"Please make yourself comfortable, sir," Mara said, showing Leo to a sofa as they stepped into the house he had given her back when they first met."Thank you," Leo nodded with a smile and he couldn't help but sigh in tiredness as he slumped on the soft piece of furniture. That walk from his house to the coffee shop was a long and tedious one under the hot sun. He could use some cool water now, but he felt it would be disrespectful to ask for it so soon."Here, sir," Mara said, bringing him a glass of cold water in anticipation of his need.Leo didn't even remember to say 'thank you' before he grabbed the glass and downed its contents in a few gulps. He was that thirsty! When he was done drinking, he looked up to find that Mara was holding out a jug, offering to refill the glass."Thank you," he rasped as he held out the glass to her and she filled it for him. Whew. His wife never did this for him. He wondered where Mara had learned to be so nice and attentive. He never really did get
Leo walked fast, casting his eyes all around him at the quiet and peaceful environment. It was very much unlike the city. No noise, no crowd of constantly moving people, vehicles and stationary buildings. It was all sunny, calm and quiet with the occasional chirping of insects and birds. This was why he had chosen this spot to have a secret retreat. He had been looking forward to surprise his wife with it before Mara came into their lives and he had to put that plan on hold. Good thing he did. If his wife had known of the house, he would have lost it too and both he and Mara would have been completely homeless now.Shading his eyes to see better through the glaring sunlight, he caught sight of a house up ahead. It was a house on a farm. It would do for what he had in mind. Doubling his steps, he made straight for the building.When he bought the bungalow that now housed Mara, he had not had the time to take a detailed tour of the area to know his neighbors. Back then, he had thought i
As Mara celebrated the retention of her job, Leo was there at the farm stumbling through his. It was no easy task for him. He had been saddled with the task of digging out stumps of trees from a small area of land. All the trees had been cut down and chopped into bits and all the grasses had been burned too, but the roots of the trees were still in the ground. These were the roots Leo had to take out.The area he had to cover was just less than half the size of a football field and the sun was blazing hot. So, shovel in hand, sweat streaming down his body, grunting and huffing with exertion, the former CEO was hard at work doing something he had never thought he would ever do, at least before he lost everything. Once in a while, he took a glance at the old man who was seated in front of the farm house and staring at him with the ghost of a smile on his face. He didn't need anyone to tell him that the old man was quietly mocking him, and it made him even more determined to prove himsel
When Mara returned home, she had no idea she was beaming until she walked in to find Leo in the kitchen. At the sight of her happy face, he gave her a bright smile and then turned back to his work. But somehow, something felt off to her. His smile though bright did not seem to reach his eyes. Involuntarily, her own happiness dropped a few notches and she found herself dying to know what was wrong or what had happened in her absence. As far as she knew, he was much happier when she left him in the morning.Mara could ask him what had gone wrong, but she knew he would deny it. Not that she could prove that he was unhappy or bothered by something. There was just no concrete proof. All she had to go on was a gut feeling. She just knew in her heart that everything was not okay."Whew," she sighed and put the sleeping Little Leo down on the couch."How was work? Busy day today?", Leo asked, thinking she had sighed from exhaustion."Hmmmm. Not much," Mara shrugged, keeping her eyes on him to
"You came back."It was half-question and half-statement. The old man was very much surprised to see Leo back on his farm, ready to do more work. He just stood there staring at him in disbelief. He thought he had been broken and defeated the previous day!"Well, uh... I guess you want more work?", the old man stammered, finally recovering from his initial shock. In response to the question, Leo nodded eagerly. He was all smiles and confidence.The old man looked at him from head to toe again, thinking perhaps it was his twin brother. Was this not the same person who had limped out of here just yesterday??Even though he found all this very amusing, Leo was beginning to feel a little embarrassed from all the staring and shock the old man was displaying."I'm wondering if there's any work to be done?"The sound of Leo's voice seemed to knock him back to reality and he shook his head as if to clear the fog from his brain. "Yes... yes, of course. There's work... there's always work. But a
Later that night, after they had all had a quiet supper with no mention of what had happened earlier in the day, they each went to their respective rooms and were soon fast asleep. Assured by Leo's promise that he would never do odd jobs again, Mara had gone to bed happy and quite satisfied. She knew that he would keep his word. She trusted him completely.Leo, on the other hand, did not fall asleep so easily. He stayed up for a few hours thinking about his current situation, his increased reliance on a young girl and what exactly the future could hold. He was not a pessimist, but he was sure that Mara's expectations were too unrealistic.If he was going to be the man she predicted he would eventually become, the best way to achieve such a goal would be to work towards it. But she didn't want him to work! This, as far as he was concerned, was a serious dilemma. How on Earth was he going to overcome it without hurting her? He was not really a fan of prayers, but he soon found himself m
The next day, Mara woke up with a little headache. She had not slept much through the night. For some reason, little Leo had refused to sleep after waking up. He had peed in his diapers and the discomfort had made him cry out. After Mara had changed the diapers and put him back to bed, she thought he would fall asleep almost immediately, but the young rascal was in a playful mood and wanted his mother to join in or he would make sure that she and the entire neighborhood would have their ears ringing with his cries.Mara had no choice but to oblige him and they played deep into the night. Each time she felt that he would soon get tired and fall asleep from exhaustion, he only proved that he was ready to keep her up all night. At the end, she was the one who became exhausted and involuntarily dozed off to sleep. When she woke up over an hour later, it was daybreak and her son was very much wide awake. Obviously, he had not slept a wink!"You'll never cease to baffle me, Leo," she murmur
When Mara arrived at her workplace, she couldn't find her immediate superior, but from the presence of her bag on her desk and her computer being on sleep mode, it was clear that she had come to work and may have left to go do something or the other. With a sigh, she dropped her bag and phone on her desk and instantly, the phone lit up, showing the beautiful smiles of her two Leos.Mara couldn't help but smile too and bring the phone up to kiss the background picture. She loved the way she had become so close to Leo nowadays and her heart filled with joy whenever she remembered the moment he offered to look after little Leo. Since the day he picked her up from the streets till this day, never for once had he judged her or looked down on her. He had accepted her and her son with open arms without second thought and with no discrimination whatsoever. Till this day, she still had not told him anything about her history and neither had he asked nor hinted at it in any way.She loved him,