"I think Chris likes you."
My forehead creased when Sarah said that. I looked at her. She was smiling at me like an idiot.
"Pardon?" Was I hearing her right?
"I said I think Chris likes you," she repeated. Chris likes me? What kind of joke was that?
"Couldn't you feel it? He just gave you a flower," she added, pointing at flower that I was holding. "If a guy sends a flower to a girl, it only means he likes her."
I looked at the flower in my hand. It was a red, long-stemed rose and yes, Chris gave it to me. He came to me earlier while I was working in the kitchen and handed me the beautiful rose.
"Yeah, but it was a peace offering," I said. "He ruined my book yesterday, you know."
Speaking of the soaked book, I left it opened out in the sun this morning to dry it up. Fortunately, no pages got ripped. I didn't expect that Chris would say sorry by giving a rose as a peace offering. I liked it, though. It was fresh and beautiful.
"Are you blind, Jane?" Sarah jokingly nudged me with her elbow. "Come on, are you numb or what? Chris likes you! It's obvious!"
Since I started working here, Chris did nothing but annoy me. How the hell could he like me? Impossible. The guy was probably just sincerely apologizing for almost ruining the book that Mr. Jackson gave me.
"Well," Sarah continued. "He's not that bad. Chris is cute, though. What do you think?"
I paused to think for a moment before I nodded my head."Yeah, sure," I said. And that's not a lie. Chris was actually good-looking. "His eyes are nice."
I didn't know how to describe him but I was sure he kinda looked like some actor that I'd seen on TV.
Sarah giggled at what I said and shook my arm excitedly. "Awe!" she said. "I think I'm starting to ship you two!"
"Ship who?"
Sarah and I turned around and we almost froze when we saw Mr. Jackson standing right behind us. He was wearing a blue long-sleeved button-down shirt along with his iconic black Fedora.
Sarah and I immediately bowed. "Good morning, Sir."
You wouldn't see the boss around the house all day but that doesn't mean he couldn't just appear behind you. He could literally just sneak behind without you knowing it. Just like what he did just now.
Sarah and I looked at each other furtively. Both of us were probably thinking the same thing. Her eyes were saying, 'wtf, I didn't see him coming!'
Mr. Jackson nodded as a response. I saw him took a glance at the rose that I was holding before he turned his gaze back at us. "Do you mind telling me what you two were talking about?"
For the second time, Sarah and I looked at each other.
"I-It's nothing, Mr. Jackson," I said, eyeing him. "We were actually just about to.. uh, clean the main room when you came."
The boss nodded again. He took his eyes back to the rose in my hands. "Did the flowers came? Is that one of those that came this morning?"
"Yes, Sir, the flowers came this morning but they were sunflowers because that's what you requested," Sarah answered. She pointed at rose that I was holding. "This was from Chris."
The boss looked at me. Then at the rose. Then back at me. I didn't know if I should speak or what, I just stood there and did nothing.
"Chris?" he asked. "My bodyguard?"
"Yes, Sir," Sarah answered. "He gave Jane the rose---"
"As a peace offering," I continued. I tried smiling but it turned to be an awkward smile.
The boss looked at the rose again. After a few seconds, he nodded. "Hmm."
Sarah grinned. "I think your bodyguard likes my friend, Sir," she said, raising both of her brows.
That moment, I just wanted to be eaten by the ground and take Sarah with me. I looked at her, my eyes wide in disbelief. Right, she just told that to the boss and I felt every drop of blood in my body gathered in my damn face.
Goodness, I've never been this embarassed in my whole existence.
Mr. Jackson paused for a moment before he half-smiled. He looked at me, smirking. I immediately shook my head but Sarah started talking again so I secretly pinched her arm to make her stop.
Can I just vanish? like, right now?
The boss shook his head as he smirks. "You should rest for now, you've been working all day."
"Thank you, Sir," Sarah said. "We will."
He nodded. "I should go."
Sarah and I bowed to him before he turned around to leave. He started walking out the kitchen, leaving me and Sarah alone. We were just looking at him as he walk but when he was about to get out of the door, he suddenly stopped and turned back at us.
"Jane?" he called.
I wasn't expecting that. I immediately swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat before I answered, "Y-yes, Mr. Jackson?"
He looked at me. "I want you to clean my room later."
My forehead creased. I wasn't the one who was assigned to clean his room, it was my fellow maid, Lia.
