My Mother in Law

All settled out

I tried and tried but nothing worked. I tossed and turned in different positions, added more pillows, hugged the duvet as hard as I can, even ate half a tub of icecream but nothing I tried could help me sleep. I tightly shut my eyes and tried not to think of anything at all but seriously, who was I kidding?

"Well, time to get that other half" I thought getting off my bed and heading to the kitchen. Once I was equipped with a spoon, ice cream tub and a glass of water in case I got a brain freeze, I sat on one of the stools and started devouring the un-earthly goodness.

What I was doing wasn't stress eating, well not entirely. I'd call it mindless eating. As I was shoving spoon after spoon of goodness into my mouth, I was still thinking of what happened earlier with Zachary. It wasn't like I regretted my decision of not accepting his proposal, if that's what you would call it. I was actually thinking of he was so persistent.

Zachary was rich, he was handsome, had a good build in other words, he could get any girl at the snap of his fingers. Why did he choose me? We had only met 24 hours ago. And most importantly, when I'd hesitated, why did he offer me money. It's not the right thing to do but why was he so... desperate? Why me?

For some reason, it seemed that my brain was convinced that the harder I thought about these questions, the quicker I'd find answers, but I knew otherwise.

And one other thing, was Amal involved in this? Did she know? How will things be now that I rejected her son? Have I lost a friend forever?

Ow ow ow ow, brain freeze! I grabbed the glass of water next to me and downed it in one go. That's better. I was almost done with my ice cream but still not feeling sleepy. Well ok I better check some emails.

I head to my room and was about to grab my phone when it started ringing. I looked at the time; 11:56 pm. Who the hell calls someone at midnight? I wasn't getting answers because it was an unknown number.

This wasn't new, I mean I gave my card to lots of people at work so I always got calls from unknown numbers. But at midnight? Maybe it's a different time zone? But it's a local number though.

Ugh just answer nothing's gonna happen to you. Before I could change my mind I swiped across the screen and answered the call. But as soon as I heard the voice from the other side I regretted it.

"Hello?" It spoke "Talia?"

Is that...

"Its Zachary."

I remembered our earlier conversation, the way he spoke and what he said. In one quick move, I ended the call. Hey ice cream tub, where you at?

It wasn't 5 seconds later that he called again. I rejected the call, but he called again. This went on for five rounds before I'd had enough. Exasperated, I pushed the ice cream tub away, grabbed the phone and answered.

"What?" I spoke with annoyance.

"Well hello to you too."

"Did you seriously call me at midnight so you can say hi?"

"No actually... ah.. I called to apologize.

Well this is interesting. He's apologizing. I have a feeling its not something he does much.

"I'm really sorry for my behaviour earlier. I was just stressed from work."

I decided I wanted answers. "Why did you propose to me? We had barely met. I mean, why me?"

He sighed on the other line. "Talia, I have something to tell you. You're not gonna like it but if you like my mother as much as you say you do, you might agree,"