VIDAR

It made me happy that Nicole was going to move into Nilsson Tower.  I sat in the kitchen on a stool by a counter and watched as she cleaned.

Nicole was very efficient and orderly.  She didn’t waste effort going back and forth across the room.  She worked smoothly, methodically.

I asked her, “How did you learn so much about babies?  Do you have younger brothers or sisters?”

“No, thank goodness,” she said and then looked odd as if her answer has surprised her.

I asked, “What do you mean by that?”

She said finally, “My mother was not a great mother.  It’s best that she didn’t have any more children.”

There was a story there, but I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable by asking too many questions.  I said, “So how did you learn so much?”

“Trial by fire, really.  I babysat.  A lot.”  She opened the dishwasher and started emptying it.  “It was the only good way for me to earn money.  In hindsight, I think it was crazy for people to let me watch their kids when I was only eleven, but a lot of my neighbors were single women in a bind, having to work two jobs and needing someone to watch their kids.”

I imagined Nicole as a child, caring for other children.  How different our lives had been.  I said, “When I was eleven, I was taking skiing and riding lessons and attending boarding school.”

“Boarding school?  At eleven?  Weren’t you lonely?”

Terribly lonely, but then I’d been lonely most of my life.  I said, “My mother wasn’t great, either.  She meant well, but she wasn’t available emotionally.  My father was gone all the time and she was depressed.  Sending me to boarding school was probably the best scenario.”

Nicole looked over her shoulder at me.  “I guess none of us have a perfect childhood.”

“No, but I want to do the best I can for Chloe.  That’s one of the reasons why I want to take care of her myself on Sundays.  I want us to bond.  I wasn’t close to my parents.  I was raised by at least a dozen nannies, who didn’t last long.  I think that changes a person, makes them not want to care about others.”

“You care about people.  You care about Chloe.”

“I hope it’s enough.  She’s lost both her parents, and I hope I can be the one person who loves her unconditionally and is always there for her.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine.”  She smiled wryly.  “And if not, she can write a tell-all book when she’s thirty telling the world how you screwed up.”

I nodded.  “Poor little rich girl.”

“The Billion Dollar Baby.”

I said, “I hate that.  I hate having people reduce her to a label.”

“I’m sorry.  I won’t say that again.”

I smiled to reassure her.  “You’re not the problem.  The media is.  They want to reduce everyone to a tagline.  Vidar Nilsson:  Recluse Geek.  Gareth Nilsson:  IT’s Golden Boy.  Yvonne Marlow:  Bikini Queen.  I hated reading all the death notices, but I saved them for Chloe to read when she’s older.”

“Most of us live and die without anyone noticing.”

I’d put my foot in my mouth again.  “Sorry.  You’re right.  I shouldn’t complain.”

“No,” she reassured me.  “You’re still grieving.  And I know it’s got to be rough seeing all the stories.  Were you and your brother very close?”

I nodded.  “I find it difficult to believe that he’s gone.  When I’m working, I keep reaching for the phone or start an email.  Part of me wants to believe that he’s just on vacation and that if I want, I can give him a call.”  I cleared my throat.  “In many ways, he was my best friend as well as my brother.”

“He was your half-brother?”

“Yes.”

“Did you grow up together?”

“No.  None of us knew about him until eight years ago when my father died, and he left half of his holdings to Gareth.  You see, my father had been living a double life.  He had a second family.  That’s part of why he was never home, and why my mother was so unhappy.”

“How could he keep that a secret?”

I gave a half shrug.  “When you have enough money, you can hide a lot.”

“Did you resent Gareth when he inherited half of what you thought you’d get?”

It was a legitimate question.  “Not at all,” I said.  “My father was barely middle aged.  He died suddenly from pneumonia, a freak cold that got out of hand, because he refused to go to the doctor.  I wasn’t anticipating inheriting anything yet.  And when I met Gareth, I liked him.  Everyone liked him.  Nilsson Technologies wouldn’t be doing one tenth as well without him.  He was the social genius that made everyone want to use the Nils Operating System.”  I smiled, remembering the dynamic presentations he gave.  “He made computers seem fun again.”

“But you’re the one who invented it.”

“Primarily.  But I have a team of programmers.”  I couldn’t take all the credit.

Nicole said, “I think you’re too modest.  And you could be as good of a spokesperson as Gareth.”

I shook my head.  “No, I never know what to say.  I’m not good at talking.”

She said, “You’re not doing such a bad job right now.”

I looked up and realized that while we were talking, she had cleaned the entire kitchen and was now finishing mopping the floor.  I said, “You’re easy to talk to.  I never talk this much.”  I don’t think I had ever shared so much with a person in my life.  I was usually the quiet one, better at listening.

Nicole took off her plastic gloves and placed them in the trash.  “I’m glad if it helped.”

She really was a kind person.  “It did,” I said.  “Thank you for coming over.”

* * *

NICOLE

I MOVED INTO NILSSON Tower within the next week.  It was amazing what throwing money at a problem could do.  My apartment lease?  Poof, it was gone – paid in full.  On Tuesday, I was handed the keys and paperwork to a new Toyota Camry.  One of Vidar’s assistants, Robert, had called and asked me what color I preferred.  “Red,” I had said.

