The Secret Billionaire: A BWWM Love Story For Adults (6 page)

“
Mom,
I am really in no position to talk about this right now,” she
said clenching her teeth.

“
You
know I can’t sleep without watching a movie on the classics
channel.” Alice reminded Vera as if the TV was a cure for her
ailment.

Cyril came
out of the bathroom wearing a t-shirt. “Holy shit!” Vera
said to herself. This guy had abandoned the hopes of having sex. He
was dressed.

“
Mom,
I am sorry but if you want to watch your movie, you will have to take
a shot at fixing it yourself tonight. I will be back in the morning.
Alright? Goodnight!” Vera hung up before Alice was even able to
say anything. She than looked at Cyril who was lying by her in the
bed.

“
You
are wearing a shirt?” she asked hinting at the obvious.

“
I
thought you guys would take long and I was feeling cold.” Cyril
explained.

“
Well,
I am available now.” Vera smiled.

Cyril looked
into her eyes and believed her. He slowly took off his shirt and
leaned in to kiss her. As they kissed, their hands surfed over each
other’s bodies and Cyril gently placed Vera under his body.

“
You
ready now?” he asked jokingly, to which Vera chuckled and
nodded in agreement.

Readying
himself, Cyril was about to enter Vera when the bed vibrated again.

“
Fuck!”
Vera cried checking her phone — it was her mother again.

“
Mom,
it better be some emergency now.” she yelled ignoring Cyril.

What Alice
told her over the phone, made Vera wear her clothes quickly.

“
I
am so sorry for this Cyril, but this is an emergency.”

“
I
understand.” the guy said.

Vera reached
the door and then turned around, “Would you mind dropping me
home? I don’t know if I will get a cab at this hour.”

Cyril stared
at Vera’s face with an open mouth.

*****

“
I
am so sorry. Lets do it again some other time.” Vera said as
Cyril dropped her home.

“
Yeah
sure!” Cyril said and drove off without waiting for Vera to
respond or even smile. She knew her date was ruined and so she turned
towards her home that was covered with darkness.

“
MOM!”
she yelled while entering the dark house.

“
Here!”
Alice called for her from a corner. Vera reached the source of the
sound and found her mother with a flashlight, trying to figure out
the electrical circuit board of the house.

“
Who
asked you to play with this at this time of the night, Mom? Do you
even know how this works?” Vera knew that her mother knew
nothing about fixing the electricity.

“
You
did! You asked me to fix it myself.” Alice came back.

Vera took off
her sandals and wore slippers, “I asked you to fix the cable,
not push yourself into the dark ages.”

Alice threw
the flashlight on the ground and stormed off in anger, “You
know what? Go to hell! I am trying to be nice and you are being a
brat!”

“
Don’t
walk into a wall!” Vera screamed seeing her mother walking into
the dark. She then picked up the flashlight and looked at the circuit
board. Two of the fuses were fried and needed to be replaced. Vera
walked to the store room and started looking for the spare fuses.
After picking them up, she opened the door and found an old face
staring at her, “Whoa!” Vera jumped back dropping the
fuses on the floor.

“
What?”
Alice wondered.

“
Mom!
You gave me a mini heart attack!” Vera held her chest breathing
heavily.

“
Don’t
talk like that. You know I don’t like that kind of talk.”
Alice said in a stern voice.

Vera realized
her mistake. Her father died of a sudden heart attack and so her
mother did not like it to be mentioned even as a figure of speech.
Heart problems were taboo in the Jones's house.

“
I
am sorry! You know I didn’t mean that.” Vera said looking
at her mother.

“
I
am sorry too.” Alice said in an apologetic tone, “I
ruined your date, didn’t I?”

Alice saw no
point in dragging this futile feud any further. She took a step
closer to her mom and hugged her tightly. “It's okay Mom. I
will find another one.”

“
Was
he good?” Alice asked hugging her daughter.

“
Oh
yeah. He was a peach.” Vera smiled.

They finally
broke their hug and Alice complained, “You never take me
seriously.”

“
Alright,
yes, he was really nice Mom!” Vera said in a simple tone.
“Happy?”

Alice nodded
with a smile.

“
Okay,
let me fix the electricity now.” Vera picked up the fuses from
the floor but one of them was broken.

“
Oh
lord!” Alice exclaimed.

“
Don’t
worry, I am sure there are more in the store room.” Vera
checked the shelf but there were no more spare fuses left.

“
Looks
like we are going to spend this night in the dark ages” Vera
said while walking out of the store room with her mother.

“
You
mind sleeping with me tonight?” Alice asked.

Vera could
not say no, “Of course Mom.” She kissed her hand.

*****

It was a
Sunday and Vera came back home in the morning with spare fuses and
some other supplies. She fixed the electricity and went back to her
room. The first thing she checked was her email and social media, but
there was no response from Cyril. She had been constantly checking
her phone every minute since last night, but Cyril did not message
her even once.

Wanting to
call him, she stopped herself. “This looks so desperate,”
she said, knowing that she was indeed desperate. She really liked
Cyril and needed one more chance to prove that being with her was not
a bad idea. But she could not blame the guy, for what happened last
night was a disaster for a first date.

And so she
called the only person she could talk to about this.

