The Prince's Temporary Wife

Standing Offer

I arrived home worried. There wasn't any light. There wasn't any electricity.

They have officially cut it off.

I slumped upon the wall in sighs. I stared at what was ahead of me. I stared at the cold, dark space that had clouded over dimmer than before.

A space that questioned, "What do we do now?"

My brother approached me, the thumping beat of his feet upon the wooden floor. We were silent except for the chirping of the birds and the crickets.

Hearing the crickets, it was going to rain.

And not only it's going to rain on earth, it's going to rain on our lives. The problem has yet to start and that was what I feared the most.

And this was just the first of it.

If...would...

Two words that gave me worry in the disguise of hope. And it made me clearly know. Made me open my eyes again. The words that keeps the film reeling on and on.

My mother was dead.

And I can't do anything than live with it.

I let out an exasperated scream that wanted to loosen up for a long time. I wanted to free myself. Wanted to detach myself. Wanted to go back again.

But the problem was still the same.

My paycheck.

It's not enough to pay our expenses even combining them both. My brother couldn't earn as much as I could.

Maybe, overtime?

No. I couldn't do that.

Maybe, some more jobs?

Yeah. Totally that. But I've been balancing three jobs. Waitress, tutor and singer at a little gig only on weekends.

My brother, through the darkness, opens his mouth to speak. "Sis, if I--"

"Stop studying, are you crazy?" I shot at him, "Don't you dare back out."

"But, sis..."

"Don't get me started. Don't test me again, Keith." I warned, standing up to my feet that wobbled nervously. It was giving me a headache and he was adding more pressure.

My brother wants to be an engineer. And I scraped nails on boards just to get him there. If he gives up, I couldn't have that. I couldn't just let us both rot like that.

So I decided.

"Fine, I'll search for another job."

He protests but I shut him up by making him realize what's at stake.

****

I was standing here all morning outside the cafe, the sun kissing my skin with warmth but it wasn't as warm as my mother. It wasn't warm as my life before. It wasn't as warm as who I was. The foreign me that disappeared.

I frowned, checking my watch for time. There was only a minute left for my break time and I wasn't ready to face customers yet. I closed my eyes, meeting the hot lips of the sun's rays.

My brother.

He was all I could think of. What would happen to him if I hadn't got the money?

What would happen to us?

I dove deep again, weighing the matter. And I remembered something.

"How about a hundred dollars for a blind date?"

A blind date wouldn't hurt. It wouldn't scratch me one bit. It wouldn't eat me alive. It would only give me what I wanted. What I needed. What would save me from breaking down.

Thinking about it, it felt wrong. It felt selling a part of you to someone like a puppet.

Yet, again, the necessity.

Either way, it's the same. Only one escape.

I turned around just in time to see the old man escorted out of his car. I bit my lip, scared and nervous.

I'll stoop, I'll scavenge, I'll work.
All for what I have. What we have.

I opened the door to the cafe, positioning myself behind the counter, a sure face plastered. The man enters, smiling just as a day ago.

I guess...the offer still stands.