? What you seek is seeking you.?
? What you seek is seeking you.?
? What you seek is seeking you.?
Ruby took his words casually - very casually - and that marked the beginning of a lifetime experience.
***
Joseph Ho...
The silence overpowered the little tittering erupting from the couple's side. "Umm . . . I think I should go now," Ruby spoke out, gesticulating at the door.
"No, wait," Joseph erected his back. "Hey, Sarah can you let her stay at your place for tonight? I'll start hunting a new room for her starting tomorrow," Joseph interposed, dark-eyed.
"Ah . . . sur," A line appeared between Sarah's eyebrows. Anshuman came to her rescue in no time. Gently taking her hand under the table and brushing it over his pocket - a golden piece of condom cranked up, and then she understood where to turn the car.
"Joseph, you already know our place is not less than any matchbox in itself. Why don't you accommodate her in that vacant room near the staircase?"
"Yes, that's the most suitable place and more importantly your room will be just above hers, you can also help her go to bed─"
"Anshuman!" Sarah elbowed him, her eyes boring holes into his entire visage before storming out of the house. "You aren't getting anything tonight," she trailed off out of embarrassment.
Anshuman greeted Joseph and Ruby goodnight and skipped his way out. "Baby, listen to me."
"You didn't eat anything," Joseph said, keeping a poker face. Now that it was only two of them, he took precautionary measures and asked precise questions.
"I'm already full," Ruby expressed confidently, raising her chin.
"Okay, so I'll show you the room. Come this way," he paced toward a small room. But it was a sophisticated room with minimalistic things in the surrounding. There was an inviting calmness instigating her to spend every night in the room.
"Thanks," Ruby uttered with a tight-lipped smile.
"The washroom is right there and-" He drew a finger in the right direction. Immediately, getting on his high horse, he warned dauntlessly, "Make sure you don't come upstairs at any cost. This is the bottom line you need to remember for the whole time you will be staying here."
"Be rest assured. I'm not a whore that you have sadly mistaken me for. I'm here for a business not for collecting allowances and additional perks." A familiar fire sparked between them.
"Allowances and additional perks," he repeated with mockery at the choice of her words. "Nice."
She thanked Emily for gifting her the dictionary. And now she felt like having a normal conversation with him. Mentally, a sigh of relief surged through her as he had drawn a line of safety himself.
She was safe . . .
"Whatever," he muttered and closed the door. Joseph was hiding something, that certainly didn't have anything to do with Ruby.
Before laying on the bed, she quickly scanned the entire room, unbeknownst to Joseph's knowledge. To her satisfaction, there was no CCTV and other electronic gadgets chipped in any corner of the room. She emitted a slow breath and dropped her eyelids before relaxing on the bed as she was not sure whether to sleep there like a log since it was a stranger's house.
She woke up at an ungodly hour, blinking into the dark. As she hadn't stored a single grain of food in her stomach which made her feel as hungry as a bear. More than once, a tornado of rumbles in her stomach ruptured through her ears in the silence, further had thrown her out of the bed to her feet, groaning. "Why the fuck is it still nighttime? Has God forgotten to push the morning button?"
Thankfully it was not that dark for her to turn on the lights. She only removed her slippers and tiptoed to the kitchen.
Ruby's uncontrolled hands went ahead of her to open the fridge door. She grabbed a carton of milk and chugged it down, mentally cursing after hearing her throat and breathing noise getting louder and louder. Pressing a hand to her chest, she massaged to calm her racing heart cause she didn't want him to catch her in this food-for-life crime frame.
"Amazing." She opened a cupboard and found a packet of nachos. Something cinched up in her stomach and she got desperate to release the nitrogen gas filled in the packet, acting childish at the wrong time. The idea was a daring one, but not as daring as her nerves burning with pangs of hunger.
The packet blasted and the sound lasted for a few seconds. She hoped this commotion wouldn't summon Joseph from upstairs.
A shrewd idea popped into her mind, she immediately grabbed a garbage bag and emptied the eatables from the fridge and the cupboards: the chilled cans of beers, pasta sauce, olive tins, biscuits, eggs, and some pita bread -- everything mixed inside the bloating bag. "Yes. This idea would be perfect. I'll run away from here with these items without his knowledge."
With the thought of robbing the food and giving his plan a big thumbs down, she loaded the bag on her shoulder and swiped the packet of nachos from the kitchen cabinet. She flopped down to take a handful in her mouth. The thrill of doing anything that went against expectations was phenomenal.
No sooner after Ruby opened the new packet of potato chips than she realized someone standing over her head.
Astounded by her guts, he turned on the light and found her sitting on the floor with the crumbles of nachos lurking in the corner of her mouth.
Ruby's eyes gleamed with fear and she clapped her hands before getting up. He studied her before concluding. "No, no just sit down and eat this with Mexican sauce. You will love it."
"B-but where is that?" she worked upon cooping away the feeling of mortification.
"Don't bother yourself too much, if it's not in the fridge then it's probably in that bag." After a pause, he endeavored to rifle through the bag. "Wait, let me help you." He had only fished a bottle of something in his hands, "Hmm . . . chilly sauce can also taste best, but let me see . . ."
"Ahh . . . don't have to sweat. Hunger is the best sauce," Ruby suggested from behind. "I'll eat this in my room─"
He turned away to direct his dark pupils at her.
She trembled. "No, your room."
He cracked open the cavity in amusement.
Just like a driver turning the steering wheel when a truck whizzed by on the highway, she yelled, "No, I mean the room near the staircase." She leaned in, raising both her hands to make herself sound and look guiltless. "You can put the articles back in their places," as if it helped any better.
As she dashed into her room, she ensured to lock the door properly.
"Phew! I'm doomed." Ruby collapsed on the spring mattress and the thought of abandoning the bag there in the kitchen bothered her.
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