I leaned further into the screen of my laptop tiredly. It was my third hour of extreme job hunting and at this point, I'd do anything. I applied to all sorts of jobs, from being a pool cleaner to being a personal assistant for a journalist. Anything.
My next goal was to get an apartment for my daughter and I, I just needed to get working.
"Any luck?" El asked me. She rocked Gracie in her arms to soothe her from behind me as I shook my head. "Nothing. I sent out applications five days ago and still haven't heard a thing back." I sighed out.
Avery smiled sadly and pat my back. "You'll find something."
I rolled my eyes. Easy for you to say miss millionaire. I wasn't lying when I said everyone around me became millionaires except for me. Even fucking Niall.
Avery founded a company that branched out to publishers, directors, website creators - all sorts of people and linked them with LGBT actors, writers and business owners. It was an extremely smart idea actually. So smart that she's partnered up with Netflix and Buzz-feed to name a few. Girl was making millions.
"Wait, can Harry not get you a job at the hotel? Like a waitress at the restaurant or a bar girl?" El suggested.
I never really thought about asking him for a job. I shrugged and kept scrolling through my emails. Maybe I didn't send them to the right place.
"Or a private dancer in my gentlemen's club." Harry smirked. We all turned our heads to face him, a scowl on each of our faces.
"You have a gentlemen's club?" I asked him. Was I really that surprised, though?
"I have three. There's two here in England and one in Germany." He smiled. He had such a proud expression across his features and I smiled, dude was making moves too.
"How many other businesses do you own?" El asked him. I became suddenly interested in the conversation and joined the three of them at the kitchen table. We all watched Harry as his mouth opened and closed as he counted silently.
"Six in total, seven if you include a shared business." He told us.
I whistled lowly and leaned forward. "What are they?"
"Well the hotel, the cruises, gentlemen's club..that's three. I have a small business that links sponsors to celebrities. I own a branch of restaurants and finally a real estate company."
He spoke of it all as if it was no big deal. All three of us had our mouths flying open and my mind whirled around all the different thoughts.
"You're telling me...you have six businesses...and haven't given me a damn job yet?" I scowled.
"You never asked." He simply remarked.
I scoffed. "Give me a job!"
"What you want? Gentlemen's club is open for you but your ass isn't as big as we'd like." He smiled. I cocked my head to the side, not sure if he was fucking with me or not.
"No thank you. What about in the hotel? I could do something there." I suggested.
"Hmm. I supposed I could take on another bar girl." He leaned back in his seat in thought and a wide smile spread across El's lips. "Yes! Yes!"
"Okay." He shrugged. "I'll get Alessandra to train you this weekend and you can start on Monday. Sound good?"
"Wait, seriously?" I asked him, he nodded.
I jumped from my seat and ran around to him like a child, bouncing onto his lap and engulfing him into a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." I mumbled. My voice was muffled by his shoulder as he laughed. He rested his hand on my waist and held me tight too making my insides go crazy.
I climbed off his lap, an overwhelming tingle now in my stomach as I clapped my hands together. "Cool now I'm gonna shower." I told them. Harry's eyes were watching me as I nervously fumbled to walk around the circular table and disappear into the hallway, where I shook my head to get rid of all the anxiety that was building.
Didn't work.
I sighed angrily and pulled out my phone to dial the only person I knew who would tell me straight up advice.
After a few seconds of the phone ringing, I switched on the shower so no one would hear and sat down on the toilet.
"Mm, hija what's wrong?" My mum asked.
"Hi mum. How are you?" I rambled, now chewing on my nail. A bad habit of mine.
"Good, I'm just in bed with dad we are watching the Netflix." She yawned from the other side and I hummed, trying to gather words in my head to say to her.
"So I have to ask for your advice." I told her.
There was nothing but silence on the other side of the phone so I took it as my cue to go ahead.
"Harry and I have this weird friendship. Like he's helped me out a lot and I just kinda freeload off of him- yeah you know all that but anyways, I think I might have feelings for him again." I admitted. I shut my eyes briefly, relieved and worried that I had said that out loud.
"Mhm, and has this just started?" She asked me.
"I don't know. Just started maybe? Whenever he's here I get nervous and I've had dreams about him,..you know...sexual ones." I whispered the last part and heard her laugh with my dad.
"Wait, is dad listening to this?"
"Hi, love." He yelled. I rolled my eyes and slapped my palm against my leg. "Great."
"Sorry I'm leaving." He yelled again. I remained silent as I listened to his footsteps on the creaky wood floors turn into a slammed door followed by my mothers soft laugh.
"I was actually waiting for this." She told me. "I had a feeling something would happen again with you both,"
Her tone was so casual while I was kind of freaking out, her words were in no way helpful and as I was about to tell her this, she started talking again.
"You were only young when you fell in love, Maelynn. Harry was a teenage boy- of course he was going to go out and be reckless. You weren't the best either. I remember you controlling him and being so childish until well..you had a child."
"Wow, thanks mum."
"I wasn't finished." She snapped. I whistled lowly and kept my mouth shut.
"Relationships are meant to be rocky. You know I don't agree with you keeping Ana from her dad, but you also know I stand by you. That day you tried to have an abortion, I tried to tell you otherwise but you wouldn't listen. I let you choose yourself and you chose to give life to your baby and that's what I'm going to do now, I won't tell you to leave Harry or be with him but I want you to see that he came back in your life for a reason and as your mother, I am going to do what's best for you and let you choose what to do next." She finished.
Her mini speech felt like a lifetime, I found myself zoning in and out of it. She was trying to be all deep but once she mentioned when I almost killed Ana my heart snapped. I tried to push that to the back of my mind always.
"You're right. Thanks mum." I sighed out.
"How is Ana anyways?"
I tapped my fingers against the counter as I stared at myself in the mirror. "She's good. Her and Noah are having a sleepover so they're in my room watching DVD's." I laughed lightly and ruffled my hair before turning off the shower and leaving the bathroom.
I could see El and Harry talk at the kitchen table as Gracie slept in El's arms and I decided to walk towards the balcony. Half wanting to listen in on their conversation and half wanting to have a sneaky cigarette.
Mum was rambling on about Reece in my ear as I pulled the balcony doors open, kicking the bottom of the glass door to open it. I was stuck with the hotel room that had a lot of shit wrong with it and I wasn't complaining because it was free, but it's annoying to explain to people why I'm kicking my balcony door or why I'm lighting the flame top cooker with my lighter.
"So, what do you think?" Mum chirped.
"Huh? Sorry I wasn't listening." I admitted, shutting the door and taking a seat on the bench.
"I said," she sighed out. "Family trip to sunny or cold destination next year?" She asked. I rolled my eyes.
Every god damn year we were forced on that trip and every year I left early because something bad always happened.
My mind raced back to all the shit that went down and I grimaced. "Maybe we can skip it this time." I suggested, running my hand through my now greasy hair.
She tutted. "No way. I get my vacation and I say Fiji."
And with that, she hung up.