"But Sir---"
"Go there right after you finished your work in the kitchen. I'll wait."
Then he left.
I had no idea why he commanded me to clean his room when he could've commanded Lia to do it. Lia was the one who was assigned to his room. So why me?
I didn't have the right to complain, though. He was my boss so I had no choice but to follow whatever he commands me to do. As Sarah and I continued our work in the kitchen later that afternoon, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I knew I shouldn't be nervous but I really was and I couldn't help it.
"Why would he want you to clean his room?" Sarah asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know."
I really had no idea.
"Ah!" Sarah snapped her fingers as if she realized something. "I knew it! Maybe he likes the way you cleaned the library so he wants you to clean his room as well. He likes the way you clean, you know."
My forehead creased. The boss likes the way I clean?
Well, that makes sense.
There were so many works to do and we finished all of them around five in the afternoon. I got a bit tired from doing the chores in the kitchen and instead of taking a rest, I proceeded to Mr. Jackson's room just like what he told me.
I took some cleaning materials with me as I walk up the stairs. I was a bit nervous because this would be my first time to enter his room. I've never been there before, I had no Idea what it looked like but I was sure it's big. The master's suite was at the end of the hall to the right, near the library. I stopped in front of its huge oak door and just stood there.
Here it was. The very room where Michael Jackson sleeps and spends his private time.
I just stared at the flourished door, feeling nervous. I breathed deeply numerous times before I started knocking but then I stopped when I realized that the door wasn't actually locked.
"Sir?" I called.
No one answered.
"Mr. Jackson?" I called for the second time but still, no response.
I started to think that he wasn't inside so I decided that I would start cleaning while he wasn't there. I opened the huge door and let myself in and closed it again behind me. My jaw almost dropped when I saw the inside of it. It was so big.
The first thing I saw were the two single-seated sofa facing the ravishing white fireplace on the far side of the room. Huge white-framed glass windows lined the walls, overlooking the pond and the beautiful garden outside.
"Wow," I mouthed as my eyes went around the whole place. So this is what it looks like.
A white door with an intricately designed white frame--which looked like a magical door in fairytales--was also there, leading to a private garden outside. Carpeted floor, flourished furnitures, vaulted ceiling, and classy chandeliers.
So beautiful.
Yet messy.
The mahogany four-poster bed was at the far end on the other side. The sheets were crumpled and it looked like it hadn't been fixed since the morning. Shirts draped over the chairs, socks on the floor, empty glasses on the bedside table, and I even saw his fedora lying at the foot of the bed.
I shook my head. Beautiful but messy, just like the library.
Mr. Jackson's bedroom was filled with interesting stuff, if you'd ask me. One of them were the paintings, paintings of different sceneries and even portraits of the boss himself. On the study table near the window to the right, there was a cassette recorder. There were also papers and envelops. When I looked at them---I knew I shouldn't because they were the boss' private stuff but I did, anyway---I found out that they were letters from different people with messages like 'I love you' and 'Your music saved me' with tons of hearts and pictures so I guessed they were from his fans. They were so many of them and some were even unopened yet.
"His fans really love him," I uttered, smiling. The fact that he really provides time to read his fans' letters amazed me. He was busy but still, he reads them.
After a few minutes of looking around, I took a deep breath. I think I'll start cleaning so by the time he comes back, everything is already tidy.
Where was he, anyway?
Just as I was about to pick up the black fedora on the floor, I heard a faint sound that made me stop. It was like something fell and it seemed like the sound came just somewhere inside the room.
My forehead creased. What was that?
thud.
There it goes again. At that moment, I realized that I wasn't alone here. Was it Lia? Did she come here before me and probably had started cleaning?
I looked around and realized that there were two other doors at the left side of the room. I didn't see them earlier because they had the same color as the walls. Maybe Lia was in there?
Carrying the black fedora in my hand, I decided to go there to check. I didn't know which door should I open first but my instinct told me to choose the one from the right so I immediately gripped the door handle and opened it.
And I wish I hadn't.
"Oh my God! I'm sorry!" I exclaimed as I turned around, covering my eyes with my palms. "I-I'm so sorry!"
My knees were shaking and my face was burning hot. Yeah, there was someone inside and it wasn't Lia. It was the boss who just got out of the shower, half-naked with only a towel wrapped around his waist.
What the heck.