After careful thinking, Miranda said, "Jayden, I'm going to ask you one question based on what you've told me so far."

Jayden nodded, "Okay."

"Do you," she paused, "love Kira or Lara?"

The unexpected question seized Jayden's gaze like a stripper would the richest man in the room as it slowly manifested in the corners of his mind thus, gaining his unwavering attention.

Kira or Lara?

Did he love Kira or Lara?

After a well-exhausted thought, he responded, "I love them both in different ways."

"In which ways?" Miranda prodded.

Jayden's hand absentmindedly found the back of his neck, "Kira is admirable. I admire and respect her with all of my heart. She has a very special place in my heart."

Miranda nodded.

"Lara," his gaze found the ceiling, "I love her as a woman. She brings out my adventurous side, she makes me laugh and gives me joy. Most times," he added.

"If you were to describe Kira and Lara in five words?" Miranda put forward.

"Kira; selfless, sacrificial, gentle, generous, extraordinary. Lara; exhilarating, funny, emotional, crazy, dramatic."

"They're very different people," Miranda made known the obvious. "Kira's peaceful. Lara's thrilling."

"Why the comparison though?" Jayden asked.

"Say, Kira was interested in having a romantic relationship with yo-"

"That's never going to happen," Jayden jumped in before she could finish, "It wouldn't. Kira doesn't like me that way. She wouldn't want that. She would never."

"Are you belittling yourself?"

"No, but let's be real here," he sat forward, "I'm not good enough for her. Someone like Kira deserves a Prince William or a Harry, not a regular Joe like myself."

"So you think Lara deserves a regular Joe like yourself?" she utilized his own words even though she disagreed with them.

Jayden's expressions fell flatter than an amateur attempting a closing chord from Beethoven's symphony, "Actually, no. I think she deserves someone with a perfect past. No baggage, a saint. Mother Theresa's best friend."

"I see," Miranda chuckled, but Jayden immediately shifted into serious mode as he implored,

"You know the story. What should I do? Should I ignore Lara, forget about our time together or put everything behind me and try to be with her again? I want to believe my love for her is that strong."

Miranda joined her hands on one covered thigh, "Bring her tomorrow. Bring her and you'll have your answer after the meeting."

"She wouldn't want to come,"

"Make the effort and hear it from her own lips before you conclude."

Jayden sighed, then lifted his head and nodded. Exhaustion coated his striking deep blue eyes as he ran slender fingers through his dark tresses that overlapped each other in a spiralling mass of wavy strands.

***

Miranda locked the door after Jayden had left but suddenly got startled by her daughter's voice,

"Oh. My. God."

"What?" Miranda raised her brows at her daughter, Ariana, who had been standing frozen a couple of feet away.

When her daughter had remained silent, Miranda gasped, "Don't tell me you-"

Then she marched towards her daughter who now began to rattle, "I couldn't help it."

"I've told you several times not to eavesdrop on my conversations-"

"You told me just twice."

"A word to the wise should be enough."

"Well..." Ariana shrugged. Maybe I'm not 'the wise'.

"That Lara girl sounds pretty obnoxious," Ariana prodded when her mother had begun to abandon the living area, "Doesn't she? And I never expected such a backstory from him..."

"That's not your business."

"It is if it's yours."

Miranda turned to her daughter, "Jayden's story is delicate. It doesn't concern you."

It soon might, Ariana thought.

***

"What the hell do you mean you broke up!" Dana's black eyes threatened to meet with the kitchen tiles as Lara, now dressed in her uniform as well as Emma, revealed the details of the trip as they sat at the counter in the kitchen which was opposite the window that gave view to the backyard.

An hour had passed after Lara had arrived from her mother's where Jayden had dropped her off after the unfortunate lakehouse trip. She had found the Benson's mansion nearly empty, before having spotted Emma in her Emma's room.

With Mrs. Benson at the hospital, Mr. Benson was seldom home. Sam had travelled back home before his older sister, Mrs. Benson, had been rushed to the hospital. And the notorious maids like Brie and Ella had been nowhere to be found.

Katy had been fast asleep when she had arrived and Lara's roommate, Rachel, had been engrossed in a novel titled, After, so Rachel could only wave at Lara and hope that her visit to her ‘mum' had been great.

Dana continued on as Lara dug into the apple pie her mother had baked for her.

"How- what the hell is wrong with you! This was supposed to be a romantic trip," the way she rolled her ‘r' made Emma chuckle.

"And you seem okay with it," Dana gaped at her, unable to take another fork of the delicious apple pie Lara shared with her and Emma. These two were the maids Lara felt closest to. "Who broke up with who?"

"I'm not okay with it," Lara confessed, "I'm just trying to be. He mentioned it first and I agreed."

"Why the hell did you, when you were literally at fault from the beginning of the argument?"

"We were both at fault, and if he mentioned it, it means he wanted it."

"No, it doesn't," Dana disagreed, "Knowing Jayden from everything you've told us since you two became a thing, I feel like it was a test. He only wanted to know how you would respond to that, and your agreement must have really surprised him."

