BENEATH ALL THE LIES

Going Back

A loud noise of a door being banged hard woke me up the next day. Who the fuck came so early in the morning? I glanced at the table clock next to me and saw that it was just 6 a.m. Reluctantly, I got up from the bed, grabbed my sweater and put it on before heading out the bedroom to see who had been raising hell and woke the entire neighbourhood at this godly hour.

"Who the fuck is that?" I heard Noah grumbled as he came out from his bedroom, right next to mine. Looking at his state, he must had been sleeping too since he got out just wearing his pajama bottoms.

I followed behind him as he begrudgingly walked towards the door to open it. Once the door was opened, I saw a woman with short straight jet black hair and brown skin wearing a formal clothes, white shirt and black pencil skirt that hit just above her knees. She looked like she was going to attend a job interview.

As soon as she was face to face with Jonah, who opened the door for her, she scolded him, "what the fuck took you so long, Jonah?"

Jonah moved aside, allowing her to come inside. Closing the door behind him, Jonah answered her, "do you know that it's only 6 o'clock right now?"

"Oh, really? Is it that early? I guess I didn't know since I didn't even sleep last night waiting for the copy of your exhibition materials to submit to the gallery, since today is the last day for submission," she said sarcastically after she took a seat on one of the couches in the living room.

"Oh, holy shit. I completely forgot about it. Damn it. Wait here, I'll go get it." After saying that, Jonah hurriedly went upstairs and left me with this woman.

"Hi, I'm Cassey, Jonah's childhood friend," I said while offering my hand.

"Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Nikki. Jonah's friend. I work for the art gallery he is gonna hold the exhibition at. I'm sorry that I made a ruckus early in the morning. I must have woken you up." She said while accepting my hand.

"Oh, no, it's okay. Shall I make you something to drink while you are waiting for him?" I offered her out of politeness.

"It's okay, you don't have to. Actually, I often come here, but this is the first time I ever see you."

"Oh, right. I never had the chance to meet up with Jonah all this while. Anyway, I'll leave you for now to go get ready. It was nice to meet you, Nikki," I waved at her before leaving her.

When I reached the bedroom, I tidied up the bed and started to get ready since today I already made a plan to go visit 'The Delicacies'. I still didn't know what I was going to tell the staffs there. Especially now that the restaurant was actually doing better. I still hadn't decided what I was gonna do about it.

I was about to head to the bathroom to take a shower when my phone rang. It was Deena. I picked up the call.

"Hi, sweetie. Did I wake you?" Deena said after I said hello.

"Good morning, Mrs. Deevan. I was just about to take a shower. I forgot to call you to inform you that I will start going to the office by tomorrow."

"Please, don't call me Mrs. Deevan. At least if you still can't call me mom, you can just call me Deena."

"I'm sorry, Deena."

"It's alright. And about the job, don't worry about it, you can come back any time."

"Thank you. But anyway tomorrow I'll come to the office. I already promised Louis so."

"That's totally up to you, sweetie. I just called to ask you if you'll be free today so we can have lunch or dinner together at home."