Chapter 91.

Chapter 91.
Andria.
Monday 23rd February. Two Weeks later…

Classes are so boring today. I can see my classmates distracted. But I ignore them and I think of the years I yearned to attend classes. I think of how much I used to wish my parents were alive to take me to school. 

I try to dispel my sadness.

Even after classes end and I’m at lunch with my friends, I’m still distracted by my sadness.

“You’re not fine, Andria. What’s gotten you sad?” Tarner asks me.

I shift my watery eyes to her. A knowing look crosses her face as she looks at me. She grows sympathetic and holds me in an embrace. I hear Mordecai and Salman shifting uncomfortably beside me. 

“Don’t be sad, dear. I know it hurts that you wouldn’t see your parents again. But know that you have a family in Adrian now. You said so yourself,” She soothingly says.

I nod and I hold her tight. I wish I can draw strength from her. Sadly life doesn’t work that way. You can’t physically draw strength from a person. You can only be cloaked in their warmth.

And at the moment, my insides are too drowned in sorrow to draw out any comfort. At some point, Mordecai says something funny and I can’t help but laugh. I find it relieving. Somehow I get distracted from my pain and focus on the Mordecai’s joke. 

Later after school, I wish to meet my old friends at the bar. I need to connect with that old home I once lived in. Somehow seeing Nicov the other day piped up these series of unstable emotions in me. I am thinking of my past more frequently these days. I'm thinking of mum and dad. I am suffering. 

And now I am in need of seeing the old place I lived in, after dad and mum’s death. So after changing out of my clothes, I pick a coat and something suitable and take a cab to the bar. I know it’s early yet and the bar wouldn’t open until 7pm. It’s 6pm when I stand at the bar’s entrance. The usual hub bub of the bar greets me. 

I see the wooden building, sagged by age. I see the windows, that have seen better days. Snow is caked on the windows. I venture inside and see the staff cleaning the bar for opening in a few minutes. I smell Rosa’s mouth watering soup. I suddenly feel hungry. 

“Hello, can I help you?” A girl strolls by, holding a white cloth in her hand.

I guess she’s being dusting the tables. She’s a new face. Perhaps she’s my replacement at the bar. I see her expectant face and I realize I haven’t replied. 

“I’m alright dear. I’m only here to see Rosa.” I smile warmly.

She looks at me for a second, before she heads over to the back. I know Mr Krosov wouldn’t be in now, because he would be at home counting his money. He’d arrive once the bar is all set up for the evening. 

I stroll over to a seat at the back; the same spot where Adrian sat and our eyes locked, a month ago. I can’t believe it’s been already a month since that time. A bubble of excitement threatens to make me burst into giggles, but I hold my peace. 

In a few minutes, the kitchen door behind the counter opens and out comes Rosa. Her eyes shift first to the door, before they sweep across the bar. When her gaze lands on me, surprise lights up her face. She wrings her hands on her apron and walks up to meet me. I rise to meet her half way and we fall into a deep embrace in no time.

“Oh my child.” She mumbles in my hair.

I hold her tight. Smelling all her warm scents. When I lost everything, Rosa was the closest to a mother I had. Whenever Mr Krosov grew mean, she usually helped me. Gave me food. Gave me warm clothing. Sometimes when I was sick, she would take me to her home and nurse me back to full health. She never minded that she had four kids to feed. 

“How’s Fred? Is he still drinking heavily?” I ask her, after I finally pull out of her embrace.

She goes to sit down and taps me to join her. Fred is her husband. The man has being a louse for as long as I can remember. 

“Fred is gone, Andria. He left me for another woman in oversees. I found out she has a son for him. While I…” She pauses, perhaps trying to hold in her sadness. “While I have daughters.” She finally finishes. 

“But daughters are humans too, Rosa.” I encourage her, holding her hands in mine. “Fred was only looking for a reason to leave and it’s good you didn’t stop him. Let him live his life, while you live out yours.” I quietly encourage her.

She nods her head, frantically. Her head is lowered, but I can still hear her quiet sobs. She’s a nice woman and she deserves the best I can offer. I don’t think. I just ask.

“How about you come and work for me and the count as our housekeeper?” 

“Me?” Rosa stutters in shock.

I nod my head, enthusiastically. Then she covers her mouth, stunned. She makes this funny whimpers in excitement. 

“But I’ve never worked for any of the nobles before…I’ve only worked here as a cook…” She whimpers.

A smile splits my lips.

“And what of Mr Krosov?” She asks like in afterthought. 

“Rosa, if you take the job, even Mr Krosov would envy your pay. Now what do you say? Would you come and work for me? Cook those sweet soups for when the count and I have our babies?” I bait her.

I don’t need to hear her words as confirmation. The bright look she gives me, is confirmation enough.