Chapter 6 A second passion

The next two weeks were some of the most frustrating weeks for Eva.

David had been her sanity and had helped her forget about how much her heart hurt.

Since the night when Jacob rejected her, she had been practically living alone in the house.

Jacob barely spared her a glance the times he was around.

He began returning home late and leaving very early, sometimes not returning home at all.

She had cried and cried for days, but it did not do her any good.

She became more depressed but she kept pushing, especially at her place of work, which had become much busier.

Oliver had somewhat become a permanent face in the restaurant, dropping by always and not so subtly asking her out.

Eva had finally put two and two together and realised that Oliver Green was one of the most popular and powerful billionaires in the country.

This was the reason why many high-profile people came to the restaurant regularly, and many ladies kept giggling and twirling their hair in different corners of the restaurant.

Since she realised that, she had started avoiding him altogether.

She had fed David and put him to sleep and was waiting for Jacob, almost dozing off

He finally arrived and looked very frustrated.

He shrugged past her as always and headed to his room.

Eva watched his back disappear, feeling a stinging pain.

She saw the stressed look on his face and wished she could help him

She wished she could know what was going on in his mind.

She recalled when they were still in love and there was no ripple in their peaceful relationship. She would ask him about his day, and he would tell her every single thing without leaving any detail out.

He would talk to her about work, and she would also chip in her ideas and thoughts, which he would kiss her for and tell her how much she meant to him.

She recalled the numerous pictures they had taken together and stacked in a photo album.

It had been two years since she last saw the album. Jacob had stashed it in one of the cardboard boxes in the store along with other useless things in the house.

She felt the longing to see it again. She knew Jacob probably would not be happy with her for retrieving it, but she just had to at least feed on the memories of their now dying love.

She snuck past his bedroom door, which was a bit ajar. She had peeked in and saw him seated at the study area in the room, his hands in his temple.

She wished she knew what was troubling him.

She went to the store and used the torchlight of her phone to search for the album.

She had searched for close to ten minutes when she spotted the bulky, worn, and now dusty book which she was looking for.

She picked it up and headed back to her room.

As she walked down the small hallway, she passed Jacob's room and saw him sleeping on his study desk

She wondered what was up with him. He only slept on his study table when he had not finished his work, and he was super tired.

Kicking against her head that was telling her to just leave him and go to her room, she followed her heart and went into the room silently.

She scanned the table and saw that he had slept off while trying to balance up some sales account, which did not seem to be adding up.

He had solved and calculated and calculated but had still mot been able to add it up.

Her interest was piqued. She might not have been able to keep her marriage, but she knew that when it came to accounts and balances, she could do it even in her sleep.

She watched him sleep and slowly took the papers and books from under him, sitting on the floor and her eyes shining like a child who had just been offered candy.

She got to work, solving and calculating for hours, her worries and troubles seemed to drown as she did what she loved best.

Peharps, she even loved the job more than Jacob. She shook her head. He had made sure she never got a job as an accountant or business administrator despite her honours degree in the discipline of business administration.

In three hours, she beamed as she finally was able to balance it up and gave herself a pat on the back.

She finally organised them and made copied of them by writing them out.

'Just in case', she said mentally and perfected it.

I haven't lost my touch. She smiled and wished Jacob would wake up and tell her how proud he was of her.

She wished he would kiss her forehead and tell her how proud he was to have her.

She watched his sleeping face for some minutes and stole away from his room, the album in her hand, and her heart glad that she did what she loved to do.

*

Jacob had woken up late and was in full-blown panic mode.

He had an audit by eight a.m., and he woke up by seven thirty.

"I should not have slept so late. I didn't even balance the damn accounts", he lamented as he rushed to take his bath and hurriedly got ready.

He packed all the papers into his bad and hurriedly brushed his hair and styled it.

He brushed past Eva, who was with a dressed David, barely sparing them a glance and rushing to work, his heart pounding and a terrible feeling in his guts.

He got into the boardroom where almost everyone was seated and tried to regain his composture before walking in with the last person to come.

He was grateful that he wasn't the last to come, but he was still wondering what he would present to the auditors.

His heart was pounding furiously against his ribcage as he watched the different heads of sales in the company go up and talk about their accounts.

He saw the way the auditors asked specific questions to stay to buffet them, and those who did mot know what they were doing were immediately penalised.

"Oh God," he said to himself, running a stressed hand over his face, trying to calm down.

He broke into a cold sweat even in the air-conditioned boardroom.

He dabbed his sweat with his handkerchief and took out his papers to organise them, concluding in his mind that he would show them that je had at least tried.

He knew he was risking losing his job, but what could he do?

He was soon called up, and with heavy foot a pounding heart, he walked or trudged to the stage where he was.

He handed them copies of the account balances and held one in his hands.

"Wow," he heard one of the auditors say, and he felt the ground should just swallow him.

Rhey had seen how haphazard and terrible his work was. He guessed that was the point where they would fire him after embarrassing him.

"This is so impressive," the audited said, and Jacob did double take.

He glanced at the papers in his hands, and to his shick, they were all completed, every account balanced.

A grin broke out on his face as they showered him with so many compliments, saying that he was a genius for being able to balance such tricky accounts.

He felt like a king the urge he had to throw up, replaced with a high heart.

****

Eva could not resist the nausea she felt as she stood at Oliver's table, taking his order.

He had talked to her about them going to the movies together.

She was irritated. She held back the feeling, but it only built in her until she had to rush out to the bathroom to throw up.

She heaved and heaved while throwing up and was held to the sink as she kept throwing up when she had not even eaten any reasonable meal that day.

Lala was irritated at her behaviour, but she rushed over to Oliver, seeing as Eva was no longer attending to him.

"I'm sorry about that, sir. May I take your order?!", she asked, twirling a strand of her hair, with a seductive smile.