The Billionaire's Housekeeper: A Marriage of Convenience Romance for Adults (7 page)

Rita sat down to eat at the same stool
that George had been in that morning. There was a small stack of
newspapers on the island. She had been avoiding the news for so long,
and even asked George not to say anything if he saw something about
them in the newspaper. But today she was curious.

She picked up one of the rolled
newspapers and looked through until she got to where she thought any
stories about George could be. There didn’t seem to be anything
at first until she got to the third page. It wasn’t the largest
story on the page, but the title was bold enough for it to be noticed
right away.

“
Billionaire Marries
Housekeeper; Former Wife Claims She Knew About the Affair
”.

Rita’s blood ran cold. Julie had
spoken to the press. Now the story would be that Rita was a
homewrecker, and that George was a playboy. This wasn’t going
to help him with his business. She wasn’t sure how he ever
thought that potentially ruining his career was worth helping her.
She wanted to know if he was just a caring person who didn’t
want anything bad to happen to the people in his life, or if she was
what he cared about.

She read a bit of the article but
stopped halfway. It was too much negativity for the day. Rita folded
the paper and tossed it back onto the counter. She finished eating
her breakfast and cleaned up a bit.

She couldn’t think of anything
to do before the new cleaning staff arrived, so she called Jose to
come over. He didn’t live too far away, and spending time with
him was just what Rita needed. Jose would be a welcome distraction
from her thoughts and what she had seen in the newspaper earlier.

Rita waited in the living room. The
guard would let Jose in, but she wanted to be close enough to the
door. She was feeling a new kind of anxious. There was something
about this that excited her. The rumors would pass, she knew, but she
also felt like she was untouchable. George Ainsworth had kept his
promise so far.

The doorbell chimed and echoed
throughout the house. The high ceilings and marble floor made the
acoustics of the room so unique that the sound of the bells floated
about like an aroma, tickling the internal walls of the ears of
anyone in that room.

“
Good morning Mrs. Ainsworth,”
Jose bowed dramatically, flamboyantly swishing his arms and bending
forward as low as he would go.

“
Will you be doing this every
time I answer the door?”

“
God, I hope so,” he said.
“Where is everybody?”

“
The new staff should be here in
about an hour. Beatrice is in town getting some food for later. So
I’m all by my lonesome.”

“
If this were a movie, this
would be the part where they would have a montage of you wearing the
former Mrs. Ainsworth’s furs,” Jose laughed. He and Rita
walked into the kitchen and sat down on the stools in front of the
island. “Speaking of Julie; how is the little devil?”

Rita smacked Jose playfully, but he
just shrugged.

“
We haven’t really heard
from her since the wedding. She said she was gonna come back to get
the rest of her things…but she hasn’t called and nobody
has come for them,” Rita said.

“
Do you think she’s gonna
try to sabotage you and Mr. A?”

“
She’s starting to
already,” Rita said. She let out an exasperated sigh. That was
partially why she called Jose. She needed to tell him what was going
on in her world now, but she also just needed to have some fun with
her friend so that she could take her mind off of everything that was
going on around her.

“
How so? It’s been awfully
quiet out front since you guys released those wedding photos. You
looked very Dorothy Dandridge by the way, just thought I should let
you know. But I haven’t seen any paparazzi out front in about a
week.”

Rita’s shoulders collapsed and
she put her forehead down on the kitchen island.

“
They haven’t been out
front because they’ve been so busy talking to Julie. She
apparently knew about the affair that we were having from before
their divorce.”

“
What affair?” Jose asked.
He knew Rita better than anyone, and he knew that the most George and
Rita had spoken was from just before they agreed to get married in
order to save Rita from being found out and getting deported.

Jose pulled his phone out of his
pocket and started going through it. He was probably looking for any
word about Rita and George.

“
That’s what I read in the
paper this morning,” Rita said. “Julie has been talking
to the press. I didn’t read the article; the only thing I saw
was the title, and I didn’t think I could stand reading any
more.”

“
She what?” Jose said. He
sounded frustrated. He was never a fan of Julie Ainsworth to begin
with.

“
Yeah. She said in the paper
that George and I have been having an affair. I don’t know if I
should even bring it up to him. It could be that he knows already.
Which means he sacrificed so much just to keep me safe,” Rita
said. Guilt overwhelmed her. She stayed put with her arms on the
counter, and her head resting on top of the backs of her hands. Jose
rubbed her back and continued to scroll through his phone. He stopped
scrolling suddenly. He seemed deep in concentration, like he was now
reading something.

“
Which article did you say it
was?”

“
The article that says that
‘Julie Ainsworth speaks up about husband’s affair’
or something like that,” Rita said sitting up on the stool to
give Jose a better look.

“
I see some articles that have
that. But there’s something else,” he paused and shot a
nervous glance at Rita.

Rita didn’t respond. She knew
Jose had a knack for being melodramatic, but she didn’t want to
say anything. She needed for him to tell her what was going on.

“
Rita…one of the articles
here says that your marriage is a sham. They’re saying that
your nuptials aren’t legal.”

“
I didn’t think I needed
to tell you. I just thought that you knew,” George said. He was
back from work later than usual. Rita couldn’t sleep and had
been pacing around the house.

Jose had kept her company for the
entire morning and for some of the afternoon until he had to leave to
tend to someone’s garden on another side of town.