“
You
did what?” Jane asked. “Are you out of your mind? You
asked him to take you home on your first date? What do you think he
would think of you?”

Vera knew
Jane was right, but it felt right in that moment. Besides, it was all
fine till her mother called and ruined everything.

“
I
don’t know. Things were feeling so right for the first time in
years. And I decided to not care anymore.” Vera tried to
justify her actions.

“
You
don’t jump in the sack with someone on your first date. How
hard is that to remember?” Jane’s voice came out
screeching through the phone.

“
Hey,
it was all good till Mom called.” Vera yelled back.

“
Maybe
it was a sign from God, telling you to get the fuck out of there.”
Jane did not lower her voice. And now Vera was feeling like an idiot.

“
I
know I fucked up. But what can I do now?” she asked.

“
Nothing.
And whatever you do, don’t call him.” Jane told her.

“
But
I really liked him.” Vera said in a desperate tone.

“
Let
him go babe. Let him go. There are plenty of fish in the sea.”
Jane said like a philosopher.

“
But
what if the same thing happens when I am with a different fish?”
Vera wondered, “I need complete piece of mind when I am on a
date.”

“
What
are you talking about?” Jane asked.

“
I
am telling you, it was all good till I received that first call from
Mom.” Vera paused for a moment to choose her words carefully.
“I don’t think I will be able to focus on any
relationship because I need to focus more on my Mom.”

Jane did not
say a word.

“
Don’t
get me wrong, I love my Mom and there is no way I am going to leave
her, but there is no way for me to have a normal relationship until
she is taken care of.”

“
So
any guy who wants to be with you, has to take your Mom with you?”
Jane simplified Vera’s problem in a small sentence, “Like
one of those package deals. Right?”

This made
Vera chuckle, “Yeah, I guess. My mom comes with me. We are a
package deal. And until somebody wants this deal, I am not leaving
the shelf.”

Vera and Jane
shared a good laugh discussing this scenarios, unaware that Alice was
listening to them from the hallway.

*****

It was
another hectic day at the airport. The flights were grounded again,
but not because of the bad weather. Weather was in fact beautiful.
The reason was the raised level of terror threat. The whole airport
was going crazy. Passengers were asked to stay in the main lounge and
nobody was allowed to leave the building. Air Marshals were closely
observing the crowd for any potential threat, while the TSA staff was
being smug as ever.

“
Fuck
these people!” Vera heard a passenger yelling in frustration.
This was the second time in the month when they were facing a horde
of irate passengers. The biggest issue was that they themselves had
no idea what was going on. Nobody was updating them on any issue and
Vera and her colleagues were left to their own devices.

“
I
am sorry Sir, but we will inform you as soon as we get an update on
the situation. We apologize for this inconvenience.” This was
the verbatim they were ordered to say to every passenger. And the
fact that nobody was supposed to get their refund did not help at
all. The airlines were clear on their policy; it was not their fault
that the flights were grounded or delayed. They were ready to fly
away and so no passenger was entitled to get a refund. Besides,
nobody was allowed to leave the building and so there was no chance
of changing the mode of transport.

“
This
is insane!” Vera said to Jane while handling the long line of
passengers. “They are not even telling us what is going on.”

“
You
know what? Just follow my lead.” Jane said winking at her. Vera
curiously looked at how she handled her next passenger.

“
Hello
Sir, We are so sorry for this inconvenience but I hope you understand
how important your security is for us and the concerned
authorities.”

The passenger
tried to understand what Jane meant, and Jane kept going on. She
pretended to check on her computer, “Well, we are ready to fly
you off as soon as we get a go ahead from the airport security. As
you can see..” she subtly diverted the passenger’s gaze
towards the armed unit that was standing behind the line, “we
are leaving no stone unturned.” By now the passenger was
starting to feel as if he was playing a part in a big patriotic
scheme, “And we will inform you as soon as we are ready to take
off. Meanwhile, please accept our gratitude for keeping America
safe.”

Vera could
see that nothing Jane said made any sense, but the passenger was
eating it from her hands. She saw two more passengers being sold that
same bullshit and so she decided it was time for her to do the same
thing, “Hello Sir, We are sorry for this inconvenience, but I
hope you understand how important your security is for us.”

The passenger
nodded in agreement and Vera could see a sense of gratitude on her
face.

“
Damn
Jane is good!” she said to herself.

Both of them
took care of the long line and only a few passengers snapped out at
them. For them, it was better than most of their Mondays. After
taking care of the whole line, they decided to treat themselves.

Showing their
airline ID cards, they gained access to the VIP lounge and sat down
with their coffee and cakes.

“
Now
you understand how smooth I am?” Jane patted her own back.

“
Yes,
I do.” Vera admired her friend.

“
This
is total crap!” both of them heard a voice from their side. Two
men were sitting together at a table adjacent to them.

*****

Archer was
about to fly off his handle. He slammed the magazine he was reading
on the table in an attempt to get Phillip’s attention —
“Are you even listening to me?” he said, to which,
Phillip slowly raised his gaze and looked into Archer’s eyes.

“
Yes,
I am listening. But what can we do about it? It's an issue of
national security. You know how paranoid they get with things like
that.” Phillip explained nonchalantly.