On Wednesday, movers came to box up my belongings and on Thursday they were transported to my new residence:  a beautiful, fully-furnished one-bedroom apartment with one wall of floor to ceiling windows that overlooked South Dallas.  I could see the Reunion Tower and some of the Trinity River.  All my old, chipped and mismatched furniture was gone – either put in the apartment dumpster or donated to the Salvation Army.

I didn’t even need to keep my thrift store dishes.  The kitchen cupboards were fully stocked.  I had a new crock pot, blender, and an electric wok.

I felt like I was living on a movie set or within the pages of D Magazine.  I’d never had coordinating furniture like this before.  And my new bed was queen-sized with a pillow top mattress.  I lay down, sinking into the softness and put my hands behind my head.  I stared up at a ceiling with no cracks or water stains.

Mind boggling.

Brooke, who lived next door, was my first visitor.

She came over and talked to me, sitting on my bed in jeans and a t-shirt while I unpacked my clothes.

“Isn’t it great?” she said.  “I have only been a Nanny for two years, but I’ve never lived anywhere as nice as this.”

“Me, neither,” I said.

“And did you see the list of amenities?  We get free laundry service and gym membership.”

“As my Gran would say:  we just landed in a tub of butter.”

Brooke wrinkled her nose.  “That’s disgusting.”

“No, I think it means we’re now on easy street.  I guess having real butter was a treat back in Gran’s day.”

Brooke sighed happily.  “Well, I hope this job lasts forever.”

“Nothing lasts forever,” I reminded her as I hung up my work uniform.

“Well, I plan to keep this job as long as I can.  Maybe until Chloe goes to school?”

“That would be great,” I said.  With no need to pay rent, I could get through school faster.  I hoped that this job would last until I graduated.  And who knows, maybe I could go on to get a graduate degree as well.  I had taken the summer off to save money, but I planned to start up again in the Fall.

It didn’t take long for me to unpack, and we decided to celebrate my moving in by eating dinner at one of the restaurants in Nilsson Tower.  I wore my one nice dress and heels, but I felt out of place among all the young professionals and hipsters.  I didn’t have a trendy haircut and my purse showed its age.  My only make-up was mascara and lipstick.

As we were shown to our table, I sensed people watching us.  Brooke looked darling in a navy dress with a little short jacket.  Her hair was down, and she had cute make-up with dramatic eye-liner and bright red lips.  Even though I was only five or six years older , I felt like an old maiden aunt standing next to her.

As Brooke and I looked at the menu prices, I raised my eyebrows and said, “This can’t be an everyday thing, or even a once a week thing.”

“No,” Brooke agreed.  “But it is fun to splurge once in a while.”

She was young and didn’t know how life could kick you in the teeth.  I said, “In the future we should splurge with pizza and a Redbox movie.  We should save our money.”

She smiled.  “I guess that means you don’t want to order appetizers or drinks?”

* * *

OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS, I settled into living at Nilsson Tower and it looked like Vidar and Chloe were settling in as well.  I met Jessica the other nanny, and I didn’t like her.  She had dyed blonde hair, which isn’t a character flaw in itself, but she seemed fake to me – not open and genuine like Brooke.  Whenever we met in the hallways or at Vidar’s apartment, she always wore full make-up and her hair was perfectly styled and she looked at me with a superior sneer as if to say, ‘I’m the Nanny and you are only the help.’

Fine with me, sweetheart.  Whatever.

I didn’t care what she thought of me.

There was no dishonor in honorable work.  Cleaning toilets or changing diapers, it was all the same.

Then one day when we were both working out in the Nilsson Tower gym riding stationery bikes, I heard her talking on the phone with one of her friends.

“Oh yeah, he’s a bit backward, but we’re talking.  It’s weird, but I’ll bet he’s never had a girlfriend before.”  She laughed, and I wondered if she was referring to Vidar.

“Easy pickings,” she said.

I was riding one of the bikes behind her, so she probably didn’t see me.

She continued, and I could hear only her side of the conversation.  She had a Bluetooth in her ear, and I don’t think she realized how loud she was speaking.  “He’s thirty-two.  Do you think he’s a virgin?”  Another laugh.  “I give it six months until there’s a ring on my finger . . . Yes, much better than his brother.  That would have been messy and taken a divorce.”

She was talking about Vidar.  I knew it.  Apparently, Jessica had originally planned to seduce Gareth, and now she had transferred her plans to Vidar.

I was appalled.  What was it about nannies?  It seemed that every time I turned around there was some story about some Hollywood actor or politician having an affair with the Nanny and destroying his marriage.  And I suppose billionaires were equally susceptible.  Not that I blamed the nannies completely, but as Gran would say, it took two to tango.

I looked at Jessica who was wearing skin tight Lycra leggings and a hot pink sports bra.  Was this the kind of woman Vidar liked?

I wondered if I should warn him, but I didn’t know how.  It wasn’t as if I could leave a sticky note on the refrigerator:  Watch out.  Your Nanny has designs on you.

And not only that, Vidar was a grown man.  He didn’t need me running interference for him.

And besides that, he was a billionaire.  He must meet gold diggers all the time.

But it did make me uncomfortable.  Vidar was a good man and I didn’t want him to get taken in by some scheming Nanny.