The sun blazed through the glass doors at Tiffany's and all the workers stood in eerie silence, gazing upon the hard glass with intensity enough to shatter it with unified glare sorcery. Their prim postures remained unburdened by the motionless passing of time and the occasional clicks of tongue exhibited in disappointment by the man sat on the guest couch.
The occasional whir of cars and loud honks would momentarily shoot up their hopes but alas the woman to be adorned in white was nowhere within sight. Yet.
Until, the glass door was pushed open and the door chime indicated the arrival of a customer. Their faces instantly morphed into business smiles – pushed up cheeks, toothy and deliberately reaching their eyes – as the woman walked in.
"Hello! I'm so sorry for the delay!" she gasped, holding out two bags, "Please, I did not know what you'd like so I brought bread and juice. You can leave a list for the next time, I'm sorry! Please, feel free to start whenever!" she extended the gifts to the workers.
Exasperated by the incessant look in her raised brows and wide doe eyes, the head of workers stepped forward to accept the packet.
"You did not have to, thank you Ms. Manchester, we're thoroughly obliged!"
"Oh please," the man on the crouch groaned to a stand. His dark orbs stiff on the gift exchange.
"Aiden, I'm sorry, there was an emergency!" Soleia turned to face him, lips pursed in a line and brows mushed in apology.
"A bug, I presume?" he raised a brow as Soleia nodded. "We're getting married next week and this is the fourth rescheduled dress fitting," he laughed out loud, walking over to them, he leaned to peek inside the bags, "Ah! Lemon! Lemonade! A classic; so that no one is offended," he grinned and took out a cup for himself.
"It was really an emergency, I promise, I tried to get away as soon as I could but then I got stuck in traffic. I—"
"Excuses don't suit you, no no," he clicked his tongue to savour the taste of the lemony drink as Soleia flinched, "Do they?" he turned to ask the head of workers.
"We will give you privacy," she stated, cold and motionless, about to leave when Aiden stopped her with a call.
"Please! Don't! We're breaking up as it is."
"Aiden," Soleia ground out.
"Why? Are you going to beg again?" he turned, his face barely away from hers.
She sucked in a harsh breath and the fierce resolution left her eyes. They softened as she stared into his, "I'm sorry, okay? This was the last time. Let's do it now. I'll stay for as long as you like, yeah? I'll do anything, can you please not be mad?" she begged, lips poured in a pout and eyes watering up with emotion.
His eyes narrowed with a smile, condescending, searching for honesty in her eyes.
"When will you stop viewing people as mere transactions, Soleia?" he whispered, so close in her face that the words were almost inaudible. But in the pre-existing silence of Tiffany's, they resonated loud in her world. "Until when will you compensate for everything that you lack? Huh? What if there's someone who is offering more than you can? What's going to happen then?"
His tone turned harsher with every question passed and in the middle of July, a chill ran down her spine.
"How much are they offering?" Soleia asked with a gulp, eyes locked on a random piece of furniture beyond his shoulder.
"A blank cheque from their billions of net-worth."
There was a smile on his lips and as he tilted his head Soleia dropped to her knees.
"No! you cannot do this to me! I—we, we lo- we are getting married! We have been together for three years! You cannot abandon us! You cannot! Please! Please! Don't leave me!" she whimpered at his feet, much to the astonishment of the workers.
One of the ran up to draw the blinds and the other brought forth a bottle of water.
"What should I do now, dear Soleia, tell me?" he asked, not even flinching as she bawled her eyes out.
"Choose me! Please, choose me, will you?" she gasped, voice meek and vulnerable, visions of his bright smiles and kind eyes rushing past her. Aiden helping her set up her office board, Aiden surprising her with birthday cakes even in the coldest of November days, Aiden proposing to her in a hot air balloon as if they were the protagonists of a romance novel.
A pair of hands grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her up, "We are rescheduling this. I will see you for the event tonight. Do not disappoint me, okay?" he whispered in her face, ever so softly. Soleia nodded, wiping her tears with the back of her hands as Aiden made his way out.
"I apologise for all the inconvenience caused," She sniffled, face morphing into a bright smile. "We've wasted your time again. But surely, I'll finalize a dress, next time." She gave them a thumbs up with a big smile and twitching eyes.
"It's an honour to serve you Ms. Manchester, you will never be an inconvenience," the head of workers bent her head in a curt bow as her subordinates offered a napkin and a water bottle to Soleia.
"Thank you! I'll see you again, next Friday? You're all invited to my wedding!" she waved the napkin and water bottle as she pushed open the door and made her way out. The outside world embraced her with loud honks and gusts of dry air.
Instantly, the grin slid off her face and the kindness in her eyes dropped to a dull nonchalance. She twisted open the bottle cap and chugged down half of its contents.
