SPOV (Shawnies Point of View)
"Esme!", Mandah's Aunt Judy shouted, "How wonderful to see you again, dear!". I watched her make her way up the driveway towards the devastatingly beautiful woman. They took one anothers hands and both were all smiles. Mandah got out of the car and motioned for me to follow. "Esme, this is my niece Mandah," she began as Mandah and Esme shook hands, Mandah shuddered a little but smiled. "And this is her best friend, Shawnie!", she cried. I reached my hand out and I realized why Mandah shuddered. Esme's hands were ice cold. I didn't know how she could stand it. However, I returned her excited smile.
"It's so nice to meet you ladies!", she gushed. "Judy's been telling me about your arrival. I hear you're going to be working for her?", she asked. "Yes", I responded, "I was actually just hired today!", I laughed. "Well then, it sounds as if Mandah might be available to me then!" Esme beamed at Mandah's aunt. "I told Esme that design wasn't really your thing, Mandah. She told me she was looking for a part time assistant. Of course, I didn't have Shawnie then. If you'd rather do that, that'd be fine with me. I'm sure you'd be happier." Judy told her.
That piqued Mandah's interest and she began asking questions. Job duties, hours, where her office was. This deal was basically sealed. "Let's go inside and we can nail out all the details when your Aunt and I are finished." Esme offered her. We all followed her up the stairs and into the foyer. A quiet "Wow", slipped out of my mouth and Esme smiled. "Come on in ladies, can I offer anyone something to drink?", she asked. Mandah was the only one to say yes so Esme showed us into the living room and set off to get Mandah a water. "This place is unbelievable!", Mandah whispered. "Thanks, it's all from my shop", her aunt giggled. Just then, Esme returned and handed Mandah the water. "Thank you Esme." Mandah said genuinely. "No problem, sweetheart.", she smiled.
"Now Judy, I've got my order sheets ready to go.", she explained as she handed several pink sheets over to Judy. "How long before the inventory will be ready?", she asked. Judy fished into her sweater pocket, grabbed her glasses and pushed them onto the bridge of her nose before going over the sheets. "Oh, I'd say 4-5 business days tops. There are a couple things we'll have to send out for, but those will just take a couple days to ship. This shouldn't be a problem", Judy assured her. I zoned out about then and stared around the room. Everything was so exquisite. It looked like royalty should live here. It felt wrong to even be sitting on the couch, at that thought, I laughed quietly to myself. It was just then that 2 young men entered the room. Esme's face lit up at the sight of them. "Ladies, these are2 of my sons!" Esme gushed to us. "Edward, Jasper, please come say hello."
With that, the 2 boys came forward, one smiling, one looking apprehensive. "Hello, my name is Jasper", the smiling one said. He put out his hand to be shaken. "Hi, I'm Shawnie, this is Mandah", I informed him. He shook my hand and then Mandah's hand but she was still staring at the other boy...a look of apprehension coloring her face as well. "This is Edward.", Jasper said, while elbowing his brother. Edward snapped out of his daze and shook our hands. Pausing as he shook Mandah's. This was a little strange. Judy and Esme continued to talk shop as I made small talk with Jasper. I asked the normal new-to-town questions. What was there to do?- being the most important. "Well, we're really big on camping and hiking.", he laughed at what I thought must be an inside joke, because he looked over to Edward as he laughed. The severe look on Edwards face didn't escape me...or Mandah. She looked intimidated.
Completely out of the blue, Edward broke completely out of his daze. "I can't do this anymore", he announced. He turned quickly on his heel and marched away, faster than I would have thought possible. The fact that he had stared at Mandah the entire time had not escaped anyones notice, so that when he left, everyone, myself included, stared at her as if we were taking over for him. "What?", she asked innocently. "I didn't say anything!", she continued. "Did I offend him? I'm so sorry if I did!" Mandah was definitely rattled and I'd never seen her that way before. It took me off guard. At this point, I was wanting nothing but to go home and unpack. Today had me completely exhausted.
As if sensing my weariness, Judy rang in with, "Well, Esme, if there's nothing else tonight, I want to get these girls home. They've been on the road for days. And if seems as if you have a son to track down.", she giggled at the end. "I am so sorry about that ladies, really. I don't know what's wrong. Edward is usually the perfect gentleman.", she said, clearly embarrassed and concerned. "I'll call you tomorrow Judy, maybe we can have lunch.", Esme smiled. "And Mandah, I'll call you in a couple days to give you your schedule. I'll give you a few days to explore and get used to being here." I wondered when I'd be starting my job. I hoped Judy would give me a few days as well so I could go exploring with Mandah.
Esme walked us out to our cars. We all said our goodbye's and then Mandah and I got into the truck. We followed Judy out and the trip seemed double as long coming back. Wasn't it usually the other way around? We got home and Judy helped us unload our bags. I took a look at the guest house and was thankful it was larger than I had expected because our bags were piled deep in the living room. Judy gave us a tour and stopped in the kitchen at the end to show us that she had stocked the fridge and cupboards. I had forgotten all about being hungry a few hours ago but at the mention of food, my stomach grumbled it's desire. "Make you a deal?" Mandah offered. "If you'll cook, I'll put our suitcases in our rooms." The thought of dragging the suitcases around anymore tonight was enough to make me agree. I headed to the kitchen and started gathering ingredients for spaghetti squash with turkey meatballs when while at the sink washing my hands, I saw a boy outside from the window. He was outside of a shed, under the light, cutting wood. He was beautiful. It was everything I could do to keep from dropping everything as he caught my eye over and over. I suddenly felt compelled to introduce myself. This was my summer to remember always, after all. I should be making friends, I justified to myself. After everything was prepared and was cooking on low heat, I snuck out of the side door, on a mission.
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