Arthur stepped out of the restaurant and went into his car. He brought out the piece of paper that was just given to him.
He took out his phone and dialed the phone number, but it didn’t go through.“The number you dialed is unavailable at the moment. Please try again later.” A feminine voice permeating from the phone’s speakers announced.Arthur bit his lips softly and rolled his eyes slowly, thinking of his next course of action.There was no other way he could contact her. He would have to go to the address written on the piece of paper.She definitely would not be coming back to the restaurant anymore, because it was clear that they fired her. So locating her address would be the last resort.There was only one problem. The address on the piece of paper was located in the other part of town.To be specific, the ‘rural’ part of town.To be more specific, the ‘ghetto’ part of town.Arthur had not been around there before. He has always lived in the metropolitan area.He turned on his car ignition and drove towards the region that was written on the paper.After about twenty minutes of driving, he was finally in the neighborhood.The air was different. There were no skyscrapers towering into the clouds. The houses looked old and rickety.He was in the trenches.His car stood out among other low budget vehicles he was seeing around.He slowed down and thought to ask for directions to where he was going.He honked twice as a man walking by approached towards his vehicle.“Hello sir, please can you give me directions to 16 Beyer street?” He said, slightly sticking his head out of the vehicle.The man hesitated for a second, and then stopped to point the directions to where he was looking for.“Just drive down a bit. The second Street by your right is Beyer street. So you can find number 16 there.”“Alright, thank you.”Arthur stepped on the gas and proceeded forward.The man stared at the fancy car disappearing in the distance in admiration.Arthur followed the directions and arrived in front of an old building. With the inscription ‘No. 16’ boldly plastered to the wall beside the door.He got out of his car and walked to the front porch.Knock! knock! knock!There was no response.He knocked again and again, but met with the same silence.He waited a few more minutes and tried again, but it was still the same.There was music coming out of the room, so there had to be someone inside.He hesitantly twisted the doorknob. There was a click, and the door opened.He slowly pushed the door open, causing the intensity of the music to be more prominent in his ears.He put a step in and caught a glimpse of the house.The whole place looked scattered and disorganized. It was like the house was being inhabited by a clowder of cats.There were clothes scattered everywhere, a few empty bottles of wine laying on the table, a broken flower vase on the floor.Arthur was snooping around. He went through the door leading to a passage where the bedroom was. The bedroom door was slightly ajar.He pushed it open and found a woman with a flushed complexion laying seemingly lifeless on the floor.Her bath towel was almost completely loosened from her body, revealing her lush, smooth body that was only covered by the red bikinis she was putting on.Arthur went inside and squatted close to the half naked lady on the floor to examine her.Upon a closer look, he noticed the face was familiar. He suddenly recognized her to be Aria, the waiter he was looking for.She had been drinking all night after she got fired, in an effort to numb the pain of her whole life crumbling upon itself.Unfortunately, she’s very light-headed, and becomes useless whenever she drinks.Arthur properly covered up her body with her towel and carried her into the bed.She was passed out, and it seemed like she was living alone, so he couldn’t leave her all by herself. For all he knew, she probably turned the house upside-down in her drunk state and could have seriously hurt herself.He went back to the living room and stumbled on some heaps of clothes on the floor. He turned down the music and picked up the clothes and folded them neatly and then he impulsively started cleaning.He tidied up the place, picked up the pieces of the broken ceramic vase from the floor, put away the bottles of alcohol and the glasses they were drunk on safely.He went back to the bedroom occasionally to check up on her. When he got there, he would stare at her from the door a while before going back.After cleaning up the house, he sat on the couch. In an attempt to wait for her to wake up, he fell asleep. It was already evening and almost sundown.She eventually woke up with a serious hangover and looked around. Still confused and unaware of her surroundings, she staggered to the living room to find a stranger in her house, sleeping on her couch.Startled, she screamed.“Who are you?”“What are you doing here?”Her loud voice caused Arthur to wake up.He tried to calm her down and explained everything to her. But as he attempted to approach, she screamed even louder.He retreated to the door. Even he knew it was definitely weird being a stranger in somebody's house uninvited.“Calm down.” Athur said, moving his hands up and down with his palms facing the ground in gesticulations.“You passed out.” He added.