Melissa moved back a little as the men approached her. The man with black long hair stood in front of three men. He was smirking at her, a smirk that felt like mockery to Melissa. He moved closer to her, while the other men stood in the same spot.“It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Mel.”Melissa grimaced and moved back again until she felt her back, touching the door.“What do you want?” Melissa asked, trying as much as possible not to let her anxiety slip through her voice.“What a very stupid question to ask me don’t you think? The man said in a harsh tone.The small fox shaped pendant dangled from his chain as he bent over to look at her in the eye.“Your payment for this month is due, isn’t Mel?”Melissa felt her body tremble and small beads of sweat form at the top of her head as he stared at her dead in the eye. The man from a company she had burrowed money from, the loan shark that demanded money from her each month.Jack Torez, a tall attractive man in his thirties and the owner o
Melissa wiped her eyes, which were now red and puffy as she picked herself up from the ground. She walked into the kitchen tiredly and saw that her sticky note was still in place, untouched.She opened the pot and the meatloaf stew was still intact. Melissa sighed and looked up at the wall clock ticking away. A couple of minutes after 9pm and Brandon wasn’t home. Melissa was drained mentally and she didn’t want to worry about Brandon. He usually got back home 5pm, well that was what he told her since she wasn’t at home all the time.Was he having extra lessons? Melissa shook her head. There was no way extra lessons would close this late. Maybe he was the Library? Yeah, that was plausible enough since he preparing for his final exams. Or he was at a friend’s house? Melissa didn’t know if Brandon had friends or not, he never talks to her or tells her anything.Melissa was getting anxious as the seconds passed. She contemplated going out to look for him, but she didn’t even know where to
The staff room was a small space with a few cabinets. It led into a break room that had a long rectangular table and a few chairs surrounding it. Melissa made her way past the staff room and the break room, until she was in front of an oak tree door. The word “boss” was written boldly on at the top of the door. Melissa knocked on the door lightly and listen for a response.“The door’s open.” A low voice said from behind the door.Melissa took that as a go ahead and swung the door open slowly. In the small cramped up office, filled with piles and piles of papers stacked up on each side of the large mahogany desk that was basically taking up all the space in the office, Melissa wriggled in. In the midst of the messy office, a fortyish looking man sat in a chair behind the desk, a cigarette in his mouth and his nose buried deep in some paperwork Melissa couldn’t understand.“You called for me boss?”The man finally looked up at her and scratched his short black hair that had a few grey s
Gabriel Marshall flipped through the pages of the document in front of him and let out a frustrated sigh. Ever since his little “dinner” with his mom, Gabriel had found it hard to focus at work. Her words kept resounding in his head, playing like a broken record, over and over again.It made him mad, infuriated that his mother was the one who was deciding his marriage for him. Gabriel had never been close to his mother, even his father, and the feeling was mutual for each of them. They were a family, who were only together for the sake of the company, no love and no bond attached them together.Gabriel didn’t have a choice but to accept the marriage his mother had arranged for him, without consulting him first. If it was for the company, Gabriel would do anything and marrying someone he barely knew and had no feelings for was a small sacrifice.Gabriel sighed and placed his pen down on the table. No matter how much he tried to read the words written on the document, it all came out ju
“You want me to increase your working hours?” The woman questioned Melissa, as she cocked her eyebrow at her, strangely.Melissa nodded slowly, her eyes pleading as she judged the woman’s expression. The woman that stood in front of her was Regina Martinez, her boss at the day care. A short plump woman in her fifties, but her face looked quite young. Her short, blonde hair was tied up in bun and she cradled a baby in her arms.Regina hushed the baby, while her face showed that she was deep in thought, pondering over Melissa’s proposal. She looked up at Melissa and let out a regretful sigh.“I’m sorry Melissa, but I can’t increase the amount of hours you work. More hours mean more pay and I can’t pay you more than I already am.”Melissa felt disappointed, but a part of her expected this type of reply. She knew that asking for more working hours was a huge risk and her request wouldn’t be accepted, but she did either way, having a small ray of hope that it’ll be granted.Regina looked d
Gabriel ran his hand through his wet hair as he stood under the cold shower. On every other day he would’ve taken a hot shower, but he needed a cold one to cool him down and it helped him clear his thoughts. He had a lot on his mind and Gabriel hated overthinking. He detested it with a great passion.He turned off the shower and got out of it, wrapping a towel around his face and another, he used it to dry his wet hair. Gabriel walked into his room and looked around. His long sized bed draped with a plain white bedsheet was positioned in the middle of the big room, beside a large glass window. The decor was quite simple, since Gabriel liked to keep things simple and minimalist.There was an L shaped black coloured sofa at the bottom of the king sized bed, with a glass table at the centre of it. The walls were painted white and a few abstract paintings were hung on wall. Sighing, Gabriel threw off his towel and wore a grey colour tone. He walked out of his room and went down to the spa
Gabriel adjusted his bath robe and walked over to the door reluctantly. He was irritated that someone would come knocking at him door as such a time in the night. He looked out the peer hole and let out a disgusted sigh.With a great hesitancy, Gabriel unlocked the door and swung it open. He stared at the woman standing out side he door and clicked his tongue.“What do you want mother?” He quizzed.Diana scoffed and brushed past him, into the house without answering his question.“I have something important to tell you.”“And that important thing couldn’t wait until tomorrow? Or you couldn’t send me a text?” Gabriel complain.Diana ignored her son’s nagging and walked past the long corridor and into the living room. Gabriel follow after her, cursing under his breath and hoping that Leslie was dressed, at least.To his surprise, Leslie was dressed and sitting on the couch, pressing away at her phone. Diana gave Leslie a short glance and brushed past the sofa, ignoring her completely. S
Melissa scrolled through her phone, staring at the small screen intently. She was scrolling through an app, an app Tory had recommended for her.“It’s an app I found some days ago. You can apply for small jobs. Just look through the job listings and see if there’s anything you can do there. I hope it’ll help.” Tory had said.Melissa was checking it out, like Tory had said. Surprisingly, there were a lot of job posting on the app. Request to dog sit a German Shepherd and a Rottweiler three times a week, another request to clean a small paralegal’s office five times a week, and a request to babysit for children once a week.There was a lot more jobs, an Melissa kept scrolling through each of them, looking for the appropriate job to apply for, something she could do with ease. Melissa shook her head. This was no time to be thinking about comfort. As long as the job paid well, she would take it even though it would be taxing for her.Melissa placed her phone down on the couch and sighed t