𝐍𝐎 𝐔𝐒𝐄 - James Patrick March

10

Seeing Jazmine made James think, she was quite attractive, but then again he was her boss and that was inappropriate.

It wasn't like he couldn't think that she was attractive. He had other thoughts that ran through his head that he tried to ignore. It had been like that since the night he's seen her.

Two days ago.

He remembers it exactly. He had been hiding away because he didn't appreciate how unprofessional he was being, so instead. He had a new plan.

"Jazmine, my dear." He called. The brown woman tried to hide the way her body stiffened. After all the time of James being gone, he's finally back. "M-Mr. March, I was beginning to worry. I haven't seen you in a while." She spoke softly which made James mentally curse at himself. He knew what he was going to tell her was going to hurt her feelings, but he had to set his boundaries.

"Never mind that, darling. I just have to express a couple of...words with you." He said, he didn't know exactly how to put it. But he wished that he had practiced how to approach this conversation first.

He could see the change in Jazmine's body language. The girl had became a bit more tense. He liked seeing that she still knew her place, she was still scared of him in some way.

"And what would that be, Mr. March?" She questioned, Jazmine could feel her hands shaking slightly as she placed the linens down onto the unmade bed.

"Well, I want to set some boundaries. First, I would like you to stay in your uniform—unless you're asked to change into something else by me or Elizabeth." He started, she held back the roll of her eyes. It was because of the new rule he suddenly came up with, and the mention of The Countess.

It will always be about Elizabeth.

She thought, wanting to scoff.

"And secondly, you may know your place as a maid. Hanging around Liz all the time isn't what maids do. They roam the halls looking for some place else to clean." He spoke, she could've scoffed again. It seemed like he constantly reminded her that she was only in this place to clean, nothing else, no fun, just cleaning.

Instead expressing herself, all she could do was nod whilst trying to push down the knot in her throat. She wanted to cry, every time he spoke to her it seemed like he was always out to get her. He never expressed nice words to her, and even if he did, he'd end up ruining the moment.

By the time it was dark outside, Jazmine had settled down in her room, looking out of her window at the moon that shined through. She mindlessly fiddled with the curtain as she watched the cars drive past, stopping at street lights, some even going past faster than they should've been going.

She wished so badly that she could be out there roaming around. But she had no idea what her purpose or unfinished business could be.

"What have I done wrong?" She muttered to herself as she pulled the curtain back even more, now exposing her room to the night. Jazmine wondered what she could do differently in order to get her out of the hotel. She wanted to know desperately.

"Fuck!" She groaned while staring at the moon. Jazmine wanted to be out of the hotel so badly, it was like she craved to feel the night's coldness, or the sun's hotness against her skin.

It was a new year, so many things were different and she just wanted to see about it all.

The knock at her door made her jump, she quickly closed her curtain and walked over to the door, looking through the peep hole to see a familiar lady.

She opened the door, smiling softly. "Hi." Jazmine let out a sigh after greeting the woman. "Are you okay?" The woman got straight to the point, walking into Jazmine's room, uninvited. "Why would I not be?" Jazmine asked, knowing the answer but didn't want to talk about it.

"Because you were gone for so long—and no that you're finally back you were forced to be a maid again." She spoke, tears falling down her face as she spoke. Jazmine watched as the woman pulled out a cigarette from her pocket and started to light it. The end of the cigarette was now stained with red lipstick.

"Yeah..I'm just—still getting used to it. It sucks sometimes." Jazmine came clean. "Yeah, I wanna get out of here. I want to roam the streets and run into someone—it can be like love at first sight. Then we can run around the world together. D-don't you think that's good?" She asked, making Jazmine smile.

"Yeah, being in love is the most beautiful thing." Jazmine had said, she remembered her mom used to say it even though her mom wasn't in a healthy relationship. You just had to find the right person. "It can be. Unless you fall in love with a piece of shit. I do it every time, I'm so stupid!" The woman raised her voice as more tears fell down her face. "I don't think you're stupid, Sally. You just fall in love easily, and that's not a bad thing. It just means that you have a big heart." Jazmine walked over to the woman and pulled her into a hug.

"It's nice having you around." Sally cried softly as she wrapped her arms around Jazmine's head, being sure to not get the cigarette in her hair. "It's nice having a ghost that shows emotions other than mean or too confident." Jazmine said as the pulled away from the hug.

"Wanna look at the stars, maybe even talk about how you feel?" Sally asked, Jazmine felt like she could cry now.

"That would be nice."

☆

Jazmine styled her curls into a slick back bun with a middle part. Hazel had told the woman that today was a hard cleaning day since new guess were arriving. She was already dreading the smell and how stuffy the room would get.

"Has anyone ever gotten out of here alive?" Jazmine asked the older woman and Hazel nodded. "A few. Those are the days that feel like a day off." Haze admitted and Jazmine smiled. "You need days off, truly. How about you go and enjoy yourself at the bar and I'll take over today." Jazmine said and Hazel shook her head quickly. "I could never leave you to do all this work, dear." Hazel placed her hand on her chest. "That's okay, I need the work." Jazmine placed her hand on the woman's shoulder. "Are you sure?" Hazel asked. "I'm positive. Go take a nap, get a drink at the bar, just—anything that lets you enjoy yourself." Jazmine said. 

She was going to do her best to keep these new guests alive.

not edited!!