BRINGING HIM HOME

CHAPTER FIVE

Three days had passed since Easton spoke to Alonso over the phone. It appeared that a branch of Easton's company in the States wasn't performing up to expectations. Alonso called him to plead with him to step in. So here Easton was, hitting anything that has been specifically designed to be hit at the gym. He used to reach out to Beatrice to get her opinions on lots of things, but they haven't had a full time conversation in a week now. It appeared that what she was now good at was getting on his nerves with her constant nagging. So he decided to step in instead of just sending Beatrice over. Finally getting what he came to the gym for, he packed his stuffs and called his personal secretary to get his private jet ready in two days. On his way home, his driver passed by a restaurant that was known to be a place specially for renowned men like himself, to pick up his usual. His cook had taken some days off to attend to a family meeting, so he had to adjust to the fact that she wasn't going to be around. Jude, Easton's driver, parked the car as he was instructed to do by the security service men and excused himself. Not long after, Jude came back with three girls carrying Easton's package. As they were helping Jude pack the stuffs into the car, one of the girls tried shamelessly to flirt with Easton but he showed no interest. His tolerance level kept decreasing while that of his anger kept rising. Sensing this, Jude quickly paid for the package to the flirtatious one.

"Keep the change. It seems you need it more than we do. If it wasn't so, I don't think you'd be here flaunting your shapeless body at me. Why are we still here, Jude?" Easton burst out.

Knowing how familiar that tone sounded, Jude quickly ignored the comments that the girls were passing and got into the car to drive off. Easton usually threw curses at him but he never took his job of being his driver from him; something he thanked his stars for anytime his head hit the pillow. But even with that, Jude sensed how unusual Easton's attitude was. So, he did something none of Easton's workers dared to do and that was to engage Easton into a conversation.

"Sir." Jude managed to say as they neared a group of cars under a traffic.

Easton didn't speak up, so Jude decided to shift his gaze from the road to the review mirror so he could get a glance at his boss. His heart did a double flip as he noticed that Easton was looking his way waiting for him to speak up. Feeling a bit embarrassed for being caught, he cleared his throat and asked, "I hope everything is fine, Sir?"

The probability of Easton responding was very low, so Jude was a bit disappointed when Easton confirmed his expectations and fixed his gaze back on the road. It was after they neared his mansion before Easton decided to speak up.

"I'll be going to the States in two days."

"Yes, Sir." Jude said after a moment of contemplating how to give a proper response to that.

"Take the days that I'd be away off. I don't want anyone to be in my house while I'd be gone away. Understood?"

"Perfectly, Sir."

They finally made it to his mansion and Jude parked the car close to the entrance to prevent Easton from walking too much. As tradition, Jude had to wait for the henchmen to help Easton get out of the car by opening his side of the door for him, before he also got out. But Easton was still in the car and this made Jude to feel a bit uneasy. Struggling to ease the tension, he decided to ask,

"What about Miss Walsh, Sir?"

"I'm going alone."

And with that, Easton got out of the car without bothering to hear what Jude had to say next. The formalities used to get on his nerves but he knew better than to ask them to get rid of the formalities. He had witnessed with his very own eyes, how a worker upgraded from being just a mere worker to becoming a close friend of his dad's and later on, became his dad's worst enemy. This made him to resent ingratitude and anyone who had a part of it in him or her. After entering his mansion, he watched Jude as he unpackaged his food on the dining table and dismissed him. He then went up to his room to wash down. After washing down, he came downstairs to watch a documentary as he devoured his food. He got full within some few minutes and called in his henchmen to take away the leftovers. This was the main reason why his workers stayed faithful to him. Aside the silent treatment and the daily curses he threw at them for not going according to his orders, he paid and treated them well when it came to the giving of incentives. There was a time, not too long ago, that he refused to touch his food after coming back from work. Not sure what had caused his sullen attitude, Jude decided to stop by the usual place to pick up his package even when Easton hadn't given him an order to do so. Within an hour or two after he had dropped Easton off at his mansion, he got a call from one of Easton's henchmen that the boss had asked them to go for the food. After his henchmen left, Easton went up to his room. He had just been told that one of his branches wasn't performing up to expectations, but all his mind could do was to reflect on the childhood memories he shared with Elena. This did not only make him sad, but it made him furious with himself as well.