CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

Elena's POV.

I sat thinking about how this woman's life was hard, she had two kids who took their abusive father's side against hers, only that they did not know that he was abusive, she could not say anything to the authorities because she did not have enough finance to take care of herself and her kids, her ex husband did everything he could to make sure all doors were closed for her, but at least she was still strong enough to continue living, for her children and hope for a better future for them.

"Ahem... Your orders ma'am." He reappeared with my burger, fries and drink and her meal, which some of it was packed in a large carton bag and put in takeaways.

I nodded to tell him I was satisfied with it.

"Can I pay with my credit card?" I asked, pulling down my fez cap.

"Yeah sure you can, just wait for me, I will be right back." he hurried off and I turned back my attention to the woman in front of me. She was probably waiting for my signal so she could start eating, because she was sitting completely stiff, looking down at the food before her, not knowing what to do to it. I smiled at her and urged her to go on.

"Go ahead and stuff your face. Your eyes will not eat the food, your hands and your mouth will" I urged.

"Oh ok." And she began digging into the meal, she ate as if she had been starving for days, and I would not be surprised if she had actually been starving for ages, with the way she was so light, you could tell that she did not have a balanced diet often.

As she was eating, I decided to draw more information from her.

"How does your ex husband know when you want to get a job, he must have some sort of informant, don't you think?. Who do you tell most of your secrets, you could start solving your problems by actually knowing where your problems originate from." I interrogated.

"I honestly do not  know, and I do not tell my secrets to anybody, so.... I do not have any clue on where to start digging for the answer." She replied.

"I guess, I could put in a word or two for you, you said you came here to work, I know a place that would give you instant employment when once you call my name. I will give you my number, you can contact me anytime you wish, I will also write the direction of the place for you and the owners' number. Tyler will definitely employ you when once you say that I recommended you, if you encounter any problems, you can contact me in front of him with the number I will give you." I rambled.

"What is the name of the place.?" She asked.

"GRILL PLAZA, there you would not stand a chance of harassment, every one over there is like my family. " I continued.

"Thank you ma'am, thank you so much" she was on her knees before I could spell ME, and I felt so embarrassed that I covered my face and looked around, someone might have the wrong ideas.

"What are you doing, get up now" I whispered strongly.

She did not seem to hear me, because she kept her head down and continued crying non stop, it had obviously been long since someone stretched a helping hand towards her, life was cruel, and so were human beings.

I went to her side of the table and knelt down beside her, gathering her in my arms.

"You do not need to thank me, we as humans were meant to help each other out, we rise by lifting others,  I am merely obeying the rule of nature Annie, and one day, when you see someone who is in need and you are able to help, make sure that you do so, a single word or smile can change someone's whole point of view in life and so doing can change someone's life. So quit crying and make up your mind, you are going to have to do a little less crying from now on and a lot more smiling, customers do not exactly like to be served by people who have tears streaming down their face, you never know a teardrop can enter somebody's coffee or sandwich." I said making an effort to make the topic light.

Either this made her feel better or she really appreciated my efforts to make her feel better because her mood changed abruptly from sad to happy, she flashed me a smile, the first one since I met her and I caught a glimpse of a broken teeth, I shook my head, pretending to not have seen anything.

"Thank you so much for helping me this much, I would have probably died from suffocation earlier but you came as my heroine and saved me from the villain, now you are offering me a place to work and earn a responsible living, thank you" she thanked me.

"And I am telling you to start learning self defense, some basic skills are enough, I learned mine when I was fifteen and it has stayed with me since then. You need them so that nobody can harass you, you would be able to stick up for yourself if you knew it. I do hope you would start learning how to really take care of yourself." I advised.

She was about to say something but the ringing of my phone cut her short. It was Katie.

OH SHIT. I was supposed to meet her out side forty eight minutes ago. It was now one hour and forty eight minutes since we departed. I had to hurry to go meet her.

"Excuse me, I will be right back" I said to Annie and she nodded, with that I left the table and went to a secluded part of the restaurant.

I answered the call to hear the stern voice from the other end.

"So Elena, what is taking you so long?" She asked, impatient.

"Well, something happened and I have to take care of it first, mind waiting for me in the car for about fifteen minutes, I will be out by that time, I promise." I requested, I could hear her hesitate.

"Why, what happened." She queried.

"Well, something just came up, you do not need to worry about it, I will sort it out and meet you outside in fifteen minutes, okay?"I answered.

I was not in the mood to tell her what was going on, if she could hide away a part of her life from me, I had the right to do so to her too. She waited for a moment, then hung up the call. Yeah, she should have a taste of what I felt when she refused to share stuff with me, I was not about to feel bad for her now.

I returned to my seat to see that Annie had cleared her plate. Plates to be more precise.

"Okay, so I will have to go now, if you need anything just call this number, I will answer directly or my friend will, if she answers just teher to hand me the phone" I wrote my number down on a piece of paper and handed it to her.

"I..if I go to GRILL PLAZA, and they ask me the name of the person that recommended me, what do I tell them" she asked humbly, with her head down. I lifted my hand and stroked her hair. I realized I had not told her my name.

"You can call me Elena, if they ask you, and they surely will, tell them that Elena recommended you." I answered then kissed her goodbye.

I went to pay the bill, and did so with my credit card, I looked around for the books I'd bought and could not find them anywhere, I did not have much time to waste so I forgot about them, I would surely buy more later, but that time was not now.

Ieft the restaurant into another section of the mall and continued walking towards the nearest exit. I knew that I was putting my secret in jeopardy by telling her to go to GRILL PLAZA, but that was all I could do for the poor woman, when Tyler and Caleb found out that I had recommended her, they would know that I was in town and that I had lied about Europe, though I had an inkling that Azalea knew or rather suspected that something was fishy, she would not have shared her suspicions with the others.

I left the mall and located my car, Katie was already waiting for me inside

"what  were you doing inside that kept you so long" she asked, hoping to get some information out of me".

"Nothing much, just a few hold ups."I replied.

She understood that I did not want to tell her anything so she dropped the topic.

I started the car and headed for home, all the while thinking about poor Annie and her struggles.