AROUND THE HEART IN 80 DAYS

Fourteen

Edrei sighed tiredly as he had been doing almost every morning.

He had been working all round the clock since the Sales Manager would not be coming back anytime soon. He personally decided to stay away from work for a few days, at least he would watch over his house that had been in the hands of a complete stranger.

It was five o'clock in the early hours of the morning, though he was a seven o'clock riser, he knew he had to see if and why this Jacqueline would prepare breakfast for someone who kept rejecting all the offers. As he wouldn't be going to work anyway, he knew he might as well play a little spying game and go back and have a normal rest after months' old combination of exhaustion.

He slipped off the side of the bed and slid his feet into his slippers. Then quietly as he could, he stepped out of his bedroom.
He had expected to hear some action in the kitchen: slicing, frying, pounding, something. He heard none. And even when he inched closer to the wall adjacent the kitchen wall, he knew no-one was there. The lights weren't turned on.

Confusion began to etch but he quickly tossed it aside. Did she wake up by six then to prepare everything? Was she that fast to set the meals aside and still leave before he awoke?

What sort of woman was he housing? Correction, did Becca make him house?
The lights escaping from below her bedroom door in slits told him otherwise. She was definitely awake. But what was she doing? Curiosity gnawed at him like claws as interest got the better of him.

Were he to knock?

And then what?

He would become a weirdo who knocked on unwanted guests' doors early in the morning only to curse and scorn then turn back around? If that scenario ever happened --knowing she would never leave still-- she would be calling for some divine intervention.
Just as he was about to give up on finding out what he thought he could, a passing shadow caught his attention. From the window at the far wall end of his living room, the one that held his shelf and a small chaise lounge.

Hurriedly, he made soft footfalls toward that direction, the security lights from outside helping to illuminate the dark room. He used his index finger to lift one pane of his cocoa brown blinds so he could easily view what was happening in his backyard.

He immediately felt his curiousity finally get its answer. Much to his own annoyance.

The infamous mystery woman was indeed wide awake, in his backyard, spread out on a dark rectangular mat, in a deep seated pike stretch. Her legs spread out into a horizontal line on the ground, feet parallel to each other, her full upper body pressed tight into the ground and her arms stretched out before her. That pack of black hair on her head fell as well from a lame ponytail, cradled between her arms. She was still.
In the morning cold, thank heavens she was sweating because the weather was obviously too cold for a person to be stepping outside.

His mind drifted immediately to the cylinderincal casing that was among her possessions when she had come newly. So it must have been a yoga mat.

Hmm. Wakes early to her stretches. Then cooks. Then disappears. Why wasn't that related to Fitcher at all?!

But he had to admit, a good straddle was calling out to him. And though he had not danced in over twenty years, and muscle and mass had filled out some joints, he believed a bit of flexibility would be available.

He came down to the present. To the newcomer in his house who could, oh joy, also do stunts. Rebecca sure did know how to pick them. And she had picked a strong one indeed. One who would never leave no matter how tough the going got.
She had succeeded in even filling his freezer and fridge with new disposable plastic plates, well labelled, with vegetables inside it, like she had more of the money to spend in his home. Then would go to church on Sunday like she was Mother Maria. Ugh!
The adjustments he had to bear for her presence.