"I can't believe you are actually doing this?" Jessie said for what felt like the hundredth time since I told her I had agreed to move out that weekend.
Being realistic and mature about the situation, it was practical and probably the best way to do it. Being in close quarters forced us to get to know each other better and gives us more chance of benefitting the both of us in the long run. Although for some odd juvenile reason, I was still very annoyed by the idea - a fact that I was sure to get back at him for.
"I'm going to miss you Jess." I gave her a brief hug.
"Just please tell me you aren't cooking?"
I gave her a pointed stare. "I am a great cook." I defended myself.
Shall we visit exhibit a? You bleed into the spaghetti.
"Sky, you burnt your toast this morning."
And let's not forget your habit to confuse Sugar and Salt.
"Point taken." I nodded my head, submitting to Jessie and my inner self's arguments. "I'll stay away from the kitchen."
Packing up all of my personally belongings, I managed to fill only a few boxes. All of the big stuff like my bed and furniture was left at what was now Jessie's apartment but I took a few other things that I was sure Anthony would throw out the moment he spotted it.
Things like my excessive amount of coloured candles that was sure to brighten up his apartment. The decent sized colourful paintings that I had collected over the years and lets not forget the casual clothes and beanies that he has already threatened to burn.
With the company car at my disposal, the driver and I quickly loaded up the car with my three boxes and helped me fill the lift, allowing me to take my belongings up into the top floor apartment on top of the grand hotel.
I still found it a little strange to be living in a hotel, or as the driver put it 'on top' of the hotel.
Kicking the last of my boxes into the apartment, I looked around hearing the annoying buzzing sound of a vacuum.
Someone cleaning your new house, yep, totally plus!
This may not be that bad after all. I nodded to myself and thought I'd make myself known. I walked further into the room to see a young and very tanned woman dancing along with the vacuum. I quickly noticed the earphones in her ears and smiled knowing the moment she saw it was probably going to scream.
I stepped forward and waved my hand hand a little hoping the movement would catch her attention.
"Holy Shit!" She swore in a British accent as she held up the vacuum as if it was going to suck up my face.
I like her already.
"How did you get in here?!" She demanded of me.
I chuckled a little unable to stop myself from being amused. "I'm Skylar Martin, I'm moving in today." I clarified for her.
She flinched a little and frowned deeply. "This is the Boss' apartment."
Another woman appeared from behind her, she was older, her hair blond and beginning to grey at the sides. She looked at me with slight surprise before a small glint of recognition passed across her brown eyes.
"You must be Sky. My name is Jean. I'm head of house keeping her at Lustrous. This is Rena, she cleans most of the top floor apartments." Jean explained as she walked further into the room towards me.
"Hi. Nice to meet you both." I smiled and nodded.
This is the interview with Renner all over again. Your smiling and nodding only creeps' people out, how many times do I have to tell you this?
I stopped smiling and looked around.
Awkward!
"Mr Renner left a note for you in the bedroom. We are just finishing up here and will be out in a couple of minutes. If you give Rena your schedule she will make sure she doesn't come to clean while you're here." Jean smiled at me. For an older woman she was defiantly demanding and somewhat intimidating - strange since I was rarely intimidated by anyone.
"Oh no that's fine. I don't mind at all. I'll get out of your way."
I turned around and picked up one of my boxes whilst kicking another one down the hall until I found the bedroom. I opened up the double folding door and dumped my boxes down by the now opened door.
The bedroom was a little different to the rest of the apartment. Where the kitchen, lounge room and main living areas were mostly a mix of light browns, creams and whites, the bedroom was focused around darker colours. The bed laid just opposite the door with a black quilt cover and a dark timbered head board that ran all the way up to the roof and traveled over part of celling giving the entire ensemble a c shape. The back wall was a beautiful mocha while the rest of the room began to fade into the lighter browns and creams that carried through the rest of the apartment.
A small cushioned couch laid at the foot of the bed with a TV in the corner of the room and numerous doors leading to the generic bathroom, wardrobe and another balcony.
I kicked my box full of clothes over to door that led to the wardrobe - already partly filled with clothes more 'appropriate' and dumbed the other box on the bed.
I looked down seeing the note that Jean was talking about. I rolled my eyes and momentarily thought about burning it without even looking at it.
What ever happened to an Anthony free weekend?
He said no visits, calls or texts. He never said anything about hand written notes.
