A scheming woman

Noah, Laila, Steve and Maria had just begun discussing what to do about Olivia, when the doorbell rang. They all sat in silence, with Noah and Laila looking at each other with questioning stares, asking through their eyes if the other was expecting someone but neither of them did. Shortly after Garry walked in and with a blank expression on his face, he strengthened the proof of the saying "If you talk about the devil, he will show."

In a voice that showed his disdain for the person and using words that gave no reason for complaint, Garry said, "Miss Smith was at the door Miss Laila. Though she found it rude of me, I asked her to wait in the hall for you." Laila chuckled and was pleased to see that even Garry had come around to calling her Laila, though he insisted on adding Miss before it. Much like most of the other staff. "Thank you Garry. You made the right choice. I will be there in a moment." Garry gave a slight head nod and went back out the door to the hall, in order to wait with Olivia until Laila would come out as they had all been asked to not let Olivia alone in any room of the house.

Laila placed the napkin from her lap on the table and excused herself as she said, "Well, I best see what she wants then. We couldn't have expected her to stay away forever on her own now could we? Though it is a shame that after all your efforts, the goose chase only managed to make her get here ten minutes later." The last part of her sentence was said with a chuckle and earned her a slight glare from Steve and Noah, which of course caused Maria to chuckle at all three of them. While Laila got up and made her way to the door leading to the living room and the waiting hall, Maria asked, "What do you plan on telling her? Are you going to let her know that I am here?"

Laila stopped in her step and with a wondering stare she said, "I'm not sure. Should I? In a way I would love to see her face when she knows that you are back. It would give me a perfect excuse to not see her so much in these next two weeks. But I won't do it if it will cause any problems for the rest of our plans."

"No, you can tell her. Just don't let her know that we have already made up. Tell her that I am here in order to see if we can patch things up and that you wanted to give me a chance to do so for the sake of the longstanding friendship we had. If need be, add some words that indicate you don't trust that I will get very far. Roll your eyes a bit as you do. That way she won't be on her guard right away but will instead try to goad you into pushing me away again or feed your distrust."

Steve and Noah looked surprised as they watch this conversation take place and Steve said, "Wow...and then they say that we are the sex to watch out for. You women are far more scheming and manipulative than we could ever be." Laila took a bow at those words before walking out of the room in order to see her uninvited visitor, while Maria took it upon herself to respond to Steve's words. As the door fell back into the lock, Maria said, "The only ones who say that, are men. We women know better. Fortunately for you guys, we use these powers only on those that have it coming. It is only fair that a scheming woman, should be dealt with by scheming her back."

Meanwhile Laila had come face to face with Olivia who was looking very unhappy about having to wait in the hall and didn't wait long to express her unhappiness. Laila started their conversation fof with a friendly greeting. "Oh Olivia, what a lovely surprise. What brings you by here today?" But Olivia was not in the mood for friendly greetings since she felt so unjustly treated. Right off the bat she decided to spit her venom. "Well it was about time you showed up. Unbelievable that I should be kept waiting in the hall just because I came by uninvited. Any longer and I would have died of old age. Being held back here at the gates like some stranger. Some people are a far cry from having good manners, including the staff."

After these last words Olivia glared in Garry's direction, to show that her words had been intended for him but Garry didn't show a single reaction and kept looking forward as if nothing had been said at all. Laila, who had listened to all Olivia's words of complaint in silence up until now, finally had received her turn to speak. The first thing she did with this turn, was stand up for Garry.