Chapter 6: April

I didn’t sleep at all, not even for one second. Everything in rich people’s worlds are complicated, from their bathrooms to their kitchens. Why can’t they just be simple? Why do they pay so much money for such complications?

Like in the bathroom, there’s no tap. It’s an automatic system that’s supposed to work the moment I put my hand underneath the faucet. There’s a sensor somewhere, but after the incident in the bathroom at 71, I wasn’t going to fall for that trick again. I pressed every side of the sink, tap, even the damn mirror… Nothing! When I was about to give up, and for some reason, after feeling up the tap like a security person at the airport, the tap worked and water poured out of it. The shower wasn’t any better, and this is why the time I spent showering and getting changed turned into nearly thirty minutes. Just because I couldn’t figure out how anything worked. Elisa had said the shampoos and shower gels were self-explanatory… yeah, because they had labels, which was more than could be said for anything else in this penthouse.

The whole experience made me feel stupid, just as I had on so many job interviews. When the interviewer realized I didn’t have a college degree and decided I shouldn’t even be in the room with them, wasting their time. My resumé was clear—it showed I didn’t have one—but it was as if some of the interviewers hadn’t even read it, or they had wanted to get me in the room to humiliate me.

As for the dishwasher, I couldn’t even figure out where it was. I opened every damn door in the kitchen and found gadgets I didn’t even know existed. I found myself getting sidetracked, trying to figure out what they were used for, but then I remembered the task at hand. Finding the dishwasher.

The more I looked, the more frustrated I became. Then I felt bad about the fingerprints I’d put on the white cabinets once I did eventually find it. Between the white marble tabletop and the glossy cabinet doors, the kitchen appeared as if no one had ever cooked in it. It was too clean. It was sparkling white just like Luke’s teeth, which belonged in a commercial for toothpaste. He was perfect in every way, and I was a complete mess.

Part of the reason I asked him for a computer wasn’t just to look for a place to stay, but to save my presentation on my cloud drive as a backup. It was the most sensible thing I’d done in a long time. There was no way I was going to miss a golden opportunity to show it to him. I just had to have his attention for twenty minutes. The idea of it had scared me before last night, but now it just petrified me, the idea of asking him not only for clothes and a place to stay, but a job too. I had to go through with it, though. I’d come too far to turn back now.

I had to find a way to get his attention. Even sitting at the dinner table with him, I was intimidated, especially since he was watching me like a hawk. I hadn’t eaten at all yesterday, and one of my worst habits was overeating whenever I was nervous. There was food in front of me, so I did what any other person would do—I just ate.

He drank more than ate.

What a mess!

The next day, after little sleep, I took a deep breath as I put on the new jeans and shirt Elisa bought me. Then I brushed my hair, which didn’t take long with the new haircut. Usually, I would have to spend a significant amount of time washing and drying it, but now it didn’t take long to do either. It was more practical, but part of me did miss my long hair, which had fallen halfway down my back. I dismissed the idea because one good thing about my family was we had good hair genes. Mom’s words, not mine. I knew it would grow back, and the moment it did, most likely, I’d be missing my short hair. I was never satisfied.

As soon as I figured how to get back to the kitchen after accidentally correcting myself at least three times… Did I go left? No, right. No wait, left… I was tired, exhausted, and I couldn’t make heads, let alone tails, of anything right now.

“Good morning, I didn’t expect to see you so early this morning,” Elisa said as I bumped into her and followed her, thinking she must be heading to the kitchen. I just assumed she would be… didn’t all maids just naturally go there? Then again, there was nothing to say Elisa was a maid. She could be his housekeeper, one who kept everything intact in the penthouse. It was as if my question was answered as I saw not only two more women, but a man too. They must all be staff, as they were hovering around, cleaning and busy in general.

“Yes. I need to get an early start.”

She stopped walking and asked, “Are you going to the spa?”

I laughed. “Not in these clothes. He has a spa up here?” I carried on walking, wondering what else was in the penthouse.

“Yes. He loves to relax. You should take a dip. I could get you a bathing suit, or, if you prefer, a bikini? No problem.”

I shook my head. “No, you’ve done too much already. We’ve only just met, but you’ve gone to so much trouble. I don’t want to put you out. Besides, I don’t think Luke would appreciate me being here any longer than I’ve already been. I shouldn’t have stayed the night, let alone make myself even more comfortable.”

She shrugged. “It’s up to you. I don’t think he’ll mind.”

We both looked at each other, and once again, I managed to stop the conversation from progressing by making it come to a dramatic end. Ask anything! Say something, anything, to stop the silence.

