Black Widow
©Tobi
Episode 4
For a while, Shelby was quiet. In fact the three of them were quiet until she realized the lady was wearing the shi-t she had s£nt him on his last birthday gift which he hadn’t even bothered to say ‘thank you’ for. It was a blue-black shi-t and being a fair guy, she had thought it would make his eyes pop and now, she found it on his girlfriend….and well, instead of ma-king his eyes, pop, it was ma-king him so cold. She had been so stupid
. Fabian was looking at the floor while the lady was looking at her. If only she could have supernatural power, she could have just yanked the shi-t from her pigeon n£¢k but….Nana had brou-ght her up with dignity and she had thought her lots of things about this moment and how to act like a lady.
She regained her confidence and gave a full f0rç£d smile. “Hi, I’m his…..I mean, I’m Shelby.”
“Oh, I know who you are.” The lady said, placing a hand on Fabian’s shoulder whom she couldn’t even manage to look at.
“You know me?”
“Yea, you are the boss’s daughter.”
Okay, now would be the right time to look at Fabian….
“You two work together, with my dad?” she asked him directly.
“Well, I uh….” Fabian stuttered. “Why are you here Shelby and…” He turned to the lady, giving her a hostile glare- Laura, why don’t you go find something else to wear?”
“Sure darling. This shi-t is ma-king all turned-on again by the way.” She said with a mischievous grin and then faced her
. “Nice to meet you, princess,” Laura said, before walking away.
For a while, neither of them spoke. What could she possibly say? She was so stupid to have thought that whatever childhood promise they made to each other would hold any significance. They had only been pla-ying b©yfri£ndand girlfriends since like they were six years old until she clocked seventeen and now 7 years later, nothing made s-en-se anymore.
She couldn’t contain her disappointment and shock. She immediately turned around, trying to hide her face. She had been the most stupid girl o the planet. It was only a childhood crush, why did she think it would matter…oh, of course, because they promised each other….hold were they? Twelve-thirteen?
“Shelby…”HE said softly. “Why are you here?”
Her back was still turned towards him.
“I um…” She started. Stupid emotions were ma-king her voice quiver. She hated anytime that happened. What would Nana suggest she does at this time?
“I…um, daddy said you wanted to tell me something and..you know what, I think I will just go.” She said abruptly. “Sorry to disturb. plea-se go back to your turned-on girlfriend before she gets turned off!” She f0rç£d a smile and turned around to pick up her bag.
Oh dear Lord! Did she just say that! She could totally picture the face of her Nana giving her a formidable look for saying that. Well, thank God she wasn’t here.
“Shelby, are you okay….?”
“Yep! Totally, why would I not be okay?” She gave another smile and quic-kly waved at him. Then she began to walk out of the mansion and even though she wished he could call her just one time and explain things, she was glad and disappointed that he didn’t.
Finally, she was in her car.
‘Are you okay miss?” Her dad’s driver asked.
“Just go, don’t take me home, plea-se take me somewhere else.”
“Would you like your old pla-ying ground?”
She hesitated, that was the one place she had always gone with him and…”Yes, plea-se take me there.”
*******************
Fabian watched as her car drove out of his compound. For a while he was filled with so much anger for whatever Laura did but thinking about it, she had actually saved him from saying something stupid. He was about telling Shelby to leave that place and never come back, to leave her father and run far, far away. But that would have put him in a bigger trouble with the boss.
He heard someone come behind him and he turned around so quic-kly. It was Laura, she had a satisfied look on her face.
“Hi babe, don’t be mad, I had to let her know what was up.” She said.
Fabian walked towards her. “I know, thank you. Don’t ever do that again!” He said before walking past her.
When he got to his study he pushed all the paper works away from the table angrily. He could imagine how so uncomfortable she must have felt. Then he pu-ll-ed the seat to himself to sit on it before he proceeded to the last drawers on the desk and pu-ll-ed it out.
He di-pped his hand inside and c@m£ out with a ru-bber-made-ring. It looked like a piece of furniture that must have been used during plumbing. It was in a nylon and he took it, held it up and began to look at it as his mind flashed to twenty years ago…..
A little boy was in the gras-s, looking for a squirrel. He couldn’t have been more than four years old. His cloth and face were all stained with mud. An elderly woman was sitting afar off in a long blue go-wn, there was a basket beside her as she was busy talking to a little pretty girl who was in her Sunday best. They were out for a picnic.
“Come over here Fabian, see what Shelby has in her hand.”
“I’m coming Nana.” HE said, stood up and rushed to where her Nanny and Shelby were. He saw the dirty ru-bber in her hand.
“Hey, what’s that?” He asked curiously.
The girl smiled but was quiet.
“Go on, tell him, sweetheart,” Nana said with a smile.
“That’s our wedding ring.”
“Really. Let me see.” He said excitedly as the girl put the stuff in his dirty palm.
“Wow! So what next?” He asked.
The girl shook his head. “You will put it on my f!nger silly like they did in that movie.”
“But you are not covering your face.” He replied.
The girl looked disappointed and then sighted the basket, in it was a scarf. she bent towards it, picked it and used it as a veil.
“So now, we are doing the wedding. So what next?” The boy asked.
“You are so dumb sometimes, Fabian! Come on, put it on my f!nger, Nana will be the priestess…”
Their Nana couldn’t st©p laughing, then she started.
“Dearly beloved spirits ghost and angels that may be pres£nt, we are here in this little garden….”
“Don’t call the ghosts Nana, they can be scary, besides Fabian doesn’t like ghost and spirits.” The girl interrupted.
Their Nanny muffled a laughter. “okay, dearly beloved Angels, we are here to join these two little children together with this beautiful diamond ru-bber pipe….blah blah blah… Okay, now slid the ring in.”
The boy excitedly lifted her hand up and slid in the ring with his dirty hands, staining the girl’s former-clean hands with mud.
“Ewww Fabian you are s disgusting.” The girl shouted, ru-bbing the mud against his cloth. “But I will marry you all the same.” With this, the three of them laughed.
Fabian smiled as he recalled this moment. He wondered if she even remembered and how she would look if she discovers he has the ru-bber…
“Fabian!”
An abrupt voice sounded on his computer screen and he quic-kly di-pped the ru-bber in between his ties to face his boss.
. His face that was initially soft was now ha-rd ened up.
“Hello, boss.”
“Did you tell her?”
“No sir, the time wasn’t right.”
“You are becoming sloppy, you know you will still tell her to don’t you? I have given you enough time, there is no time anymore. You better get it together, whatever Laura did was to save you from messing up and it appears she is the only one doing her job rightfully.”
He was quiet.
“You are leaving for Canada tonight, we have a target, come to the office for a debriefing.”
Then the screen went off again.
Standing up he went to his shelf which was a stack of book, ranging from German publishers to Nigerian publishers. He took the ‘Things Fall Ap@rt’ novel from somewhere between the stack and shifted back as the shelf made a sound and then turned around, so that was once a stack of books was now a stack of weapons of different deadly guns and other killing weapons here and there. He found one that met his interest and re-moved it from where it was hung. He c0cked it, aimed it and then dropped it on the table. Then he pressed a bu-tton on the table and then the stack of weapons was replaced by the shelve. Anyone who would come in would only think it was filled with books and would never know what was behind it. He replaced the book he had taken from there and then picked up the gun. He wondered who the target was and why the person was even a target. Well, he nee-ded to st©p wondering about stupid things like that, after all, in Black Widow, you are being paid to kill, not to wonder
TbC