Vanilla (GoodNovel Exclusive)

04 | VANILLA

Genevieve's eyes met those of such captivating familiarity that she almost stumbled backwards- his name sounded so alien when spoken from her mother's lips, but, one thing was for sure... and that was that her mother knew this man and also that Genevieve could not shake the sinking feeling in her chest and nausea that flushed her skin and drained through her stomach. Long story short, she felt the overpowering urge to turn, grip the metal edges of the bin beside her and throw up like she had chugged disgustingly chunky off milk.

What an uncomfortably small world, or suburb, they lived in... though it wasn't too hard to believe Mona knew an attractive, clearly well-off man.... and well-endowed.

"Mona," Jasper replied with a smile, removing the sunglasses perched on the bridge of his nose as he dragged them away from the girl's. The girl he had purposely ran into. The girl with sickeningly familiar company. "What a pleasant surprise." He flashed his pearly white teeth as he offered her a curt smile, readjusting his grip on the coffee-to-go in his hand. It had been his fourth cup that morning and surely not his last.

"It would be rude to skip the introductions, Jasper this is my daughter, Genevieve, Genevieve this is Mark's younger brother and my colleague," She paused, turning to her daughter with a tight smile and her hands clasped together. "I know you're very familiar with Mark, my boss." She spoke to her daughter, before turning back to face Jasper who seemed rather uncomfortable. It was an easy truth, that Mona was a woman he'd try to avoid when he could. The blood bond between a girl he found himself intrigued by and a woman he detested at most seemed to only exist for the purpose of humouring his luck. It was a statement bitter on the heel of his tongue.

"Yeah, Mark told me you weren't gonna be into work today," Jasper commented vaguely, his eyes shifting to Genevieve's as she cast her own away from him. Her heart stamped wildly in her chest as she stood, cheeks hot, mind racing...

"Yeah, I'm just taking Gen out shopping today, we just love our mother-daughter days," Mona spoke, smile lines scrawled over the corners of her eyes as she bared her teeth in a synthetic smile. Jasper's eyes shifted to the handprint on Genevieve's cheek as he replied, chewing on his lower lip. He was torn, an emotion that left him on edge.

"Do you always slap your daughter?" Jasper's question was irritable, from both a selection of choice words he suppressed and resisting the urge to reach up and brush not only his fingertips, but his lips against her irritated skin. More than anything, he wanted to punch Mona for raising a hand at her daughter, let alone the girl that daughter happened to be—but of course, there were a million other things he wanted to do at that time but could not.

Genevieve snickered loud enough for her mother to hear as the man continued, Mona's lips tightening and nails teasing the surface of her daughter's skin painfully. "I don't know many people who enjoy shopping trips with their family so much that they have an uncontrollable urge to slap people... this is quite interesting,"

"She was rude to me," Mona's voice was icy and low, her eyes matching as she attempted to match the man's height. There was a slip of vulnerability in the moment, a single second where you could really see how she fumbled for footing—where you could see how foreign it was for her to fall out of control.

"You teach respect with respect," His maxim was short and his voice as enticing as ever as his eyes met Genevieve's, his words sensual and directed towards both women with two allegory depths. The young girl's heart fluttered in her chest—and for just a moment, she forgot where she was and who with... and smiled.

"Well I better get going," Jasper held his wristwatch to his line of vision, pulling his sunglasses on over his eyes once more as he moved to make his way around the pair. "Don't want to be late," and with that, Jasper retreated into the distance and Genevieve breathed a sigh of relief, some of the pressure that had congested her airlines subsiding as a wave of dizziness brushed over her head.