That Summer

If I Were You...

Stevie awoke to the smell of coffee coming from her kitchen. She was dazed and disoriented. It's 11am?! She looked at her clock, far too early after falling asleep only five hours prior. Who the fuck is making coffee?

She slowly got out of bed and stepped into her bedside slippers. She carefully walked downstairs, grasping the railing to make sure she didn't fall over from exhaustion. As she entered the kitchen, she saw a young brunette standing by the coffee maker, only a couple inches taller than her, with a perfect hourglass figure. Oh my god, it's the new assistant... Stevie remembered. Fuck, what did Karen say her name was?!

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, did I wake you?! Karen said you usually sleep until 2pm but said to make myself coffee whenever, I tried to be quiet!" The girl frantically rambled.

"It's fine, it's fine... it's good coffee, so it kind of smells up the whole house. Karen usually gets us Starbucks so nobody's used this in a while...she must've forgotten how strong it is." Stevie replied. She looked at the girl... so young... she stopped herself from staring like a loon. "I'm so sorry, and you can blame it on me being recently 60, but what's your name again?" Stevie asked.

The girl giggled, "I'm Emma. Emma Vernon. It's so nice to finally meet you, Miss Nicks!"

"Please, call me Stevie... I already feel so fucking old," Stevie held out her hand for a friendly handshake, "how old are you again?"

"I'm twenty-seven." Emma answered. Damn, when Karen said this girl was young, she didn't think she'd be old enough to be her mother!

She didn't know if this was going to work, but Karen insisted that Emma was the most organized and professional candidate she interviewed and came highly recommended from other high profile former clients.

"Well, Stevie, I'm really excited to work with you this summer. I know I can never amount to Karen, but I promise I'm here for you and will not let you down!" Stevie smiled back tiredly. She knew there was going to be a learning curve; Emma was right: nobody could amount to Karen. And she wasn't looking forward to basically starting over, no matter how competent this girl was.

"Who did you say you worked for again?" Stevie asked.

"Well, this is my first full-time assistant job, but I worked as a nanny for Katie Holmes and had a couple of professional organizer jobs for some other people." Okay, not terrible... Stevie thought to herself.

"Oh my god, do you want coffee?!" Emma asked, frantically handing Stevie a mug. Stevie shooed it away. "No, thank you... I'm actually going to go back to bed, but in my dazed state I totally forgot you were starting today and wanted to see who was down here. I kind of have friends coming in and out – some of them have keys – but welcome...and I'll see you later when I'm hopefully more rested."

Stevie gave her another smile and headed back upstairs to her bedroom. She jumped up, startling Sula a little, who was still asleep at the foot of the bed. Stevie pulled up the covers and put her head on her silk pillow case, thinking about the fact that she basically had to hand over her life to some girl young enough to be her daughter.

Karen, you better not have fucked this up...

**************

"Hi, Stevie! Good morning... or good afternoon?! I made your lunch!" Stevie looked at the eager brunette, still tired even though she'd slept another four hours since this morning. She gave Emma a smile and sat down on the barstool to one of her Weight Watchers meals. "Thanks, Emma. Next time, I'm happy to heat up my own lunch... I kind of like doing it myself..." Emma looked slightly upset, more so embarrassed.