The Road to Price (8 page)

He was a survivor.

It was then that I
knew what my little boy would be called the rest of his life. It was the
perfect name for him. It wasn’t your average name like Mike or Tim. It had just
the touch of originality and it had a story behind it. When he was old enough I
might even tell him that story. How he saved his mother and showed her that
there could be beauty in even the worst of situations. That he was my silver
lining.

“Miles… his name
is Miles.”

Present

I somehow managed
to make it through the rest of the week and weekend without seeing Sebastian. I
wanted to avoid the awkward conversation that happens after you walk in on your
boss having sex. I did however run into Rachel that Wednesday morning.

Rachel had been
waiting for me in the living room. The second she saw me she walked over and
handed me a cup of coffee. It was her form of a peace offering. The
conversation lasted only a few minutes but she was laughing near the end of it.

It was now Monday
morning and my first official day as Sebastian’s housekeeper. I had on one of
the uniforms that were left for me in my closet. The uniform was a black short
sleeve polo that was form fitting and black khaki shorts that stopped only a
few inches past my butt. White socks and white tennis shoes completed the
outfit.

I guess it could
be worse.

I had to meet
Nancy in the kitchen of the estate in fifteen minutes. She was going to go over
my daily routine and then I would be left to do my work for the day. No one
would train me. The other housekeeper works the night shift so I was on my own.
A large part of me was happy about this because I wouldn’t be forced to make
small talk.

I walked into the
kitchen of the employee quarters to make myself something to eat and have a cup
of coffee. Most of the other women were still asleep but Michelle was sitting
at the counter reading the newspaper.

“Hey your up
early. You excited about your first day of work?”

“I guess so. I’ll
probably be more enthusiastic once I have a few weeks under my belt.”

Michelle was easy
to talk to. She seemed to be a genuinely nice person. I knew that if I had to
make one friend here it would be Michelle. I could be myself without her
passing judgment.

“You’ll be fine.
The work is relatively easy and Mr. Price doesn’t get upset very often. As long
as you’re working hard you’ll be fine,” she said with a friendly smile on her
face.

“Well I will work
extra hard because I don’t want there to be any reason for Sebast…  Mr.
Price to come talk to me.” I almost forgot that everyone else was told to call
him Mr. Price.

“Uh, yeah I heard
about what happened Tuesday night,” she said.

I raised my
eyebrows at her in shock.

“Us girls talk.
Rachel was really embarrassed that you had to see that on your first day.
Especially since I wanted to slowly break you in on how things work around
here. I think Mr. Price was embarrassed too. Do you know he hasn’t touched any
of us since that night?”

I thought maybe
this was a rhetorical question but Michelle seemed to waiting for me to speak.

“Oh. Is that not
normal? I mean how often does he sleep with all of you?” It had been less than
a week since I walked in on Sebastian and Rachel.

“Honey, there is
no sleeping going on when I am with him,” She giggled. “The girls and I don’t
have a schedule or anything but at least one of us is with him everyday. He
hasn’t gone a day without sex since I started here. Well… that is until last
Tuesday. He hasn’t so much as looked at any of us since.”

“Well maybe he is
getting it from somewhere else and you just don’t know about it,” I replied. If
he was use to sex everyday I couldn’t see him going six days without it.

“I don’t think so.
Rachel said after you ran out he couldn’t even finish. He put his pants back on
and politely asked her to leave. I think you must have really gotten into his
head. I just hope he gets back to normal soon. The man is an animal in bed,”
she said as she wiggled her eyebrows at me. “Best sex of my life. The other
girls think so too. I mean he does this thing with his tongue-“

“Enough!” I
shouted. I couldn’t handle hearing about how he was with other women in bed.
“I’m sorry I didn’t need to shout. I just have no desire to hear about how well
my boss performs in the sack.”

Michelle smiled
weakly at me.

“I understand. I’m
so comfortable telling the other girls everything, I guess I forgot that you
weren’t use to it yet.”

“Its totally okay.
Listen, I have to go meet Nancy down in the main kitchen. We can talk later
ok?” I wanted her to know that we were okay. I didn’t mean to come across as a
total nutcase.

“Sure. Have a
great first day!”

“Thanks Michelle,”
I said as I started to leave to meet Nancy.

I walked into the
estate and made it to the kitchen before Nancy so I decided to look around. I
never considered myself poor until now. This had to be the largest kitchen I
had ever seen. There were four ovens, a custom made built in Refrigerator,
eight electric stovetop burners, and granite countertops. The cabinets were top
of the line in a deep Cherry color.  It was immaculate.

I’m not one to
fawn over material things but I had to make a one-time exception.

Nancy walked in on
me drooling over the kitchen and apologized for keeping me waiting. She
couldn’t show me around like she wanted to due to a family emergency. She had
to go take care of it so she left me with a stack of notes to look over and was
on her way.

The notes were
easy to follow and explained where I would find all the cleaning products I
would need. According to this, Mondays were laundry and dust day. I was
expected to do Sebastian and Mrs. Price’s laundry along with every member of
the live-in staff. In my spare time waiting for the loads to finish, I was to
dust every room of the house. It might not seem like much to the average
person, but this was not the size of an average house.

I was finishing
reading my notes when I saw movement from the corner of my eye. I looked up to
see Sebastian walking in the kitchen from the other end of the room. He was
wearing nothing but basketball shorts. His face and body were glistening with
sweat. His head was down while he listened to music through his MP3 player so
he hadn’t seen me yet.

I was enjoying the
view.

Six days was
entirely too long to go without seeing this man. He was in incredible shape.
Drops of sweat were sliding down the muscles in his six-pack and I wanted to
run my tongue over every one.  With a body like that his stamina must be
out of this world.

