The Nanny Affair

Whatever

"What did you say his name was again?"

The brain fog that had been circling around my thoughts all morning cleared as I looked at my roommate-best-friend, chomping on a piece of peanut brittle. My hands were stuffing clothing into the few boxes that I had, the rest of my items shoved into bags in the back seat of my Jeep.

"Uhm...Ashley Wilder."

She continued to munch on her candy, the hairs of her brows pulling together in the center of her face. "You mean the guy that owns Wilder Co. Oil?" She was holding her phone up to my face, an older news article about the family hand-off staring straight at me.

I took the phone from her hands, reading the article in its entirety before handing it back to her. "Yeah," I said, a hint of amazement in my voice. "That's him all right."

"Hot damn, girl. He is GORGEOUS." She kicked herself backwards onto my bed, knocking a stack of clothes into the floor.

"Hey!" I reached to clean the mess. "Rude."

"Eh, I'm just prolonging the inevitable." She grinned, her teeth already around another caramelized sugar. "I wish you weren't leaving me." She said between munches. "But, I am jealous that that is your new boss. I wouldn't mind that view on the daily." She wiggled her brows, reaching to pinch my arm.

"Ouch! Heifer, what's gotten into you?" I smacked her hand back, annoyed that she was making my move out this dramatic. "It's only for the summer. I have the rent paid up, so all you have to do is not get into too much trouble." I eyed her, already knowing full well what her first plan of action was. And it wasn't getting a job.

"I know, Ma. Geeze." Rolling her eyes, she flopped to her stomach, continuing to scroll through her phone. "I only have like, one party on the books. And it's only with the local boys," she started laughing as she saw me grimace, her hand coming to pat the top of mine.

"Just don't trash my room like you did last time, and I won't say a word."

"Ugh, H! You should loosen up this summer, and take full advantage of being under someone that...pretty." She flashed another picture from her phone. "It says here that he's been the man in charge for a year now. AND that he's...married to Jessica Stone. Wait, did you know that??"

"What?" I came flopping beside her, grabbing the phone from her hands. "OMG, I didn't even recognize her in the photo! No wonder. It looks like she's had her nose done..." I studied the picture for another second before skimming the article. "But are they still married?" I was swiping, the information I needed not making itself available to me. As I was searching, I could feel my heart sinking, and I knew that was silly. He was my BOSS for crying out loud! I couldn't have feelings like that for him!

"Would it matter so much if he was still married?" Moriah teased, her voice lilting with laughter.

I turned to look at Moriah, my mouth all but hanging wide open. "YES! Yes ma'am, it would!" I scowled at her, not flinching when she started horse laughing beside me.

"I'm just saying," she purred, slinking off the side of the mattress into the floor. "That sometimes it's the forbidden fruit that tastes the sweetest. Maybe we should be looking at your wardrobe to see what you've got in here to seduce Mr. Wilder." Picking through my boxes, Mariah laid outfits out on the couch, snapping pictures of them. "I'll send you some suggestions. You know," she said, lifting a top from the pile. "That's pretty cute together. Maybe I'll borrow it..." She continued to rattle off nonsense about my closet as she rearranged my laundry.

I shrugged her off, trying not to let my mood crash with this new discovery. Of course, I knew that he wasn't anything that I could reach for. He was hott, and sexy, and rich, and a dad... while I was over here playing babysitter with my childhood best friend that couldn't not get drunk every other day. I slumped into a pillow, cursing the fact that I had taken this job.

Maybe I didn't actually need this job? Maybe I could swing it another month without full-blown busting. Opening up my banking app, I sucked in a deep breath as I read the balance.

Nope. Not gonna happen.

I needed this job for now, and would keep looking. Hopefully the next few months would give me enough time to get a better portfolio put together.

I stalked Jessica Stone for what felt like hours, pouring over her IMBD page and any other information out there. She apparently had had a very rich dating life over the past couple of years... and was engaged. Interesting. Nothing on her profile mentioned Ashley or the boys. She had made her debut as a daytime Soap Star, and had been climbing higher ever since, which I knew, since I had just seen her last month in that weird Indie film about the importance of family.

