Imagining Us

Ch.23

Esi's mind was a traitor.
A traitor to what she'd been determined to do—not to be involved with anyone. Not to pursue a romantic relationship. Her mind kept straying to him.
To their coffee "date".

To the fact that she would see him at the Sunday reading group.

Porte Danvers made it so hard. With those eyes that looked like they captured every part of her, especially the parts that she never wanted anyone to see. His looks did not help at all; the fact that he was physically beautiful made her tremble.

Esi knew that it wasn't everything. She knew that whatever was under the wealth and the looks could be dangerous. She knew that the problems between Porte and Luka Danvers probably ran deep.

She hadn't moved out of her bed since she'd woken up. Her mind was racing about yesterday, about him and everything that happened. What she should have been doing was getting up to get ready for church and the reading group that she had in the afternoon. Luckily, the church provided lunch for the volunteers so she wouldn't have to transit back home.

She tapped her phone screen. It was 7:30 am and she had at least four new messages from her mum ranging from how her weekend has been to if she was coming by for Sunday dinner. The question that stood out to Esi was 'How was your Saturday?'.
Why would her mother ask her about Saturday specifically when she'd already asked her about her weekend in general?
That girl Magdalena had a mouth on her. Lena was the only person that would have let something slip.

Nicola Solomon was a slick woman, and there was no doubt in Esi's mind that she dangled one of her Trini dishes before Lena to get her to spill Esi's business. Normally, she would attempt to squeeze in some time for dinner with her parents after the reading club, but not now—not today. Not when she knew that the Inquisition would be waiting for her. Her parents meant well, but that didn't mean that she was going to subject herself to answer questions about her friendship with Porte—about something that wasn't even anything.

She got up to start to get ready, determined to leave the house by 8:15am. Plus, she had a roommate to interrogate.

~~~~
Esi was sure that she had flakes at the corner of her mouth. Her heels had been kicked off per Mrs. Chandler, and she was lounging on one of the coral colored couches in the rec room eating a glazed donut. There was still an hour left before the children would start to trickle in, and a bunch of the volunteers were hanging around eating lunch and snacks to equip themselves with the energy required to conduct these classes.

Out of her peripherals, Esi saw when Mrs. Chandler began to approach her. With her sanctum about to be disturbed, she hastily reached for a napkin to dab the corners of her mouth and sat up.

"Hi, Esi," Mrs. Chandler exclaimed cheerfully as if she hadn't already spoken to her for the day. "Did Porte say if he changed his mind about today?"

Esi schooled her expression. "Porte..." she mused, pretending as if she didn't remember him.

"Yes. The young man from the art club," said Mr. Chandler. "You know...tall, blonde..pretty eyes."

Esi swallowed a laugh. She would've loved to see Porte's reaction to Mrs. Chandler telling him that he had pretty eyes.

"You two seemed...close on that Saturday."

She narrowed her eyes at the woman who was prying.

"Oh dear, perhaps I'm mistaken," a nervous laugh escaped. "But he did tell me that he was going to be here today." She pretended to think, but Esi knew how to spot a pre-planned idea.

"Well since you two are familiar—Esi had never witnessed a conversation with so many intonations— maybe you can pair up with him for your class?"

It sounded like a question, but she felt like it really wasn't.