Chapter 7
Nora
Nothing today had gone according to plan, and now I was sitting in the back seat of a silver Audi with Cici beside me, telling me stories about her friends from school. I tried to pay attention to what she was saying, but my mind kept drifting elsewhere. What was I doing here? Why was I leaving the hotel? What was going to happen to my job?
I was supposed to be back there at the hotel, learning the ins and outs of a new career. I had big plans for my future in San Francisco and babysitting my boss’s daughter wasn’t one of them. But how could I have refused him? Cici was so sweet and had clearly formed an attachment with me, and moreover, Felix…Mr. Stone, he had seemed so lost back there.
I knew I should have been afraid of him. He was a rich, powerful man; the owner of the hotel I had just gotten a job at. I had seen the way Jackson and the others cowered in his presence, from respect and fear of displeasing him…but to me, maybe because it was my first day on the job and I didn’t know him at all, he didn’t scare me. He was all hulking muscle and good looks…like a dog whose bark was louder than his bite.
The car dropped us off at the front of a mansion of a house. The driveway itself looked bigger than our entire home in Minnesota. Cici led the way to the front door and I followed her, driving the key into the door and turning the lock.
“Usually Anne, our housekeeper, or my nanny, Rosie, are always home. But today Rosie is sick and Anne had to go visit her daddy, so I’m all alone,” Cici said excitedly, throwing her arms around as she twirled into the house. I was afraid of asking her where her mother was; I could already sense that Felix was a single parent.
“Do you want to see my room?” she squealed and when I nodded my head, she clapped her hands with excitement and led the way again. I chased after her and felt like I was in a dream because I had never stepped inside a more beautiful house than this before.
The floors were marble, the walls were spotlessly white, beautiful art hung from the walls and the curtains were thick and richly maroon. Every room seemed bigger than the previous one as Cici led the way, up the winding stairs and finally to her room.
It was the perfect little girl’s room, frilly and pink and filled with toys and books. The room had everything that a girl could ever need and yet, I had seen the sadness in Cici’s eyes that morning.
“What should we play with first?” Cici looked around the room, trying to decide on her toys. I still felt dumbstruck, amazed and still in shock that I was actually in this house, babysitting a little girl I had met just a few hours ago.
It was getting more and more obvious to me that the relationship between Felix and his daughter was complicated for some reason. I could imagine that being a single parent was tough, but I didn’t understand why he was so aloof, so cut off from her.
Cici eventually picked out her favorite dolls to show me and then started setting up a tea party with a little table and chairs for us to sit on. I tried to make the most of my time here; I decided I would think about the rest later. Once we started playing, I slowly began to forget where I was. I was actually having fun. I had never had toys or dolls like this when I was growing up, and neither did my bedroom look anything like this one. In those few hours in Cici’s room, I was living vicariously through her.
Then an older lady showed up, who Cici introduced as Anne, the housekeeper. She was initially surprised to find me there but then when I told her I worked at the hotel, she figured out that Felix had asked me to watch his daughter while he worked.
It was strange that it didn’t surprise Anne either, that Felix would pawn his daughter off on me.
“And Daddy’s coming home in the evening today. He’s going to have dinner with me!” Cici exclaimed to Anne, and this was the bit of information which actually seemed to surprise Anne.
“Did he really say that?” Anne asked and Cici nodded her head. Anne looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders.
“Yeah, he said he was coming back shortly,” I told her and Anne crossed her brows.
“According to Mr. Stone’s calendar, he’s supposed to be in New York this evening. That’s strange,” Anne said and, still mumbling to herself, she left Cici and me alone again.
“Hey, Cici, how often does your daddy have dinner with you?” I asked her as she poured me some more make-believe tea in a little plastic cup. Cici shrugged her shoulders and sighed in a way that a little girl should never have to sigh.
“Not a lot, sometimes…like Christmas or on my birthday. It’s when I get lots of presents too.” Cici didn’t seem bothered as she said that, but why would she be? She didn’t know yet what a normal, functional family was supposed to look like.
I stared at her while she chattered away, continuing with our tea-party, and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. This little girl who had everything.
Now that Anne was back, I wondered if I should leave, but I didn’t want to. I felt like staying for a while longer, just until Felix got back to the house. It would have broken my heart to leave Cici alone again.