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  “Is he nice looking?” Sylvia pressed. “I mean, if you were going to rate him on a scale of one to ten, what would it be?”

  I paused for a moment, wondering if I should spill my guts. Oh, I can be honest with Sylvia. It’s not like she would be telling anyone beyond her senior citizen friends. “He’s a full ten,” I confessed.

  “Oh…very nice!” she gleefully responded.

  “Mommy, her soap smells like cupcakes!” Joey exclaimed as she came from the bathroom.

  “Oh, you like that? It’s called vanilla soufflé. Are you good at rolling out dough with the rolling pin?” Sylvia asked.

  Joey nodded proudly. “Yes. Yes, I am!”

  “Okay, pull up a chair and let’s get you started.”

  I began to head off to the bathroom to begin my cleaning just as Sylvia stopped me.

  “Wait one second. I want to finish hearing about this job.”

  Once she was content that Joey knew what she was doing with the cookies, she directed her attention back to me.

  “There’s really nothing else to tell other than I have to go grovel to my mother once I’m done here.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “We kinda got in an argument the other night over my new living arrangements, and I haven’t talked to her since. So now, with my new work schedule, I have to bow down at her feet and ask her to pick Joey up from school.”

  “What time does she get done with school?”

  “Two thirty, and I don’t get off until five.”

  “And…what about her father? He’s not working, is he?”

  “No, but he has class in the afternoon. He’s doing me a favor by taking her in the morning for me.”

  “He’s doing you a favor? She’s his daughter too. You’re the one who’s working. What’s wrong with this picture?”

  “I know. I know. He’s just trying to finish up the last of his classes so he can graduate and then a lot of the burden will be taken off me.”

  “If you say so,” she mumbled under her breath.

  I acted like I didn’t hear her. I was hearing from enough people about my poor decision in choosing roommates. I didn’t need to hear it from Sylvia too.

  “Which school does Joey go to?” Sylvia asked.

  “Blessed Sacrament.”

  “Oh! Right up the street. I can pick her up and watch her.”

  “Oh, Sylvia, that’s so sweet of you, but I couldn’t put that burden on you.”

  “What burden? Look at her.”

  We both turned our heads and looked over at Joey, quietly pressing cookie cutters into the dough.

  “Oh trust me, she’s on her best behavior today. She can be quite the handful.”

  She waved her hand in a dismissing manner. “Oh, honey, I doubt that. I’m sure it’s nothing I can’t handle. Besides, it will give me something to do. It gets lonely here all day long.”

  I didn’t know much about Sylvia’s family life other than she was married twice. Harry, her first husband, was the love of her life and the father of her son. He died some time ago and she ended up marrying Stan, Harry’s best friend, much later in life. Stan had passed away three years ago and whenever Sylvia would speak of him, she always made a point of saying they married just for companionship.

  “Sylvia, do you have any grandchildren?” I asked.

  “A grandson, but he’s grown.”

  “No great-grandkids?”

  She let out a loud, boisterous laugh. “Sweetie, I think I have a better chance of getting pregnant again than that ever happening.”

  She didn’t go on to explain exactly why that was so, and I didn’t inquire anymore.

  “Joey, how would you like if I picked you up from school and you spent a few hours with me until Mom gets done working?”

  Joey looked up from her cookie dough, nodding with a smile. “Can we bake cookies?”

  “Sure, we can bake and cook.”

  I was still a little unsure of it all. Sylvia was well into her eighties, and I wasn’t sure of her driving. But the school was only a few minutes’ drive, and it would mean that I wouldn’t have to grovel to my mother. “Sylvia, if you’re going to do this, I insist on paying you.”

  “Pay me? For what? To have someone to keep an old broad company? I’ll have no such thing.”

  It didn’t feel right. I felt like I was totally taking advantage of her. “Well, if you won’t accept money as a payment, how about I’ll clean your house for you every Sunday morning free of charge?”

  “Honey, will you stop? If I didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t have offered.”

  “No, Sylvia, I insist!”

  She completely ignored me and walked over to Joey, taking a seat next to her and getting to work on their cookies.

  I stood there staring at the two of them, not ready to concede. “Don’t you have cleaning to do?” Sylvia looked up at me and grinned.

  “You are impossible!” I smiled back.

  “The sooner you learn that, the better off you’ll be!”

  ***

  “So, I think I got the whole after school thing figured out,” I said to Cole as I washed the dishes and he dried them.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “For Joey. With me working. Remember?”

  “Oh, yeah. I thought you said your parents were gonna do it.”

  “Actually, one of my housecleaning clients is going to watch her for me.”

  He creased his forehead. “Umm…Deenie. Do you even know this person?”

  “Of course I do! Her name is Sylvia. She’s an elderly lady, and Joey loves her!”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know…let me see if my mother could do a couple of days.”

  “Cole, your mother works full-time.”

  “Then why can’t you just have your mom do it?”

  “Because I feel like I depend on her and my dad way too much. This will be fine, and if it gets to be too much, they have an after-school program I could sign her up for at the school.”

