Courting Trouble

Confusion.

|Confusion.|

As if to mock her the morning came  faster and much sooner than Malisha would have liked. As promised, work on her room started promptly and at the very crack of dawn. Unheeding of her warnings, her mother had also contracted her help in order to supervise the handymen and despite her earlier sentiments, Malisha ended up doing it albeit very grumpily. Before she knew it, the clock had hit noon and her stomach was rumbling protesting the hunger pangs that had besotted her from as early as six o'clock that morning.

"Speaking of which, when was the last time you actually saw your son?"

"Why? What does that have to do with... Oh!?" Then it hit her. She realised that she had not seen him since supper that previous day and it was only now that she had thought about him. Her guilt was unmeasurable and it chewed on her turning her insides even as she continued to worry herself sick.

"How could I?" The guilt awakened her real conscience even as she reflected on her actions and on the kind of mother she had now become.

"How touching."

"Oh, please shut up! I know that you are not the real deal so..."

"Well... Call me Kristina." her inner voice grumbled and Malisha could not help the burst of laughter that escaped her lips. Her thoughts of hunger were also pushed back in order to accommodate the much newer and disturbing thoughts of her conscience and the whereabouts of her son. "Aren't we going to look for him then?"

"Of course " Malisha thought as she set out to look for the boy, first in his room, then in the den and other possible areas that were left inside the house. When she could not find him, she walked outside the house only to find him lounging in the courtyard looking content even as he spoke excitedly to some unknown person on the phone. On the lawn chair beside him, his grandmother stretched herself out, listening in to his conversation as she stared out into the pool with a smile. Malisha heard him say goodbye, then he handed the phone back to his grandma before picking up his chocolate milkshake in a transparent glass sippycup.

"Well... What did he say?" His grandmother probed him, her face radiating his same level of enthusiasm.

"It's going down!" Thomas said with such a loud whoop that prompted a stern look from the lady that was grandmother.

"Young man, what did I tell you about addressing a woman like that?" Sally Lenton asked. The look on her face remained stern and it made little Thomas freeze up unaware that he was being teased. He gazed up dolefully at his Nana and her mask finally cracked.

"So, what is going down?" Malisha said suddenly, dropping herself on the empty seat that was left beside them. At the sound of her voice, her mother jolted from her seat and turned round to face her barely missing the marble floor by an inch.

"Malisha! You startled me!" Her mother scolded even as Malisha grinned back, thoroughly amused by the amusing turn of events. Even Thomas found it funny. For he covered his mouthand snorted unable to keep the laughter in.

"So tell me, what is going on?" Malisha asked, settling down on the chaise with her mother's coffee in her hand.

"Well, Thomas here..."

"Grandma! Grandma! Let me tell her!" Thomas interrupted her so excited to be the one to share the news.

"Very well Thomas. Go ahead and tell your mother the plan."

"What plan?"

"Well Mamma, remember that nice gentleman from the other day?"

"What gentleman?" Malisha asked her son, raking a hand through her hair as she struggled to connect the gaps that were missing in her memory.

"Duke, dummy." her inner voice said and she was finally able to piece it together.

" Duke?" Malisha mumbled as her forehead furrowed.

"Yes Mummy. That one."

"Yes...What about him?" She took another sip of her mother's coffee in a bid to rein in her panicking emotions.

"He said that he would come over. We are going to have a play date and we'll play chess, puzzles and even soccer. We will... "

Malisha did not get to hear the rest as her mind hanged up at the notion of Duke coming over. After her while, she could no longer take it and her thoughts finally exploded through her mouth.

"Wwwait! Who invited him?" She snapped turning a cold glare at her unsuspecting mother.

"Malisha! Drop your voice. You're scaring the child." Her mother scolded and true enough Malisha turned to find that her baby was staring at her with big sullen eyes about to drop tears.

"Aaw...I am so sorry baby. I didn't mean to yell at you" She assured him before pulling him into a tight hug.

"Did I do something wrong, Mummy?" he asked her and it broke Malisha's heart into a thousand pieces.

"No baby. I was just surprised that's all." She lied barely managing to conceal her emotions even as her anger threatened to boil over.

"It's okay Mummy, I forgive you."

"Thanks Bambino" his mother smiled. She brushed his dark curly locks from his forehead and laughed despite her anger. He was so cute and the joy he brought her was really unexplainable. "Honey, will you please go inside and ask Ms. Harriet for some ice-cream? Your granny and I are going to have some boring grown up talk."

"Eeew..." the little boy scrunched up his nose in disgust before running off to find the housekeeper.

"Granny? You know how I hate that name." Sally Lenton complained in a poor attempt to distract her daughter from their looming confrontation.

"Mum!"

"Fine, I didn't think you would mind." She told her daughter and Malisha's glare intensified.

"And why wouldn't I mind? You of all people know that I can't stand him!"

"For heaven's sake Malisha! He is going to be his father! They need to get to know each other."

Malisha's jaw dropped. She regarded her mother with a look of horror plastered on her face even as she tried to digest the piece of information without burfing.

"Seriously mother. I don't even know how you come up with such crazy notions."

"Malisha, we know." Her mother riposited, moving out of the sun to stretch herself on a leather chaise that was beneath a huge umbrella.

"Mum, should I even mention how frustrating this is? What do you mean by, 'you know'?" Her mother regarded her for another moment before dismissed her with a shrug of her shoulders. Realising that her mother was not going to give up answers, Malisha took it upon herself to decrypt her words and when the truth finally hit her, she could do nothing but gulp down the last of the coffee and hope that it would dissolve the nervous lump that was forming at base of her throat.

"He didn't?" she finally managed finally managed to whisper even as the now empty cup was placed back on the table.

"Yes he did. It left your father too shocked for words that it took him two whole days to finally tell me and let me say, I do not understand the two of you. Especially with that little fight and drama of yours. Was it for show? Why go to all that trouble? Or wait? Are you pregnant again? Is he Thomas' father? Is that why you two were fighting?"

"Woah! Woah! Slow down there mother and no. I am not pregnant and seriously, I do not even know how you come up with these ideas."

"I'm your mother Lisha, I worry."

"Not pray?" Malisha poked fun at her faith and her mother lifted a well shaped eyebrow as if daring her to continue. Seeing that her daughter was not planning to say more, she turned around to take another sip of coffee. Even as she did so, Malisha looked on amused waiting for the reaction that was sure to come.

"Malisha! Where is my drink?" Malisha flashed her a cheeky grin and laid back on the leather chaise laughing at her mother as her thoughts drifted back to the previous Friday and to those final moments before she threw Duke out of her room.

"How did I not see that coming?" She asked herself quite  rhetorically, but her mother did not seem to catch that drift.

"Your father is elated beyond words, all your indescretions forgiven and forgotten in the wake of this new development."

"Gee thanks! Feel free to tell the General that I am grateful, but there will be no wedding!"

"You are not planning on eloping are you?"She asked warily and Malisha groaned as she resisted the urge to pull out her hair out in frustration.

"No! I am not engaged! And not to Duke Carlisle of all people!"

"But Malisha?"

"No mother. No engagement ring, see?" She articulated clearly holding up her hand for her mother to see.

"I was hoping to remedy that." A male voice that could not be mistaken from any other said from the double archways and Malisha could not help but release a groan.