Rise of the lowly janitor

Family affair

*Jake POV*

“Let me guess, your day off is over,” Tanya asks with a disappointment tone as I go open the door.

I can’t hide my relief when her mother and sister walk in.

Whew! I don’t get to be a liar today.

“Jake, you look so relieved. Do you love us that much?” Mia teases before kissing my cheek and moving on to embrace her younger sister.

I don’t bother responding to her but focus all my charms on my childhood crush. Growing up, I was crazy about this woman but now I absolutely adore her. Her kindness, the way she has always related to me even when I was nobody, makes her the most down to earth celebrity I have ever met.

“The gorgeous, Mercy Drew. It’s always a pleasure to see you.”

“That’s my mother, you i***t!” Tanya is not impressed with me.

I plant a kiss on the old lady’s cheeks while they laugh at my sulking girlfriend.

“I am afraid you got yourself a jealous drama queen, Son,” Mrs Drew says with a serious tone.

“Mom!”

I pull Tanya in my arms, already feeling bad for the teasing she is getting. I am learning that this is also a part and parcel of being in the family.

“I wouldn’t have if any other way.” The truth is it’s the most amazing feeling in the world to have this woman fuss over me.

“Look at her melt,” Mia exclaims, amused. “Did I ever tell you how devastated she was when you proposed to that Leticia?”

Tanya’s face immediately turns red as she frantically shake her head. “No! He does not want to know. What are you two even doing here?”

“Can’t I visit my daughter and her hot man now?” Mrs Drew asks and sticks out her tongue at her daughter.

“Mom!”

“Seriously child, you have to get over your insecurities. Jake is an honourable man and yours to keep.”

“Thank you, Mrs Drew.”

I am always touched by this woman’s faith in me.

“You don’t know that for certain, Mother. Every girl out there is dying to meet Jake. He is on the top twenty country’s eligible bachelor list now.”

Trust Mia to make things worse. She is the strong, competitive and not easily intimidated sister, which explains her choice of career as a racer. Even the rich boys at the racing track knew never to mess up with her because she never misses a chance to speak her mind, no matter how crude.

Tanya is now flustered, she starts panting before burying her face on my chest. Unlike her sister, she wears her heart on her sleeve.

I lift up her jaw, forcing her to look at me. My next project will helping her stand up to her sister, but for now I have to deal with what I have failed to resolve.

“Do you think those women will succeed?”

She tries to look away, but I can’t afford to let this go before it’s fully addressed. I have only realised now that both of us were seriously betrayed by love. I got over my betrayal very fast because of her and we now have to deal with hers before we can move forward.

She sighs and it actually hurts because that means she does not believe any of the promises I made her.

“You are moving out and…”

“Babe, we spoke about this.”

I have been looking around for houses and have finally found several that I like. She fell in-love with one the houses way before I saw it and that’s the one I plan on permanently staying in. I have emphasised the fact that I wanted her to move in with me, but that does not seem to register in her head.

“You bought a house?” Mia asks curiously.

I am surprised that Tanya did not mention it to her because our whole relationship is like a family affair.

“I told you that my parent’s were highly classified government agents who did not exists on paper. It turns out that their pension benefits have been just laying there, unclaimed. They could not be paid to me when they died to protect their identities and me, I guess. Now that I am on the presidential payroll, those benefits can be given to me in strategic ways,” I explain.

That’s the reason my salary is so ridiculously inflated.

“I basically have to spend it all on the housing and car allowances before the end of this year or forfeit my parent’s benefits.”

“Why end of this year?”

“The current president’s term ends in December and I have no guarantee that the next will keep me around. It will be suspicious for me to continue getting paid while no longer working there.”

That’s the reason I have to basically buy and settle everything up as soon as possible. Even if I do stay around the presidency, the next one might not be ARF and might not approve any of this.

“That makes sense. Don’t mind Tanya, go ahead and claim your inheritance, Son.”

I really love how simple Mrs Drew deals with life. It was so easy for me to come out about my background and what I found out about my parents and she never judged.

“That’s great! Where have you bought. When can we see it?” Mia jumps in. She’s always on the rush, the typical adrenaline junky.

I laugh, because my response still feels unreal. “Everywhere, really. Five in this city and one in each of our big cities,” I explain while Mia’s jaw drops.

That and five exquisite cars is how much I could get out of just over a billion dollars of my parent’s benefits.

“How much exactly did your parents leave behind and how come no one ever recruited me to be ARF?”Mia looks serious. “I have guts and I am fearless,” she adds and I can’t help but laugh. Mia, like most people, find this ARF thing intriguing. She is a very successful racer and makes millions with every race, not to mention the sponsors who would do anything to be associated with her, yet she still thinks like this.

“Let’s just say it is not worth the life of secrecy, the missions they executed and leaving me to fend for myself.”

It’s how I feel about this whole situation. I would have been happy living in one old house than in orphanages and the streets. I would rather I had my parents raise me and be a poor man with a loving childhood than all this splendour I now have.

“Poor thing,” Mercy is now teary. She knows my story too well and gets very emotional when it comes up.

I curse under my breath because she and Tanya are very alike in that regard. Tanya buries her face on my chest and I know what’s coming.

“I am fine now. I turned out just fine,” I quickly add while squeezing my emotional mess in my arms.

Mrs Drew nods and quickly wipes her eyes.

“We were about to have our brunch when the two of you walked in. Do you mind joining us?”

They all welcome a change of subject but we discover that Mia has been eating all this time we were talking.

“That was mine!” Tanya is really upset because the food Mia ate is her favourite.

Mia shrugs her shoulders. “I was hungry and you were being a crybaby.”

I shoot her a cold stare and shake my head. She knows that I don’t approve of the way she sometimes treats her sister.

“Sorry, I was starving.”

“You could have asked!” Tanya snaps. She looks ready to strangle her now apologetic sister.

I guess this is how it is with siblings. These two can be closer than anything I ever witnessed but their fights are also so ridiculously intense.

“How about we go to BEAT and eat there?” I suggest before I waist the whole day trying to intervene in the sibling’s brawl.

“That’s a good idea, I’m starving too,” Mrs Drew agrees and it’s decided.

We have just walked out of Tanya’s apartment building and heading to the car when a stout man in a brown designer suit and a long coat, approaches. He happens to meet the description of the man the security at the gate informed me has been lingering around the building looking for me. I try to weigh him before instructing the women to go ahead to the car.

I take him in from head to toe as I welcome the weird calmness that always washes over me in the face of danger. He looks like some kind of a professional. A lawyer, CEO or a manager are my top guesses, but then again, he could be the Egyptian looking for my ring or a Kali agent looking for answers and revenge for their slain president.

“What do you want?”