SIERRA'S LEONE

THE LONGEST DAY

Tea time allowed Sierra to relax until she heard the front door slam.

"Mom, it's uncle Ishaan," Elise's son exclaimed.

Sierra's breath hitched. Why did she feel this way?

Perhaps it was because even Vincent adjusted his position and sat up as his older brother entered.

Ms. Patel grinned. The woman finally found relief with her ally's arrival. She almost wanted to run to her son to denounce the others as traitors to her cause.

Vincent got up to greet his brother. If it weren't for the height difference, one would think the two were twins, just as one would note the striking resemblance between Jai and Elise.

Ishaan was taller, but he also had a few grey stripes of hair that allowed one to differentiate the two.

His wife, like Sierra, was of small stature and as pregnant as one could be. From the looks of things, she was due sometime soon.

Couldn't the woman remain at home? Once more, Sierra didn't weigh traditions responsibility.

Despite that, Sierra didn't think twice when she got up to let her chair. Her gesture made Ishaa cock an inquisitive brow in her direction.

"Ishaan, this is Sierra," Vincent said.

"I guessed that," Ishaan replied in an aloof tone; all except Sierra knew.

If Sierra had the hang of things until then, she felt the control slipped through her fingers. The tingling sensation under her armpits alerted her of an imminent breakout of sweat.

Ms. Patel beamed at the sight of Sierra's expression of despair. This was how the woman was supposed to be from the beginning.

Everyone made Sierra too comfortable, in Ms. Patel's opinion. Thank goodness Ishaan mastered the art of whisking up the panic.

Everyone made space for the couple, who also got served some tea and snacks.

"So what did I miss?" Ishaan asked.

"Oh, Sierra was telling us about her job?"

"Ah, yeah, and what's that?"

Vincent threw a stare at Elise, who just shrugged. Every sibling reported their impression and what they knew about Sierra. The older brother had also done a background check on social media. The woman attended the schools on her Linkedin resume and also worked in all the places stated, still he asked.

Ms. Patel did the recap, and Ishaan picked up, "so what are you going to do once married?"

"Pardon?"

Sierra gave Vincent a slight glance, but the man was too busy glaring at his brother, who unaffected pursued, "I mean, you're job demands a lot of attention, but so does your foyer and husband. What will you do?"

"Well, it should not be a problem since we're already in the situation, and it's going pretty well."

Sierra avoided turning to smile at Vincent as she knew the man would not respond.

"How about when you have kids?"

Sierra smiled, "do you want me to quit my job? I mean, I already have a son, and I'm doing pretty good too with that."

At that instant, Vincent closed his eyes, the man had naively hoped it would come up later during their stay, but karma too seemed to want to have fun.

This time, it was Ishaan who did the car headlights repeated blinks.

If they were in a movie, it would be a moment where crows would fly by with their grating coo sounds going caw-caw. Vincent wished they could be a to-be-continued sign, and the scene would stop.