Chapter 8

• GISELLE
• I didn't expect Ethan will want to see me again. Until I received a certain letter informing me of a sudden meeting with him. I didn't want to leave the comfort of my apartment after yesterday's embarrassment but then I'll almost go nut if I don't hear him out.
• As I board a cab, I wonder throughout the ride why he's calling me over to a restaurant. He wants to apologize? It must be that cause he obviously won't want to discuss about work in a restaurant. Well, who knows what he may be up to.
• I'm still thinking of whether or not to take up Griffin's offer though. I don't want to keep wandering about the whole of NY. After all, I'm sure I won't face rejection with him. Ethan had thrown me out of his company because of that night stand with him. He didn't tell me that himself but am not dumb- I do know.
• "We are there, Ms." I hear the driver say and I snap out of my head. Opening the car's door, I step out before handing him his pay and turning around towards the restaurant. It's so glamorous that I instantly decide not to order anything. The money I'll waste on a meal here will cater for my kid and I even if it's just for three days.
• Manoeuvring my way inside the restaurant, I don't bother checking out my dressing. I'm here to just hear him out- Get it down and over it and then leave.
• My eyes scrutinizes everywhere until I sight his table. As I approach him, I realize he has his face in his palms. Thankfully, he didn't look up at me and notice my presence till I reach the table- I know how much a simple look by him on my body can cause me stumbling over my feet and faceplanting.
• "Hello." I call his attention and that's when he drop his hands down his face and notice my presence. Having already taken my seat, I feel less nervous around him. I don't know if am seeing things but I can see the way his lips almost tugs up to form a smile but he's quick to push it back to wherever it was coming from.
• "Giselle, right?" His eyes fixates on my face as he asks and I simply nod, alongside a small smile that I forced unto my face. It's really hard giving him a genuine one; especially when the last time we met was ended on a bad note.
• A moment of silence surrounds us, causing me to rub my palms over my floral dress.
• Now feeling like clearing the air, he clears his throat and instantly throw an offer on the table. " What am really in search of was a Nanny, not a secretary. You're in for that?"
• My jaw slacks. Not because I am excited but because am not expecting him to be able to call me over for a job. One that he deprives me of yesterday. Is he kidding or what? He now wants me to take up the post of a nanny?
• I guess he sees the expression on my face cause he leans closer over the table instantly.
• "I'll pay you even more than Griffin might have offered. If you can accept to be my son's nanny, I'll pay you real big." He stares intensely at me as he lets out, his seriousness soaring over to a deep length.
• Wait! Wait?! He knows about Griffin? How in the world? Griffin told him? Or is he actually the one spying on me. Oh goodness, this is just so unbelievable.
• Thankfully, the waitress comes by our table at that point in time, saving me from saying out what I might regret later on. I'm still speechless. He didn't want my sight but now he's the one offering me a job as a nanny which means that...
• "Yes, you'll be staying at my house. Till midnight before going home." As if reading my mind, he says just as he retrieves the memo from the waitress. When my eyes snaps right at him, he doesn't have his eyes on me but rather the memo.
• "What do you want?" He asks me but before I can respond which am not even planning to, he whispers something into the waitress's ear and standing upright thereafter, she nods and walks off.
• Bringing out my phone from my handbags, I pretend to be busy with it just so he won't strike a conversation with me. Scrolling through my phone, my mind goes astray. My world is starting to stumble. Or isn't that what it means when the man I'd a one nightstand with wants me to work for perhaps his child as a nanny. And then, it feels like he's been keeping a tab on me.
• Or how else did he know Griffin offers me a job? Great, I really hope I won't go nuts at this rate.
• Even as I hear chatters of dishes against each other, I stay put. Hope he didn't order mine? If yes then am surely in a doom. I don't want to eat out and get home only to starve my son- Shane- for days as a sacrifice of eating big at a fucking restaurant.
• "I don't want-" I jerk my head up to quickly tell them when I realize the table is already set up to the brim. Like seriously? Oh, great. I facepalmed myself, I should have took my leave before he gets to order anything.
• Sighing, I look right at him, not faze even as I find his eyes on me. "I never ordered anything you know. So get ready to eat it all up cause there's no way am paying." I state right at his bemuse face. I don't care if I sound pathetic but there's no way am starving my son. I'll rather face the embarrassment and tell him plain straight to his face am not in for the feast.