"I cannot believe he made me fall to his feet. That absolute scumbag!" Soleia growled, crumbling the bottle of water in her hand, "I will kill him as soon as the wedding is done. No force on Earth would find where his body disappeared off to. Damn you!" she grumbled, stomping her way to her car. She pulled open the door and threw the bottle inside with enough force to maim.
"Ugh I'm so mad! And humiliated! And mad!" she pulled at her hair, convulsing in her driving seat every time she'd look up at the Tiffany's store board. "I want to succumb six feet under and never come out again! Ugh! So annoying!" she kicked around until a notification popped up and jerked her into stillness. "So annoying," she sniffled, holding her cold palm over her burning eyes.
"Right, focus," she waved jazz hands in her face, "Be kind, be mature, nothing can phase us. We're better than that. I am a rich and successful woman," she cringed at the memory of falling to her knees and looking up at Aiden with tears and snot mixed in a concoction of misery. "And sometimes incredible people have to do dumb, shameless, shit to survive, right?" she asked herself through the rear-view mirror. "Of course! One can only be so perfect," she nodded at her reflection and picked up the water bottle to chug more, "I need him now so it doesn't really matter what he does. I need him now," she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and threw the bottle in the back seat.
The notification tinged again and Soleia nodded, revving her engine, she called out to the emptiness of her car, "Yes, yes, yes, I'm coming. Let's go!"
Sunflower by Post Malone blasted through the speakers of her car as she drove past the exhausting city traffic, over the bridge and into the countryside. Her phone flashed 1:58 P.M. as she picked it up and locked her car upon getting out. The locking sound was subdued by loud unanimous shouts of, "Bring back Miss Stacey!! Bring back Miss Stacey!!" with a very familiar voice in the lead.
Soleia sighed as she made her way past the gates and found a crowd of toddlers, mostly shouting intelligible words, riled up for a rally.
Soleia greeted the guards at the door with a pleasant smile as she made her way through the gates. The grounds of Rosebush Elementary School were hogged by its students, waving their textbooks and toys in the air, chanting, "Bring back Miss Stacey," or rather trying to chant with intelligible accents of their underdeveloped speech. Concerned parents stood around the periphery with frowns, scowls, and tense whispers surrounding them. Every step Soleia took was witness of dirty glares and narrowed eyes of accusation.
She could only smile, albeit apologetically, as she made her way to the front of the grounds and spotted her little toddler leading the rally with bright eyes. Soleia facepalmed, looked up to receive the principal's glares through her office window and facepalmed again.
"Zen, my love, momma is here!" She jumped to the front of the crowd, mustering a bright smile. As long as she focused on Zen, the judgement and glares did not matter.
"Momma!" Zen squealed, bright emerald eyes crinkling in a smile. He held up his hands, as if asking her to wait, and turned to face his crowd of thumb-suckers, "Okay, now is home time! We will continue tomorrow!" the children squealed in liberation, running away to their parents just as Zen did.
The little child jumped in Soleia's arms and she picked him up to carry.
"What was all of this about?" she asked, a brow raised in curiosity.
Zen grinned, his little teeth out for show. He wrapped his small arms around Soleia's shoulders and explained, "That, mum, was a rally!"
"Oh? And where did you learn about rallies?"
"Auntie June and Uncle Landon," Zen shook his head as if stating the obvious.
"Of course," Soleia patted his fluffy brown head, feeling a bit guilty, "Where is your bag?"
"It's still inside," Zen pointed a finger at the school and Soleia grimaced.
"I have to go in there?" she asked, lips pursed and nose scrunched.
"You'll just have to be brave, mum," Zen shrugged, sporting an evil smile.
Soleia rolled her eyes, "You know how much I detest educational institutions. But fine, why were you rallying though?"
She stepped over the threshold of an empty classroom littered with toys and misplaced desks and spotted Zen's spiderman backpack at the very end of the classroom.
"Princi sent Ms. Stacey away. Everyone liked Ms. Stacey. We don't like Ms. Bluer, she isn't nice and kind like Ms. Stacey," Zen explained with eloquence unbeknownst to his age. He wrapped his small arms around Soleia's neck and pointed at his backpack.
"I cannot believe you are protesting at the age of five, heaven help, June and Landon have been teaching you all sorts of things, haven't they, my cutie?" Soleia pressed a kiss on his cheek and paced towards the backpack. The little boy giggled in the crook of her neck as Soleia picked up the backpack.
"Auntie June is the coolest!"
"Mhm, anybody who lets you eat icecream for breakfast is the coolest, aren't they?" Soleia chuckled, though, as she turned to leave the room, her undeniably good day was beautified five times more by the presence of the school Principal.
"A word, if you may, Ms. Manchester?" The strict woman ordered through gritted teeth, her request anything but.
"I could never deny you," Soleia gasped, a smile of exasperation graced her face as she glanced at Zen with wide brows. The little brunette merely shook his head and mumbled a little, 'sorry.' Soleia rolled her eyes and let him down to the floor. "Stay here, I'll be back in a moment, okay? Be safe."
