Chapter-2

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EDITTED

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Rule #4 Money does not grow on trees, coffee does.

I kissed him. My love, coffee mug. I was entranced and lost in the sensations. I opened my eyes as the warm thick liquid flowed through me, down my food pipe to the depths of my stomach. And it kicked in.

Hey life, throw anything in my face. I can even tackle a war tank now.

I was knee deep in my happy-zone, when I noticed I had kidnapped the coffee mug off the tray a boy was carrying. Uh-oh. “I am sorry, I really needed my coffee.” I did not want enemies in the enemy territory (read- Klaus’s place).

He bowed and smiled. Hmm… nice.

“It was for sir’s breakfast. I am sure another coffee can be fixed soon for him.” And he left.

Wow! I guess I just made a friend. I grinned and looked around.

Aaaannnddd!!! 

What a grand Hall! My jaw drooped and literally hit the bottom. 

Walls painted all white, no pinch of spot. Mid-night blue chiffon curtains swaying along with the cool breeze carrying fragrance of fresh flowers. There had to be some garden around here. I made a mental note of searching for it later. There was a big glass wall with a glass door to the big orchid so green. The next wall with family pictures caught my attention and a big portrait of a beautiful lady. As I reached the centre of the hall, beautiful Latin marble floor and an enormous lamp hanging from the ceiling made me fell in love with the grand exquisiteness.

What? Don’t look at me like that. I am a girl and we love beautiful homes. Add to it the photographer in me, clawing and pointing to the hall to call my crew right now and do a hundred thousand photo shoots here. It was that beautiful. Every angle had its own share of beauty.

I was so lost in enjoying the beautiful interiors with superb international interior when smell of mouth watering food hit my nose. Even my stomach grumbled in appreciation. So I decided to search for the origin of smell.

I reached a huge door slightly ajar. As I went through it, my eyeballs almost to fell off of their sockets. 

It was a big royal dining hall. Walls all painted with kind of flesh tint. Plus the golden lamps looked so rich and classic. Chairs are all arranged in a systematic pattern. Everything in the dining hall seemed to be golden. A maid noticed me.

"Good morning, Madame." she smiled.

"Uhh!.. Oh! Hey! I mean morning" she had a sweet smile with a thin frame wearing a blue dress and an apron.

"I am Stella. I will be your personal maid. I have been appointed by Sir Hall." She said with a pleasant smile on her face. "I was told that you are going to be up late so I did not come to you to take your orders for the day. So what would you like for breakfast Madame?”

"Well, anything is fine. I am kind of very hungry. Anything quick will do. To be specific I usually prefer bread and butter, a cheese omelet and juice."

"Sure Madame. Please take your seat. Matt will guide you." she pointed to a guy, who was on the shorter side. He bowed and pulled a chair for me.

Real smooth. I felt like a princess. Well a princess for a finite duration. That kind of dampened my inner princess.

Though I belonged to a well established family but at the same time we were not bathing with luxuries and comfort. My parents were self established and satisfied spirits. They could have asked for help from their parents and lived a life of luxury with maids and servants, but they chose the opposite. They got out of their life of comfort to the streets (well not exactly streets but when you compare their tiny apartments with those of my grand-parents from both sides, you would kind of agree with my statement). They found their niche and gave it their life.

I did not understand it when I used to compare our two story home with those of my grandparents’ huge mansions, I used to hate it. I mean why live in a small house when we could afford a mansion big enough for twenty more.

But during my college, my arts teacher handed me a photo shoot project. I took it happily. It went down well and it was in that moment I was handed my first paycheck. It was not much but it meant the world to me. I went home and over dinner showed it to mom and dad. They were happy, which parents would not be? But it was in their eyes. There was warmth along with something else, it was pride. They were proud of me. And it was then I knew I want more of these moments. And I knew I had found my niche, just like parents did.

Photography caught my attention when my grandpa, from my mom’s side died and he kept away a huge sum and his professional camera for me in his will. I was twelve then. Photography for a twelve year old was tricky, but not tricky enough when my dad taught me to use it every evening when he came home bone tired from office.

It felt as every time he saw my face going crazy happy (by crazy happy I mean face splitting smile and bouncing), he would laugh and begin with photography lessons. My mom would enroll me to photography lessons every summer. I started with taking pictures of dogs (I love dogs) my friends had. Papa used to take me to the local photography lab to develop the negatives. I usually gifted those photos to my friends.

It grew on me.

So, coming back to now. This is why all this charms and luxuries caught me slightly off guard. I had always known Klaus to be rich but this was the shit.

"Lisa!" Stella called.

"Here I am" said Lisa appearing from nowhere.

Stella turned to me, "Lisa is the cook.” She addressed Lisa, “Madame is expecting a quickie breakfast. I am going for bread and butter, you get a cheese omelet. I cannot find any juice in the fridge."

To which Lisa smiled, “Good morning Mam. Your breakfast will be ready in a minute”, she twisted her neck to Stella and planted her hands on her hips and said "Well young lady. We don't get packed juice from the market. Just give me 5 minutes and I will get omelet and fresh juice for Mam."

I could not deal with this Mam and Madame stuff. “Call me Caroline.” They both looked at me, clearly surprised for some unknown reason. But who cares? “Both of you, it’s Caroline.”

To which Stella cleared her throat and started setting the table and fixing bread and butter. When finished, she asked Matt to serve.

Well serve I can do. "Thank you Matt. I can help myself."

Matt obliged.

I saw food! If earlier I was hungry but one whiff from the omelet, I was ravished. I was so busy eating that I had no interest in checking out the new girl that brought me my juice.

Soon I was finished with my breakfast, when Stella asked, “When would you be heading out Mada… I mean Caroline.”

I smiled, "I will be leaving in twenty. But don’t bother, I have my car." And then it came to me. I had my car at my flat and this is Klaus’s place. “You better call that driver.”

She nodded and left the hall.

I stood up with Matt’s help though I did not need it. I left the dining hall and surprisingly found my way back to my room, err our room, to get ready.

Thankfully Klaus had left already. Good riddance. I chuckled. I did the whole routine of getting ready for my studio.

As I reached the landing of stairs in the main hall with the portrait of the beautiful lady, I saw Stella entering.

"Car is ready Caroline."

"Well thanks" I gave her a quick smile. I reached the threshold of the hall. My eyes froze, my limbs stopped moving, I stood still with the combo of shock and surprise.

Holly granoly!

I could not believe my eyes.

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(A/N) I know you want to move on to next chapter without reading this (believe me I do that a lot ;) ). But if you liked what you read, let me know you exist and what you think of it. Now I am going to say something that I say a lot.

“It really means a lot guys.”

‘Cause it does ^_^

(P. S. Attached a picture of Klaus Hall with this chapter.)

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