• "Well, I ordered for you already. Except you'll go over and pour it right away inside the bin yourself." He retorts, with strange meanness. I watch jaw slack as he adds, his lips up into a smirk. "Though I'll be the one paying, you're still free to waste my money."
• Gulping down a bile of nothingness, I place my phone on the table and rub my palms over each other. For a second, I feel his eyes on me and then a throaty chuckle but his gaze steers away and I gladly take my cutleries.
• Deciding to go with just a little and the less costly of it all, I start to eat from the plate of bacon and cheese. In between it, I take down gulps of water down my throat and continue.
• All through all this, I can't help thinking about that night. It has to be my head but then what if I'd stay back that night? Since it feels like that's why he's so enraged at me, things may actually be different right? My life might have turn around for the good and the better, right? I don't know of why am still thinking back on it but it's just that I can't help the guilt.
• Sighing, I can't wait to be out of here.
• "That's all you called me here for, right?" I ask before I'll stop myself, pausing on my cheese.
• Taking in a spoonful of casserole, he briefly glance at me and just when I think he won't respond, he nods. Nothing more and nothing less. Is he giving me the silent treatment now?
• Snapping my eyes away from his Greek god face just as his was about meeting mine, I decide to focus on my food and just leave as fast as possible.
• ~~~
• With a snort on my face, I watch him as he drives with full speed down the tarred road. That's it - that's him leaving without even bothering to offer me a ride or even pretend to be a gentleman even though I know he's nothing of such. Taking my eyes back on the road, I await an approaching taxi.
• I still haven't given Griffin a response on the job thingy and neither have I told Ethan of my answer yet. Truth be told, I haven't even arrive at a conclusion nor know what should be the next line of action.
• Just as I wave down a cab and got inside it, my phone rings up and as the caller ID shows that it's Tasha, I slide to the receiver before placing it against my ear. "Hey,"
• "Where are you? Let's meet." That's all I hear before the line goes dead. She's hang up. Knowing she's talking about our usual place, I tell the driver the address and lay my head back against the headrest as the car speeds up. After having some time with her, I'll have to go straight home.
• There's a lot I need to get both my head and mind on.
• After paying the driver, I make my way inside the small restaurant and within the flicker of an eye, I plop down opposite her. Taking in my state, she abandons her phone and stares even more on my face. "I warned you about him, didn't I?"
• "C'mon Tasha, I never knew. I thought you were just assuming that because you don't like him. Moreover, I never saw it coming." I reply and she scoffs.
• "But I did saw it coming. And of course yeah, you thought I hate him and only spluttering out things out of madness." She states and I sigh, not wanting to deal with this yet again. I'm trying to forgot about him but seems Tasha is not having it. Whereas it's all fucking with my brain.
• "I never said that. Seriously Tasha, let's just forget about him and focus on the future." I crease my forehead, exhausted.
• "Future, huh?" She mutters out of disbelieve. "Oh, right. Future." She mods and just when I thought it's over, she shakes her head.
• "Tell me now, where are you going to start this same future you're talking about from? After Theo has successfully ruined you whereas you didn't see it coming." She jests, smacking her lips together and crossing her arms over her chest.
• "From somewhere, Tasha. Come on, the fact that he left me doesn't mean my whole life is over. He's nothing but an asshole that I still need to show the greater heights I've reached in the nearest future. He'll only know what hits him when he no more would find me at the grassroot level he left me but at an higher class." I reassure myself as I tell Tasha whose face still held the remains of her earlier anger.
• "You'd better do. That scumbag is not worthy of you. Understood?" She points a finger warningly at me and I chuckle, nodding nevertheless.
• She bought us lunch while she gives me some to take home for Shane alongside two flavored ice creams which I appreciate her for before boarding a cab, finally heading home.
• At first, I motion my feets inside my apartment and drop the bags off on the couch before leaving to fetch Shane at my neighbor's house. I place a knock on the door and Mrs Smith second daughter- Alexis- open up.
• "Ma'am, Shane is having a temperature. He's terribly trembling and..." She says panicky but before she could finish, I burst inside their apartment as she steps aside for me.
• "Shane!" Dumping myself on the couch and placing his head on my laps, I frantically tap his shoulder and he hums, displeased. Thank goodness, he's sleeping and not something else I can't help thinking.
• "I think you should take him to the hospital." Mrs Smith tones beside me and my body stills, my hands fidgeting against my son's skin. Where am I suppose to get the money for the hospital bills?
• I sigh; knowing sooner than later, I have to make a choice.