“What did you do to me?” She asked, trembling. She had picked up the remote control and held it up towards Arthur to prepare for defence against any potential attack. Like seriously, a remote.“Nothing.” Arthur said, raising his hands up in the air innocently.“You were on the floor when I came in, so I helped you get up on the bed.”“You were pretty wasted.” He added.A sharp pain surged through her head, so she held her hand on her head and tried to sit down, wincing in pain.“Are you okay?” Arthur said, moving forward hastily in an attempt to help her.“Who are you, and what are you doing here?”“I’m the customer whom you attended to yesterday at the restaurant... You spilled some wine on my girlfriend and then she slapped you. You remember?” Arthur explained.“What? You?”“You and your obnoxious girlfriend are the reason I’m in this mess right now.”“So What do you want to do now? Throw me in jail for accidentally spilling wine on your girlfriend? Is that why you’re here? You came to finish it up?” She said, almost tearing up.She whimpered in pain. Tears were already forming at the base of her eyes at the thought of her current predicament, and in no time they came trickling down her cheeks..“No no no no...”He rushed to her in compassion and spread his hands around her back to give her solace.“I’m not here to do any of that.”“It was not your fault at all. It was an accident, and I understand that.”After a few minutes of consoling her, she finally stopped sobbing and raised up her head to look at his face.“I’m so sorry about all that.” he started, in a warm soothing voice.“She was totally wrong to hit you, and I take full responsibility for that.”“I also heard about your job, and I’m sorry about that too.”“And I promise you, I’ll do everything in my power to make it up to you.” Arthur said with more intensity in his voice.“That job was the only thing I had,” she said.You could see the pain in her blood-red eyes.She was scared because she didn’t know what to do. It was at a dead end for her. She had a lot of student loans to pay and she was an orphan with nobody to assist her since her dad died.“Don’t worry Aria. We’ll find you a new job.”“How did you know my name?” she asked, staring deep into his eyes, shocked.He chuckled lightly and said, “Don’t worry about that. I’ll tell you everything, but for now, you need to take an aspirin and have a cold shower to help with your hangover.”“Alright.”“You’re a nice guy.” she said, forcing a smile on her lips.She stood up and got an aspirin from the cabinet. She swallowed it and gulped down a bottle of water afterwards, before heading to the bathroom.Aria went to the bathroom, ruminating vehemently about the man she left in her living room. She questioned her choices of letting the man stay. On the other hand, he seemed like a responsible person who wouldn’t hurt her.Besides, he just took care of her and promised to help her. Although part of her instincts didn’t trust him and wanted to dismiss him, after all, he was still the reason she didn’t have a job anymore. But she desperately needed the help, so she couldn’t afford to reject his offer to help her by being rude or disrespectful to him.She had her bath and went to the bedroom to change out of the bath towel that had been hanging millimeters above her chest all the while.She wore an oversized, baggy, pink t-shirt and cute, black girl shorts.Her depressed demeanor had changed to a happier one after her bath, and then she returned to the living room.“So tell me something...” she said, taking a seat on the couch next to Arthur, and folding her legs on it.“How come you’re t
At the Johnsons Villa, things were gradually becoming different than as it used to be before.Most of the servents and staff working at the mansion had been laid off. Nearly all of Mr Clark Johnson's vintage luxury cars had been impounded.Just as Mrs Ann Johnson had said, they were slowly losing everything.Meanwhile, Amelia was still miserable and depressed from her breakup— sorry, I mean, being dumped.Coupled with the news of her family's current situation, she felt her whole world was crumbling over on itself.She did not leave her room throughout yesterday.The next morning, she woke up thinking. Her pillows were stained with tears.. She tried so hard to convince herself it was all a dream.So she decided to go and see Arthur. Perhaps it was all in her head. Maybe he didn't mean it.She never expected Arthur to break up with her. She always thought they were the perfect couple.The only time she had doubts about their relationship, was during college when he used excuses of study
Meanwhile, back at Aria’s apartment.Arthur and Aria were cuddled up together on the bed, in each other’s arms. Their faces were only a few inches from each other, with their warm breaths fanning on each other's faces.For some reason, they woke up at exactly the same time.They slowly opened their eyes. Still sleepy and unaware of their surroundings, they remained still for some seconds.Aria became fully conscious first and let out a muffled gasp as her brain took some time to figure out why there was a strange man was on her bed and in her face.Arthur became conscious of his environment a few seconds later, and they both impulsively jerked away from each other to establish the boundaries that were initially present when they went to bed.There was some tension in the air.“Good morning!” Aria said as she sat up and placed her foot on the floor.She yawned with heavy eyes.“Good morning!” Arthur responded.Little sunlight from outside that made its way through the milk coloured cur
