Trial & Error ✓

01 | maid & crook

0 1

maid & crook

—

LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, I hated my job. I didn't just mean like "ugh, I have a case of the Mondays" or "the old nine to five, am I right?" but that in the seven months since I had started working for the Gates family, I'd found myself extremely discontented with the idea of even getting out of bed some days, not ready to get up and get dressed just to drag myself to their elaborate Hamptons mansion and suffer through all of the things they made me go to.

I had seen an ad in the paper prior to my employment here, one asking for some assistance with cleaning a large house, deceptively showing all of the family dressed up in their Sunday's bests, giving off the vibe that they were a picture perfect, sweet, upper class family. That had captured my attention almost instantly. Fast forward to now and Mrs. Gates — whose name was Selena, but she vehemently insisted I never call her that — had me on all fours in her massive study, looking for the clasp to her pearl necklace, clutching the bundle of loose pearls to her chest and watching me warily, as if I would really try to steal from her.

I rolled my eyes, turning my focus back to the carpet, sifting through it in a desperate attempt to find what she was looking for. Of course, out of many things that could've been lost, she seemed to be losing things in other place — like the bedroom — and I reminded myself that she probably needed this small victory for herself so she could hold her head up high in front of her friends at the country club.

But of course, that was none of my business. My business was to find a pearl jewelry clasp on a beige-carpeted floor.

"Did you find it already," Mrs. Gates asked impatiently, the deadly scowl on her face somehow deepening. "I'm trying to wear this necklace to a gala tonight and I don't have time to replace it."

I held my breath. My mother always said that everything could be handled if you held your breath and count to twenty. Ten was way too short with the way things were in this day and age.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven —

"Can you move any faster?"

— eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen —

"I'm talking to you, Ms. Finley."

— fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty.

I released my breath calmly, swallowing down all the things I would've said, especially to someone who wasn't my boss. Of course, since the Gates family was basically paying way more than they should for a run of the mill maid, so I kept my lips tight and pursed to avoid trouble that I didn't need.

"Ma'am, I apologize, but I don't seem to be able to find what you're looking for right about now. May I suggest that you go and get dressed for your gala while I take care of this situation here?"

Mrs. Gates just grumbled in response. "Chop chop, then," she finally offered before turning on her heel and heading her way for the door.

It was usually always this bad. There were five of them in the household, which meant I had to deal with five times as much of this on most days.

There was Sadie, George Gates' 18 year old daughter who he had with another woman when Selena was on vacation in Barbados for a whole year. She was definitely her mother's daughter, because she didn't seem to behave the same way as anyone else in the house. She was reckless and adventurous, always sneaking out at night to go to parties or meet with sketchy boys from public schools who her parents wouldn't approve of.