Chapter 5 Five

• The next day, Jake woke up early in the morning to find his mother getting ready to go to work. They met in the kitchen just when she was returning her coffee cup.
• “Morning, Mom,” he mumbled groggily. “You’re up early today.”
• “You’re even earlier, compared to your usual wake-up time,” she retorted. “I never thought I’d see the day when you’d wake up by this time.”
• Jake knew his mom was baiting him, so he didn’t even bother to respond to her barb. In his mind, he felt that since he no longer had to go to school every morning, there was no reason for him to wake up early.
• “Where’s Mrs. Garcia? Is she not up yet?”, he asked as he followed his mother out of the kitchen.
• “I don’t know. I’m not her guardian,” his mother shot back.
• Sarah was always the first to wake up, so it was quite a surprise that they had both woken up before her. This was the first time this had ever happened, and Jake couldn’t help but wonder why.
• Nevertheless, without another word to his mother, he went straight to the living room to turn on the TV, expecting that Sarah would be up soon. She was the one who usually made breakfast. Without her, there would be nothing to eat.
• Half an hour passed and there was still no sign of Sarah Garcia. Jake’s mother had since left for work, leaving only Jake in the living room. The cleaning lady had even come and was already working, but still, the housekeeper was nowhere to be found. Jake found this very odd. All the time he’d known Mrs, Garcia, she had never been in bed up till this time. Or could something have happened to her?
• With this thought in mind, he jumped up on his feet and went straight to her room. The door was locked. He put his ear to it and listened for a while. He could hear sounds of rustling in the room. Apparently, she was awake. Or was she really?
• “Mrs. Garcia, good morning,” he finally called out to her.
• Immediately, the rustling sound stopped. For a moment, Jake feared that someone else had sneaked into her room and done something to her, but he quickly realised just how dramatic such a thought was.
• “I just came to check on you since you haven’t come down yet,” he added after waiting in vain for a response to his greeting.
• It took almost a minute before Sarah responded. “I’m fine,” she said in a gentle tone. “What do you want?”
• Jake wanted to see her making food, but he didn’t dare say it out loud. “I just wanted to make sure that you’re okay.”
• “I am,” Sarah replied impatiently.
• “Okay,” Jake shrugged and went back to the living room. Even though he hadn’t asked when she was going to come down, he believed that she was going to appear sooner or later since she was perfectly okay. So he resumed watching TV to pass the time.
• But an hour later, Sarah had still not come down. When Jake saw how far gone the time was, he decided to go to the kitchen to help himself to some sandwich or something.
• To his surprise, the moment he walked into the kitchen, he found the cleaning lady cooking!
• What was going on here? This woman was being paid to clean, not to cook!
• "Hi. Good morning, Miss Tina," he greeted her tentatively.
• "Morning," the woman replied without looking up at him. She was a petite brunette in her early thirties and had been working for the family for almost a year now. She was usually not a woman of many words. This, coupled with the fact that she didn't spend much time at the house since her work wasn't so much, made it almost impossible for any serious interaction to occur between her and the family. This was why Jake wasn't as casual with her as he was with Mrs. Garcia.
• "Um... I was just wondering why you're cooking," he finally blurted out after a moment of awkward silence. "I mean, you usually clean, but today, you're cooking. No offense, you know. I'm just curious."
• "That's fine," Miss Tina said with a nod, making it clear that she was not offended at all. "I didn't think I would be cooking today either. But Mrs. Garcia called me when I got here and told me to help with the cooking. That's why I'm here."
• This statement was much more than all the words Jake had ever heard her say since she started working at the house. He was so surprised by the melodious tone of her voice that it took him a moment to finally process what she had just said.
• "Why... why did she ask you to do that?", he finally blurted out in surprise.
• "I really don't know," Tina shrugged.
• The first thought that crossed Jake's mind was the possibility of Sarah being sick. But then, she didn't sound sick when he went to talk to her. What could be wrong? Why was she in her room and refusing to come out?
• "Oh, and she said to tell you that she didn't want to be disturbed," Tina suddenly added as she recalled this last bit of information.
• She had made the statement just right on time. Jake had just been about to go up to talk to the housekeeper again, but on hearing this latest instruction, he reluctantly changed his mind. The last thing he wanted to do was to annoy Mrs. Garcia again. If she didn't want to come out, then he had no choice but to let her be. At least, for now.
• ***
• Hours later, when Sarah still didn't come down, Jake decided to take the bull by the horn and go upstairs to confront her.
• When he got to her closed door, he hesitated for a moment before knocking softly on it. He didn't know how she would react to him coming back. Hopefully, she wouldn't be too angry. He had already had breakfast, so he wasn't eager to see her in the kitchen. Instead, he was genuinely worried about her well-being.
• "Who's it?”, Sarah called from inside the room.
• "It's me," Jake responded. "Just came to check on you. What's going on? Are you sure you're okay?"
• "I told you before that I'm fine. Can you please leave and allow me have some peace and privacy?!", Sarah snapped at him in frustration. She really didn't mean to raise her voice. It was just that the more he came to check on her, the harder it was for her to cope with how she was currently feeling.
• "I'm sorry," Jake sincerely apologized and turned around to leave.
• "No, no, it's fine," the housekeeper quickly assured him. "It's not like I'm angry with you. I didn't mean to shout. It's just that I need a little alone time for now."
• "Okay. Understood," Jake said briefly and left without another word.
• Sarah breathed a deep sigh of relief when she heard the sound of his footfalls moving away from her door. If only he stayed away and never came back to check on her, perhaps she would be able to summon the courage to finally come out of her room.
• The reason she had stayed locked in since the previous day was simple. It was shame! Shame and guilt, to be precise. She was ashamed of herself for having slept with a 19-year old and she felt guilty for betraying her friend, his mother. As a result, she couldn't come out to face either him or his mother. The only thing she could do was hide in her room. It felt childish and cowardly, but there was nothing else she felt she could do. She had thought it over throughout the night, but nothing else came to mind.
• If she stepped outside to face him, how would he view her since he had already seen her naked? Would he ever respect her again? Even if he did respect her, how would she survive the shame such undeserved respect would make her feel?
• These were the questions that kept running through her mind. Up until the previous day, she had seen herself as a respectable, mature woman that knew the right thing to do. She just didn't know what came over her that fateful afternoon that led to her getting fucked by a boy half her age! If someone had told her before now that such a thing would happen, she would have laughed at the person and accused him or her of being insane! But here she was now, hiding in her room for hours on end. Where was all the self-control that she once used to take so much pride in?? Clearly, this was one of the most difficult moments of her life. She regretted... Wait, could she really regret having such mind-blowing sex? But... damn it! She had slept with a teen for crying out loud. Any sane human would regret it! How could she even think of savoring it? Hell, she would have to go take another cold shower to rearrange her thoughts again.