Candid

Chapter 30

My fellow South Africans will understand the struggle I went through today trying to write this chapter...Load shedding!!

(Basically when the government turns off the entire town's electricity for a certain number of hours...yes, it does suck, no there is nothing we can do about it, it's mandatory for every household.)

Enjoy

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On Monday morning I took extra time to get dressed for school. Grayson and I had both decided that since our friends now knew about us, that we could go public with our relationship. So, here I was, sitting in front of my vanity, perfecting my foundation, putting extra care into a pimple that had appeared overnight.

Sunday night was only slightly annoying as far as things went. Grayson and I were at the Diner grabbing dinner, when Natasha walked through the door to collect an order. If she saw us sitting in the back booth she didn't make it known. But when it comes to her, you never know so that's when we decided that it would be better for us to tell everyone before she told everyone.

My phone pinged as I had put the mascara wand down.

On my way -Grayson

I left my vanity a mess, promising myself that I would clean it up later and ran rushed down the stairs, to get some food in me before Grayson picked me up for school.

"-Have to fly out on Wednesday," my father was saying as I walked into the kitchen.

Ellie was standing at the stove, scrambling some eggs, while my parents were sitting at the kitchen table going over their papers. My mother was wearing scrubs, indicating that she had surgery today.

I walked around the counter and kissed Ellie on the cheek, accepting my plate of eggs and greens before sitting at the table.

My mother sighed. "For how long?" She scratched something out with her pen and wrote in something else.

"Just until Monday," my father said, taking a sip of his coffee, not looking up from the papers in his hand.

My mother's head snapped up and stared at my father. "Monday? You'll miss Alexis's whole visit, she's only here till Friday. Can't another associate represent you on Monday and you come back so that we at least have the weekend all together?"

My father placed the papers in a neat pile in front of him and looked at my mother. "I can't miss Monday's meeting, it's with a private client and they only have this time to go over the upcoming trial."

Ellie placed a mug of coffee in front of me and I gave her a grateful smile as she sat down next to me, eating her own breakfast.

"Are they making you work the weekend too?" My mother asked in an irritated tone. She disliked it when my father pushed himself to work outside of traditional office hours.

He gave her a gentle look. "For the amount of money they're paying me to consult this weekend alone, yes, I am working the weekend."

She huffed and sat back in her seat. "I don't like the idea of overworking yourself but if you have to then there's nothing else to it." She glanced over at me, acknowledging me for the first time this morning. "Guess it'll be a girls weekend for us, Honey."

I shrugged, chewing slowly before swallowing. "That's okay, we'll do something fun." I turned to my father. "When do you leave?"

"Wednesday morning, before you wake up," he answered with a strained smile, clearly upset about the timing of this business trip. "I'll be back late Monday night."

My father wasn't new to business trips but they rarely took away his weekend and they were at the most two days long not six, no wonder mom was so upset.