I mental cursed at his way around words.
I decided to throw the letter aside for now and unpack everything, getting comfortable before I dealt with any of Anthony's drama.
Opening up my box I pulled out all of my candles, the mix of random colours were sure to set a different mood over the place. I started setting them around the house, two on the table in the hall, another small grouping in the lounge room on the coffee table and some more along the kitchen in various places.
Next were my paintings. I didn't exactly have any hooks or hammers so I just started taking down the paintings Anthony already had and putting my ones up in stead.
Pushing the other paintings in the wardrobe for safekeeping I looked at the endless supply of clothes. The new clothes he had bought me were all perfectly placed with their tags still hanging at their sides.
I turned around and saw Anthony's clothes, most of them consisting of the grey suits that I had discriminated against only yesterday and the new collection of black suits that looked brand new judging by their tags and the fact that they were still in the clear bags they are sold in.
Nice to see he is taking it seriously.
Walking out of the wardrobe I picked up the note and decided to get this over an done with.
Sky,
Please do not unpack - and yes I even wrote please. I want to approve of anything you bring in before you start throwing away my belongings to replace it with your junk.
I looked around the room with my candles and paintings already placed. Too late.
You have complete access to the facilities of the hotel, most of my staff have been informed of who you are and were given a photo to recognise you by. There is a pool and gym on the ground floor and I would prefer you to use the room service kitchen instead of cooking in the apartment as I have been told you are a destructive cook and would rather not see my hotel in ashes by the time I return.
I sucked my bottom lip and agreed with the kitchen idea.
Try not to destroy anything. I will be back Monday morning.
Try not to destroy anything? What does he think I am?
A form of mutant goat that eats everything in sight.
I froze at my current train of thought. Mutant Goat? Maybe there was something wrong with me?
Hey it's better than being a mutant fly.
I shrugged. I suppose a goat was better than a fly.
Or, if you were a fly you could buzz around, fly and be able to get around un detected.
And choke on fly spray?
And let's not forget their love for dead things and poo.
I frowned at my thoughts. Maybe not the best idea.
Well, now that I was officially moved in, there was just one more thing I needed to organise to make myself at home.
Grabbing my laptop I started to cruise through Google for pet ideas. I finally lived in a house that allowed me to have more than goldfish so I was going to take advantage of the options available to me.
I didn't bother putting a cat into the mix, I didn't want to kill Anthony by bringing the one thing he was allergic too into the house.
Yet. You need to keep your options open.
I didn't want a bird because let's face it, if the small animal started singing before ten am I was going to poison it.
There was the puppy option but honestly, there was only two porches, no backyard for it to play in and do it's business in. I didn't want to be taking it out every few hours to go toilet, especially if it was raining - no thank you.
What did that leave me with?
A lizard? A snake?
I shuddered at the idea of owning something slimy, scaly and basically any type of reptile or bug.
Next.
Scrolling down pages and pages of possible pets I soon found the perfect animal.
Grabbing my handbag, I wondered down to the nearest pet shop to make my purchase.
One hour later and I was struggling to get everything out of the car with my limited body strength.
Struggling isn't the word I would use.
I walked up to the reception desk to the hotel in an attempt to get some help and smiled genuinely. "Hi." I beamed at them to get their attention.
"Hi?" One of the younger men looked at me a little confused. "Can I help you with something?"
Well since you asked...
"Yes you can. I live up on the top floor with Anthony Runner - I mean Renner."
"You do?" He frowned.
"You must be Ms Martin?" A deep voice from behind me caught me a little off guard.
Turning around I saw a gorgeous man. His dark hair was perfectly tousled, his eyes were an interesting blend of blue and green and his stature was more than impressive.
"Y-yes. Me. I-I am Sky." I smiled awkwardly.
Oh dear god woman you cant even say your name.
The man smiled a little but I was pretty sure he was just trying not to laugh at me.
"Hi Sky, I'm a friend of Anthony's." He held out his hand. "Jordan Wilder."
Why did that name sound familiar?
You probably had a really bad job interview with him.
I nodded in agreement with my inner-self.
"Are you okay?" Jordan asked sounding genuinely concerned.
Snapping my head back to meet him I bit my lip nervously realising I had been caught phasing out once again. "Yeah fine. I was just wondering if someone could give me a hand getting something out of the car?" I said to no one in particular. I knew Jordan didn't work here but he was still there, he could at least put his arms to good use.
