Protect Her, My Heart

coming home to something domestic

Now that Lisa's probation was over, she instantly had more to do. That evening, Jennie had dumped all the plans for Ellies first day of kindergarten on her. All of her timetables, the names and contacts of her teachers and her security detail there, and overall so much information that Lisa felt as if she was drowning in the sheer amount of paperwork.

Monday came quickly and before Lisa knew she was sitting in a car with the two Kim women on the way to one of the most prestigious kindergartens of the city. Miss Kim had insisted on driving and Lisa didn't even try to convince her otherwise.

"Are you excited for your first day, honey?" she asked and quickly looked over her shoulder.

Lisa tried to hide her smile. Whenever Miss Kim was speaking with her daughter, she had the softest voice and it was more than fascinating to Lisa.

There was no answer from the backseat and Lisa assumed it was because she was here, too. Ellie usually didn't talk much when the three of them were in the same room. The bodyguard had no idea what the problem was here but she hoped it wasn't her fault. On the other hand, Ellie had seemed really nervous that morning so maybe that was the whole problem here.

While Ellie and her mom walked into the building hand in hand, Lisa stayed back. She leaned against the car and looked after them. She knew that from the moment they were on school ground, Ellie was in safe hands and there was nothing to fear. When they were only five steps away from the car, Ellie started talking excitedly and Lisa tried not to let it get to her that much.

///

It was a few hours later, Lisa had been at the office, checking in with her boss and informing him about everything new and after that she'd been at Rosie's place, getting most of her stuff.

After calling off her engagement Lisa had moved in with her sister for the simple reason that she had asked her to. It had been a better experience than expected and Rosie's guest room wasn't all that bad but now that Lisa would be living with the Kim's for unforeseeable future it was time for Rosie to find a new roommate.

Lisa had loaded some boxes in her car, leaving most of them in the basement and then had driven back to kindergarten. She couldn't help but feel weird as she was waiting for the classroom door to open; standing next to all the other excited parents, waiting to hear about their kid's first day.

The doors opened and behind all the loud and excited kids, Ellie was one of the last ones to slowly walk out. The little girl looked around and when she spotted Lisa, she quickly walked over to her.

"Hey sweetie, how was your first day?" Lisa asked and crouched down in front of the girl.

"It was okay," she mumbled after a few seconds. With a soft smile Lisa got back up and took the bright pink backpack from Ellie to swing it over her shoulder.

"Can I take your hand so we can walk across the parking lot?"

Without a word Ellie slipped her tiny hand into Lisa's big one and pulled her outside and across the parking lot as if she couldn't wait to get home. She was stronger than Lisa had expected and some of the parents looked at her with snotty smiles as they watched her get dragged along.

Lisa didn't know what to make of that, but she felt weirdly unaccepted in the community of the rich and well-dressed parents. Maybe it was because they could somehow sense that she wasn't one of them.

///

"Miss Manoban?" Lisa looked up from the TV to Momo, who was standing in the doorway with her jacket already on. "I'm leaving now, Ellie is in her room colouring or so. Bye."

And with that she was out of the door before Lisa even realised what was going on. With a sigh she turned off the TV and got up from the couch. A look at her watch confirmed that Miss Kim was supposed to be home 30 minutes ago. It was a wonder the sitter had even stayed that long. Usually, she was out of the door the second she got the chance.