Rita didn’t speak to Beatrice
much unless it was about swapping recipes or talking about Beatrice’s
grandchildren in grade school, and since the new cleaning staff had
arrived, she hadn’t had much time to herself or her thoughts.
She let them know all that needed to be done around the house and
kept as much of a lookout for them as possible. She was still
technically employed by Mr. Ainsworth after all.

George had come home and found Rita
absentmindedly walking back and forth from the entrance hall, to the
living room, down to the dining hall, to the kitchen and back up
again. She had paced back and forth twice before even noticing that
he had come through the door.

“
I’ve never been married
before!” Rita hissed her response. She flung her arms up in
exasperation before crossing them over her chest. She had too much on
her mind to keep still, and her foot tapped on the marble floor of
the entrance way.

George sighed and moved toward the
stairs. He motioned for Rita to follow as he ascended.

“
My divorce hasn’t fully
come through. And there’s alimony and other things to consider.
The wedding took place and we have the documents, but nothing will be
considered legal for another month and a half. Didn’t you read
the fine print?” George shook his head. He headed toward his
room as he spoke. Rita wasn’t sure if she should follow. She
was only ever in George’s room to clean it, and over the last 2
weeks she felt uneasy whenever she was in there. This would be the
first time that she would be in George’s room with him in it.

“
I skimmed through everything. I
thought it was typical wedding jargon,” Rita hissed again. Her
voice cracked in panic, and that made George laugh.

“
I’m really sorry, Rita. I
just thought that you knew. That’s why we haven’t gone
out in public or anything yet.”

“
So you’ve been keeping me
locked up like a princess in a tower?” Rita asked. She didn’t
sound too happy about that, but now her voice was more tired than
panicky. It had been a trying last few weeks, and Rita wanted answers
without having to spend days at a time worrying about the question.

George put his briefcase down on his
bed before he answered. He turned and moved over to her.

“
Like a queen of a castle,”
he said and added, “but nothing like that. I wanted to get the
public’s reaction first, and I wanted to keep you safe.”

George smiled down at Rita. That made
something inside her tingle. It reminded her of her dream the night
before the wedding. She shook away the thought by blinking rapidly
and turning her head to avoiding his gaze.

“
I promised not to let anything
happen to you. I’m sure they know that our marriage won’t
be legal for long, but now they’re more focused on the idea
about our apparent affair,” George said. He smirked.

“
And how does that make you
feel?” Rita asked him curiously. She didn’t want to ask
him flat out what it was he thought was worse; the notion that he was
a cheating son of a bitch, or the fact that his marriage vows
couldn’t be upheld for the next few months.

George looked at Rita for a long time.
He looked like he was just about to soften his expression and smile
again, but something inside him changed his mind. He breathed in
deeply, and his expression turned hard once again before he answered.

“
Well, I guess I’ll figure
that out at some point. I don’t feel much of anything right
now, other than tired from work, and tired of people hounding me for
answers,” George said flatly.

“
Oh,” Rita said. She
wasn’t sure what else she could say. She also didn’t know
if she should leave or stay. She averted her eyes when George had
turned around and started undoing his tie.

“
Things will work themselves
out, eh Rita? You just have to keep trusting me,” George said
once his tie was off. “But I think it’s about time you
stopped hiding.”

Rita finally looked back up at him
when he said that. She wasn’t sure what he meant by that, but
she was hoping it didn’t involve her having to talk to anyone
about her life. She wasn’t sure how many interviews George had
done, but she knew that wasn’t her kind of scene.

“
Don’t look so worried,”
George laughed. He took off his shoes and stepped into his bathroom
for a moment. He came back out with his shirt completely unbuttoned.
Rita wasn’t sure how many times that night she had felt
embarrassed or felt the need to look away from him. She backed away
slowly and felt for the handle of the door behind her. She knew she
had overstayed her welcome in his bedroom. She didn’t want to
be there when he was fully changed. Her face grew warm, and she was
just about to turn around and leave his room when he spoke up again.

“
Good night, Rita.”

“
Good night…George,”
she said.

“
Rita…about not keeping
you hiding…” George started. Rita was halfway out the
door. She paused for a moment, with her hand still on the handle. She
waited for George to speak, but it was clear he was changing. She
didn’t dare turn around even though she knew that she wanted
to. Her face got even warmer at the thoughts racing in her mind.

“
What’s that, George?”
she said when he hadn’t said anything.

“
I was just thinking…on
Friday night, I’m going to take you out to dinner.”

*****

The next few days went by in a blur.
The cleaning staff came promptly at 10 and completed their work by 5.
Rita kept a watchful eye over them, but they were really great at
what they did, and after a while, she spent most of her day going
about her business. She avoided the paper and any news on TV like the
plague.

She knew George said not to worry too
much about what was going on, but she couldn’t expect him to be
her super hero. He could only do so much. She just didn’t know
where the boundaries were, and just how much she should be doing for
herself. She tried not to think about it. She was nervous enough
already because of dinner.

Right now, Rita and George were
situated at a 5 star restaurant. It seemed like it was even beyond 5
stars. There were beautiful dim globes that seemed to be floating
around in the air above the tables. The tables were all round with 2
or more seats depending on the size of the table. The table cloth was
a dark silk, and all of the China and utensils were spotless. Rita
wondered if the people who owned the restaurant went to buy new
utensils and plates every day for the new patrons, but she was sure
that that was impossible.

It was a French restaurant that Rita
couldn’t remember the name of. Every member of the wait staff
was the same height with dark hair pulled back in a bun or held down
with a lot of gel. It was like an army of culinary experts.