"I didn't think of it that way," Lara attempted to put a forkful in Dana's mouth but Dana just frowned at her.

She reluctantly accepted it into her mouth but it didn't prevent her from saying,

"How could you defend Mr. Benson's infidelity? His father cheated on his mother and you're bringing up his past to take yourself off the hot seat? Besides, I'm pissed at you too for keeping it from me. I knew Brie was up to no good. Me and the girls had to use our own theories last night to get some proof for ourselves that she was sleeping with Mr. Benson."

"I didn't defend Mr. Benson's infidelity, but, I don't know," Lara fixed her brown eyes on the quarter-eaten pie, "It's obvious Brie is the cause. And with what you're saying about last night, it only means he's been trying to end it with her. Also, Mrs. Benson, Jayden's mother, isn't the nicest person on this planet," she muttered.

"Still doesn't give him the right to cheat on her," Dana folded her arms, "I know why you acted that way."

"Why?" Lara was curious. How could Dana possibly know when she, Lara hadn't even reached the root of the reason?

"Because you cheated."

Lara immediately defended, "I would never do that to Jayden."

"I'm not talking about Jayden," Dana cleared, "I'm talking about your first boyfriend in high school."

Lara reminded, "That was ninety years ago and I wouldn't call it," she air quoted, "cheating."

"Still," Dana insisted, "He wasn't treating you right, wasn't making you feel loved and then you kissed another boy. Passionately."

Lara retorted, "Because he cared about me and helped me with my dilemma at the time, plus he kissed me. I didn't kiss him."

"Still cheating since it was during your relationship with Trent, and you didn't stop him."

"Dana," Lara gaped at her, "I was fifteen years old, okay?"

"Jayden was sixteen," Dana placed her hand on Lara's hand which was on Lara's thigh, "The point of this is that you're justifying your action right now. Doesn't Jayden know about this?" she referred to the Trent story.

Lara looked away but didn't withdraw her hand, "He does. We told each other everything about our past. And that is why you must not tell anyone else what I've told you about his full past involving Kira," her eyes darted from Dana's black ones to Emma's brown ones.

Dana and Emma were the only two maids she trusted in that household. Brie was a snake, Katy bounced from side to side, Ella was sneaky, Rachel, her roommate, was awfully withdrawn, and there had been little to zero encounters with Bo and Mabel.

Also, Tess had been fired after the drama that had ensued months back.

Dana then asked, "So, he knew about your past but didn't accuse you of defending his father because you're a cheater?"

"I'm not a cheater-" Lara tried to say but Dana went on,

"If he knows about this, why didn't he accuse you of defending his father because of it?"

"It's two different situations and I'm pretty sure he forgot."

"He definitely hasn't. And you're still justifying your actions. That's your problem," Dana shook her head disapprovingly at her friend who couldn't lift the fork up to her mouth in shame.

"You think you did right by him?" Dana went on, "Think it was good to slap him in the face with his clearly very delicate past? You, Lara?"

"He referred to our relationship as a mere fooling-around game."

It had hurt her. If he hadn't meant it in any way, why had it spewed out of his mouth? Especially in the heat of the moment, as if he had been keeping it in for a long time.

Dana defended, "Then he apologized for it and told you, even after everything, that he loves you, and that he didn't mean it that way," Dana paused, "After he trusted you with such intense information, you threw it in his face. On the night of your month-anniversary... The night his mother was hospitalized, the night he found out his dad was a cheater and that you had known about it all along."

Lara gently placed her fork on the plate, Dana's words reminding her of how equally, or more at fault she had been in the situation.

"I know I was wrong there and it hurts me, but if I say sorry now," she paused.

"What's wrong with saying sorry?"

she shrugged, "He'll think I don't mean it and I probably just want something from him. The good lifestyle. He won't take me back after I literally threw our relationship into the gutter. I'll say sorry and end up humiliating myself... so I think it's better if we don't speak now. He wouldn't even listen to me if I tried. It's better to let things happen naturally."

"Wow, Lara," Dana gasped, "Do you know Jayden at all?"

Lara was silent.

Of course she did. She knew he had a big heart. He had made her feel on top of the world. And his kisses and caresses were highly irreplacable.

Being around him, close to him and in his arms had always ignited a fire in her she had barely known she had possessed. Jayden was out of the ordinary.

Dana wanted to know, "You've studied him for months and you speak like this?"

The gradual increase in the humming of a car drew their attention from the pie and the discussion as they wondered who had arrived home.

The humming stopped and the car door sounded.

Lara and Dana stayed put as the entrance door clicked open and shut.

"What if it's Jayden?" Dana whispered.

He wouldn't be home this quick, Lara thought. He would want to avoid her for the next several hours, to say the least. He would probably not even spend the night at home.

Maybe he'd find solace somewhere else after she had graduated from the school of Bad Girlfriend University.

But before Lara could reply, Jayden's alluring, deep voice had penetrated the warm atmosphere engulfing the kitchen from the direction of the kitchen's entrance,

"Good evening," he said, his eyes instantly locating the woman his heart soared and also bled for.

***

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