A scoffed sounded at the doorframe.
"It's the world that needs safety from your son," Principal Jude mumbled under her breath as Soleia gathered her wits and greeted the woman with a corporate smile and a stiff handshake.
"Raizen is a brilliant kid, undoubtedly so, but even brilliant people must live restrained lives in order to not inconvenience others. We did not fire Ms. Stacey, she merely switched jobs to start anew in better circumstances. As you can see, Rosebush Elementary is pretty isolated and not ideal for the youth's future. Your child has failed to grasp this concept, multiple times, and instead insists on getting his way through. Now, the question arises, have you not been present in his life as of recently?"
"Ah," Soleia sucked in a breath. They were strolling in the empty corridor on the way to the Principal's office and Soleia had never felt more suffocated by walls. She nodded in agreement with Principal Jude's question, realised that the Principal wasn't looking, and spoke up, "I have indeed been busy these days— with the upcoming wedding and the company going through some major changes, I haven't been able to spend much time with Raizen. Though, he has trusted guardians in my friend and her partner. They're brilliant and Raizen loves—"
"Then why don't you let them adopt him, Ms. Manchester? Clearly you're too busy collecting your life together to be a mother to him." Principal Jude cut through Soleia's words like a pair of sheers pruning the marshes.
Soleia's jaw clenched with words better left unsaid. Had Jude tried being a single mother? Had she never been busy with life? Did she always have time to spare for everything she intrested herself with? What made her great and noble to be so offensive yet so right about Soleia's circumstances?
"I apologise for the inconvenience caused, I shall make sure Raizen understands the matter at hand and acts accordingly. Although, you cannot restrain a child's pursuits by blaming their parents for negligence. Raizen was merely leading a peaceful protest, quite uncalled for his age but nothing beneath his human rights and decorum. He wasn't vandalising furniture, hitting his classmates or harrassing the teachers, he was merely stating an opinion shared by a crowd to a figure of authority who would rather blame than listen. I accept my faults but do you?"
Soleia's crisp retort left a bitter taste in Principal Jude's mouth and as she settled Raizen in the baby seat of her car, a proud grin graced her face.
"You look funny, mommy, what happened?" Raizen asked, swaying his legs to and fro as he waited for Soleia to settle in the driver's deat.
"Remember Zen, if you ever get into a fight, always win. Do not stoop to their level but win on your terms," Soleia nodded, satisfied by the life adviced she dispensed.
"Like in games that you make??" Raizen clapped, eyes bright and smile bubbly.
"Yes, my beloved. Just like the games, you gotta K.O.!"
Though, as much of a paragon of justice she whished herself to be — deep down, Soleia knew that all battles could never be won. Especially the one she had at hand, with Aiden, she was losing miserably and she was the only one who knew about it. Her fingers gripped tighter on the steering wheel while Raizen sang along to the kids song playing in the car.
Soleia whished her life was like a video game. She'd have a specific set of powers, a defined way to increase it's affinity and a singular way to defeat evil on every level. Maybe she could use ceat codes from time to time, that would be fun as well, but at the end of the day — everyone's beginnings and endings would be the same. It would be just.
"Zen, beloved, you like Uncle Aiden, don't you?" Soleia asked over the music. Through the rear-view mirror, she saw him push his lips in a pout. He nodded, regardless and raised two thumbs up.
"Are you really sure? Or is it something Auntie June told you to do?" Soleia rolled her eyes at him.
Raizen chuckled, "How did you know? Ha ha ha! Auntie June told me be happy with your decision. If mommy is happy, I am happy." The child smiled a toothy smile and Soleia's heart melted. Her fingers relaxed their grip on the steering wheel, though, the warmth resonating in her chest soon bubbled to another emotion.
"Auntie June surely takes care of everything...is she better than me?"
"Auntie June is the best! But mommy is the coolest and most bestest!" Raizen squealed, "I know mommy is busy so that I can wear good clothes, eat good food and buy spiderman toys!"
Soleia's foot hit the breaks owing to an overwhelming surge of emotions. She doubled over, her head placed on the steering wheel as she muttered, "You don't always have to be so understanding, my beloved, you can be mad at mommy and demand for more."
"But mommy is already giving me everything...?" Raizen's statement was a question, which was then elaborated with a quick clap, "But if we have icecream now—"
Soleia's snort interrupted Raizen's whishes.
"Of course, of course, ice cream it is! Let's go!" Soleia raised her head up, re-ignited the engine and revved away into the afternoon hues.
As the bubbling mother and son opened the door to their apartment, icecream in hand, giggling over super mario lore, the person who greeted them inside was a picture of hostility.
"Ah-ha, there you are. Here I thought I would have to issue a search warrant for yours truly. Now, if you're done being all wishy-washy, how about you settle out of court and return my son?"