  He began to vigorously rub the glass he was drying with the dishrag. “I don’t know why you had to start this job in the first place,” he mumbled.

  I turned off the water and gazed at him, not relenting until he looked at me. “What’s your problem?” I finally broke the silence.

  “What?” he asked.

  “You seem pissed over this.”

  “I’m not. It’s just—”

  “Just what?”

  “I just wish you had taken Joey into consideration before you went and accepted this job.”

  I widened my eyes. The nerve of him! I always put Joey first. How dare he say otherwise? He was the selfish one who couldn’t settle on a career choice so he could finish up school and get a real job that would actually provide for his daughter. So how dare he make me feel guilty for taking the initiative to try and better myself, which in turn would benefit my daughter? I shook my head at him, hurling the sponge in my hand into the soapy water before storming off to the bedroom.

  Darkness had fallen outside my bedroom window when my eyes peeled open to find Cole sitting on the side of my bed. “Hey,” he whispered. “You missed all the fun.”

  I was still half asleep, but awake enough to know I was still annoyed with him.

  “Come on, Deenie, you can’t give me the silent treatment forever.”

  I sat up and rubbed my eyes. “Why not?”

  “Look, I didn’t mean for it to come out the way it did. You’re a great mom, and I know you always make Joey your number one priority.”

  I was surprised to see it was after ten. “Is she sleeping?”

  “Yup, we had an ice cream party with all of her stuffed animals, watched Frozen, and she’s now sound asleep in her bed.”

  I hated when I wasn’t able to tuck her in at night.

  “She asked me where you had gone, and I told her you had a headache and were lying down.” He pressed his forehead into mine. “Do you forgive me?”

  “Yeah,
sure. Whatever,” I replied, too tired to argue with him. It wasn’t going to get me anywhere anyway.

  He placed a light kiss on my forehead before standing up. “I’m gonna meet up with a few of the guys at Duffy’s. I won’t be long.”

  “Oh, okay.” I didn’t know why, but I felt my irritation growing once more. I had no reason to be pissed. That was his usual thing to do on Friday nights, so why was I feeling so agitated by it now? Was it because his normal MO when he would go to Duffy’s would be to pick up girls? Was it because I felt like I had a sense of entitlement to him now that we were living together? With this whole living arrangement, we had never identified exactly what our status was. Were we an actual couple? Were we just roomies with benefits or was it something more? The way he had hinted around about a future made me think it was something more, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up.

  I waited until I heard the door to my apartment close before I ventured out of bed to check on Joey. A smile stretched my lips when I finally spotted her sleeping among her stuffed animals. I walked in further and stared down at her, watching each breath she took as a strand of her dirty-blond hair rested on her cheek. Carefully removing some of her animals from the bed, I slipped under the covers, pulling her closer and breathing in her coconut scented hair. These past five years had been a struggle for me, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. As chaotic as my life could be, I couldn’t imagine not having this little girl in it. Maybe I was making all the wrong choices, and maybe I would fail at all of them, but I knew even if I did, this little girl in my arms would still love me just the same.

  Chapter 10

  Gabe

  No matter how easy I thought Monday mornings were going to be, they always turned into total chaos. This morning was no exception. I had come in super early to work out some bugs in the latest gaming software I was pitching to a multimillion-dollar company from Tokyo. If I could land this deal, I’d be set. Of course those bugs weren’t so easy to fix. I had two of the guys from my team working on it over the weekend and maybe to anyone else’s standards the kinks that still existed could be overlooked, but I wasn’t anyone else. I demanded perfection, and if I was going to be putting something out there with my name on it, I wouldn’t settle for less.

  I was so deep in thought that I barely lifted my head to the tap on my office door. “Gabe,” Chad called.

  “Yeah, what is it?” I muttered, never taking my eyes from the computer monitor.

  “Umm…it’s nine. Faith is here.”

  I broke myself from the tedious coding on my screen, eyeing up the same cute girl I remembered from just last week standing next to Chad. I hated that her appearance was the first thing I noticed every time I looked at her. I needed to snap out of that fast. I definitely shouldn’t be feeling this way for an employee. But as she stood in my doorway, wearing a burgundy sleeveless sweater dress that showed off her toned arms and accentuated her assets, it couldn’t be helped. Her hair was pulled up off her face, making her appear even more youthful.

  “Good morning.” She displayed the same beautiful smile I had remembered from the food store that night.

  “Oh yeah, good morning. I didn’t realize it was nine o’clock already.” Truth was I didn’t realize she was even starting today. Chad must’ve told me, but I was more than likely preoccupied with something else at the time.

  “I’m gonna head back to my office,” Chad said.

  “Wait, Chad. Can you take her down to the conference room and have her fill out all of her HR paperwork?”

  “Done.” He smiled.

  “Okay, then take her around and introduce her to everyone.” I needed to buy some time just until I could figure out this program I’d been battling with all morning.

  “One step ahead of you, pal.” He raised an eyebrow, getting satisfaction out of my inability to stall for time. “She’s all ready for you to start her training.” Another sly grin graced his face.

  “If you’re in the middle of something, I can just start getting myself familiarized with some things on my own,” she spoke.