That was oddly ironic.

The more I kept peeling back the layers and layers of her social profiles, the more insecure I felt. Surely I hadn't just imagined that spark when Ashley's and my skin had touched, right? It was more likely that I had imagined the whole thing based solely off of my insane amount of attraction held for him. How could someone married to that ever be attracted to me?

She seemed like trash for walking out on her family, but still.

It was like that time at TTU when I had thought that the TA had a crush on me, and that's why he was giving me extra help in the afternoons. When in reality it was his job to ask the students with the lowest GPA's if they needed help with assignments. I had tried to kiss him, he had a girlfriend that was a Philosophy major, and the whole thing was just so completely humiliating.

It would be best not to repeat that scenario here. 

I could still feel the shame wash over me reliving that wild expression on his face as I leaned towards him. Oof. It still hurt.

I needed to keep a level head, and not go reading into every single interaction that the two of us would share.  Who knows!  Maybe he won't even be around enough for me to have interactions with.  

"Anyways," Moriah plopped back onto my bed. "I was thinking that you should wear that outfit for your first day. Or today, you know. To make a good impression."

I looked to the couch where she had the scantiest pieces of my wardrobe laid together to create a semblance of a full outfit. "Thanks, but uhm. No."

Harrumphing, Moriah strode to the couch's corner, a red lipped pout on her mouth. "It's PERFECT! Why would you NOT want to wear this??"

Looking down to see what I had on versus the suggestion laying on my sofa, I laughed. "I need him to think I'm there for his kids. Not for a fifteen-minute dance that has a happy ending." My flannel, tank and shorts would do it. Not a strappy bra, booty shorts, and heels so high I needed crutches to walk.

Blowing a raspberry with her tongue at me, she whined, "Ugh, you're so boring! When are you gonna live a little? Take a tip from my playbook, and DO NOT let this summer go by without snagging Mr. Wilder. Capisce?"

With a pair of socks in my hand, I pinged her in the forehead. "Cut it out! Besides, he'd never look at me like that. Not when he has one of the hottest wives on the planet."

I looked to the mirror hanging on the wall beside my bed, comparing and contrasting what I had to offer versus Jessica Stone. She was tall, and leggy, while I was on the average height, and average leg-to-torso ratio scale. She was blonde, with giant blue eyes, and I had brown hair and brown eyes. Like the most basic model of basic.

We were not on the same level by a long shot. She had men hanging off of her, and I had one boyfriend to speak of from my entire dating rap sheet.

"Oh, shut up, Had. You know just as well as I do that you've had PLENTY of offers, and you get PLENTY of attention, you just refuse to acknowledge it. Or act on it. Or anything. It's really freaking frustrating, actually." Moriah had a pool of crumbs on her chest, the peanut brittle leaving its sticky dust wherever she laid her fingers.

"Whatever. You think that any male attention is good attention. And so far, none of the attention showered upon me has been quality male attention, so therefore, I wait." Stuffing the last of my accessories in my tiny carry bag, I hoisted my final load down to the red boxy SUV waiting for me.

"I really am going to miss you." Moriah lifted a box to her hip, following me down the stairs.

"Babe, it's only like thirty minutes from here. We can still hang out! When I have off days. You know, I don't even know if I have off days. I should probably find out." I had crammed the last box into the seat, noticing that when I went to close the door, it wasn't catching.

Crap.

I was putting all of my weight against the door, trying to get it to latch without popping all of my crap up through the roof. "Help me, will ya? Push!" Moriah came beside me, her bony hip pushing with mine and we finagled the last of my earthly possessions into the crowded backseat.

The door finally clicking, we slowly backed away, my arms coming to bring Moriah in for a hug. "You know I'll be back. And I'll never not have my phone, so you can always get a hold of me. But please, PLEASE promise me, M, that you won't go too crazy while I'm gone, 'K?"

She gave me a squeeze, a pat on the booty, and sent me on my way.

"Whatever. Just send me all the details."

                                                                                   ♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