CHAPTERTHREE
Melody
“Aunt Mel!”
I open my arms to catch the excited five-year-old girl. She happily squeals as I swing her around in the air.
“Hey, Ella,” I greet, placing her on her feet. I run my hand fondly down her sunny blonde hair. “How are you doing today?”
“Fine, Aunt Mel,” Ella replies with an adorable smile. She cranes her neck to study my face, her beautiful blue eyes filled with excited hope. “Have you come to play house with me?”
I chuckle softly and shake my head. “We’ll do that some other time, El. I’ve got to talk to your mom.”
Ella nods obediently and holds up her stuffed toy. “I’ll go play with Mr. Bunny then. Me and him have lots of adventures to go on.”
“Oh, really? Mr. Bunny must be excited,” I say, opening my eyes wide in deliberate amusement.
Ella wants to become an explorer like Dora, her favorite cartoon character. So, she takes her bunny on lots of imaginative adventures.
“We’ll be going to Pluto this time,” Ella proclaims with a proud smile. “Me and Mr. Bunny can’t wait!”
“You have to tell me all about it later, okay?” I tell her.
Ella nods and waves at me as she returns to her place on the loveseat in the waiting room. I peep into Brenda’s office. She’s buried nose deep in a file on the front desk.
She has her hair in a loose ponytail, and a pair of reading glasses sits perkily on the bridge of her nose.
“Hi, Brenda,” I greet in a quiet voice.
Brenda raises her head to me with a warm smile. “Hey, Mel. You’re early.”
I walk further into the room and lower myself onto the chair in front of her desk.
“I thought I’d get an early start.”
“I should get you a cup of coffee, but I can’t be bothered to get up,” Brenda says, sitting back in her chair with a tired yawn. “Do you mind?”
“It’s fine,” I say with a dismissive wave of my hand. “I’m well pumped on caffeine anyway.”
Brenda slightly leans forward, eyes narrowed into worried slits. “You don’t look so good,” she says. “Did you stay up all night studying again?”
The memories of last night flashed in my head. After Jack left my apartment, I hadn’t been able to get a wink of sleep. I’d stayed up all night, earnestly watching my door. And when I’d eventually dozed off for a few hours, my sleep had been invaded with nightmares and ripped images.
“I’ve got an important test coming up,” I say to Brenda, averting my gaze from her scrutinizing eyes. “I had to stay up pretty late organizing my notes.”
I hope that my lie is convincing enough because I don’t want to make Brenda worry.
Maybe it’s all just me being paranoid.
Maybe Jack means no harm at all.
Brenda sighs softly. “I worry about you, Mel,” she says. “You work too hard. Apart from having to work and study alone, you volunteer to help the locals all the time. Do you even have time to go out with friends and just have fun?”
“Look who’s talking,” I say with a small chuckle. “You are always holed up in your office, working all the time.”
Brenda shakes her head with a small chuckle. “Even I have more of a social life than you, Mel,” she counters. “Anyway, I’m saying you need to work less and live more.”
“And here I am thinking you invited me to talk about work,” I say with an amused smirk that soon becomes a chuckle at Brenda’s guilty smile. “So ironic. Anyway, what’s it about?”