TWO JOBS ONE SECRET
Alessia Romanos eyes hurt because she did not get any sleep.. She did not have time to rest. It was morning in Brooklyn. It was already noisy. There were car horns and the sound of subway brakes. Her neighbors were yelling at each other over bills.
Alessias apartment was quiet compared to the street. The only sound was her grandmothers cough. Her grandmother was lying in bed with blankets on. She looked weak and pale. Her hands were shaking as she held a cup of tea.
"Morning Nonna" Alessia said softly. She covered her grandmother with a blanket. She did not wait for a response. There was no time.
Her younger sister Mia was already in the kitchen. Mia was looking for cereal. Alessia got angry. She had to make breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was all her responsibility now.
Ever since her mother had left without saying anything Alessia had to keep going. Her mother had left rent and empty promises.
The day started with the life in Brooklyn. Alessia put on her sneakers. She tied her hair up. She said a prayer as she locked the apartment door.
The streets were messy. A man was yelling at a delivery driver. Garbage bags were opening in the wind. A cat was running away from cars. Alessia walked fast. She looked down. She held her bag with cleaning supplies.
Alessia had to go to Manhattan. It was a place she did not belong. She had to go every day. She cleaned the apartments of men. They did not even know her name.
Alessia and her best friend Linda had a job. It was a building made of glass and steel near the East River. From the outside the building looked nice.. Alessia knew the truth. Nice things did not mean people were kind.
When they got to the lobby they took the elevator. Alessia took a breath.
Inside the apartment the air smelled like perfume and clean wood. Alessia worked quickly. She cleaned counters. Dusted shelves. She wiped fingerprints from glass. She kept her thoughts to herself.
She had no right to complain. Not after everything she had been through. Her grandmothers illness. Her mothers leaving. Mias need for her. It all felt heavy on her shoulders.
The day was like this. It was a mix of peoples lives that she could never have. By afternoon she was very tired.. She still had to work.
She dropped off her cleaning supplies. She changed her clothes. She went to her job. It was a club where she worked as a waitress.
It was not a nightclub. It was a place where people whispered secrets over whiskey. Men in suits counted money like it was nothing. The shadows had power.
Alessia moved around them easily. She was like she was invisible. She carried drinks and refilled glasses. She took orders. Never got noticed.
Except for one man. He was sitting in a corner. He was calm but in control. His presence made the air around him feel tight.
Alessia had seen him before. He was nicely dressed with eyes that saw everything. He was not like the men who were careless with their power and drunk on their wealth.
There was something about him. Something. Precise. He was watching her now. Not obviously, but like he was watching her every move.
Alessia's stomach felt weird. She did not know him. She had never talked to him.. There was something about the way he looked at her that made her heart beat fast.
She did not want to think about it. She was tired. She was worn out. She could not afford to be distracted.
By the time her shift ended her legs and back were sore.. The city was not done testing her.
She walked home through Brooklyn. She felt alone. The streets were quieter now with shadows on the ground.
She looked at her apartment building. It had been her home and her prison for long as she could remember.
Her grandmother's cough greeted her. Mia was sitting on the sofa reading a book.
Alessia dropped her bag. She sat down on the couch. For a moment, everything felt like much. Her mother's leaving, her grandmother's illness Mias need for her and her jobs that kept her moving. Never helped her get ahead.
She closed her eyes. She tried to breathe. She let the tiredness sink in so she could survive another day.
She could not stop thinking about him. The man in the corner at the club with eyes like knives, sharp and assessing.
Why did he care? Why did he notice her when she had spent her life being invisible?
That thought stayed in her mind like smoke as she got ready for bed.
Tomorrow would be another day of cleaning, serving, surviving.
Somewhere in Manhattan a man was waiting, watching, taking note.
Alessia Romano did not know it yet. The city had already started to change her life.
When the day came that she would enter a world of power, secrets and old families, she would remember these Brooklyn streets, this tiredness, this constant fight to survive.
Because it had made her strong quietly patiently. The world she was about to enter would need all of that.. More.
