Arrangement with a Billionaire (Bad Boy Billionaire Brothers Book 1) COMPLETE

Chapter Thirteen - Dinner and Innuendo

"That's strange," Arturo said. He was frowning as if in thought. "Why bother living pay check to pay check when you can afford to do otherwise?"

Isla shrugged. "I don't know. I think it was how my parents were raised. My grandfather wasn't always wealthy, and he really did used to be poor. Saving money and not overspending on things that weren't necessities just seemed to carry on, even after the family got money."

Arturo was staring at her now, completely enthralled.

This was good. It meant they were learning about each other and having an, almost, normal conversation. She kept on talking while she had his attention. "We still did a lot of things ourselves, but sometimes there were luxuries. There was a housekeeper, but that was about it. She didn't wear a uniform either."

"What did she wear?" Arturo asked, still frowning in that confused, but curious way that he did.

"Her normal clothes. Well, the clothes she could clean in," Isla said. "Peggy was always great. Sometimes mom would go shopping with her, or get her nails done at the salon."

"Together?"

Isla nodded. "Yeah, together."

It hadn't been a pricey salon either. Just a normal beauty parlor that had good prices.

"With someone paid to do her laundry and clean her toilet, she spent time with her outside of the home?" Arturo asked, dark brows lifting, and definitely shocked by the notion.

Isla smiled at him, barely holding back a laugh. "Yeah, of course. They were friends, too."

Arturo stared at her. He really didn't get it.

Isla shook her head. "Okay, it's like this, whenever we all sat down to eat at our house, we did it at a nice table like this. It wasn't as big of a table, and no one served us either, you know?"

"So how did you get what you needed?" Arturo asked. He was following her, but barely.

"I'd ask my mom to pass the salt," she said. "Or my dad would realize he'd left the barbecue sauce in the fridge or wherever and he'd go to get it. The table was always pretty close to the fridge, so he never had to leave the room and go hunting for it."

Isla looked at the table quickly. "Jeffery took away the salt and pepper and the dressings, probably because the table would look cluttered with it all here, right?"

"I suppose," Arturo said. "He's around if I need more."

"Right, well, all that stuff would just stay on the table, and if I wanted it, but it was closer to you, I'd ask you to pass it over, and you would, and I'd sprinkle it on myself."

"I see," Arturo said.

He was still frowning though, even when he looked away from her. Isla had grown up rich, but Arturo's version of rich was so far out of her league that he didn't even understand living in a world where there wasn't someone paid to pass him the salt. Isla was now giving him something to think about, and not necessarily in a good way if he thought she was picking on him.