A Fair Affair

Chapter 8 - Love?

Chapter 8 - Love?

Aleanor finished speaking and was about to leave after saying goodbye to me.

Seeing that she looked quite weak and frankly, fragile, I got off my seat. Taking a deep breath, I opted to be a little braver.

"Would you like for me to accompany you?" I asked.

She looked surprised as her eyebrows raised slightly. But, there was a little bit of relief that I could see.

"I'd love that."

~~~

The 60 year old lady didn't want her chauffeur to pick her up. Instead, she told me that she wanted to walk around for a bit. I agreed and in the end, she wanted to bring me to what she said to be 'a secret place'. According to her, it wasn't a very long walk to this place so I just went along with her decision.

Oddly, fifteen minutes later, we were at the one place I would've personally avoided - the beach.

"Mrs. Hale, don't you think it's a little cold out here?"

"Nonsense, you're still young, you can take a little harsh weather! And as for me, I love cold weathers, always have. You can just call me Aleanor by the way, it sounds less formal."

The weather was quite chilly, and being a person who shivered and felt cold easily, the beach wasn't really my type of place during this time of the year. As long as the temperature wasn't more than 30 degrees, I would've never taken a step to the beach. But, since Aleanor was here with me, I decided to stay on and sit with her on the sand.

"Wouldn't it be better to sit on some chairs?" I asked her.

"Sasha dear, a little sand won't hurt you. Here, sit." She sat down comfortably that it made me feel a little baffled by behavior. After all, she was a pretty wealthy lady so it confused me as to why she would so willingly sit on the ground and face such harsh weather, instead of simply sipping some tea in a warm coffee house.

Sitting down, I turned to her. "I hope that you won't mind me for asking but may I know why you brought me here? I'm not implying anything but usually, my wealthy clients like yourself would definitely prefer going to a coffee house or restaurant. So, really I'm just curious as to why the beach is your 'secret place'."

The sides of her eyes crinkled as her lips broke into a cheerful smile. She laughed as slight dimples began to surface, giving her a look of happiness.

"Oh Sasha, you remind me so much of my son. When I had first brought him here, he asked me the same thing. But of course, he was younger then so all he did was basically pout and whine all day."

I broke into a smile then, even though I knew that she was intentionally avoiding the object. Seeing her so happy for the first time today made me feel good, even if she was basically implying that I was childish. I was happy that I had made her smile at last, and a genuine one at that.

"Well, that's what kids like us do. We complain and we whine. It's because we always want the attention of our parents."

"Yes yes, I agree. My children now don't really have the time to see me because they keep saying that they're busy. It's quite adorable though, how much they can still be such kids in my presence." She paused before laughing slightly. "Oh and goodness, I keep telling them to settle down before I die but they keep telling me that they haven't found 'the one' yet. Well actually, I'm quite sure that my older son has already found 'the one'. It's the younger one that in worried about. He's 31 years old, and he's still so much of a kid. I hope he finds 'the one' real soon," she said, constantly quoting 'the one' with air quotes.