them. I mean,' he tries to explain 'when you tell them what to do to win a level they do it you know there is this teamwork...' he pauses and sees Catherine trying to stop herself from laughing 'what? Is it funny?'
Catherine waves at him bursting out 'sorry,' she tries to put on a serious face 'you know I never know you can be so funny like this. No just look at you, you say win a level or what? all these is hilarious ' she remarks and stops as her phone rings.
She takes out the phone 'Sorry my mum' she says and turns aside . She picks the call
'Hello! mum how're you doing? Did you...'
'Hello! it's me Catherine, Mrs Johnson' the voice cuts in, panicking
'oh! hi Mrs Johnson what's wrong?'
'Your mum. She fainted and was rushed to the hospital?'
'What?' Catherine shouts 'my mum? She tries to calm down 'which hospital was she taken to?'
'The one at the road side' Mrs Johnson replies still panicking
'okay pls wait for me there. I'm on my way'. She cuts the phone and turns to Sebastien
'Are you okay? Is everything alright with your mum' he asks anxiously
Catherine breathes in swallowing hard 'She was rushed to the hospital. I need to go see her' she takes off the apron, shaking.
Sebastien holds her 'Calm down she 'll be fine'
Catherine nods 'I'll be back' she turns to the gate
'Wait let me take you' Sebastien offers
'No don't bother' she declines and rushes to the gate.
Sebastien runs after her and stops her
'Catherine listen, you might not quickly get a cab. So wait here, let me get the car key' . He runs inside, takes the car key and both enter the car. They drive out of the house and zoom off.
'