I watched the
muscles in his arms as he opened the refrigerator door. He bent over and
searched the shelves for a second. I could sit here all day watching his body
although I rather watch his body as he is pumping himself inside me.

Argh! I needed to
stop thinking about him sexually. He was my boss.

Sebastian grabbed
a carton of orange juice and opened a cabinet that was next to the fridge. He
grabbed a glass and poured himself a drink. After returning the carton to the
fridge he turned my way and we locked eyes.

He just caught me
ogling his body. Way to give mixed signals Mia. He took the headphones out of
his ears and placed them on the counter.

“How long have you
been here?” He asked me.

Should I lie? No I
couldn’t. Knowing him he has cameras in every room and he watches the footage.

“Since before you
walked in. Did you just finish your work out or do you always wake up sweaty?”
Oh God why did I say that.

Talking about him
sweaty reminded me of Tuesday night. The look on Sebastian’s face tells me it
reminded him too.

“I wake up at five
every morning. I run for thirty minutes, then I do weights, after weights I
swim laps, and I finish by running for another thirty minutes. Doing that
routine every mourning helps me stay in shape and I can eat whatever I want.”

“Wow,” I replied.

“Where is Nancy? I
thought she was giving you a tour this morning before you got started
cleaning.”

“She had some kind
of emergency, she had to leave. She left me thorough notes that I’m reading
through. I was actually just about to get started on my work.”

Sebastian nodded
his head as he lifted the orange juice to his lips. He took a quick sip and
then placed his glass of orange juice on the counter.

“Well my first
meeting isn’t until nine so I have a little time before I need to shower and
get ready. I can give you a brief tour if you want?”

He was offering to
show me around his home. I wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity to be near
him. As much as I hated to admit it, I wanted to see him. Six days had been way
too long.

“That would be
great,” I said to him.

Before we went on
the tour I had to get the elephant out of the room. Otherwise it would hang
over my head the whole time I was with him.

“Sebastian, I want
to apologize… about the other night.” He was finishing off his orange juice
when his entire body tensed. I don’t think he expected me to address what had
happened.

“It was late and I
shouldn’t have barged in your office like that. I was upset and wanted to
confront you right away and I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry and I hope you know
that it will never happen again. I’ve already apologized to Rachel but I needed
to apologize to you too so we could move past this.”

He walked over to
the sink and placed down his glass. He then turned to me and leaned back
against the sink. I could tell he was digesting what I had said and possibly thinking
over what he would say to me. It was silent for a few moments before he spoke.

“You didn’t need
to apologize Mia, things happen. I have felt so awful about what you walked in
on. You should never have seen that… there shouldn’t have even been anything
for you to see.” He paused for a brief second and ran his right hand through
his hair. He looked back up to me and continued.

“I was upset. I
was upset with what you had said to me after we made out and groped each other
against the wall. Then you left and I was still hard and worked up, I just
needed a release. I wanted to release inside you but you made it very clear
that we would never happen.”

He said all this
without any embarrassment. I appreciated his honesty.

“I should have
taken care of it by myself. I went to my office to shut down everything for the
night. Rachel came in to see me and noticed the predicament going on in my
pants. She offered to help it go away and I didn’t say no. I didn’t want her…
but I didn’t say no. Then you walked in.”

He was spilling
his guts. At least that is what it felt like because up until now he hasn’t
opened up about anything.

“When I saw you…
the look on your face… I felt so low. I couldn’t believe you were seeing me
like that. I was mortified, I still am. I can’t imagine what you were thinking.
I mean you walked in on me, a few hours after I tried to fuck you in my dining
room, fucking another women. I know what you must think of me and I can’t argue
with you. That was the lowest moment of my life and you will never have to
experience anything like that again. I promise.”

He lowered his
head as if he were truly ashamed of his actions. I had to say something to ease
his mind. I felt like I needed to let him know it was okay. I needed to protect
him.

“You don’t have to
promise me anything. I did tell you that nothing could happen between us and I
did get you all worked up. I was worked up too. You don’t owe me anything but I
appreciate you explaining to me. It means a lot that you feel like you can talk
to me.”

He gave me a week
smile. “You said you came to see me because you were upset. Why were you
upset?"

Oh shit. I had
completely forgot that I was supposed to be super pissed at him for invading my
privacy. The truth was I wasn’t that angry anymore. You can rationalize a lot
in six days so my anger had almost completely gone away.

Almost.

I took a deep
breath and stood up from my chair. “When I got back to my room that night my
employee contract was sitting on the bed. I decided to read through the parts I
hadn’t gotten to in your office.” I paused to see if his faced showed any
recognition of what might have upset me. His face showed nothing.

“Everything was
looking great until I got to the end and saw that you had a private
investigator look into me.” His face still showed nothing so I continued,” He
pulled up information you had no right to know. Information that was private,
things I never wanted you to know.”

Finally I got some
kind of reaction out of him. It wasn’t much but his body straightened and his
shoulders raised slightly. He was still looking directly at me with a blank
expression, but it was something.

“I’m sorry you
feel that way but this is how I conduct my business. I have to do thorough
checks on anyone who is around me for long amounts of time. It is for my
safety. I can’t risk any kind of errors in the standard background check the
temp agency runs. Hiring the private investigator, that’s my version of a
background check.”

He obviously
didn’t get where my anger was coming from so I continued to explain.

“You don’t
understand. I came to Miami because no one knows me here. This was my way of
starting over, starting fresh. I want to…. No I need to forget. It may not make
sense to you but its what I need. Knowing that you know about my past, it kills
me because I never had any intention of telling you. That was my secret to
tell, not something you should be able to just dig up on me.