A very ordinary woman

The Boss

At 7 am, a blaring alarm woke Evy with shock, and she blindly searched for her phone. The recurring alarm was still set for 7 am when she had to get up to walk the dogs. She felt a little pang of sadness, she missed those little bastards.

It was a bit early to get up, but now that she was awake, Evy's brain was charging full speed ahead. She looked around the room, and she didn't remember even seeing anything of the apartment the night before. The room wasn't too big and furnished sparingly with neutral pieces. A queen bed, small walk-in closet, bathroom with toilet and shower, a dresser on the wall across the bed, a large TV, and a desk by the window. The view was... a fence. It was overgrown, but still very much a fence with cameras on it. Not quite the same as her NoHo prison, though.

After a shower, Evy's room exploded with all her clothes. Somehow nothing seemed good enough to meet Céline. It was also Sunday, her day off. Eventually, she chose a pair of light jeans and a colorful blouse.

Her heart was dancing wildly in her chest when Evy made her way to the house - both kitchens were connected by a small hallway. From the other side of the door, she heard voices and laughter, and she held her breath when she walked in.

Two women turned their heads - Marianne, who was setting the table in a lovely yellow and blue sundress, and the big boss, Céline Dion, who was scrambling eggs in a pair of gray sweatpants and a Rolling Stones T-shirt.

"Good morning," Evy uttered, struggling to get some sound out. She forced her wobbly legs forward to Céline with her hand outstretched.

"Good morning Evy, so nice to meet you," Céline cooed. She ignored Evy's hand, grabbed her shoulders, and gave her two kisses on the cheeks.

"Come sit, we're almost ready," said Marianne, pointing to the table set for three.

"Did you sleep well in your new room?" Céline inquired while pushing the eggs around in the frying pan.

Evy knew she was staring. It was just that the morning sun shone into the kitchen in such a way that it made Céline look like she was surrounded by light and clouds of magic dust. As if Tinkerbell herself had come in to set the tone. The woman looked so different in this light, in this setting. No makeup. No glamor. Hair in a ponytail. Bare feet - she was a little shorter than Evy had a fullier built than she appeared on TV.

Evy chuckled and cleared her throat to pull herself out of her daze.

"I slept very well, I was so tired after being grilled by the staff during dinner."

Both women laughed at that and sat down each on one side of her at the head of the table.

"Well, I want to welcome you to our family here in Las Vegas. I thought it would be nice to share a meal, although you have the rest of the day off to do as you please. The work only starts tomorrow!" Céline said enthusiastically.

"Thank you, it looks lovely."

"I was surprised you were able to leave Los Angeles so quickly," Céline said.

"The timing was perfect because I was taking time off to look for a new assignment," Evy lied.

She trod carefully around this topic because she wasn't sure how much she wanted to tell them about her situation. It had been months since her job with Jennifer Aniston, which she'd had for two years. Before her, she had three years with a famous person she wasn't allowed to speak about, who was horrible to her. Before that, she'd been a temp working for all kinds of Hollywood types. During all this time she was up and down in income, housing, and relationships.

"After working for Jennifer Aniston, yeah? Was that a good experience?"

"Oh yes, she's lovely. I didn't work for her full-time, she only hired me when she was actively working. I went to set with her, on press tours and helped her manage her schedule when she was preparing for a role. We spent a month in Hawaii once, that wasn't too bad."

Céline was very easy to talk to, and she was very good at talking. Evy didn't have to put much effort in to keep the conversation going, and Marianne just butted in from time to time.

Evy floated back to her room after breakfast. She sat on the edge of her unmade bed and stared around the room without really seeing the mess she'd made. Her mind was blank. There was just one word on repeat: wow.

She took out her journal, a brand new fresh one she'd bought at the airport and started writing. If there was one thing that could clear her mind and set her straight, this was it. She filled page after page with everything that had happened in the last week, and at the end of it, she had reached a conclusion: she was well and utterly fucked, because she was crushing hard on her boss.