“Why are there so many people? Do they all work here?” I asked, partially interested and wondering if I should just go ahead and ask Elisa to help me. She’d been so kind to do so much for me in such a short space of time.

“Yes.”

She sighed, I had no clue what I was doing or even where I was going, but she offered a friendly face. The smile didn’t make me feel so bad, or like the idiot I felt I’d become since yesterday.

“Phone and computer, right?” she said, pointing to them both as they were sat on the kitchen worktop.

“Sorry?” I completely forgot for a split second I wanted both of them.

“Mr. Winters said you needed a phone and computer.” She encouraged me to draw nearer to them, and I hesitated, as I realized they were both in their boxes. A brand-new Mac Air and iPhone. Two items I couldn’t afford, and he’d gone out and bought them. Or maybe these were spare ones he kept at home in case of an emergency? That must be it.

She said, “I was going to prepare you some breakfast, but I didn’t expect you to be up so early. I thought maybe I could do a few errands before you woke up. Or did the other workers disturb you?”

“No, I’m a light sleeper.”

So light, my head touched the pillow for all of two seconds, and I was up again and pacing the room, feeling nervous about breaking something or touching something or—even worse—leaving my fingerprints everywhere. I wasn’t the best house guest, especially in these circumstances.

I wanted to know the time because this was the second time she’d said something about it being so early.

“What time is it?”

“Follow me to the breakfast table outside and I’ll make you something to eat. It’s just getting to eight, but since you got in and ate just after midnight, I figured you wouldn’t be active until about an hour or two. Well, most people would be, especially in L.A.”

He had all these people working at this hour. He really did run a tight ship, especially seeing as it was a Saturday. I thought no one would be working today. Then again, what did I know about housekeeping?

“Mr. Winters isn’t here, if you’re wondering.”

I shook my head. Some part of me felt relieved he wasn’t around. I was starting to feel weak from not sleeping.

She smiled. “His driver came and took him this morning, but I could fix you some breakfast, and then you can get whatever you need off the computer and phone. I would need your number to set it all up for you.”

I nodded my head, finding myself speechless.

“Don’t misunderstand Mr. Winters, he is never here on the weekend. So I asked the staff to come in early to make sure everything is to his needs. He believes in free time on the weekend. Even his driver doesn’t work from Friday until Monday morning, but he had urgent business to attend to, so he called for him. Here I am rattling on, I must be tired too.”

I remembered her words about not wanting to talk about him, yet she was offering me information, and I hadn’t had to prod her for it. I was too scared to after her warning last night.

“Coffee?” she asked as we entered the kitchen, and I took a mental note to remember how to get back here if I needed to do it within the next couple of hours. I doubted I would be here any longer. I’d more than overstayed my welcome, and I needed to be heading back to wherever I was going to stay tonight.

“Perfect.” I sat on the bar stool and watched her move around the kitchen as though it wasn’t a giant jigsaw puzzle. I needed an excessive amount of caffeine, seeing as the tiredness was starting to not only overtake my body, but my mind too.

“How do you take it?”

“Black with a touch of milk, no sugar. Okay. I don’t know how to operate the coffee machine, and if any of those croissants are available, I wouldn’t mind one of them.”

She laughed. “It’s my job to man the kitchen, so if anything gets broken, I don’t have anyone to blame. It’s a complex world in here. Built especially for me.”

She whizzed through the cabinets and machine like a natural.

“I know, you can have both. Mr. Winters said you had quite an appetite.”

I laughed. “What did he say? She eats like a pig?”

She shook her head as she put a couple of the mini croissants on a plate and slipped it to me. I wanted a little more than two because realistically, I didn’t know when I was going to eat again. But I wanted to try and act like a lady, even if I’d failed to act like one last night with Luke. So much for my blind date and the answer to all my prayers.

“Do you work with computers?” she asked, placing the coffee in front of me.

My eyes were fixed on the new Mac, which was in front of me, a far cry from the Dell I’d spent my last buck on when I had arrived in the city.

I shook my head. “I babysit on Fridays and occasionally on the weekends for Luke’s friends. I work at a store during the week, bagging groceries, stocking shelves, that kind of thing, and in the evenings, I clean dishes at a restaurant.” I looked up at her, and I could tell she was surprised, either by my jobs or the fact I had so many. Either way, she stared at me for a second as if she was trying to read my mind.

“I see. I thought maybe you work in an office or something, which was why you needed a computer.”

