Damn!" He cursed in silence.
Wearing shame, Bob Lee faced aside to avoid direct eye contact. But Ishtar insisted. She kept a sober eye on him, waiting for an answer.
"Yes," he finally admitted and stepped closer to atleast give an explanation.
"See, I'm not going to be that jerk of a guy anymore I promise," he told her in gesture of humbleness, "I've already made up my mind and once we take those wedding vows at the altar, we are going to be the most amazing couple on the block."
His words brought Ishtar to laugh indifferently at herself, "I truly understand why am hurting so stupidly deep inside," she said, "it's funny how your mother is trying hard to protect my feelings, and it's the same feelings that I have failed to control."
"What are you insinuating?" Bob Lee asked. He went ahead to assure her, "look, I know my mother can hardly believe me, but am ready to prove her wrong and in the end, she will be proud of me."
Ishtar heard him talk but she couldn't listen to his words because her mind was loitering in torments. Suddenly, she pulled the diamond engagement ring out off her finger, "I'll keep the necklace and the earrings, and maybe the bracelet..., but not this ring, am sorry."
"D Don't take that move Ishtar, please!" Bob Lee tried to prevent her but the torment was more powerful.
"Just keep it for now," Painfully, she placed the ring on top of the chest drawer right on the bedside, and on fast feet she got out of his room, shading tears.
On opening the door, Bob Lee's mother was already standing in a distance near her room, waiting to see what was really going to happen. As a grown-up, Knowledgeably she knew Ishtar couldn't be elsewhere except in her son's room, so she was waiting patiently.
Once Ishtar stepped out, "after overhearing the gloomy conversation between me and my son, now there you're," Bob Lee's mother spoke within, to herself.
Ishtar, when she accidentally landed eyes on Bob Lee's mother, anxiously, her quick feet came to an abrupt stop. While on a standstill, their eyes met with a steady gaze for a few seconds.
However, this didn't stop Ishtar from crying. Not because she was seen by mother, but the agony of words she overheard kept her eyes wet with tears.
Least expected to be caught by mother in a concealed romance with her son, as a disciplined young lady she didn't feel good about it, "there is fire on the mountain," silently she said to herself, worriedly.
Ishtar, all over a sudden ran. She couldn't wait to hurried downstairs, out of the main house, back to her quarters to prepare for the awaiting repercussions.
Back to Bob Lee inside his room, he walked a very relaxed guy towards the door to shut it. Amidst closing it, unexpectedly, he saw his mother standing in a distance, looking his way. They looked at each other with unhappy faces for at first, but Bob Lee had to lock his room door. He left his mother watching.
"I can't believe I gave birth to a greedy boy, a bunny," as mother returned to her bedroom, she said to herself, "What a frustrating boy!"
Ishtar, on the other hand arrived inside her quarters which were separate from the main house. She wrung her hands piteously together, her soul was in torment.
In loneliness and frustration, she sat on top of her bed and grabbed a pillow so tight. She leaned her face on it and loudly, where no one could hear her voice, she continued to shade painful tears, sniffing and whipping her nose.
"Heavens where are you to save me?" Sniffing her flowing nose she cried, asking her lonely self, "Why is my heart so stubborn like this? So deeply in love with a man who is beyond my powers to know, understand or even explain!"
"Knock knock!" a series of sharp knocks echoed through a quiet room, waking Ishtar up from a deep sleep very early the following morning.
Having spent almost the whole night crying, Ishtar didn't even know how she ended up asleep. Looking as if she touched alcohol, on a heavy head and swollen eyes, she got the door.
"Mother!"
Immediately she saw her, worries resumed. "You usually call my phone when you need me, hope all is well?" nervously she spoke.
"You don't look so well...," when Bob Lee's mother began talking, accidentally her eyes landed on a beautiful necklace around Ishtar's neck, "are those diamonds?" While she was still asking about the necklace, the earrings sparkled on her ears and she saw them too.
And as she was about to give a comment, unwittingly, Ishtar worriedly lifted up the arm to touch the necklace, and mother saw a similar bracelet glittering on her wrist too.
