Chapter 26

The day was lonely and sad, Athena stayed mostly in TB s room and fell asleep after asking him uncountable times to tell her what was wrong with Sean but he would always respond with, "that s not my story to tell, At."
She shared the dinner with him downstairs and dinner had never been so boring and sad, it came to a point that she even wished to go back to the day that Esperanza was around than to be sitting there without Sean. The more she missed his presence, the more she was worried why she cared so much and why even after the way he treated her, she still wants to go back to his room and try to make him feel better from any pain he was going through.
As she walked to her room in the night, she stopped on his floor and contemplated on going to check on him again but remembering TB s words that she should leave him alone; she heaved a deep sigh and continued to her room. Lying on her bed, it was so hard to get her thoughts in one place and she tossed and turned on the bed till she finally fell asleep in the early hours of the next day.
Waking up in the morning, Athena quickly freshened up and rushed out of the room, she went down the flight of stairs in speed, not wanting to spare a minute of seeing Sean sitting on his favorite chair in the dining room. Words could not describe the disappointment that covered her face as she saw the dining room empty. Neither TB nor Sean was there. She stood broken by the door, staring at Sean s empty chair, what could be the problem, isn t he better yet? She thought TB said that he would be okay today and wouldn t lock himself in his room?
As she turned to leave and go find TB, the door that leads to the kitchen from the room opened and she turned immediately but her hope dashed once more on seeing that the newcomer was just the house keeper, Esther.
"Ms Athena, you are awake," she smiled, "do you want to have your brunch now?"
Athena frowned, "brunch?"
"Yes ma am, it s almost twelve in the afternoon," the lady smiled, "Mr. Brand and TB waited for you to join them for breakfast but you didn t so they had me watch over till you are awake. I can serve you now if you are ready to eat."
Athena bit her lower lip, just the thought that Sean waited for her to join him for breakfast made her regret sleeping in, she sighed and responded to the waiting woman, "yes, Esther, you can serve me now." She walked over to the long table and pulled out her chair. Esther left the room and returned with a tray of food; Athena watched her as she served the food then decided to ask her question, "Sean and TB already left?"
"Yes, ma am, they had something to take care of and couldn t wait for you to wake up."
She nodded with a sigh and started eating her food, it was the most boring brunch she had ever had in her entire life. She went into the training room after her meal to pass the time and she focused on her catwalk with two books balanced on her head. Her improvement improved her mood and later, she went to the living room to watch a few TV shows while waiting for the males of the house to return.
At about ten minutes to 6pm, the front door opened and her face lit up immediately, it took all the strength in her not to jump up from the couch and rushed to the door to see who was coming in but when the person entered, her smile faded but she still forced on a new one.
TB rolled his eyes at her, "its okay if you are disappointed but that doesn t mean you need to offer me a forced smile," he approached her and sat on the sofa.
"That s not true, I m not disappointed, you know that," she lied.
"Yeah, yeah," he rolled his eyes once more, "well, there is no time for that, I came home to dress you up, let s go," he stood up and offered his hand to her.
Athena placed her hand in his with furrowed brows, "where are we going?" She asked as he pulled her up.
"I have no idea but I have a direct order to make you look beautiful and if I don t, I will lose my job," he said, pulling her out of the room. Athena was suddenly overcome with giddiness, is she going out with Sean? It has been so long she did so, and could it be he wants to explain to her what happened to him yesterday and why he was like that? The thought alone was already making her impatient and TB pulled her into her room, she had almost yelled to him to hurry up but she didn t and just went into the bathroom to shower as he ordered and she tried not to slip on the tiles in her giddiness.
***
Athena stared at herself in the mirror when TB was done giving her a makeover, she couldn t believe she was the one in the mirror, her hair was up with only a few tendrils in curls dropping at each side of her face, he didn t give her a heavy make-up but her face was highlighted and her lips a bright red like the rose. She was dressed in a knee level off-shoulder red gown. A diamond necklace adorned her neck and she caressed it, trying to guess how much it could be worth and suddenly decided not give herself the heart attack. She was wearing five inches silver high heels and holding a red clutch.
She heaved out a deep breath, trying to imagine if she had ever dreamt of dressing so beautifully in her life and the answer was no. The door opened and TB walked in from taking his call, "he is here, downstairs actually," he examined her with his eyes and smiled, "you look beautiful, oh I love my work," he giggled and stared at her heels, "you can walk on that right?"
"Mm hmm, all my practices has to pay off, don t you think?"
"It has to or Sean would kill you," he replied and she smiled, "go on, don t keep him waiting," he urged her, "I need to stay here and clean this place up."
Athena nodded and heaved a deep breath once more before waving to TB and leaving the room. When she got downstairs, she didn t see Sean and was confused, TB had said he was waiting there but she decided to check outside first before alerting him. She opened the door and finally, her eyes saw who she had wanted to see all day. He was dressed in a red pants and red blazer with a white shirt underneath. He winked at her when he noticed they were dressed in matching colors while Athena blush crimson red when she noticed that.
Sean walked up to her and grabbed her hand, he kissed her knuckles with a slight bow before leading her to the car, "I hope you like roses," he whispered and opened the car drunk and it was filled to full with red roses.
Athena opened her mouth in shock, she has never received so many roses, no, scratch that, she has never received a rose. She looked at her Sean and her vision was becoming blurry, "thank you," she whispered and looked away, blinking continuously to keep the tears at bay, she wouldn t want to start crying and ruin the night when it was just starting.
Sean noticed her tears and sighed, "Athena," he called softly and licked his lips, "I m sorry about yesterday and I was hoping you could forgive me because of these flowers. Mind you, it s freshly plucked and its one thousand roses, you think it s enough to gain your forgiveness?" He smiled and then closed his eyes, "I don t know what came over me and you know I would never intentionally hurt you. I said a lot of things yesterday and I regret them, I really do, you think you can forgive me for it?"
Athena couldn t hold the tears anymore, has she ever been apologized to and in such manner? The answer was no. So many times Frank had hurt her, made her feel bad, said a lot of things to her and at the end, she would be the one to apologize, the one to ask for forgiveness and even if he was going to apologize, he would just say 'I m sorry but you know I wouldn t have reacted like that if you hadn t done that, he would apologize but still accuse her of being the reason he reacted the way he did. And here was Sean, apologizing when he wasn t even supposed to, she shouldn t have gone to his room, and definitely not after TB warned her not to, she should be apologizing, she is the one living off him, he feeds her, buys things for her, also training her to become a better woman and asking for nothing in return, she should be kissing his feet and taking whatever treatment he offered to her but no, he is apologizing and he is doing that with one thousand roses, why wouldn t she cry?