Mia Cara (Sample)

| Ch. 2 |

My hands gripped the steering wheel so tight that my knuckles where a pale white color. I had been looking so hard for a job these past couple of weeks, piles of newspapers on our stained coffee table and too many job opening apps cluttering phone had become my life. I had been searching for three weeks since I got fired from my last job.

Apparently it was my fault that her sixteen year old son had taken a little too much of a liking to me. I had enough money put away to get my little sister and I through roughly four weeks. Thankfully, I had managed to find a job before money got too tight.

My eyes trained on the road ahead of me as I repeated my greeting in my head. My mother always told me it was very odd that I repeated my greetings internally when she would catch me mouthing words before meeting new people. It was a terrible habit, something that I had endlessly tried to break but never could. She would always mock me when she would see me doing it after awhile, as if the habit itself wasn't embarrassing enough.

I felt my heart beat wildly as I finally came to the house at the end of the vacant road. It was impeccable, definitely more than three times the size of my dinky little apartment. It amazed me that someone could make enough money to live in a house like this without living in Hollywood.

It was painted an off white color, and there were too many windows to count. It was sat behind a glistening black gate that looked like it was something straight out of a movie, with white planters sitting on each side.

I pulled up to the gate, searching for the intercom. When my eyes fell upon it, I quickly pressed the button with a gut-wrenching feeling inside.

"Name?" A high-pitched, disembodied woman's voice asked.

"Rose Salvatore." I stated, loud and clear, remembering my mothers words about mumbling being rude.

"Reason for entry?"

"Uh, I'm the new maid."

At this, the intercom made a strange buzzing noise before the large black gate opened slowly. I waited until it was fully open before I drove my green station wagon through the gates, nearly choking when I saw all of the modern cars sat in the paved driveway. There were cars of a plethora of different brands, all looking like they were taken straight out of something like The Fast and the Furious.

I pulled up around the intricate water fountain that was sat in the middle of the driveway, parking near the other cars. I shut off my car, closing my eyes before taking one deep breath.

Grabbing my five year old blackberry phone, I exited my car and slammed the door behind me, cringing at the constant creaking noise that it made as if the poor green rust bucket was going to collapse on itself at any given moment.

I faced the immaculate house, feeling like my breath had been knocked out of my chest. It was so monstrous, big enough to house half the town. The front door looked like something out of a fairytale with the lion head knocker. I had only seen houses like this on TV when we could afford cable when I was a kid, so seeing something so pristine in person was breathtaking.

I slipped my hands over my red dress, flatting it out as I wondered if maybe I hadn't dressed well enough for the job. I brushed the thought away, realizing that I didn't have time to worry about such a silly thing before starting towards the door. Once I reached it, I noticed a small off-white round doorbell to the right of the door. How silly, I thought, having a door knocker and a doorbell.

Brushing off the thought, I pressed the doorbell and waited. After I was met with pure silence for a solid three minutes, I decided to press the doorbell again. Just as my hand went to press the button, the door swung open and a older lady in her fifties stood there, looking flustered as ever.

"Hello," She greeted me, a smile on her face even though she seemed stressed, "you must be Ms. Salvatore?"

"Yes, that would be me." I mirrored her smile, "I'm so sorry that I'm running slightly late, I had to drop my little sister off at her school beforehand."

"Oh, no worries, sweetheart!" She dismissed me with a wave of her dishtowel, "We're in no hurry. Now come on in, I'll start teachin' you the ropes and givin' you the grand tour."

I felt relieved with how sweet this lady seemed, I was so terrified I was going to be faced with people who had their noses stuck up based on who I'd spoken to on the phone for my interview, but I was proven wrong.

I followed behind the older woman who was still seemingly nameless to me. She led me through a beautiful entryway that held another, much smaller, water fountain. There were two staircases leading up to the second floor on either side of the fountain.

Eventually we found our way to a small closet where she handed me a bag that contained a blue dress along with a name tag.

"You don't have to wear this today, you can start wearing it tomorrow. You may leave it here, or bring it home, whichever you prefer." She informed me, turning on her heel. I followed her once again, heading into what seemed to be the kitchen. It was as immaculate as the rest of the house, and it was silly of me to expect anything less.

"This is the kitchen, I spend most of my time here since I'm the chef." She spoke, confirming my thoughts, "A messy kitchen is one of Mr. Rossi's biggest pet peeves."

I made a mental note of this as we continued throughout the house. It took an hour and fifteen minutes to tour the whole house, granted Ginger-the sweet older women who happened to be the chef -got distracted at some points and rambled off random information about the different rooms and the construction of this house.

"What can I do today?" I asked, wringing my hands out in eagerness.

"Today you can help tidy the kitchen, tomorrow you can start moving through the rest of the house. I'll give you a map of the house to study tonight." Ginger smiled, "I know this house can get quite confusing if you ain't used to it." I realized in that moment that she's the nicest lady I've met in awhile.

She had red bouncy curls, and green eyes that could soothe all your worries in one glance. Her expression seemed to constantly be one of joy, and I was jealous of the woman. I wish I could be more like her. She reminded me of my mother in a way, but a lot more hospitable.

"Ms. Salvatore?" Her voice broke me out of my trance, "You can go head back to the kitchen, I'll meet you there in a moment. Do you remember how to get there?"

"Yes, I think I do." I gave her a small smile before heading off into the direction I remembered to lead me to the kitchen.

My phone buzzed, bringing my attention to the device. I always had it off silent in case my sisters school called.

As I opened my text messages, I slammed against a hard surface. Of course, since I came from a long line of klutzy people, I fell straight onto my butt. I heard a soft chuckle which drew my attention upwards to the man-rather, greek god-standing in front of me

"You should watch where you're going, dove."

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