DIE FOR YOU || MICHELE MORRONE FANFIC

three

(a/n:  we're still in the flashback, but i promise you we'll be back into present time in the next chapter)

Althea Santos' POV

"So, we meet again Thea.  Or maybe Althea if you prefer?  I actually like it better to be honest with you."  Franco slowly walked towards me, leaving at least a small gap between us.  My heart started racing again as soon his body was very close to mine.  I couldn't let out a word or a noise because I fear I would make one wrong move or else this interview goes downhill real quick. 

Whoa, he actually has a nice scent, so musky and woodsy even.  He is definitely the most attractive man I've ever seen, comparing to the men back in the US and sometimes in the Philippines.  I wonder if he has–

I was snapped out of my thoughts as I hear Franco said to me, "Shall we get started?  The interview?"  I nodded my head and stuttered a bit, "Uh yeah, yeah sure."  I quickly pull myself together before sitting down on the couch while Franco sat on one of the accent chairs.  He then started asking me with the first question, "So tell me about yourself?  You can briefly explain it or go into detail."

I took a deep breath as I answered, "My name is Althea Santos, and I am currently a 2nd year college student at University of Southern California, which is located in LA.  I graduated high school a couple years ago with a diploma, and right now, I've enrolled in a program that lets students, like myself, study abroad in different countries for the whole school year, which is the purpose of my year-long stay in Italy.  I'm majoring in careers that are in the medical field, but I'm also minoring in communications and international relations.  As a Filipino-American, I'm aware that nursing is one of the most common careers, but I want to try something similar.  Plus with the two minors, besides that I'm bilingual, I can utilize the different languages in case if somebody couldn't understand English at a workplace I would find myself in.  I am determined, passionate, and I always give out my all to work hard towards any achievement I may or may not know I have."

After my lengthy answer, I look up and all I saw was Franco nodding his head, which I couldn't tell if he's impressed or not.  Then he proceeded to ask me another question, "Very interesting.  Well then, how did you find out about this position?"  I thought about it for a bit until I finally got an answer for him, "Even though I've been in Italy for less than a month now, I want to find a job that will help me provide some earnings to support my family's needs despite that I'm far away from home & I'm in scholarship.  My friend saw it at the cafe board one day and convince that I should apply since the qualities I have from personal experience will be useful for your company."

"What are your strengths and weaknesses?" He asked before I answered, "My biggest strengths are being persuasive, a multi-tasker, and being punctual.  I actually utilize and acknowledge those strengths when I used to help my mom out in the Philippines where we make and sell handcrafted jewelry and clothes in order to survive throughout this difficult time in our lives.  My biggest weakness is surprisingly communication skills because since moving to the US, I had a hard time making new connections with people, especially when my first language is Tagalog before I learned to read and speak English fluently.  I manage to overcome that issue, but it will be a challenge that I can tackle in no time." 

Franco again nodded his head, listening to every word I said through my answers, "I can definitely see that.  I can relate to that because my first language was Italian, and I had to learn the English language if I have to communicate with people from different countries.  But I am quite impressed that you're bilingual, trilingual actually because your Italian is pretty good."

I chuckled nervously, blushing deeply because of his compliments.  Then he said, "Alright, moving on, as you mentioned before, you used to make jewelry by hand with your mother and sell them.  Do you have any professional achievement from this experience?"  "Within the two to three month span, I've sold about ₱150,000, which is roughly about 3,000 US dollars or 2,700 in euros, in jewelry.  Another was the biggest sale my mom and I've made, which was ₱500,000 or $9,000 of everything we had because a famous celebrity fell in love with the pieces and wanted to give them to their friends as gifts.  Despite that we had to make more just to restock for a long while, it was worth the biggest sale to help with the expenses."

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After answering the questions Franco asked me for the job interview, he then said, "Well then, Miss Santos, I find it remarkable from your past experience that the position we have is going to be suitable for you.  How would you like to be-"  A knock was heard before he said, "Hold on a second.  Yes, come in.."

The door was open and a young woman looking like my age almost walks in, telling him, "Uhm sir, we have a problem.  One of the maids just resigned and left.  She said that it was too much for her, plus I know you'll be upset about this but we're behind on schedule with the chores."

Franco cursed himself quietly, shaking his head before I immediately got up and said, "I- uhh I can help you out.  If it's cleaning the dishes, the laundry, etc, I can do that.  After all, I can multitask if I can do one task after the another."

"Oh thank you, that means so much.  Anyways, she, the former maid, screwed up the laundry by loading the ones that was meant to be dry cleaned, as well as not organizing the clothes correctly."  I looked at her "Has she run the washer already?  If she hasn't, you should take out the dry cleaning ones before it's too late.  Also, if the ratio amounts of laundry soap, fabric softener, etc, are not levelled, then the outcome wouldn't be great, like the fabric will become too stiff, the washer will have a bad smell, and I know your boss wouldn't like it." "Of course, miss, thank you.  By the way, I'm Beatrice, but you can call me Bea."  The young maid, which I now know her name's Bea, introduced herself and stuck her hand out for a handshake.  I accepted it, smiling at her, "I'm Althea, or Thea." 

Bea smiled, quietly saying to herself, "Oohh salamat sa diyos nakakuha ako ng tulong.."  I caught on what she said, which I found out she's also a Filipina like me.  I said to her, "Teka, may sinabi ka ba sa Tagalog?" "Oo, teka Pilipino ka rin ba?"

(Ohh thank God I got some help.. //  Wait, did you say something in Tagalog? // Yes, wait are you Filipino too?)

I nodded excitedly with a smile, knowing the fact that I've made a friend with the same nationality, "Oh my gosh, yes!!  Pilipina ako"  Bea squealed happily, hugging me as we continued our way to the laundry to check out the situation.

(I'm Filipina)

After helping Bea out, I walked back to the study room where Franco was still there.  I said to him, "I- uhh we just fixed up what went wrong with the laundry.  I know I shouldn't done that when we were in the middle of the interview.  

Franco cut me off saying, "It's whatever.  I guess you can take the maid job since you already had experience on household chores."  I can tell that he wasn't in a good mood, plus the way he was looking at me might scare me off;  however, I remain calm and strong emotionally because I was raised to be like that.  He got up from his spot and headed towards the door before I asked him, "Soooo, do I get the job then?" 

"Yeah yeah, but I have to go handle business somewhere.  I'm sure Bea will explain this more."  He then left without letting me utter a word about further details for this job position, but at least I got the job, a quite interesting one though.

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A/N:  Hope you enjoy this chapter!!  Please vote & comment for any feedback <3