"I am marrying Ishtar, mother."
"Hahaha...," she busted out in a loud laugh.
"I'm serious mom!"
"Son..., you know what, this must be the joke of the century," she went ahead to laugh.
"It's not a joke mom _ my presence in your bedroom is not just to wish you a good night as usual. Today, Ishtar is the major reason why I'm here."
"Your blessings matter a lot to us when we get married, so we shall need them," Bob Lee added, informing his mother on a serious note.
Mother, after noticing the bold writings on her son's face, unwavering resolution to marrying Ishtar, slowly her laughter faded away. She suddenly and uncontrollably threw bed cover sheets off her body and jumped out, off the bed, impatiently desiring some answers.
"When did it start?" She asked.
From the chest drawers; totally searching for nothing, into the mirrior pretending to find a spot on her face skin, and quickly outside the bedroom, downstairs, direct to the kitchen in a fridge. Filled with uncertainty, mother felt so frustrated. She picked a glass to take some water.
Bob Lee, who thought informing his mother about his decision to get married was going to be as simple as eating a piece of cake, came to notice that it was something close to lifting an elephant, quite a heavyweight task to accomplish.
He started following behind his mother to prove his point and convince her.
"Ishtar is a woman who understands us mom, she has been taking care of you and me, and father when he was still alive. We both know that she has been doing it unconditionally for years now," he smiled to mean all is well.
"Besides, she is such a beauty, so intelligent; the kind of woman I won't be embarrassed to hold hands with in public," he smiled more handsomely and comfortably towards his mother.
Still simple in her attitude, "you've not yet answered my question, Bob! I still need to know when you and Ishtar started, because the last time I knew it, there hardly was any slight kind of intimacy between both of you."
"I feel I achieved a certain intimacy with her," he replied, full of high spirit, "and am ready to make her my wife."
"Cut the crap!" Mother began to loose her temper, "does that answer when and how both of you started?"
Before she poured herself a glass of water to quench the fire burning in her body system, mother placed the glass down on the kitchen island, stood still and gazed intently into Bob Lee's eyes, an indirect communication demanding for appropriate answers.
"Today," Bob Lee answered, apparently on a low spirit after noticing the attitude his mother depicted.
"How?" She asked more with a threatening attitude, so seriously on her face.
With shyness written all-over him, hesitantly he stated, "m mom it's not right to keep your adult son on his toes like this..., somethings are better off not said," in a low spirit he said.
Bob Lee wasn't at all ready to tell his mother how he started messing in between Ishtar's thighs. It was embarrassing to tell her. Since his mother was a very sensitive person, she suspected.
"Did you take advantage of her body? I need to know; did you release your pants down on her?" Suspiciously, she asked, gentle in her voice.
"She has always wanted it mom!" He replied.
"Would you shut up!!!" His response angered mother so hard, "Is this how you've chosen to pay for that girl's simpleness?!"
"Before you even thought of bringing her down on her back, did you manage to brief her about how you have the sharpest spear, recklessly having one night stands with each and every beautiful girl that crosses your path?" Angrily his mother asked.
"Mom, this is marriage we're talking about here! Am marrying Ishtar mom!"
"Don't even mention _ we both know you don't mind about her!"
"But I promised her, and am ready to protect her feelings!" Insensibly, he tried to defend himself, talking back at his intelligent mother.
"You're crazy...? Are you even aware that all along I've been protecting that girl from seeing all your dirty moves? Yes, I know how much she had always yearned to have you to herself; but again, I knew how you chose to be a boy instead of a man _ I was pushed to hiring a spy who monitored you around, and every time you hooked up with a girl, I made sure Ishtar doesnt know."
"Do you want to know how I did it?" Mother continued to disclose details, "Whenever the information came to my attention, I gave her an urgent call to come back home. Since she's very obedient, it took her no time to get to me."
Ashamed, Bob Lee signed so discouraged.
"You don't love Ishtar; infact, you've never cared about her at any point in life. No matter how much she had sought for your attention, stalked you for years, done all crazy stuff like setting up several fake phone calls in your presence to pretend talking to a lover out there, thinking you were going to be touched and maybe show concern! But all her efforts went in vain."
"Mom!"
"Yes! I've been watching both of you closely and I know that you only talk to her when its about office and maybe maid matters."
"But mom, that's people's privacy, it's not right to....!"
"Same as am your mother, am her guardian as well," before he even finished talking she cut him short, "I can't stand watching you drive her through life hell... unless am out of life, you will never hurt that innocent soul."
"I don't have any intentions of hurting Ishtar, trust me mom!"
"If that's what you think, am sorry for you," she pitied him.
Bob Lee heavily Sighed.
His mother wasn't done with him yet, "How could you be so heartless to forget that Ishtar has greatly been a strong pillar in lifting the company, surpassing all the competitors and putting you on top of the game, now a billionaire CEO at a young age; that's who you're _ bossing on her skills."
"That's why I proposed to her mom, I will prove it to you that am not heartless. For your information, we are even engaged now."
"Wait, pro what?" This shocked his mother to hear, "Over my breathless body... You must take that back!" mother couldn't tolerate her son's recklessness every moment he spoke.
"I can't mom, Ishtar is my fiancée now!"
"You're mad," she angrily said, "you mean with all the girls you've taken advantage of in your noble suite at the family hotel none of them qualifies enough to be your wife?!"
"No mom."
"Not until you learn to keep your pants tight up in your waist on beautiful girls, you'll never recieve marriage blessings from me _ more importantly," she restricted him, "forget about marrying Ishtar!"
"Mom, mom...!" No matter how desparate he kept calling, mother sealed the conversation and on a very annoyed face she hurried to go back upstairs, forgetting the water she was about to drink.
As she was walking, before stepping on the staircase, she saw Ishtar upstairs, peeping down at her. Mother pretended not to have seen her. She stopped walking and looked back over her shoulder at her son.
"I know about Nadia Browne too; that girl from the cinema. Let me hope it's not what I'm thinking," then she stepped on the stairs, climbing up, back to her bedroom.
Bob Lee was so shocked. He couldn't believe the extent at which his mother was informed of his issues which were meant to be private. "What is it doesn't mom know about me?" He wondered at the back of his mind.
Nervously, his face was twisted in shame.
However, all along Ishtar was listening. When she saw mother coming upstairs, she tiptoed quickly to Bob Lee's room where she closed herself, not to be seen.
On a downcast face, Bob Lee followed his mother's way back up on the stairs, but this time round, to the side where his bedroom was. By opening the door, Ishtar, whom he had left half naked in a red bra and panty, was found fully dressing up, ready to leave.
"Where are you going? I thought we agreed to spend a night together and share more of a precious time!" He smiled, touching her softly with a little romance.
"Am sorry I've changed my mind, I have to sleep in my quarters," she said, markedly emotional, distancing herself a step away.
"Wait," Bob Lee sensed something wrong with her moods, not warm as expected, "did you... by any chance come out; I mean, have you heard the conversation between me and my mother?"
Ishtar kept quiet, with looks of indifferent, "Is it because of that?" He asked like he knew it.
"I'm just your maid and your secretary, that's what I am to you. How stupid am i to forget too easily and raise my hopes so damn high!" She needed to cry.
"Please, ignore everything my mother just said earlier," he tried to caress her.
"Is there anything she said wrongly? We both know she's a million times right," emotionally, tears began coming out.
"By not embracing our engagement, she's very wrong," He said, trying to bring her close in his chest.
"Tell me," Ishtar distanced herself from him further more on a miserable face, "was your mother right when she said you sleep with any beautiful girl that crosses your path?"