" Hi Mrs. Johnson, I didn't know you were here." The lady said with a smile as she walked towards Rebecca to hug her.
" Oh yeah, as you can see, I'm here; your boyfriend dragged me out of my house this early," Rebecca said, and they hugged.
" Mum, how did I drag you? I didn't call you; you didn't even call me to inform me that you're coming; I was even surprised to see you, yet you're telling her that I dragged you here; how? When? I don't get it." Luca said, looking confused.
" Well, if you had picked Catherine's calls she wouldn't have called me. In other words, I wouldn't be here if you had acted like a responsible boss that I trained you to be but you had refused to be. If you had picked up her calls, I'm sure you would have handled it, and there would be no need for her to call me. So you see why I said you dragged me out this early?" Rebecca explained.
" Well, mum, I didn't ask you to be here. You chose to be here." Luca said firmly.
" Do you understand what I just said?" Rebecca asked, looking confused.
" Mum, please, I'm not in the mood for your shenanigans. And you, what are you still doing here?" Luca asked, pointing at Pearl.
" Who's Catherine by the way? And who's this?" The lady asked, looking disgusted at the sight of Pearl.
" Oh! So you don't know who is Catherine? I thought you were his girlfriend; how come you don't know Catherine?" Rebecca asked, looking confused.
" No, I don't know Catherine. Baby, who's Catherine?" The lady asked Luca.
" Beatrice, she's my cleaner," Luca answered firmly.
" Oh! Is that her name?" Beatrice asked, looking surprised.
" Yes, that's her name. I'm sure you address her as cleaner too, just like your boyfriend, hence why you both don't even know her name." Rebecca said, looking disappointed.
" Birds of the same feathers flock together, can you imagine?" Pearl thought, shaking her hand.
" Sorry about that, Mrs. Johnson; I never got to know her name; my bad. So who is she?" Beatrice asked, referring to Pearl.
" She's Catherine's only child, she's here to stand in for her. Catherine had an accident on her way from work yesterday and is currently at the hospital, so she asked her daughter to stand in for her till she's back on her feet." Rebecca explained.
" Well, that's fair enough, at least she was sensible enough to send someone to stand in for her, and not let us go through the stress of getting a new cleaner because honestly, I'm not ready to start teaching any nonentity how things are being done here, I'm honestly tired of seeing new faces here all the time," Beatrice said, rolling her eyes.
" Even you? Well, just so you know, I already fired her." Luca said firmly.
" You fired who? Did you fire her yesterday before her accident? Because why would she send her daughter here if you had fired her." Beatrice said, looking confused.
" Well, I fired her this morning," Luca said sharply.
Beatrice burst into laughter and said;
" You're kidding, right? How can you fire her when she's not even her? C'mon, stop being delusional."
" Please tell him," Rebecca said sharply.
" Would you guys just let me leave?" Pearl thought.
" Just so you know, this thing right there was rude to me, so I fired her incompetent mum through her, that's simple," Luca said sharply.
" She did what? Hey you, is it true that you were rude to my man? Are you mad? What gives the guts to be rude to him? Even your good-for-nothing mother wouldn't look at his face while he's talking. So what gave you the audacity to be wrong to him?" Beatrice asked Pearl angrily.
" My name is Pearl, and I wasn't rude or disrespectful to him. And even if I was there's no smoke without fire, and just so you know, I'm not my mum because she gave birth to me doesn't mean I have all her personality traits. My mum and I are two different people." Pearl said firmly, looking straight into Beatrice's eyes.
" Finally, you both met your match; in fact, she's employed. You know what, Pearl, go inside the house and start working; I'm sure your mum already explained how things are being done to you." Rebecca said happily.
" Yes ma'am, she did," Pearl said softly, nodding her head.
" Good, go in and start working, quickly," Rebecca said sharply.
" Mum, what are you doing? I said I don't want her here, don't you get it?" Luca said angrily.
" I'm doing what I should have done immediately after I got here. It was never too late anyway. Pearl come on, go inside." Rebecca said, smiling.
" Thank you, ma'am," Pearl said, and began to walk inside the house.
" C'mon baby, let's her stay back, and work for you. It's no big deal, have you forgotten that I know how to handle her type? Just calm down, and watch me handle it from here." Beatrice said with a wicked smile as she watched Pearl enter the house.
" Really? Don't you get it? I don't want her here!" Luca yelled, breathing heavily.
" Well, I want her here, you don't expect me to run errands myself, do you?" Beatrice asked, looking straight into his eyes.
" Alright lovebirds, I have an important place to be right now. So I have to be on my way now." Rebecca said softly, walking back towards her car.
" So why did you say that I dragged you out of your house this early when you knew that you had a place you were going to?" Luca asked, looking pissed.
" Well, I said what I said, and I'm going back on my words. Bye, son." Rebecca said and entered the car.
" Bye, Mrs. Johnson," Beatrice said after her aloud.
" Bye darling, see you some other time," Rebecca said with a broad smile and shut the door.
Luca and Beatrice stood and watched the car leave.
" C'mon baby, you gonna have your pound of flesh on her, don't worry. We're going to make this house a living hell for her. C'mon, let's go inside." Beatrice said, and she led the way.
" Fine! If you say so." Luca said, rolling his eyes.
" Hey you, we need to talk," Beatrice said to Pearl who was cleaning as soon as she entered the house.
" Talk about what?" Pearl asked softly as she walked towards them.