  “Yeah, if you don’t mind, that’d be great.” I flashed Chad a triumphant sneer.

  He shook his head in defeat. “Welcome aboard, Faith…and good luck,” he muttered as he made his way out of the office.

  “I guess I’ll just get started with getting used to the filing system and seeing how you do things around here,” she said in a soft tone.

  “Okay, sounds good. I just have to figure out something here and then I’ll be able to show you some things.”

  “Okay, that’s fine.” She nodded and turned around to exit, and I found my eyes gravitating to her ass.

  What the fuck? Why am I acting like a horny teenager whenever she’s around?

  “Oh!” I suddenly realized I was shouting. That was confirmed when she turned around and creased her forehead in confusion. “Sorry, umm…the login for the computer is under the keyboard.”

  “Okay, thanks,” she whispered. She closed the door behind her and my attention diverted away from her perfect tits, nice ass, and gorgeous face and back to the tedious task that lay before me on my computer monitor.

  I looked down at my phone, bypassing the text that had just come through from Phoebe and focusing on the time instead. I was so immersed in my work that I had lost all track of time, realizing now it was well after two. When I stepped out of my office, I had hoped Faith had taken it upon herself to go to lunch, but instead she was sitting behind her desk, with the phone in one hand, while looking something up on the computer like she had worked here for years instead of hours.

  “Please tell me you went to lunch?” I asked when she got done with the call.

  “Oh.” She glanced at her watch as if she’d lost track of time as well. “Wow, it’s after two already?”

  I nodded. “Sorry. I got sucked into my work in there. You can just go to lunch whenever you want to. There’s really no set time.”

  I looked down at the pile of work on her desk.

  “I hope I did this right. These were all the POs so far for this year that still needed to be inputted into the spreadsheet. At least that’s what the sticky note on the file folder said.”

  I nodded.

  “I looked around on the computer and figured the yearly PO spreadsheet was the one that this stack of papers needed to be entered into. Please tell me I’m right, otherwise I’ve just wasted these past three hours of my life,” she pleaded.

  My eyes widened, impressed with the way she’d taken it upon herself to figure that out without any direction. “Yup, you are absolutely right.”

  “Phew.” She let out a relieved breath.

  “Here are some phone messages for you. I transferred a few calls to your voicemail, but these few people felt more comfortable leaving a message with a human.”

  “Oh...okay….” I was stunned over her take-charge attitude, something my prior assistants never had. Even though I was to blame for part of that, I liked things done my way and wasn’t too fond of change unless I directed it to be done.

  “I was looking over some of the files, and you can probably box up a lot of the older ones. It will give you a lot more space.”

  I stood there speechless.

  “I’m sorry...I really shouldn’t come in here on the first day and try to take over the place. It’s just...I’m so used to keeping my daughter on a routine at home that—”

  “No, it’s okay. I’ve been meaning to go through those old files. I just haven’t really had the time.”

  “Oh, so maybe when you get a free moment here and there we can go over them.”

  I nodded, feeling as if someone else was controlling my actions. People didn’t tell me what to do…I told them what to do. Yet here I was agreeing to every one of her suggestions. The ping of a text message caused both of our eyes to shift to her phone sitting on her desk.

  Sylvia: The package has been picked up.

  Why the heck was my grandmother texting her
about a package?

  She exhaled in relief and looked up at me with a smile.

  “Is everything okay?” I asked.

  “Oh yeah. Just my babysitter letting me know she picked my daughter up from school.”

  Her babysitter? My grandmother was actually babysitting for her?

  “Oh....” I tried to hide my surprise. “So, are you hungry?” I asked.

  “Umm…I guess a little, but I have a protein bar in my purse. I can just eat that while I finish up this spreadsheet.” Either she was really sucking up or she was really going to be a perfect fit.

  “Well, I’d feel horrible if you didn’t take a little break, and since I kind of threw you to the wolves on your own this morning, how about if I take you to lunch so I can fill you in on all of your duties?”

  What the hell was I doing? I never took my other assistants who had worked for me out to lunch. But it was as if I couldn’t control the words spewing from my mouth even if I tried.

  “Oh, um…are you sure?”

  “I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t.”

  She sucked in her bottom lip like she was deep in thought. “Okay then.” She got up and grabbed her purse from her drawer.

  “After you.” I extended my arm, allowing her to walk ahead of me. After all, I was a gentleman, one who liked staring at the fine little ass in front of him, but a gentleman nonetheless.

  Chapter 11

  Faith

  I was impressed by his expensive car. I was impressed by the upscale restaurant he had chosen for lunch. But I was most impressed by the talent, knowledge, and drive he possessed for his work. Listening to him speak over our lunch proved why he was so successful at what he did. His strong, confident demeanor gave off an aura that demanded respect. Everything about him screamed perfectionist right down to his neat as a pin appearance. I sensed right away that he was a stickler who liked things done his way, which could have been the reason why he came across as being a dickhead to some people. But in a weird way, even though I was the complete opposite, I understood him. He worked hard to get where he was, and he wanted to make sure all of that hard work paid off.