Kissable

2.

My belongings barely take up two drawers of the dresser. The closet is empty of items, just hangers draped over the bar uselessly. I pity that I don't have any beautiful gowns to fill the space and make a mental note to spend some of my first paycheck on some decent dresses.

With Mr. Kensington's words in mind, I slide my phone into my back pocket and close my bedroom door behind me. My bedroom door. This elegant, huge room is mine. I smile at that thought. The upstairs isn't as confusing as the downstairs looked and I find that the rest of this second floor consists primarily of the children's rooms, a laundry room, and a cozy designed sitting area. All the floors are hardwood in various different colors and styles to match the scheme of the house.

I take the spiral stairs down to the first floor and stop in the foyer. Across from the bottom of the stairs is an archway leading into what appears to be a dining room from the angle I can see in. To the right of me is another archway that leads into a hallway. I contemplate the complexity of the layout before I walk across the room into the dining room.

It's exactly as I expect it to be. A glass chandelier hangs from the ceiling above a long mahogany table capable of seating upwards to fifteen people. Along the walls are cabinets with fancy dishware, collectable figurines and artwork either framed onto the wall or hidden behind a locked glass. I move towards the table and tilt my head up towards the chandelier for a moment to bask in the realization of this situation.

"How come you're lookin' at the light so funny?"

I turn abruptly, startled by the noise breaking the silence of the room, and breathe out a sigh of relief to see that it's Jackson- No, wait, Noah. Noah is the blonde kid. The oldest one.

"I was just admiring it." I tell him truthfully. I crack a smile. "Where I'm from, I don't have stuff like this."

"How come?" He moves up to stand beside me and tilt his head up at the chandelier, copying what I had been doing.

The action makes me smile a little more and I shake my head more to myself than to him. My long curls tickle my cheeks at the movement. "Just didn't have that type of lifestyle, kiddo. Wanna give me a tour?"

His face breaks into a smile and he grabs my hand to tug me through the dining room into the next hallway. It's a zig-zag hallway, wide enough that they have a grandfather clock up against one wall and a case of more figurines against the other. Noah leads me to the left and brings me into the kitchen where a man and woman are bustling around getting things ready for dinner.

"Hiya Ruth, Don!" Noah waves at them and both stop to give the kid a smile.

I lift my hand in a somewhat wave too. "Hi. Sorry to intrude."

"Eh, nonsense." Ruth turns on the faucet and places a bowl of lettuce underneath it to wash. "Yer new here, huh?"

I nod. I watch her for a long minute before I look over at Don. Both are borderline obese, but neither look unhappy. Ruth looks older, a woman in her fifties at least with gray hair in a bun and sharp brown eyes crinkled at the corners. Don looks a tad-bit younger, maybe in his thirties and bald with brown eyes.

I tug at Noah's hand. "How about we let these two do their job and you can keep showing me the house?"

"Okay!" Noah pulls me through the mess that is the kitchen and I profusely apologize even as Ruth laughs it off. Outside the kitchen doors, there are roughly four options, but before I can even ask where they all lead, Noah beats me to it.

"Those're the basement stairs, that's the family room, hallway leading back to the foyer and dad and mom's rooms and that one leads to the ballroom! Lemme show you outside!"

I let Noah lead me towards the family room and get all of about five seconds to process the room before he pushes open a screen door and we go outside. What I gather from the family room is a few couches, a television, a table and some bookshelves. I can't imagine they do much else besides watch television in that room though.

Outside is a whole different realm than inside the house. A large in ground pool sparkles at me from the yard, a flowerbed of roses, daisies, tulips, sunflowers and flowers I don't even know the names to border the outside of the house and lead to a bigger walk-in garden. Close to the pool are lawn chairs and even a bar underneath a hanging roof to shield it from rain and sun. I gape at the scenery; this is all much more than I could have ever anticipated.

My mom would be both amazed at all of this, and disappointed in my choice to work this job. I try not to let that thought bring me down.

Noah grins up at him. "So?"

"So, this is super cool."

"This isn't even everythin'!" He doesn't let me enjoy the sights any longer.

We backtrack through the family room again out to the hallway and take the stairs down to the basement. This staircase isn't a spiral; it goes straight down and I thank the architect who designed this building. We reach the bottom of the stairs and I have to hide my amazement this time.

The room the stairs lead into is a recreation room with a pool table, another mini-bar, a huge flatscreen TV, a pinball machine, various candy/ice-cream dispensers, neon lights illuminating the space in those cheeky arcade color-schemes, and above all of that, every video game system you can imagine. Noah watches my expression carefully, clearly feeding off my amazement at the things he doesn't even realize are impossible for most people to accomplish.

But this basement isn't done. Noah continues through to a media room that we don't linger in long because it's his mother's special room. It's a dark room split with editing and I feel guilty for even stepping inside of it. We head out into another hallway to a gym room, and through that to a full baseball court.

"Jesus." I mumble under my breath.

The baseball court has bleachers and scoreboards and professional hoops. Everything reeks of money and not for the first time do I count my blessings in attaining this job so easily.

"If you think this is cool, wait til you see the ballroom." Noah speaks up, jolting me out of my thoughts and speechlessness.

I shake my head at him. "Is that the last thing this place has?"

"Pretty much. There's mother and father's room, but I don't think I'm allowed to show you that."

"Yeah, I doubt it. Well, let's go see this ballroom."

Back upstairs to the level floor, we finally enter the last doorway of the house to the ballroom. It's mostly a wide open room with beautiful hanging lights, a stage, tables along the outer edges and a gorgeous colored flooring. I have an image of myself in a ballgown in the middle of the floor dancing.

"How often do they have parties like this?"

"Not too much." Noah scuffs his foot along the floor and I wince. He notices and stops. "Usually on mother and father's anniversary, sometimes when something big happens."

I nod and ruffle his hair lightly, which makes him smile.

Noah leaves me after the tour and I roam the house a little aimlessly to find my way back to the foyer. The layout isn't as complicated as I make it feel, but it's only because I'm not familiar with such a large blueprint. Even buildings like hospitals confuse me easily. With nothing in particular to do, I head back up to my bedroom and sit on the bed.

The mattress sinks underneath my butt and I sigh happily. All of this feels like a dream, a luxury I shouldn't be able to have. I fall back and sink further into the bed, closing my eyes to soak in all the information today has given me.

Just a few hours ago I had nothing and now, thanks to both the money I'll be making and the house I'll be living in, I have everything I could possibly ever want.

Absolutely nothing is going to ruin this for me.