In the evening.Arthur and Liam went to a bar to get a drink.music was blasting loudly from the giant subwoofers at the corners of the club.Liam had initiated the idea of them going out because he thought Arthur must have been left depressed by the encounter with Amelia earlier.But he was terribly mistaken. His mood did not change at all. He was just as jovial as he would usually be.Liam was surprised. But actually, it turned out that his sleepover at Aria’s place cancelled out whatever despairing feelings that should have emanated from Amelia’s earlier ruckus.“I don’t believe it.”Liam lets out after a couple of minutes of staring at Arthur in a daze.His expectations had been subverted. Arthur was not moody at all.“What?” Arthur shrugged, taking a sip from his glass of Pina colada.“You’re not moody at all...”A hint of surprise and confusion spread across Liam’s face.Arthur smiled and responded. “Why would I be?”“Um, for starters, your girlfriend of over 5 years whom you ju
Meanwhile.Amelia had already planned to return to Arthur’s office to try and talk to him again.She came in at noon, and thankfully Liam wasn’t there to prevent her from coming in. Nobody else really cared if she was there or not.They didn’t understand the reason Arthur ordered her out the previous day. Although they had their speculations. Some of them did figure out that they might have broken up.She went straight to Arthur’s office, but he wasn’t there.He had gone to the cafeteria for lunch.She searched around the building, around places she believed she could find him, but she didn’t see him anywhere.Then she remembered it was lunchtime, and that he might be at the cafeteria, so she checked there too.After taking the elevator to the floor where the dining hall was, she finally arrived at the door.She stood at the door, trying to scan across the room to see if she could find him.After scanning, she noticed a familiar face. She squinted her eyes to get a better view of the
At the Johnson’s mansion.Feeling depressed, Amelia returned home looking so downcast. She walked into the living room and met her mum watching TV.Mrs Ann notices her daughter’s sad demeanor and put the TV on mute. She signals to her daughter to come closer.The house was basically empty, because they had laid off all the staff due to financial constraints.“What is the matter, dear?” she asked in a tender tone.Amelia, who was already sobbing, walked towards her. She gestured for Amelia to sit beside her. She wrapped her arms around Amelia’s waist and drew her closer for a tight hug.“What is wrong, darling?”“Why are you looking so sad?” Mrs. Ann asked.Amelia remained mute. She was still trying to process what was going on. There was no other viable option for her. She was at a dead end.“Talk to me please.”“What happened?”“It’s Arthur.” She finally managed to form words in a cracked voice.She whimpered as she spoke. Tears dripped down her eyes.“I went to his office to talk to
The next day.In the evening, Amelia was in the living room scrolling through her phone.The tv was turned on, and it was on the news channel.“The Multi-million dollar real estate firm, Crown Royal Corporations, has lost a lawsuit worth billions of dollars over illegal/criminal activities.”“It was discovered by government and security officials that the company was involved in several financial crimes that led to their lawsuit filed against them.”. A female news anchor’s calm voice resonated from the TV.Amelia overheard the familiar names being mentioned on tv and refocused her attention from her phone to the TV.She raised her head and saw her dad’s picture alongside the company’s name boldly displaying on the large, brightly lit LCD screen.“Dad!”“Mum!”“Dad! You’re on the news.” Amelia shouted with a reverberating voice, calling for her parents’ attention.“Clark Johnson, the CEO of Crown Royal Corporations, has currently declared bankruptcy, and all his assets and company asse
Even after living in that ramshackle of a house for some days, Amelia still hasn’t gotten habituated to the environment.There was no pool, no servants. Some parts of the roof leaked whenever it rained. The bathroom didn’t have a bathtub.To top it all off, the house was infested with rodents and insects.She could be laying on her bed resting silently and look up and find a group of cockroaches having a party on the walls and ceiling.The house wasn’t the only inconvenience she was facing at the moment. She was also running very low on cash.Normally, she would go on shopping sprees regularly to fill her wardrobe with the latest designer fashion trends. But now, she could barely even afford an average priced handbag.Her privileges at Crown Royal Corporations were no more, because they had lost the company. Also, daddy wasn’t giving her any money either.It had dawned on her that she would have to find a means of earning money. But how? It’s not like she has any marketable skills wha