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Quit your job-Thundermentals.
 

2.//Lips that could send anyone into a frenzy.

Simi.

"Mother," she wailed loudly, disbelief raking through her frail body. She couldn't believe her mother had died after everything she had done to keep her alive.

She was hurt and angry.

Angry at herself. At the doctors who couldn't do anything to save her. At the mourners, who the only thing they seemed to be able to give her was a pity, and she was angry at the cancer that had affected her in the first place. Her last days hadn't been the best, she was aware of that, but she also wasn't ready to give her up.

The people around her looked at her with sympathy, she didn't need sympathy, she did not want it, and she barely managed to keep herself from telling them off. If only she had had more money, to have her undergo that final surgery, maybe she would still be alive. Her hands opened and closed, clenching. Her fingernails leaving marks on her palms, bright red.

She couldn't feel the pain, she was numb. The voices around her had burned out, seeming only as loud murmurs from somewhere far away. She had done her best to keep her alive, worked more shifts just to have money to keep her on that life support. Worked odd hours just to make sure she bought her enough flowers to make her room smell like a flower shop. She wanted them to be the first thing she saw, bright red roses, her favorite.

She distinctly heard a voice say that maybe it was better she had died, that she had been put out of her misery and she was going to 'rest in peace', and suddenly she had gotten a fill of everyone. She couldn't stand them anymore.

"Get out, I want everyone out now!! "

                                       ***

    Simi grabbed her apron at 4.03 a.m. She was originally from the coast but had come into the city to hustle, just like everyone else. Naturally tall and with slight curves in the right places, she did consider herself beautiful. Her blue denim jeans were worn out, and the white cotton t-shirt looked good with her old trusted pair of Adidas snickers. She knew she was going to be late for work that day, by twenty minutes, she confirmed checking her wristwatch, but she still procrastinated. What was the point of running if she was going to be late anyway? Why did she have to wake up this early anyway, where she was going, people were still asleep in their warm, comfy beds, and for a moment she saw herself, sleeping on a big bed and not having to wake up until the sun had risen. Burrowing deeper into her hoodie, reaching for the warmth, she cursed her luck for forgetting to wear warm fuzzy socks on that day.

Traffic in the city was a nightmare, Nairobi was big, and with the huge population, it was only natural for it to be that way. At first, when Simi had started living there, it intimidated her with all its streets, lanes, and big buildings, most of them named after big political figures. Well, at least politicians were useful for one thing, she always thought in her mind. It was easier to remember them, and slowly but surely, she got used to them. The city was beautiful at night, with all its lights viewed from a vantage point, and especially from where she worked, she would give anything to own a place just like that.

Catering for people from the high-class society was a nightmare, she worked as a maid in one of the many leafy suburbs in the city and she thought all of them were inconsiderate snobs. It might have been a biased opinion because she generally didn't like anyone.

Greeting the security guard at the gate, Simi skipped her way to the front door, dreading the sarcastic voice of the head housekeeper, praying with all her might that she would not see her, or maybe the heavens had gifted her and made the housekeeper late too.

"You're late," obviously, the heavens had deserted her, and instead it was the icy cold black eyes of the mistress Sarah that met her.

Simi gulped loudly, nervously wringing her hands together. The madam of the house wasn't, for lack of a better word, pleasant. Sure she was beautiful, but she was scary. Standing at five foot seven, she was taller than her by almost an inch and this only worked to frighten her more.

She worked as a cabin crew for an airline in the United Arab Emirates. Rarely was she home, but now that she was it was going to be a long month. She had recently given birth, to a daughter, and never was really there, sometimes because of work and others because she just didn't want to. According to her a child was stressful, and had brought nothing but wrecked her bottle-shaped figure, with an addition of baby fat, and post-partum. While that might have been true, Simi felt like that was judging her daughter a bit too harshly, it wasn't her fault anyway, and she didn't ask to be born.

"I... um..." she trailed off not knowing exactly what excuse to give. "There was traffic," she continued finally settling on telling the truth.

"And how is that my problem...?" Sarah asked her, trailing off at the end, narrowing her eyes further, hands on her waist.

"I don't really..." the shrill ringing of a phone cut her off and Sarah answered it. Simi took that time to quietly slip away. Saved by the bell wouldn't have had a better meaning.

Tying the apron around her she went to work. She could smell breakfast once she entered the kitchen. Simi hadn't had any yet so it was only natural for her mouth to water, but she also did not have the time to have any. It had been her turn to make the breakfast that day, and she hadn't, so just to avoid further problems she ventured into the broom closet.

The vacuum cleaner wouldn't work, everything had conspired against her that day and in a bad way. Groaning internally, she had to start doing everything manually.