"My son bought all those?" She asked, while sneaking an eye on Ishtar's fingers to see if she had an engagement ring.
"Yes," Ishtar gave a nervous smile.
Her being a wise observant woman, when she saw that the engagement ring wasn't on, she knew it went with last night's storm.
"So, your dispute with my son was this serious!" Deep inside, mother talked and sighed.
Speaking aloud thereafter, "I did not expect you to be with my son last night _ maybe it was for your own good to hear those words, or maybe not; I am sorry that you over heard me in a harsh situation with him, I know how much you care about him and the damage it caused."
Amidst mother apologizing, Ishtar's heart could not stop running nervously, "What exactly do you want to say to me? You've not visited me this early just to apologise!" Her mind spoke.
"But that's not why am here," just like Ishtar expected, mother said, "straight to the point; do not accept marrying my son _ no matter what." Head up straight, she boldly restricted her.
"And, about the pain you're going through, of course as time goes by it'll heal, no need to worry," speaking so unbothered, mother wore a plastic smile.
"Y Yeah, J Just a little headache but I'll be alright, am sure!" Ishtar humbly stuttered while her hands trembled nervously.
With a plastic smile on her grown-up face, Bob Lee's mother walked on, leaving Ishtar emotionally disturbed that early morning.
As Bob Lee's mother walked, Ishtar stared at her in perplexity, until she went out of sight.
"What?"
It was a week later when the sudden news in the text message got Bob Lee's mother out of comfort on a chair when she read the alert. To her feet promptly she raised with her mobile phone and dialed Ishtar immediately.
"See me at the house right now!"
Ishtar smelt danger. Quickly out of the office, Ishtar drove faster to go home and attend to mother's urgent call. In a little while, here she walked inside the house to meet mother who was furiously determined to move a mountain.
"Tell me it's not true!" As soon as mother saw Ishtar, she attacked, spitting nothing but fire.
With completely no crew of why mother was extremely harsh, "am sorry mother but I don't understand!" On an inquisitive face, softly Ishtar needed to be briefed about the matter.
"Don't even waste your precious time, I want that pregnancy aborted." She demanded.
"What? I I can't mother!" Ishtar exclaimed in an anxious shock.
"How did she even know that I'm pregnant?" She questioned herself within.
"Don't dare me, okay? I'm calling the family doctor right now, that pregnancy must be terminated."
"With all due respect mother, I can't aborted my twins," Ishtar yearned.
"T Twins?" Suddenly, mother stuttered as her bitter attitude turned into a shocked face.
However, Ishtar didn't notice. Anxiety kept her lamenting, "Bob Lee doesn't knows about the pregnancy _ I promise to go far away and don't show up in your lives again, but please mother, allow me to keep my twins," she dropped down on her knees tearing, begging for mercy.
Standing speechless, "So, my son did not only put a baby in there, but impregnated her with twins...!" in disbelief mother talked deep inside, "last thing I could think of."
"Today," Ishtar spoke, trembling anxiously down on her knees infront of mother, "when I discovered that I was heavy with twins, I wrote a resignation later which I was planning to hand over to your son immediately after work. Neither do I want to bother you with my condition, nor do I need anything from your son. I just need my life along with my twins, that's all."
Ishtar's words took mother by storm again. Mother gazed intently straight in her eyes and pressed the mobile phone, "Dialing Son," the phone screen displayed.
"Hello mom!"
"Your wedding with Ishtar is in seven days from now, take note," and she hanged up.
So suprised and shocked, Ishtar gazed gape-jawed, curiously at Bob Lee's mother while she raised up so fast from her knees, "You mean...!!??!!"
"What?!" Bob Lee exclaimed in delight.
"H How comes?!" He stuttered so disturbed, "Why change her mind suddenly? What going on?" Questioning himself alone in the car, but no answers given.
Without wasting any second of his time, Bob Lee turned the car around and hurried back home to meet his dear mother for answers.
Quietly, mother, after updating her son, she walked on a frozen mood up the stairs to her bedroom, leaving Ishtar standing stuck in a complex mixture of thoughts.