Aurora POV:
Few kilometers away, I remembered I had forgotten the Cake. I’d promised to drop it by the Hart ranch for Tess, but it was still sitting in Michael's office. I no longer had a key, and I'd rather have died than phoned him to let ne in to get the cake. He’d think it was a ruse, so that I could see him again.I stopped by the bakery instead and to get another cake. I approached the lady behind the counter."Good evening Ma'am" I said"Evening""What may I get You""A Cake?" I replied"Is it for an occasion? Most of the cakes available are blank" She saidLuckily for me Tess didn’t want a message on it, just the cake."That's fine" I said"I will have that one" I added whilst pointing to the pink oneI stopped by the Hart ranch property at Tess and Cag’s enormous house and handed it off to their housekeeper, with a beaming smile that never reached my eyes. I finally headed home. I was on the verge of tears on my way home. I parked at one side of the road and calmed myself. My mom mustn't see me sad nor know I quitted my job, it'd cause her distress. That was the last thing I wanted. I started driving again after steadying my emotions.My mother was lying on the sofa, watching the last of her soap operas. “Hello, sweetheart,” she said, smiling. “Did you have a nice day?”“Very nice,” I lied, smiling back. “How about you?”“I’ve done very well. I made supper!”“Mom you aren’t supposed to exert yourself,” I protested, gritting my teeth.“Cooking isn’t exertion. I do love it so,” the older woman replied, her hazel eyes that were so like mine sparkling with pleasure. Her hair was silver now, short and wavy. She lay on the sofa in an old gown and housecoat, her feet in socks. Nights were still chilly, even though it was April.“Want to eat in here on trays?” I offered.“That would be lovely. We can watch the news.”I grimaced. “Not the news,” I groaned. “Something pleasant!”“Then what would you like to watch? We’ve got lots of DVDs,” she added."Young Sheldon" I saidHer mother gave her an odd look. “My, my. Usually when you want to watch that one, you’ve had an a bad day.” She was fishing, trying to dig answers from me. I knew she wouldn't back down till I came clean.I cleared my throat"I had a spat with my boss" I replied, not daring to tell her I'm currently without a job“It will all blow over,” she said"He’s a difficult man, I imagine, but he’s been very kind to us. Why, when I had to go to the hospital last time, he drove you there and even sat with you until they got me over the crisis.”“Yes, I know,” I replied, without adding that Mr. Angelo would do that for anybody. It didn’t mean anything, definitely not that he had a kind heart.“And then there was that huge basket of fruit he sent us at Christmas.” The older woman was still talking."Yes mom, I know"I headed to my bedroom while she looked for 'young sheldon' . I changed into jeans and a sweatshirt. The whole time I wondered I she was going to get another job without naming Mr. Angelo as a reference. He might give her one if she actually asked, She just hated having to ask him to. She’d told her co-workers, and Mr. Angelo, that she was going to work for Jordan Leo, but it had been a lie to spite Mr. Angelo.I appeared in the living room to see my mom has finally found the DVD she was looking for. We ate and watch the movie till mom was feeling sleepy. I turn off the TV before escorting her to her bedroom.Only after I heard her gentle snore did I head to my bedroom and seize my freedom of crying, I cried myself to my threshold. hating my own show of weakness. Fortunately, nobody else would see it. I finally wiped off my tears with a rejuvenated hope, I was going to get a new job. I had the skills, I am a hard worker. I would be an asset to any prospective employer, I told myself firmly, because her ego was badly hurt. I'd show Mr. Angelo. I could get a job anywhere!Aurora POV:I woke up with a summat stuck to my gut. I remember sleeping with a rejuvenated hope, but the hope was no where to be found again. I was in touch with reality again. I had told myself I could secure a job easily,Actually, that wasn’t quite the case. Jacobsville was a small town. There weren’t that many office jobs available, because most people lucky enough to get them worked in the same place until they retired.There was one hope though. Leo Jordan, an extremely wealthy local rancher who had a real war going with Mr. Angelo. Rumors says he couldn’t keep a secretary neither, perhaps worse than Mr. Angelo. He was hard, cold, and demanding. At least one secretary leave his employment in tears every month. His wife had left him for an unknown reason, along with their young son, and filed for divorce. He consistently refused to sign the final papers, which had led to a furious confrontation between himself and Mr.Angelo. The fistfight escalated until Chief of Police Cash Gri
Aurora POV:I drove towards south Jacobsville, in the direction of the biggest and the most beautiful house in the town.Leo Jordan lived in a huge white Victorian house. Local gossip said that his wife had wanted it since she was a child, living in a poor section of Jacobsville. She’d married Leo right out of high school and started to college after the honeymoon was over. College had opened a new world to her eyes. She’d decided to study law, and Leo stood by and let her have her way, sure that she’d never want to leave Jacobsville. But she got a taste of city life when she went on to law school in San Antonio, and she decided to work in a law firm there.Nobody understood exactly why they decided to have a child in her first year as a practicing estate lawyer. She didn’t seem happy about it, although she had the child. But a live-in nurse had to be employed because Mrs. Wright spent more and more time at the office. Then, two years ago, she’d been offered a position in a wellknown l
