Going Shopping 6

CALEB'S POV

The following morning, Caleb was awoken by the smell of coffee and waffles coming from downstairs. He promptly sat up in the big mahogany bed and tried to take in his new environment for the first time. Everything happened too fast in the last two days that he barely noticed his surroundings.

The bedroom wall was painted white and covered with wallpaper depicting a tropical rainforest overlapping a waterfall. The ceiling was immaculate and shaped like a cone - a contrast from the wooden roof that housed him and his mother in their old rented house. The door blinds were velvet green with golden threads draped against the edges.

"I can't remember the last time I slept so well," he murmured to himself, his voice still groggy from sleep. His eyes then wandered to the steady rays of sunlight dancing against the glass window covered with a white curtain indicating it was already broad daylight.

Stretching, Caleb yawned and got out of bed. He walked over to the window and peered down.

"This is so incredible!" He exhaled at the sight of the swimming pool at the rear of the house.

The swimming pool was as big and wide as the size of a standard football pitch. The water was bluish and crystal clear. Its surface gleamed from the reflection of the early morning sunshine that Caleb could almost see the bottom of it from where he stood. It was designed in a mass of titanium tiles that glinted like fish scales.

"So all of these will be mine someday?" he wondered out loud. He couldn't believe how his lot had suddenly changed from beggarly to opulence. He could already imagine the number of girls who would flock around half-naked in that pool.

Mia's face came into view in his mind's eye. And the compromising scene he had walked in on her with Mr Hart right inside his office just wouldn't leave his head. How he wished she was there present with him to see how much was now at his command. His heart twisted and throbbed with painful spasms. He didn't know when he blurted, "Bitch, you left me for money today, you will regret it tomorrow."

Beside the pool on his left was a lawn leading to a large tent house. The other end stretched into the driveway facing the main entrance. Caleb looked on wondering what that tent was used for. Just then, as if in response to his puzzling thought, he saw Ricardo entering the tent. The black Jeep was driven out. "Oh, wow, that must be the garage," he mused. Then followed by Jack who went in and drove out another car, an ash-coloured Bentley - the latest model. Caleb chuckled. He remembered seeing that model of car drive past him one of those days on his way to work and he envied its owner. Now it struck him that it must have been his grandfather's.

As he continued to stand there, two more cars were being driven out of the garage. Then it occurred to him that he didn't know much about cars - especially the expensive ones, but seeing as he'd be driving very soon he needed to start browsing on which model he would like to own. He could almost envisage the reaction of the HR at the office when she sees him transformed and... what were her exact words again? He racked his brain trying to recall. Yes, "looking the part" as she put it.

Suddenly came the chime of the wall clock jolting him out of his thoughts: the time was 9:00 am.

"What? I overslept and no one bothered to wake me?"

Quickly he uncoiled from the window sill and got into the bathroom.

The bathroom was quite big with ceramic tiles from top to bottom. Caleb stood marvelling at its giant-sized bathtub, the kind he has only seen in movies. There were toiletries already arranged on the counter housing the washbasin like it was done in a standard hotel room. The heater for hot water hung against the titled wall. "This place feels like heaven!" he exclaimed.

He looked in the bathroom mirror and his appearance paled in comparison to the splendour of the bathroom. The sides of his face were darkened because of going unshaven for three days. "Today I will take this off," he mumbled and began to apply hair removal cream on his face. He needed to barb too but that would be later in the afternoon after they returned from the mall. He opened the shower to let the water cascade down his body from his head.

Ten minutes later, Caleb was done and went to pick what to wear. It felt strange that all his life he's never had to worry about what to wear. The only time he remembered having such thoughts was when he wanted to take Mia out to dinner for the first time. He desperately wanted to impress her and so took his time to select the best from what he owned. And the best was his work clothes. He washed and starched the shirt and ironed it. Yet, Mia still openly frowned at his outfit when he went to pick her up.

He found an old grey polo on which the neck had slackened and a pair of black trousers - the same pair he wore the previous day to the office. He thrust his legs into a jaded canvas and didn't bother to look in the mirror this time because he knew what image would stare back at him. Ready, he went downstairs to meet Ricardo and Jack already waiting in the living room.

"Good morning, Master," Ricardo greeted.

"I thought I told you the first day not to address me by that name?"

"I'm sorry mas...sir, but it would be inappropriate for me to call you by your name."

"Good morning, Master," Jack bellowed, his face still as expressionless as when Caleb rammed into him yesterday.

"Oh great!" Caleb moaned. "I guess there's no talking y'all out of this. I'll have to take it up with grandpa it seems."

"Where is he, by the way?" Caleb looked at Ricardo.

"In his chambers. He asked me to inform you to join him there for breakfast." Raymond answered for him. Raymond is the chef of the house. He was clearing the table where the two guards and others had just eaten.

Caleb turned and went through the lobby to his grandfather's room.