The Babysitter

Chapter 14: She Knows

"Personally, I hope he doesn't. I hope he realises what a snake she is and dumps her ass before it gets to that point and it's too late. But you never know with Tom... he's a romantic. When he thinks he's found 'The One', he goes all in. He almost proposed to Taylor!" she replied honestly, and it was nice to hear her opinion on the subject. "But... I think he's got his eye on someone else" She then said randomly and I turned to face her, but she was already looking straight at me. My stomach clenched, did she know?

"Oh really?" I asked, playing dumb and using my best acting methods to show no reaction at all, thanking my lucky stars when it worked. Sarah turned away then, picking up an apple from the fruit bowl and biting into it while she nodded her response. The next thirty seconds while she chewed on her mouthful had me in pure suspense. What was she going to say?

"Mmhmm..." she started, followed quickly by her swallowing her bite. "You see.. Tom, being my baby brother, is very easy to read. I know he is an actor, but I knew him before all the training, he is definitely crushing, or maybe even in love with someone else" She stated confidently. "He's shown those signs for the last few months" she said and raised an eyebrow at me slowly as she suddenly realised it was the same amount of time I'd been working for them.

I prepared myself for an onslaught of anger and outrage from my boss, expecting her to fire me on the spot right then, except what I received instead was the warmest of smiles and I could have sworn there was even a happy tear in her eye!

"Now it all makes sense..." She chuckled and sipped her coffee, not taking her eyes off me. I wasn't sure what to do other than pretend to be completely unaware of what she meant.

"What do you mean Sarah?" I asked, hoping my own acting skills wouldn't be seen right through by her.

"Oh Ally, how have you not noticed?! It's so obvious and I can't believe I've missed the signs all this time!" She laughed. "It's you... he's got a thing for you!" She paused as she thought about it again. "Whenever we've had a family event, he's asked if you were going. If he's had a free day, he's asked me what you and the kids were up to so he could join....I can't believe I didn't see it before, I just assumed he was trying to see the kids more!" She shook her head in amusement and headed out the kitchen, leaving me completely dumbstruck. Well I guess she didn't know I liked him too, which was a bonus.

I had a feeling Tom's big sister would be teasing him relentlessly from that point on.

///

Shortly after Sarah left to head out, Tom arrived to join us on our trip to the zoo. All I knew was that he was lucky his sister had left already. He seemed a little flustered though so I had a feeling Sarah may have bombarded his phone with some teasing sisterly messages about being onto him.

He was met with two very excited children bounding towards him, pulling him out of his frazzled state and brought his normal wide smile onto his face.

"Hello little pickles!" He laughed and pulled them into his arms for a hug. He hadn't seen them for a while so every smile and tight squeeze was genuine. They had missed him a lot.

"I've never seen two children so excited to see someone! I think they were beginning to lose hope of you coming" I said to him as they finally let Tom go and ran to get their coats.

"I'm so sorry I didn't call to let you know I was coming... She was giving me a hard time about leaving her for the day" he replied softly, rolling his eyes as he helped me pull my coat on, untucking my hair from the collar like a proper gentleman. I loved how we didn't even need to mention Miranda's name anymore, we both just knew... she was like Voldemort, just less.. out to kill. Although I wouldn't be shocked if she tried that too!