-13-

<<flashback>>

"Jesus!" Eleanor shouted, scrambling up from her bed and hitting her head on the head board, hard.

She clutched her Mongolian pillow tightly to her chest and stared back at the stranger with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry Miss," the stranger, a young woman with brown hair which fell in short waves past her shoulder apologised as she hurriedly stood up from the bed, straightened her blue apron, and courtesied.

Eleanor blinked fast and hard, looked around her room in alarm and switched her eyes back to her.

"Wh...who are you?" She stuttered, her voice, husky.

"I'm Isodel. Your new hand maid." She replied with a sunny smile, stretching out her hand for a handshake.

Eleanor's body visibly relaxed as she heaved a heavy breath and pulled the pillow away from her chest.

"New hand maid?" She shook her hand weakly.

Still smiling, Isodel nodded and sat back down on the bed.

Eleanor stared at Isodel like some ghost as she poured  tea from a pot into a silver tea cup. Isodel handed the cup of tea to her and proceeded to cover the pot.

"Uh, thank you. Lord knows I need this," Eleanor said, took a sip and lowered the cup. "If you're the new maid, where's Gracie?" She took another sip.

"Your old maid you mean?" Isodel asked, clasping her palms together.

Eleanor nodded. "Yeah."

"Your Mother said she had to rush to her hometown for an emergency."

"Oh..." Eleanor placed the cup on the saucer. "This tea is very good."

"It's a new recipe I recently learnt online. Very good for relieving stress. Especially for people in your situation."

Eleanor looked up from her phone. "My situation?"

"Yeah." Isodel nodded, shifted closer to Eleanor and said in a whisper, "You know, after what happened with Cross Heaven's Gate."

Eleanor's face dropped.

"What he did was very mean." Isodel said, pouring Eleanor some more tea.

"How did you even hear...you know what, If you don't mind, I wouldn't like to talk about it," Eleanor said gravely and accepted her second cup of tea.  "But tell me though, how did my Mum employ you within such a short period of time? Where are you from?"

Isodel brushed a stray hair behind her ear. "Well—"

Eleanor's door suddenly banged open, causing the teacup to tumble out of her hand. The greenish black liquid spilled all over her white night dress, its heat making Eleanor do a sharp intake of breath.

"Cross? wh...wh—" Eleanor stammered, eyes locked on Cross, in a plain white tee and beach shorts, who was standing in front of the door.

"El," Cross began before being interrupted by Giselle, their gardener, who had just rushed into the room, gaping for breath.

"I'm...I'm so sorry Miss, he wasn't going to take no for an answer. He was insisting on seeing...seeing you," Giselle said, panting.

"What do you want Cross?" Eleanor asked, her voice, a mixture of tiredness and irritation.

"We need to talk El." Cross took a few paces towards her bed.

"We have nothing to talk about. Giselle, please escort him outside."

Giselle made an attempt but Cross only ignored her.

"El, I didn't mean to—"

"You didn't mean to what Cross?" She got down from her bed, accidentally knocking over her bedside lamp in the process. "You didn't mean to what?"

"El, I can explain." Cross stretched his hand to touch her but she took a step back.

"You slept with my best friend Cross Heaven's Gate, and—" her eyes began to cloud up with tears.

"El, let's not have this conversation here please." The worry on Cross's face grew as he switched her eyes from Eleanor to Isodel and back to Eleanor.

"I needed you Cross, I needed you by my side. To encourage me." A tear slipped down her left cheek. "To hold me. To tell me that everything was going to be alright." She shook her head. "But you weren't there for me. You were in some hotel somewhere in the city, in bed with my own best friend Cross, you...you...Have you no conscience at all ?"

"El—" Cross touched her arm.

"Get your hand off me!" She pulled away, looking at Cross like a disgusting piece of trash.

"El, let's talk about this. Please." Frustrated, he brushed his palm over his face.

"There's nothing for us to talk about Cross Heaven's Gate, it's over."