"I wasn't done with you yet."

Oh no, not that again, Simi thought, mentally face-palming herself, and turned around dutifully, dreading it.

"I just thought you were busy," she admitted her head hanging. "I... I just wanted to give you some privacy."

"I didn't ask for it, and I don't pay you to think. I pay you to do whatever it is I want," she was in a foul mood. "And I never asked you for privacy, if I wanted it, I would have told you that, do you understand?" she nodded still keeping her head down.

"I'm the one who sent her," the head housekeeper Kathrine, interjected quickly. "I asked her to pass by somewhere, to get some things we needed and didn't have."

"I didn't see her with anything when she arrived," Sarah replied staring at them as if she could see right through their lie.

"I asked her to have them delivered instead of her carrying them," Kathrine lied easily, and Simi resisted the urge to look at her with her jaw on the floor. "They were heavy, and she would have charged you for overtime."

"Hm, okay. Just make sure to find me at the end of the day," with that she turned around and walked away her heels clicking all the way. Simi released a breath she wasn't even sure she had been holding in the first place.

"You do know you were late, right?" Kathrine asked.

"Yes ma'am... I..."

"I hope it doesn't happen again," she interjected. "I might not be around next time."

"Why did you..." the look in her eyes stilled her and warned her from asking the question on her mind. They weren't exactly best friends, and they didn't exactly get along either. "I'm sorry. Thank you."

Going through her work, Simi wondered what the missus wanted. She rarely ever spoke to the workers in the house let alone summon them and always let Kathrine deal with them, well... mostly. Her mind was going into an overdrive trying to figure her out, what had she done wrong. She tried to remember everything from the past week, nothing came up. Last month, still nothing, last year was the same, and the year before, since she had joined that household.

"You're going to have to make lunch for me today." Simi jumped almost a foot in the air, clutching her chest and cursing loudly. The last thing she wanted today was another scare. "I made breakfast for you," it was another maid, luckily.

"Could you please announce yourself next time. Don't sneak up on me like that again," she chided. "And sure, I'll do it, I'll make the lunch, thank you...uh for making the breakfast for me."

"I'd do the same for my friends," she made a shushing gesture in the air. "And it's Lorna, I know you don't know it," she added lightly, walking away.

"I am not your friend," she scowled at her retreating figure.

Great, now she had to do lunch too. On top of her already pilling up work. Quickly stripping the chairs of their covers, she dusted them, wiping up every speck of dust. Apparently, someone had heard her grumbling about the vacuum cleaner and reconnected it for her. It just turned out to be a power problem.

Wetting a clean piece of rag, she wiped it over the picture of Sarah and her husband's wedding picture ridding it of dust. She paused to admire her husband, Tony. He was a muscular man, she had come across him a couple of times working at the gym in the house. She couldn't help but admire a bit of muscle on a man, she was a woman after all and she did have eyes.

In his late thirties, he was older than her by more than ten years. She was twenty-two and he was thirty-nine, making it a solid seventeen years, but she would snatch him up in an instance given the chance. Too bad he was taken and Simi never messed with other peoples husband's, fiancees, or boyfriends otherwise. That would have been asking for trouble, she shuddered thinking about what madam Sarah would do. She was allowed to imagine though, wasn't she?

Trailing her finger over his face, she wondered what it would feel like to touch him in reality. Closing her eyes she imagined what those luscious lips would do to her. He had eyes the color of melting chocolate, and they always seemed to burn with a fire within. Full lips that were sure would send anyone into a frenzy, his face perfectly chiseled and jaws sharp. His caramel skin just sealed the deal, and he usually smelled so good. Thinking about it, she thought she was smelling his scent at that moment.

"What are you doing?" Simi heard his voice before she saw him. So she wasn't imagining, good thing she wasn't touching his picture, just staring at it, that was easier to explain.

"Cleaning sir," she lied easily. She was telling a lot of lies that day, and it wasn't even halfway done yet. "I was just checking to see if I'd left dust on the picture."

"Sure you were," he cocked his head sideways looking at her and chuckled. "I don't see dirt anywhere. Looks like you're pretty much done."

"That's why I stood back and checked it, sir, to see if I'd find any," she clenched her teeth. The rate at which lies were coming out of her mouth that day, would have put to shame any politician. "I'll go ahead."

"Sure go ahead," he moved to the side and allowed her to pass.

"Thank you," she replied gathering her cleaning equipment, letting out a slow breath. She could feel her head swimming just by being in his presence. She wished that maybe, she could have had a chance to stay just a little more. A few seconds more.

Busying herself in the kitchen, she prepared for lunch.

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