The Arrangement (unenhanced Edition) by AnnaRCase (books to read now .txt) 📖

                Amberleigh didn’t see Grayson for the next few days, and she began to get the vibe he was purposefully avoiding her. Even when she got up before the sun did, their paths didn’t cross, as if he waited until she went back to bed to leave, or left the apartment while it was still dark out. He may not have come home at all some nights, perhaps crashing at the office, or at another woman’s place. That angered her more than it should have. She didn’t own him, but he owned her pretty much, but she couldn’t do her job if the most important piece of equipment wasn’t in operation.

However, she was getting to know Leo quite well and more than once she found herself daydreaming she’d signed the contract with him instead. Every day they got together in the kitchen for a lesson and a chat. Seriously, Leo was like that gay best friend girls hoped to find, without him actually being gay. Because it was clear the way he talked, he was a boobs’ man alright.

The first days they started with the basics, just cutting, chopping, dicing etc., as Amberleigh confessed more than one time, she was likely hopeless at this cooking business. Leo was a patient teacher, but truth be told, they cooked up more gossip than anything else. Grayson was a topic they rarely hit on, but everything else seemed to be free game really, and Leo was an expert source of salacious rich people scandals. The latest scandals rocking the Uptown was Senator Berkshire was about to leave his wife for his twenty-year-old personal assistant, and the heiress to Giorgio’s Italian restaurant empire was in hiding due to a nasty case of oral herpes.

Amberleigh also got to know the other staff a bit better, though none of them were willing to buddy up to her like Leo, and they kept it professional. Besides Janelle, the other maids were Maria and Angelina. Janelle was unmarried and had a cat. That was literally all Amberleigh had learned in the four days she’d been there, and that was only because she didn’t wear a wedding band, and had used a lint roller to brush off the cat hair from her uniform when she arrived in the mornings.

Maria was the youngest in the group, in her late forties, had only wisps of grey in her black hair, and was the most approachable and chatty. She had a husband Emanuel who worked at a pizza joint in the Fringe, and two children, Emilio and Emilia. Emilio wanted to be a doctor, and Emilia wanted to be a princess. It was the most carefree and animated Maria got when she talked about her family.  But even Maria nearly had a heart attack when Amberleigh grabbed some cleaning supplies off her cart and began to help. Maria began to mutter in two languages back and forth, and feared she would lose her job over it.   After that, when Amberleigh got the urge to clean up, she did it on the sly.

Angelina claimed she didn’t speak very good English, and would often talk in Italian, though Amberleigh began to suspect she spoke and understood more English than she pretended. She seemed the most uncomfortable when Amberleigh tried to fraternize with her. She seemed to have excellent genes though, as she was about fifty, and her hair was still black as midnight.

 She also lived in the Fringe, she said her husband’s name was Antonio, no children, and had been working for Grayson since he moved into the penthouse five years ago, but that was all Amberleigh had gotten out of her so far. It was a working progress, and Amberleigh had secretly begun studying Italian, as she had plenty of time on her hands. Not to mention, her father was Italian, not that he ever spent enough time with his daughter to teach her his native tongue, or anything really.

Mr. Duvall was the stuffiest of the bunch. He seemed to be like a part of the furniture, always standing and watching all quiet-like, often so long, it was easy to forget he was there. Even though she’d directly heard Grayson tell Leo to keep an eye on her, no doubt Mr. Duvall was doing the same thing.

 It seemed Mr. Duvall was always watching and had eyes and ears all over the penthouse. She began to suspect he was also a mind reader, because he had a way of just popping up when she thought about food, or wanting some fresh air up on the garden roof. She tested her theory by wishing for a banana split, but was sorely disappointed that time at least.

 To combat her boredom when she wasn’t hanging with Leo, or stalking the staff, or coming up with theories about them or Grayson, she spent her time binge watching foreign language shows, eating Oreos while she walked on the treadmill, or reading a book in the rooftop garden. She also looked forward to hitting up the pool up there this summer she planned on getting so tan you’d need sunglasses just to look at her. And she was planning to bear her ass cheeks, had the perfect thong just in mind for the occasion.

The rooftop soon became her favorite place. It felt amazing to feel the sun on her face, and smell real flowers, and that stale city air. Not to mention the view was first rate shit, from here the wall which encased the city was barely visible. The Fringe, nothing but a tiny speck in the distance, but her real home was quite visible, the Cobra Club standing tall, proud, and unmistakable against the skyline. Fuck, she missed it. And that bitch Ebony too. She’s sent her friend a few texts and pics she’d pulled off some social media accounts, but avoided long convos, as she feared she’d slip up and blow her cover story.

It was on her fourth day, she decided to up her game. It’d had been five days since she’d last had sex with anyone but herself, and desperation was starting to set in. Even Mr. Duvall was starting to look hella good by then. She took a good shower just to make it safe for Mr. Duvall and Leo in her presence. This shit was getting old and ridiculous. How the fuck was she was supposed to make a baby with Grayson, if they didn’t fuck? The immaculate conception card had already been played. Well screw that shit. She put on her best fitting dress, fixed herself up real nice, and sat her ass in a chair in the main foyer and waited. Grayson had to come through that door sometime, and like hell was he going to get away this time.