Love on Safari

Promises

It was a beautiful Saturday morning. Olivia had just finished doing the house chores. Sweeping the house, check! Mopping and polishing the floors, check! Washing the dishes, check! Cleaning the bathroom, check! Tidying up the house, check! And now she felt ravenous. All that expended energy had to be replaced, especially since her last meal was the lunch the day before. It had been a large seafood platter for four that she had enjoyed with Janice while on their lunch break.

She walked into the bathroom and caught a glimpse of her face on the mirror, noticing a strand of hair that had escaped her head scarf. She tucked it back under the scarf, not wanting to get her hair wet when she took her shower. 

It was her Saturday morning routine, whenever she was unfortunate to be home. She tried her best to fill her weekends with adventure and that meant she was usually away from home on weekends, only returning on Mondays after work.  She felt her stomach growl, reminding her that she was yet to eat.

"Not yet", she said as she removed her dirty sweatpants and t-shirt.

She turned the shower on and adjusted the temperature of the water before stepping inside.

"Mmhhh. This feels so good", she murmured to herself as the warm gentle stream hit her caramel skin.

She had been up since five am to clean the house. It was a bit earlier than usual but she wanted to have time to read today. She missed the stack of books on her side table which she read concurrently. And it had been so long since she read Danielle Steel, her childhood favorite romance author. So she had a date with her books today. No interruptions!

She stood in front of the mirror and wiped the steam on it with her dry hand. She was pleased to see that her hair was dry. She smiled. It meant no hair dryer and more time to read.

Suddenly the sound of her doorbell rang. She frowned! She was not expecting any company, certainly didn't want it.

"Maybe if I ignore it whoever it is will think I am not home and leave" she thought as she speedily applied a cherry blossom body cream all over her body.

The doorbell rang again for the third time.
"Oli, open up, I know you are in there". She sighed when she recognized her best friend Anna's voice. It only meant one thing, no reading!

"Hold on Anna! I am coming", she shouted.

She opened the door to find a well put together Anna beaming her usual incredible smile at her. She walked right past her and placed a large brown paper bag on top of the white marbled kitchen counter.

"Hey babe," Anna said, taking kraft boxes out of the brown paper bag with a logo of The Daily Grind restaurant.

"I have news, but first, I got your favorite! Chocolate chip muffin, hot chocolate and a full English breakfast", said Anna.

It was just like Anna to do this. Whenever she had something she deemed "important and urgent" on her mind, she would just show up wherever Olivia was and usually with food in tow. It didn't matter where Olivia was, she would drive or fly there. That is how she sometimes spent her six-figure income as a Tax consultant for big corporations, including the government. But she was the sweetest, kindest and most loyal friend Olivia had ever had. And she adored Olivia. So much that she had named her second child after Olivia. Olivia smiled at the thought of her five year old namesake.

"Oli, are you going to eat", she heard Anna's voice, bringing her back to her present reality of her seemingly broken promise to her self, to spend the day being a bookworm.

"Yes Anna, this looks great. It's as if you knew I am starving. Thanks friend".

"The place looks clean, you've been busy. Guess I was wrong to think you would be tired after coming back from Zambia last night", Anna said as she sat down and took a sip of her hot chocolate.