AN UNTRUSTWORTHY OFFER
1831 Words
CHAPTER 5
AN UNTRUSTWORTHY OFFER
She ran out of words after what he just said because a handsome man just told her that he would love to know about her. Yet, after what Mirasol had done to her, the kind of betrayal caused her not to trust anyone in here, a Filipino or even a foreigner.
“W-What would you want to know?” She asks cautiously.
“Hmmm, Anything. About you.” He responds while taking a sip from his drink.
Her brows creased subtly, “W-Why?” She finally has the courage to ask.
Mickey stares at her and chuckles as he is taken aback by her personality because he had never met a woman who had doubted him and his intention. He thinks it’s a good thing because most people had thought of him differently.
“I just…” He clears his throat. “I just want to know you.”
She stares at him doubtfully. “But why?”
He chuckles, “There’s no why. I just want to.”
She stares at him doubtfully again.
“Isn’t that how you should start a friendly conversation?” He asks her.
“Do I look like I am a bad man?” He asks with a smile before taking a drink.
“I don’t know.” She answers honestly. “I don’t know you.”
“I don’t have bad intentions.” He says it with serious eyes. “Let’s start with a simple one, what’s your favorite food in Cape Town?”
Cup noodles. She thought to herself.
“Umm…” She trails off as she looks away shyly because she has not tried anything here aside from that delicious pineapple ice cream she tried the first time she got here. “Do cup noodles count?” She chuckles shyly.
“Cup noodles?” He asks in confusion.
She nods. “I never really tried anything here yet.”
“What?” He gapes. “You’re serious?”
She nods again, “Aside from the pineapple ice cream, nothing else.”
“Why?” He questions.
She does not know too because ever since she came here, all she ever thought was to earn money and earn money because she came here with little money too.
“You didn’t come here for vacation?” He asks with a straight face.
“No.”
“So why did you come here to Cape Town?”
She breathes as she tries to stare at her drink, “For work.” She answers honestly as she takes a longer pause. “For my family’s future. For my mother. For my siblings.” She stares at her drink which looks beautiful inside the glass.
“Not for you?”
“I mean, I have always wanted to work in another country for my family. I just want them to have a better life than what we had before. Life back home is pretty tough especially when you’re your family’s own breadwinner. You work and slave to give them everything because it makes you happy. You do every work you can just to send money back home and--” She widens her eyes with how sad she had gotten as her mouth opens and faces Mickey again, “I am so sorry for blabbering such foolish things.”
He smiles at her as he begins to admire her honesty and how she loves her family so much. “Go on. Don’t worry. I would love to listen. We have our own stories. But listening to that makes me think it is very inspiring of you.”
She smiles.
“To be coming all the way here, working for your own family.” He continues.
“Thank you.” She smiles subtly as she bites her lower lip shyly.
“Are you living with your relatives here?”
She shakes her head, “No.”
“So that means you’re alone?”
She nods.
“Wow. One tough girl. It must have been difficult for you being here all by yourself while you’re thousands of miles away from home and your family.”
She nods again, “I think it needs to take a lot of getting used to.”
“It sure does. Don’t you talk with them?”
“I do but the more I talk with them, the more it makes me want to go home.”
He nods at her and understands the situation she is, “It must be so hard for you to be living here and fighting back the feelings of wanting to be with your own family.”
“It is.”
“What keeps you going?”
“The fact that we’re poor.” She chuckles humorlessly. “When you’ve had so much hard life, you only want what’s best for your family especially when you don’t have a father to lean on to.”
He feels bad for even asking the question, “I am sorry to hear that.”
Mahalia shakes her head and forces a smile, “It’s fine. I am better now that he is in a better place than before. I just want a bright future for my sick mother and my two siblings. I am all they have and they’re all I have too.”
Mickey slowly takes her hand and says, “You’re an inspiration.”
She is staring at how his hand is holding hers but moreover, how his words are moving her since he felt sincere saying it. “Th-Thank you.”
He smiles before he pulls his hand back as he takes a sip from his drink, “Please don’t take my question personal but is working in a restaurant enough to send to your family and for your daily consumption?”
Mahalia shakes her head, “No.”
“Why don’t you find a place with a better offer?”
“I was supposed to work here as an English instructor in an institution here in Cape Town but things got out of control that’s why I was forced to leave.”
He nods, “That’s just sad. You should try working for another school then.”
“They’re not looking for any vacancy.”
“Ah, that sucks.”
“It does. But I am actually working as a part-time teacher online where I teach kids English as their second language in the morning.”
He nods, “That’s cool then.”
Mahalia nods with a shy smile, “I know. It’s just hard sometimes because the pay is still not enough.”
“Life’s hard.” He commented.
“Sure is when you’re poor.” Mahalia says with a weak smile.
“Do you even save some for yourself? Life’s harder when you’re alone in a place where you don’t know anyone, you know.”
Mahalia feels embarrass as she tells her own life to this man who does not know her. But then she still sees the beauty in it and that is allowing herself to be heard even if this person does not know her personally. She thinks that it was easier to tell someone anonymous about things that are happening to her instead of telling it to her family.
“I send as much as I can because my mother… She’s sick and… my siblings need to go to school.” She answers. “I send most of my money to them because they need it more than I do.”
“You need it too, you know.”
“I know but… I guess, I am just too soft for them.”
“Ah, that’s why your mother named you Mahalia, tenderness.”
Mahalia chuckles as soon as she sees Mickey’s cheeky smile.
He smiles a little wider, “She knew you were one.”
She smiles subtly, “I guess she did.”
“You’re very generous and that is something so admiring of you.” He tells her. “You no longer save money for you. That’s why you were hesitant in going with me earlier.”
“Well, that.” She shies.
He nods, “And you were crying while you were jogging too.”
Her brows creased, “How… How did you know?”
“You didn’t even notice that I was running towards your direction because you were into deep of your thoughts and then you just suddenly stared up the sky and wiped your tears.” He stares at her intently and feels really sorry for what she is going through.
Mahalia feels embarrassed that he had to witness it, “Sorry if that makes you uncomfortable.” She apologized.
“That’s really no need for that.”
“I don’t want you to think that I am trying to get your sympathy or anything but I have been holding these inside and I really wanted to let it out my chest because it’s far too overwhelming and I don’t have anyone to tell it to. I am just so filled with homesickness.”
“It’s far better and easier to tell those feelings to a stranger.”
There was silence for a while as they continued to finish their respective drinks.
“Ah!” Mickey snaps his finger which surprises Mahalia out of the blue. “I have a great idea. Only if you’re up for it.”
Mahalia suddenly feels a little worried for what Mickey would have in mind because she does not know this guy well and does not even know what he does for a living. “W-What is it?” She questions hesitantly.
“I have a job for you.”
She takes a pause, “But I already have two jobs.”
“I have a job for you that pays you even more that can help you and your family at the same time.” He says with a smile as he stares at her intently. “You just need to have long patience, that’s all.”
Mahalia’s mind deepens with darker thoughts as she takes a pause before responding to him doubtfully, “I am not going to work as a prostitute.”
Mickey becomes emotionless, “How did you know I was going to offer you that?”
“Excuse me?”
Mickey chuckles, “I mean, I was going to…” He chuckles under his throat again before he takes a quick sip from his drink. “It’s easy money.”
Mahalia’s brow creases in the middle of her forehead, “How could those words easily come out from your mouth?”
“Excuse me?”
“Just because I am from the Philippines and I am incredibly poor does not mean I am going to sell my v****a just for money.” Mahalia states firmly that takes the attention of the woman from another table.
Spunky, a voice in the back of Mickey’s head says out loud and clear.
- Writer
