might like it.” She laughs nervously.
I still refuse to take it. “What is it?”
She looks at me, wide-eyed and nervous. I can smell her fear.
“It’s something she brought for you,” her friend says.
“Donuts. Rob said you liked them.”
I take the bag and peak inside. I recognize the box. It’s a fancy looking box from one of the fanciest bakeries in the city. I’m curious as to why she went to so much trouble. “Donuts?” I say.
“You like them?” Her eager expression wills me to like them. I dislike neediness in people. I dislike people, full stop, but neediness pisses me off completely. “I don’t know.”
“Haven’t you tried these ones before?” She’s eager to please me.
“Can’t say I have,” I lie.
“These are meant the be the best—”
“I guess Mr. Maddox will try them in time.” Her friend puts a restraining hand on her arm.
The housekeeper steps back, looking disappointed. “I don’t know where my room is. Rob said you would show me. This is a beautiful house, by the way. I’ve never stayed in a place so beautiful be—”
“Please stop talking.”
She clamps her mouth shut.
“I can’t think with so much noise.”
She looks shocked. “But I don’t know what my duties are. Rob didn’t have time to show me much.”
This is the shit I shouldn’t be dealing with. I scowl back at her.
“He had to rush off. He said you would do it. He had a flight to catch and he was in a rush, so I—”
“Please! Stop talking.” I swipe a hand across my face. The woman will be the death of me before I get to the end of my book. I gape at her as if all the energy has been sucked out of my body, and it has been, almost, or will be, soon.
What have you done, Rob?
I am not used to living with someone. I’m not used to being around people. I am not used to being told what to do. I live in fictional worlds with fictional characters. It’s safer that way. Most of all, I despise having to show this woman around.
I miss Freya. She makes my food and leaves it in the kitchen. The house is always clean. We can go weeks without passing one another even though she comes every week day.
It works.
This isn’t going to. For a start, this one talks too much. She’s going to kill my concentration.
“If you’re busy, writing and all, I can make my own way to my room. Just tell me which one it is. I don’t want to bother you too much. Rob said you had a book to …” She’s doing it again, talking too much, but as I watch her silently, her voice trails away. She’s getting the hint.
“That’s better,” I say.
I now have a choice. I can either show her around or go back to my study and stare at the blank page.
So I take the easy option.
Chapter 6
MARI
With my suitcase in my hand I follow him around like an unwanted dog he is trying to lose. He rushes around, although ‘races’ is the wrong word, given his heavy build.
The house is beautiful. He shows me around downstairs, and the kitchen again which I’ve seen, but he also shows me the library, and the reading room, and his study. Its dark inside and such a contrast to the rest of the house.
“I expect my writing room to be dusted and cleaned every day, preferably when I’m not in it.”
“When will that be?”
“It varies. I can’t give you an exact time.”
I try not to say something smart and sassy back, even though I’m privately pissed that he expects me to be at his beck and call.
“Don’t mess things on my desk. Leave things as you find them. Don’t read anything. I don’t want to have to stow things away and get them back out again, it messes with my process.”
“Got it.”
He leads me into a room which has the biggest TV I’ve ever seen. This room is littered with crisp packets, donut boxes and drink cartons and cans. It’s four times bigger than my bedroom was in my last apartment. As I glance across, I can see into the kitchen. “Sometimes I like to relax in here,” he says, as I watch and wait to see if he’ll bend down to pick up the trash from the floor. He doesn’t. “There’s a TV in your room.”
“Oh, so I can’t watch TV in here?”
He looks taken aback. “You’re not on vacation. You have a job