Akira replied with chuckles:
"I hear loners don't cheat when they happen to get married! I see a mother of my children in the near future."
classmates teased when Ishtar walked past everyone with her breakfast meal and sat quietly alone, in a corner to enjoyHe added.
Just like everyone else in the dinning room, Ishtar was clearly hearing every single word that came out of Akira's mouth.
"You mean Ishtar!" Bob Lee uttered in pretence.
"Of course! Who else does your mother drop with you at school every morning? Everyone knows how you can't leave on your journey back home after classes without your mute sister!" Aloud, Akira stubbornly continued to create a situation, catching every student's attention.
"Hahaha", suddenly Bob Lee made a loud ignorant laughter and responded carelessly, "Unless you're a looser too, but I wouldn't advise any of my male friends to start anything serious with her _ she's just a regular maid's daughter at our house that's all," then he forked his omelette with a filling of cheese and resorted to eating.
"Oops, Bob! Are you kidding us?" A female student said with a suprised gaze at Ishtar.
"Dammit!" Akira ran short of words to say.
Another male classmate on Bob Lee's dining table sealed the tease off, "that's a huge turn off buddy... You won't dare open your house door gently for a looser to come in and introduce her to you reputable parents as a wife to be!" Making every other student in the dinning room to laugh out loud, with their eyes on Ishtar.
Since all of the students were known to come from rich backgrounds, it was very easy for them to talk anyhow and laugh when Bob Lee disclosed details about Ishtar in her first days at their school.
This initiated bullying which made the school environment so uncomfortable for her, hence a miserable life at school.
However, even after Bob Lee's hypocrisy, Ishtar never hated him. Infact, she made a gut decision to go an extra mile in taking care of him at the mansion; cleaning his room more often, laying his bed more smart with beautiful designs and keeping everything in his closet well organised, for him to look at and wonder, "wow...!"
"knock! Knock!" The sound resonated, startling Bob Lee from his laptop, and when he got the door, "I thought you may be hungry, that why I've prepare this fruit salad for you _ it's healthy and delicious." Often times Ishtar checked on him with a smile.
Being bullied every day in a society where she had no friends to share her pains with, weakened her to the deepest at first. But later on her spirit began to grow strong when she became used to it. Time came when bullying was not anywhere at a point to steal her off her peace of mind.
Talking from an empty space of her heart, emotionally confused, with a grudge feeling after remembering their school days, Ishtar forgot the word boss in her mouth.
"I've never been attractive to you Bob Lee. You don't love me!"
Since Bob Lee knew so well that Ishtar had an unwavering commitment to loving him, calmly, he gave a proud and arrogant reply.
"I've not said I love you. I've only requested you to marry me because I know you love me and you're a cool lady."
"Wow!" Ishtar laughed so indifferently, "wow...", wondering how unfair life can be, to the extent of people talking arrogantly to others because of standards! "You never changed the arrogance in the way you talk, uh! I don't know if it's only me you treat carelessly, or that's who you're..."
"Truth is, I like you Ishtar _ I truly appreciate how you break your back to make both mine and my mother's smooth... you're a blessing in disguise to my family", he spoke with emotions.
Ishtar sighed in disbelief as she listened.
"Now that I want to marry, satisfy my mother with a gift of a grandchild... You've been wondering why I was all covered deep down in a heap of thoughts for the past two days, reason being, I've been asking myself why I need to look elsewhere for a marriage partner when I have a loving and caring secretary, Ishtar," manupilatively, he boldly told a convincing lie.
"I believe your mother would be happy to carry her cute grandchild when she gets well too."
Analysing his words, Ishtar felt a reasonable point within. She began to put down her already weak guards.
At the back of her mind, "Maybe if I accept to marry him he will start loving me right along our marriage journey... or maybe he will never care. But I love him and that's too deep _ and, I've always wished to have him as my man for so long... and I've never seen him with any woman for all the years I've known him... No no no... control your thoughts Ishtar!"
As Ishtar thought through, on relaxed steps Bob Lee walked and stood right infront of her. He lifted his hand and slowly tucked a stray hair behind her ear. Lingering his fingers on her cheek, "What are you thinking?" He whispered a question, making sure she feels his breath catch.
Ishtar couldn't hide the vulnerability in her feelings towards him as it wrote all over her face, communicating nothing but a desire to be laid. As a virgin, her hands couldn't stop trembling. But because she respected boundaries, she could not look at him straight in the eyes. She kept her face down.
As a master who knew himself so well as a ladies' magnet, Bob Lee, with a finger, softly lifted Ishtar's chin up, instructing her to look at him. In a slow motion, her eyes met his. Bob Lee could read the vulnerability written on Ishtar's face while she panted.
He gazed unsteadily at her pink lips, then back in her eyes, a technical communication which sparked the gap to be closed. He captured her mouth in a tender kiss that took her by storm, which deepened from soft to urgent.
Will Ishtar accept Bob Lee's marriage request or refuse and disappoint him? She hadn't given him a response yet.
"For so long I've been wanting you to do this with me," Ishtar confessed her secrets, "I've always loved you so much Bob...," in a small captivated voice.
In the midst of her pulse racing, mixed-up with a longing look on her face, casting desiring eyes, warmth radiating from both their bodies, with their foreheads resting on eachother's, "I'm sorry for not noticing," Bob Lee said.
It was such a moment for her to remember.
After the heavy confessions, Ishtar pulled the door out of Bob Lee's office, leaving him tightening his trousers belt and shirt buttons, back to her office desk, next door.
While inside, sitting on an inclining chair, a healthy blush on her cheeks displayed while she applied a little lipstick. She paused and touched on the lips, blushing more and more. Recurring vivid in her mind were series of the past incident on a soft office couch with her long time crush and boss, Bob Lee.
"It happened so fast", in a small voice Ishtar said, and she kept smiling all alone.
Time went by. All the hours she was in the office pressing desktop buttons throughout the rest of the day, she recalled, a smile quirking corners of her mouth, as though she was delighted that she had finally done it, that Bob Lee had made love to her so suddenly and uncontrollably.
"Ring Ring!" An office land line phone rattled with heavy rings, startling her from blissful thoughts.
She panicked to pick it, "Hello!"
"Meet me in the parking lot," behind the phone, a deep male voice instructed Ishtar.
Time check was eight o'clock, the exact time many office doors get locked up. Quickly, Ishtar picked up her coat from the hanger and put it on, together with her pair of sunglasses even though it was a night evening, to hide the shyness on her face from any works she might cross paths with along the way. So fast, she hurried outside, "good night," full of high spirit expressing good wishes to the janitor.
In the parking lot, Bob Lee patiently waited for her in his two seater luxury automobile. Both of them where speechless when she sat inside. He ignited the engine and cruised out of the parking lot to the night road.
After the car had run for a little while, "There's something on your face," on a serious note, he informed her.
Too shy around him, she gave an immediate embarrassed smile and quickly looked into a rear view mirror to help herself, "where is it?" She looked at her face extremely sensitive, turning the head side ways.
"Beauty", Bob Lee answered, "there's beauty on your face, don't you see?"