"I can help with that."
I smiled accepting the help.
Two strong men and a very awkward elevator lift later; my cage and pet were now upstairs in the apartment and ready to be welcomed to the house.
"Two weeks and you've already talked him into getting a pet?" Jordan asked curiously as he moved the cage against the wall. I decided putting it outside on the porch was a good idea since that way if it did have an animalistic smell it was outside.
"He doesn't know about little Hercules yet." I smiled.
"Hercules?" He chuckled at my name choice.
I pulled Hercules out of the box and gave him a quick cuddle. Hercules was a rabbit, a small one that wouldn't grow too big. He was cuddly so I could interact with him; he wouldn't eat too much and didn't have a natural odor so he was the best house pet.
I put little Hercules down and let him hop around the floor while I started to set up the rest of his toys. "So I take it you know about all of this..." I trailed off. Jordan had said two weeks, so he must know about the agreement we had.
"I know the basics Sky." He nodded.
"Oh good." I smiled and leaned into the cage to put the food dish when I lost my footing and fell into the cage.
"Oh my god, are you okay?" Jordan rushed to the cage and tried to help me out. Grabbing my arm, he pulled me back out trying to be gentle and not break my arm.
"Yeah it happens all the time." I waved him off.
Probably shouldn't have admitted that.
Probably not.
"I mean the falling thing. Not that I am clumsy, because I'm not. Well not on purpose, I don't mean to fall but I don't think I fall over enough to be classified as clumsy." I ranted on, losing control of my words. "I think I'll just shut up now."
Jordan chuckled again, clearly finding some entertainment by my blabbering.
"So how do you know Anthony?" I tried to shift the topic of conversation anywhere away from me.
"We met at school."
"Oh cool." I nodded. "So do you live around here?"
"An apartment building on the East-side of the city but I'm thinking of moving soon." Jordan took a seat as I still struggled with opening the treats and toys out of their packets.
"Why?" I frowned. The Lustrous building was in the middle of the city but the East side was the upper class side, where my father lives.
"I want to swap the apartment for a house."
"Ah I see. Thinking of starting a family?" I asked, probably seeming a little nosey.
"Something like that." He nodded with a small smile tugging at his lips.
"She must be some girl." I smiled as I turned my attention to him. "Or guy, or what ever floats your boat." I quickly added realising that I had made an assumption.
"Yes, She is." Jordan laughed at me as he stood up from the seat and fixed his shirt, straightening it out. "I'll let you get back to that. See you around Skylar."
"Oh wait!" I jumped up to my feet and turned to face him. "You won't say anything to Anthony will you?"
"I wouldn't dare, I think it would be best as a surprise." He smiled wickedly.
I saw Jordan out and picked Hercules up; sitting on the couch I put him on my lap and scratch just behind his ears while he started to fall asleep. I picked up the control and searched through Netflix.
It was strange going from no Netflix to suddenly having it available to me. The only question on my mind was, how did I live without it before?
Deciding on a movie I sat down and cuddled my little pet enjoying the sudden contact of something cute and fluffy.
My phone started blaring, the ringtone making little Hercules jump off my lap and onto the floor. I rolled my eyes and picked up the phone, without looking at the caller ID.
"Yellow?" I answered the phone.
"Skylar Martin?" The voice asked a little hesitantly on the other end of the phone.
Sitting up right I mentally slapped myself for answering the phone like a juvenile.
"Speaking." I clarified.
"Hi, Skylar this is June from SJR merchandising. You applied for a position with us a few weeks ago?"
"Oh yes I did." I nodded. What else was I supposed to say to that?
"Right, well we would like to invite you down for an interview."
"That would fantastic,"
"Does Monday morning work for you?"
"That's perfect thank you." I bit my lip to stop myself from smiling too much, or worse, from laughing.
"Great, I'll send you the details. See you then."
I hung up the phone and placed it down next to me. Getting up from my seat, I grabbed the remote, flicking to the music channel. "Time for a happy dance!"
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So Sky has moved in with her own little quirks! How do you think Antony will react to Hercules and the extremely colourful baggage?
And for those of you who read my other story 'Best Served Cold' did you enjoy Jordan's little visit? Mia may even pop in a little later ;)
Sorry for the crappy chapter, I don't know what happened it just didn't seem to follow right...
Please vote and comment.