Aurora POV:The first few days out of Michael’s office were the hardest. I couldn’t forget how I’d looked forward to every new day, to each morning’s first glimpse of my handsome boss. My heart would jumped at the sound of his voice. My tingled all over when, rarely, he smiled at me when she finished a difficult task for him. Even the scent of a certain masculine cologne could trigger memories, because he always smelled of it. I felt deprived because my life would no longer contain even a casual glimpse of him. I was working for his worst enemy. Not much likelihood that Michael would turn up on Leo Jordan ranch in the near or distant future.But as week passed, I slowly fell into a routine at the ranch. The spreadsheet programs were easy to use once I learned what the various terms meant, like weight gain ratio and birth weight. I learned that Leo used artificial insemination to improve the genetics of his cattle, selecting for low birth weight, good weight gain ratios for offsprin
Michael POV: The past few weeks have been hellish and not just for me, my workers too. I just fired my secretary few hours ago. The sixth to be fired in many as 8 weeks. The latest one to be fired for arranging my files in non alphabetical order, it sounded petty, but Aurora understood that much. Aurora! I didn't know I would miss her this much. She had been little light in world I never noticed, I felt submerged in total darkness. Her overwhelming desire to make sure everything was perfectly done for me and her desperate attempts to make me smile or smile when I just gave her an undeserved tongue lashing. I couldn't get her to come back and I transferred the agression to my other employees. I flip at every error and thundered at the most petty mistake. I thought I was going to have to accept she was gone with time, but the anger got worse everyday. Like every other day, I was leaving the office a bit later than others. I closed my office and headed, I saw by chance the Letter I to
Michael POV:I was back at home, where the laughter happens and I can rest at the end of the day. From the street it is bricks and mortar topped with tile, the same as any other mansion. If you step inside you'll feel it's so different, a place where the lungs choose to fill a little deeper and the heart beat a little steadier. I had purchased it for a fortune.On the verandah were plants that reached up past the cedar railings and branched out gleefully into the sun, enjoying their fair-weather home. As was typical Gian, the pots were works of art in their own right. Every one was a pleasing shape and glazed in the same vibrant shades of blue I accented my home with. Some were like snapshots of midnight and ribbed like waves. Others were classically smooth, widening to a rimmed top, brilliant cyan glaze clinging to them like animal skin and dripping down the sides to add just the right dash of chaos. Against the deep browns of the wood, these simple pots were stunning just as I knew
Aurora POV:It was a busy morning, I was engrossed in the work I was doing. I was collating the number of calves brought to life yesterday and cross checking with the spread sheet to make sure there was no error. I still had quite a lot to do, Yet my mind strayed back to my ex boss. Through out the night it was he who was running a course through my mind. I was having a mixed feeling, I was so proud of myself I finally stood up to him and didn't allow him to do me as he please. Yet there was subtle melancholic feeling in my heart, I knew I was sad and I was yet to figure out the cause of it, but it was eating me out slowly. My mother also called my attention to my sad face this morning, I wasn't surprised she detected immediately, it is often said I'm like an open book, easy to read.I felt a cold hand on my skin, I jolted violently with fear out of my skin. "Calm down Mrs. Hardy" I turned around to see my taciturn boss, who looked shaken as much as I was. I presumed my reaction s
Michael POV:"Whom did I asked to deliver the emails for me" I hollered early the next morning.I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and like usual, I was going to take it out on my workers. They were the best option to relieve one of frustration and irritation. Watching them cower right in front of me is thrilling enough to start any day."I was""So, what happened? I clearly told you how important it was, yet you willy - nilly refused to do so.""I had a lot of to do yesterday, my mind must have skipped it at the end""That is not an excuse to forget what I asked you to do Miss Collins" I hollered "I didn't pay you that much to give excuses, I pay you to work and when I ask you to do something you do it""The weather was quite sombre yesterday, I also had to consider the possibility of both I and the important letter getting wet. I planned to mail it first thing this morning, that was why I got to work extra early, but it was nowhere to be found""Because I entered the rain you we
Aurora POV:"GOT IT! AND IT ONLY TOOK ten strokes.”Friday evening, on hole seven of Potter’s Putt-Putt, Mabel performed a little dance that revealed she may have had one too many beers. It was the monthly ladies’ night and judging by the slew of high scores, none of the three of us would give the LPGA a run for their money any time soon.White lights decorated the course’s trees. With temperatures in the seventies, it felt as if fall had finally arrived. Shrieks of laughter mingled with top-forty music blaring from loudspeakers. The mouthwatering scent of the snack bar’s trademark barbecue."You seem to be having a lot of fun" I grinned "Every minute out of Mr. Angelo office is a time to be alive" I couldn't help but imagine the hell I went through and pitied my ex colleagues. Now that I know how it feels to work under someone that truly values your worth, I couldn't imagine myself ever working in such conditions again."That bad?" I asked"His temper grow worse daily, he flips on t