In the dinning room, children from all classes had gothered to fill their stomachs. Putting their meals on hold, everyone turn their heads, attentively giving a listening ear to the ongoing conversation.
Akira replied with chuckles:
"I hear loners don't cheat when they happen to get married! I see a mother of my children in the near future."
Just like everyone else in the dinning room, Ishtar was clearly hearing every teasing word that came out of Akira's mouth. After being served, she picked her meal nd and walked along in a crowded room, and found a lone table on which she sat quietly.
Bob Lee uttered in pretence:
"You mean Ishtar!"
Everyone turned their gaze on her. Aloud, Akira stubbornly continued to create a scene to catch every pupil's attention.
"Of course! Who else does your mother drop with you at school every morning? Besdies, Everyone knows how you can't leave on your journey back home after classes without your mute sister!"
Suddenly, Bob Lee made an ignorant loud laughter in response:
"Hahaha... Unless you're a looser too, I wouldn't advise any of my male friends to start any serious thing with her!"
"Why?"
"She's just a common maid's daughter at our house that's all."
In the midst of laughter and booing from all corners in the dinning room casted on Ishtar, Bob Lee forked his omelette with a filling of cheese and resorted to eating. Abruptly, with a surprised gaze fixed on Ishtar, one girl in their class added salt in the wound:
"Oops, Bob! You mean you sit with a cheap girl in the same car to school?"
Akira ran short of words.
"Dammit!"
As every pupil continues booing and laughing at Ishtar, another male classmate on Bob Lee's dining table put the last nail in the coffin.
"That's a huge turn off buddy. You won't dare open your house door for a cheap dirty girl to come in! Who knows how long it may may take to get rid of the poverty odor she had left behind?"
And since all the children who attended this school were known to have come from rich backgrounds, it made it very easy for them to talk down and laugh at Ishtar's short comings.
After all, these were her first days at their school.
And since that day, it initiated bullying which made the school environment so uncomfortable for her. Hence a miserable life at school. However, even after all the embarrassment Bob Lee brought to her, she never hated him. The following days, she made a gut decision to go an extra mile in taking care of him at home _ cleaning his room more often, laying his bed more smartly with beautiful designs in the sheets, and keeping his wardrobe well organised.
On an open mouthed gaze, he was suprised when he walked in.
"Wow...!"
The following days, Ishtar could knock on his door wearing a pretty smile on her cheeks with a bowl of fruit salad and some times a glass of fresh passion juice which was Bob Lee's favorite.
"I thought you may be thirsty...!"
But he heartlessly slams the door infront of her without talking to her, caring less of her efforts.
Ishtar, being bullied every day in a school where she had no friends to share her pains with weakened her to the bone at first. But, her spirit grew strong when she became used to it later on. Time came when bullying was not anywhere at a point to steal her off her peace of mind.
***
And now, talking from an empty space of her heart, emotionally confused, with a grudge feeling after remembering the way Bob Lee mistreated her in the old days, Ishtar forgot the word boss and straight in his face she, yelled:
"You've never been attractive to me from day one Bob... you don't love me!"
But, since Bob Lee was conc sure that Ishtar had an unwavering desire for him, calmly, he gave a proud and arrogant reply.
"I've not said I love you. I've only requested you to marry me because I know how much you've always wanted me. I need to marry someone who loves me!"
So indifferently Ishtar laughed, wondering how unfair life is _ surprised at how Bob Lee wanted to take advantage of her remorselessly.
"Wow... wow! You never changed Bob Lee. Listen to the arrogance in the way you talk to me, uh? I don't know if it's only me you treat carelessly, or that's how you were built!"
Speaking in his emotions, Bob Lee replied:
"Truth is, I like you Ishtar _ I truly appreciate how you break your back to make both mine and my mother's smooth... you're a blessing in disguise to my family."
Ishtar sighed in disbelief as she listened.
Manupilatively, he boldly told a convincing lie as he added:
"I want to marry, satisfy my mother with a gift of grandchildren now that she is old. You have been wondering why I was all covered deep down in a heap of thoughts for the past two days. Reason being, I've been asking myself why I need to look elsewhere for a marriage partner when I have a loving and caring secretary by my side, Ishtar."
He added:
"I believe when your mother happens to get well and discharged, her happiest moment will be to know that me and you ended up married."
Analysing his words, Bob Lee had come up with some reasonable points that somehow touched Ishtar's soft spot. She began to put down her already weak guards on him.
Mentally, a lot was going on at the back of her mind.
"Maybe if I accept to marry him he will start loving me along our marriage journey... or maybe he will never care. But I love him and that's too deep _ and, I've always wished to have him as my man, this should be a chance I dare not miss; and I've never seen him with a woman before for all the years I've known him... No no no control your thoughts Ishtar!"
As Ishtar's mind was heavily occupied with indecisive thoughts, on relaxed steps Bob Lee walked toward her and stood right infront of her. He lifted his hand and slowly tucked a stray hair behind her ear. Lingering his fingers on her cheek, he whispered, making sure she feels his breath catch.
"What are you thinking?"
Ishtar couldn't hide the vulnerability in her feelings towards him as it wrote all over her face, communicating nothing but a desire to be laid. As a virgin, her hands couldn't stop trembling. But because she respected boundaries, she couldn't look at him straight in the eyes at this moment. Ishtar kept her eyes down.
As a master who knew himself so well as a ladies' magnet, Bob Lee, with a finger, softly lifted Ishtar's chin up, instructing her to look at him. In a slow motion, her eyes met his. Bob Lee could read the vulnerability written on Ishtar's face while she panted.
He gazed unsteadily at her pink lips, then back in her eyes, a technical communication which sparked the gap to be closed. He captured her mouth in a tender kiss that took her by storm, which deepened from soft to urgent.
Ishtar confessed her secrets in a small captivated voice:
"For so long I've been wanting to do this with you. I've always loved you so much Bob..."
In the midst of her pulse racing, mixed-up with a longing look on her face, casting desiring eyes, warmth radiating from both their bodies, with their foreheads resting on eachother's, "I'm sorry for not noticing," Bob Lee said.
It was such a moment for her to remember.
After the heavy confessions, Ishtar pulled the door out of Bob Lee's office, leaving him tightening his trousers belt and shirt buttons, back to her office desk, next door.
While inside, sitting on an inclining chair, a healthy blush on her cheeks displayed while she applied a little lipstick. She paused and touched on the lips, blushing more and more. Recurring vivid in her mind were series of the past incident on a soft office couch with her long time crush and boss, Bob Lee.
In a small voice, as she kept smiling all alone, Ishtar said:
"It happened so fast."
Time went by. All the hours she was in the office pressing desktop buttons throughout the rest of the day, she recalled, a smile quirking corners of her mouth, as though she was delighted that she had finally done it, that Bob Lee had made love to her so suddenly and uncontrollably.
An office land line phone rattled with heavy rings, startling her from blissful thoughts.
"Ring Ring!"
She panicked and answered it.
"Hello!"
Behind the phone, a deep male voice instructed her.
"Meet me in the parking lot."
Time check was eight o'clock, the exact time many office doors get locked up when she took a quick glance at a watch on her wrist.
Quickly, Ishtar picked up her coat from the hanger and put it on, together with her pair of sunglasses even though it was a night evening, to hide the shyness on her face from any works she might cross paths with along the way.
Full of high spirit, she expressed wishes to the janitor as she passed by him.
"good night."
On fast feet, Ishtar found her way to the parking lot.