You Had Me At Hello || z.m.

Prologue

I climb the stepladder to reach the highest shelf of the big bookcase and I begin to dust. I move the little decorative objects, I clean them, and I put the back in their places. I work hard, cleaning all the shelves one by one. This is definitely not the job of my dreams, but I need money, so I'm not complaining. I grab a silver frame with an old picture in it: there's an old couple, probably wife and husband; they look middle-eastern, and the woman is very beautiful. They have to be ancestors of the people who live here. Beyond this picture, there's a small candlestick, and then a family picture: again, for the thousandth time I can't avoid noticing the son: it looks like about 17 years old here, but he already is unbelievably beautiful. Black hair, big hazel eyes, blinding smile. I haven't met all the members of the family that has hired me as "housekeeper" yet, but I'm extremely curious to see this awesome boy that is smiling to me from this frame.

"Thanks Laila, see you on Thursday, right?" Mrs Malik tells me while leading me to the front door.

"Sure, same time, ok?"

"Perfect."

I pass through the garden and take the way home. "Home". I still can't call it home, I've been living there for about a month now. Leaving my realhome in Italy was sad and difficult, but the sensation of independence and freedom that I'm feeling now, makes me think that It was worth. Plus, I'm not alone. I came here with my best friend, Alice. We've been friends since kindergarten, and our bond has become stronger and stronger through the years. So, when we graduated from high school and we both had no clue of what we wanted to do in our lives, we decided to leave together: we've always loved Great Britain and a family friend of mine helped us finding a place to stay and a job in Bradford. So we packed our bags and left for our new life.

We want to earn enough to pay our university fees. I dream about entering the cinematography school next autumn, while Alice wants to study philosophy. It's strenuous , working hard and being far from your natural environment. But we support each other, and we hold out, focusing on our biggest goals.

"Hey!", I say, while entering my apartment.

"Hi there!" Alice is sitting at the living room table, bent on some papers. "how was your third day of work at the Maliks' house?"

"Great, cleaning and tiding up." I shrug. "I still haven't seen this mysterious boy that I've spotted in some of the pictures around the house though..."

"God, are you some kind of infiltrator? Do you go there for the earnings or just to look for mysterious hot guy?!"

"You know me, when I see black hair, dark eyes and a charming smile, everything else becomes irrelevant."

We both laugh loudly, and heading to the kitchen I suggest "Spaghetti with tomato, ok? I want to eat something tipically Italian!"

Alice nods vigorously and shouts "Aaabsolutely", while getting up and joining me for the dinner.