“I wish,” I sighed as I put the coffee cup down. “It’s what I’ve been trying to do ever since I got to L.A., especially in the education field, which is my true passion, but I don’t have a degree. Only a high school diploma. And here even the basic office job needs some sort of qualification. I did temp for a while when I got here, but even then the agencies stopped hiring me because I didn’t have the required credentials.”

She sighed. “That’s tough. It’s just Mr. Winters does need someone. You see, his PA is on maternity leave and he’s having a tough time getting a replacement.”

I choked. “Really? I didn’t know. Why, you think I could?”

I put my hand on my chest, thinking Christmas had come early.

“I could speak to him, if you think you can handle the job?” she said as she leaned across from me.

Was she serious?

I nodded with all the confidence in the world. “I could handle it. I could more than handle it, and I really need the money, especially since my landlady threw me out.”

“What?” She crossed her arms.

“My dreams of coming to L.A. have fallen flat. My landlady was young, and well she never gave me a contract. I thought I’d hit the jackpot, when it turns out that she was taking advantage of me. If I found the job that I need to survive here, then I wouldn’t have taken the room. Here, it’s all about who you know and how pretty you are, and I don’t tick any of the boxes to get the job I really should get, but that’s life. We can’t have everything we want.”

“True,” she agreed, “but if you work hard—and it seems you’re more than willing to, seeing as you have so many jobs—then I think you’re selling yourself short. When do you have time to socialize?”

I laughed. “I don’t.”

“But you were on a date with Mr. Winters?”

“A blind one,” I corrected her to let her know it wasn’t typical, “millionaire sees a woman in distress and asks her out” or even “millionaire sees a woman and asks her out because he’s crazy infatuated with her and he only saw her in the space of two seconds” type of situation. In my case, he had no idea who he was going out with on the date, and it turned out to be a nightmare. For him, anyway.

“I bet he regrets it,” I added. “If there was a book of the worst dates in history, he would be putting our date in there. That’s how bad it was.”

“But he was kind enough to let you stay here, which was strange, even for him being such a generous man. There must have been a reason for it?”

She raised her eyebrow as if she had found the answer to her question as she quickly changed the subject. “Anyway, I will talk to him about the PA job, but only if you’re interested…”

“Holy cow, I’m more than interested. Working for him would mean my dream of a career in education will finally come true. And the pay should be good enough instead of working three jobs, I’ll only need to work one. Do you need me to convince you even more?”

She laughed. “I’ll call him in a bit.”

I smiled, but doubts were wriggling in the back of my mind. She was being more than generous, and I hated to kick a gift horse in the mouth, but I had to know the reason why.

“I don’t get it,” I said after I finished the last croissant. Elisa, as if she read my mind, headed to the other side of the kitchen to get some more. She didn’t even ask as she took my plate, and I didn’t complain.

“These are so good.”

“Why thank you.” She smiled and filled my plate with not only two, but four, croissants.

“You made these?”

She nodded, and I shook my head, trying to think about what I was trying to say before I put another croissant in my mouth.

“You’re doing all this for me, but you don’t even know me. You must be the kindest, nicest person I’ve met in L.A. I didn’t even know they existed until I met you. Sure, Hayley’s been really generous, but it didn’t happen overnight.”

“We’re not all bad,” she said with a wink. “Besides, I can see you’re having a hard time. And I bet you don’t have any family here. Maybe you just need a chance. Mr. Winters could be the chance you need. If you fill in for Caroline and do a good job, then maybe he’ll consider you for something else when she comes back to work.”

“Maybe.”

“Should I do this? Should I speak to him and find out if he’ll have you as his PA?”

I ran to her and gave her a big hug, which startled her. I didn’t need to show him the presentation now, I could do it once I worked for him. This was the best news I’d heard in a long time, and it was all down to a stranger.

“Thank you. I can’t believe you’re doing this for me.”

“You’re going to choke me,” she said as she pulled me back. “Just don’t prove me wrong. I don’t know why I’m doing this, but I have a good feeling about you. You won’t let me down. Will you?”

“I swear.” I put my hand on my chest. I had to prove her right, and I would make sure she wouldn’t regret it. I had no idea what was in store for me, but I knew things could only get better after today.

I had to call my parents. Usually, I would tell them I had an interview, and this would be the one to change my life and prove that the move to L.A. hadn’t been in vain. I hadn’t been back home since I’d been here, and I couldn’t lie to their faces—it was so much easier on the phone or a video call because Dad still hadn’t grasped the concept of talking and using the video at the same time without his face being pressed against the phone. I vowed to make them proud, and I knew I would do it in the end. I’d given up hope, but Elisa had given it back to me, and I was more than grateful for her generosity.

More than grateful.