Finders Keepers

Mandall walks into work the next day, Sam walking right behind him, trying to retain his composure and not show every worker and employee around that he can’t successfully hold in his curiosity and pressing questions.

Almost immediately as the duo get off the elevator on the thirteenth floor and Mandall takes a seat at his table.

“Where did you go through out yesterday? Were you that bothered that you went off the grid like that?”

Mandall only chuckles, him crossing his hands across his chest to watch his secretary’s agitation manifest on his face and through his questions.

“Oh, you are having a boatload of fun watching me question you?”

Mandall laughs again. “I went on a drive to clear my head and a lot of other things happened. I got caught up till a bit late yesterday. I kind of lost track of time.”

Sam frowns. “That almost never happens. I hope my snide comment about not been sociable did not influence you. Where did you go then?”

“I ended up with Bethany Worth. Let us get to work for the day, stop playing around.”

Sam has a ‘boatload’ of other questions but he also has to obey his boss’s orders so he reluctantly swallows them for now, before exiting the office.

Mandall fully bursts into laughter, having seen the struggle on his face. He had been shocked and surprised and then curious but he had to leave. Mandall is not feeling up to any free fire questions right now. He has to think of how he wont land in a debt with regards to how things have come to.

THE NIGHT BEFORE…

Bethany had awoken with a start at around few minutes to eight pm, her head resting comfortably on Mandall’s shoulder. She had immediately sat up, waking up Mandall himself who had to been dozing off as well.

His eyes flew open as she sat up, so did he, resisting the urge to massage his shoulders. “Hi.”

“Hi. I’m so sorry, I must have slept off without realizing it.”

“Its completely fine. Someone came to call you for dinner about an hour ago but you were too peacefully asleep for me to wake you up.”

“I see. Would you like to have dinner here with me? I know I have been overbearing but I pretty much don’t have friends. Please don’t say no?”

“I don’t see how much of a choice I have here. Let’s go.”

She had smiled and led him down the same closed passage before and towards the staircase but they turn at the last second to a large room that is large enough to sit twenty people for dinner all at once.

“This is the smaller dining room; I hope you don’t mind.”

Mandall holds in a laugh and just nods. She ends up pulling out the chair for him and he takes it without complaint.

It’s been starting to look like a date, and, again, he is not complaining.

He sees the staff from earlier poke her head around and then it disappears.

“Food will be on the way soon. I’m sorry for falling asleep like that and making you stay so late but it’ll be even worse for me to send you off without having some dinner.”

“You have done me a lot of charity already. If you did send me away without dinner, I would not have even minded. I mean, you made the coffee by yourself. That in itself, made my day.”

She smiles softly. “To be honest, I invited you in because you interest me.”

“In your defense, no woman would randomly tell a man they are not interested in to marry her.”

“That it entirely true.”

“You know, your first words when you woke up at the hospital…”

“You had heard?” She asks, turning a bit pink, appalled.

“I had. I could not admit it for your own sake.”

“Now you are though.”

“Under funnier circumstances.”

Gina, along with three other staff files in, bearing the food in some exquisite plates, placing them in front of the duo, removing its silver covers and then leaves. The other two drop champagne flutes in front of both and fill it up halfway, leaving the bottle there just incase they would like more.

And before they leave, the remaining produce thick, long candles from their aprons and place them on the candle chandelier that’s always been on the table, turning it on. Then, the room lights go off.

You can imagine what Bethany’s face is like at that second. “What? Who ordered this?”

“The head chef. Sorry ma’am.” The last girl mutters hushed and practically runs out.

Mandall looks at the new updates and is quite speechless.

“Of all the things that has happened today, this just takes the award as the winner. I’m so sorry on behalf of my staff for setting you up like this, I will scold them as soon as this is over.”

“Its quite pretty.” He raises the glass of the golden clear wine and swishes it around, the orange light catching the glass and then reflecting on Beth’s face. For that split second of happening, Mandall’s breath catches and he gasps.

Her eyes had been wide open, her lips slightly parted and her eyebrows slowly unfurrowing. She had looked ethereal.

He suddenly becomes aware of the undertones in the room.

She was staring at him through the orange light, and it was not a rude stare, more like a fascinating, this man is here, alone with me, kind of look.

And true enough, the whole house is silent, making them extra aware of one another’s presence.

A loud sound pierces the air and the mood is broken.

Mandall clears his throat very slightly, his eyes on the food. “Your chef must be a Michelin starred because this is what a five star hotel cooks and here I am, having it for dinner without paying a dime.”

Bethany loosens us, chuckling. He always has something to say to make her snap out of her thoughts.

He had gently cut his meat into thin long strips, focusing so much that every strip was the same thickness as the other. Then he picks up the plate, exchanging it for hers. “You can have that one, I cut it up.” He explains, almost like she can’t see it.

“Thank you. You are pretty thoughtful.” She takes a bite of the food and chews it to the end, swallowing before saying anything else. When she looks up at him again, there is an intense look in her eyes, like her eating had given her some space to think of something.

She had proceeded to drop her for and took a long sip of the wine.

“You are thoughtful, caring and seemingly successful, your car says so. Mr. Hall, I don’t know all that much about you but what I do know is more than enough to come to a conclusion. You have seen just how much in a pickle I put myself today during the conference, announcing that I am getting married while being… being scared to do so. Something about you makes me feel a little more lighthearted about making such a rash decision. It’s a pretty hard—”

“Yes.” Mandall interrupts, cutting her short.

Bethany stops short and looks him right in the eye, her eyes glowing in the dark. “Is that…?”

“Yes, Miss Worth, I’ll marry you.”

Bethany leans back in the chair, her breath coming out in a long drawn out outward gasp.

“If I’ll get married, it’ll better be someone I can relate to, even if it’s a marriage of convenience. So, yes. I’d love to get married to you.”

—The office doors open and Sam returns, drawing Mandall out of his thoughts. “I had been knocking for a minute.” He states passively as he drops a document on Mandall’s desk.

“I’m getting married.”

Sam stays bent, processing the news. When he finally raises his back, looking right at Mandall.

“Are you being serious?”

Mandall nods.

“Oh hell…”

*

On the pedestrian sidewalk, a woman walks around, peering at different things as they passed. Her walking is irrational, her breathing comes in hurried rasps, and ever so slowly, she goes down, passing out.

A young man immediately stops his car and runs to her side.

“Ma’am! Ma’am! Are you okay?”

Apparently, she is not.

Her face and other visible parts of her body is covered in scratches and bruises, red and angry marks around them while the surface itself is starting to dry up.

The young man’s eyes happen to glance up and he sees a poster on the wall, a missing poster of a middle aged woman.

The name read ‘Anastasia Worth.’

He glances at the picture o the poster and then at the woman who has passed out and even through the bruises, the resemblance is uncanny.

He immediately lifts her up, worry etched in his face, carrying her into his car, while dialing a n

umber that incidentally rings up at the Worth estate at the same time.