Serendipity

Chapter 6. Spaghetti Junction

“No.” I shook my head, wondering why it mattered. It looked and tasted like regular spaghetti. “I did not.” Here I was, having rich spaghetti with the royal family.  

Levi obviously sensed how ridiculous this conversation had gotten and let out an annoyed sigh. “Mom, can you just shut up about that? You do realize you scare people away when you say things like that, right?” He turned to face me. “I apologize for my Mom’s behavior.”  

I forced a smile. “It’s fine.” Soon, my eyes were roaming around the dining room. Across from me, against a wall, stood a bookshelf. It had to have held thousands of books. It seemed odd that all wealthy families had similar bookshelves. 

There wasn’t any sign of where The Samuels could possibly keep their money but from experience, I noticed rich people installed safes into their walls and covered them up with some sort of painting. Now all I had to do was find the conspicuous painting. 

“Have you ever had a job before, Damien?” Henry asked me.  

“Uh--” I cleared my throat, "--small jobs. Most consisted of coffee shop cashiers or waiters. When I had these jobs, I was in college so there was nothing too serious.” I was lying through my teeth. I had never attended college nor did I ever had a job. These things were only said just to make me look better. If these people knew who I really was, they’d call their bodyguards or their own personal secret service. 

“And how old are you?” Henry was not eating his food anymore. His eyes were set on mine, his left eyebrow raised.  

“Twenty four,” I replied. 

“Really?” Sam’s voice spoke up. “You don’t even look twenty four! You look way younger!” 

I am younger. Three years younger. But, of course, I didn’t tell her that. I knew from research that Sam was nineteen and Levi was twenty. Crystal, though, I was unsure of. “Thanks,” I told Sam while taking a glance at Crystal. She seemed to be uninterested in the dinner and was more focused on her cell phone. She looked much older than Levi and Sam and because I had never seen her around before, I assumed she had a separate life of her own. She was probably a newly-wed.  

Overall, the dinner went better than I had expected. Henry and Gretchen continued to ask questions in which I answered with no hesitation. When we all finished our food, a maid came over and took away our plates. The parents excused themselves from the table to discuss whether or not I should be hired for the babysitting job.  

I thought that I did a pretty good job at answering questions and there was no reason for them not to hire me. Even Jax seemed to be impressed with me.  

“Are you going to be my new babysitter?” the boy asked me, looking up with his big brown eyes.  

I shrugged. “I don’t know yet.”  

“I want you to be!” he beamed, “you’re really cool!”  

I couldn’t help but smile at his comment. “Thank you Jax, that means a lot.” 

Crystal stood up from her seat, folded her arms against her chest and looked down at the rest of us. “This dinner was fairly boring and you guys wonder why I never come for holidays.” She scoffed, turned around, and walked out of the dining room.  

Sam rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry about her,” she told me, “she’s a brat.” 

“And you forgot bitch,” Levi included.  

“That too,” Sam added. 

“You said bitch!” Jax accused Levi, pointing his finger at his face.