CHAPTER 7
1993 Words
BRIE
These past few days have been…… weird. Take today for instance, I wake up and see Elena and Maria having breakfast.
“What’s going on?” I ask
“Mr. Raj made breakfast for everyone before he left this morning.” Maria says
“I’m sorry what?”
“Mm-hm, you have a wonderful roommate Miss. Shepherds. And he’s quite handsome too.” Elena adds
Let me take you back a bit………..
After Arjun left me at the show room I decided I’d had enough. I was done trying to get along; I had more pressing matters that needed my attention. So I head straight to the office and focused on the emails I’d been ignoring. A lot of them weren’t even really important and I spent most of my time sorting urgent, less urgent, and totally unimportant. Then I thought to myself;
How am I supposed to handle important things if I’m stuck on the little ones?
And then it hits me
CEOs usually have assistants.
So I get Cindy from HR to ask why I didn’t have an assistant and she said I never approved any of the candidates they interviewed.
Turns out; they’d conducted interviews since Monday and sent the list of qualified candidates to my email’
Oops
So I Pick my favorite candidate and have Cindy email her to resume tomorrow, 6am. I give her my address and door code.
That’s safe right? I'm sure they must have done a thorough background check on her.
So I now have an assistant. I also have her sort through my email and plan my schedule for tomorrow. I know it’s a lot but I'm just so tired. I needed to relax so I text Caroline and Linda. I know I owed Caroline an apology for calling her a bad mom so I figure I could make it up to her with a girl’s night in.
“This place feels like a warehouse.” Linda says settling down on the blanket.
“The furniture will be arriving tomorrow.’ I hand out the matching robes and headbands id gotten earlier. I’d picked Caroline up so she’ll help me planned she agreed after I groveled for hours.
“I’ll come over and help set up, the kids extended their stay by 2 weeks.” Caroline says with a mouth full of marshmallows
“Me too, I finally wrapped up the miller case today and I need I gave myself two days off as a victory present.” Linda has been struggling with a particular case for months. It was a s****l assault case against one of the biggest news anchor and they were so much that she couldn’t let it go so she took it upon herself pro-bono.
“Oh my goodness, you have to tell me everything.” Caroline yells from my bedroom
“Sure as long as Brie tells us how many Indian-Lebanese-American Nieces and Nephews we should be expecting.” She says giving me a look. I ignore her and go change into my own robe.
We all change into our robes and sit on the blanket with the snacks surrounding us. Linda talks about the case while we do skincare and curl our hair with satin curling ribbons.
We run out of some snacks and I get up to go get more. I scan through the cupboards and settle on melted chocolate and the rest of the strawberries, which are basically the only things I own in the kitchen. I melt the chocolate into a ceramic bowl and set it on a wooden cutting board. I walk back out and find Linda and Caroline in a stare off with a shocked Arjun.
“Hello roommate.” I say with a huge smile on my face. He doesn’t say anything HE just looks between me and them
“What is going on here?” he finally speaks.
“Were having a girls night silly.” I say going to join the girls on the floor. “Would you like to join us?”
He just stares at me like I’ve lost it. I stare back hoping to make him uncomfortable but he just keeps staring. He eventually storms off angrily.
“What’s got his silk Briefs in a twist?” Linda Caroline and I say simultaneously. We stare at each other for a moment acknowledging how in sync we were then burst out laughing. We talk and laugh till about 1 am when they decide to go because they refuse to be in the same space as Arjun when he wakes up. Caroline’s husband comes to pick her up While Linda’s Boyfriend pick’s her up. I decide to take the risk of being scolded by Arjun tomorrow and decide to go to bed without cleaning up. I am about to sleep when I get a text from Caroline.
You just sleep in. Elena and Maria will be here before Arjun wakes up.
I smile to myself and go to bed with peace of mind.
I am woken up by loud banging on my door. I ignore it hoping the person will give up but it just gets louder.
“Are you crazy? It’s seven in the morning.” I yell opening the door. Arjun is standing there looking pissed.
“Exactly so why are there two random women breaking into my house at seven in the morning?”
I can’t do this this morning.
I just roll my eyes, walk back into my room and sit on my bed. He follows me in shutting the door behind him
“First of all it is not your house. Secondly, quit over reacting they are my maids and they didn’t break in I gave them the code, they’re supposed to clean and cook.” He seems to forget we have equal rights to the apartment.
“The house is already clean.”
“Really? Wow they got here earlier than I thought. I need to pee.” I get up and go to my bathroom
“What do you mean they got here earlier than you thought?” He asks when I get out of the bathroom
“They’re supposed to clean up before they start cooking, so if you woke up to a clean house then yes they got here pretty early.”
He just stares like he’s seen a Ghost
“So you didn’t clean up after yourself last night?”
“No, why would i?” I scoff. For the first time in my life I get to use my own money to hire staff why would I do their job?
“Are you nuts? You know you don’t live here alone you can’t just do as you please.”
“If you don’t like how I live my life, feel free to move out.”
If this were a cartoon I swear there’ll be steam coming out of his ears.
There’s a knock at the door and Natalie pokes her head in
“And who are you?” Arjun asks
“I’m Miss Shepherds’ assistant, Natalie Bradford.” She extends her hand for a hand shake but he just looks between her hand and her face, his expression cold as ice. She retracts her hand slowly and walks slowly towards me. He just stares at me, clearly defeated. He turns to walk away but the stops suddenly.
Dude
“Let me guess, you also have the door code” He asks. I just stare him, my facial expressions answering for me. “Unbelievable” He says then walks out.
“I honestly don’t get that man.” I mutter
“Good morning Miss. Shepherds. I have planned your schedule and organised your emails and…..”
“How older you?” I interrupt
“I’m 23.”
“Do you have a passport?”
“Yes, but it expired last year.”
“Well go renew it.”
“I will. You need to…”
“Have you had breakfast yet? I’m famished.”
“Miss Shepherds….”
“Whatever you want to say can be said while we eat.” I put on my robe and slippers and head for the kitchen, Natalie pauses a bit before hurry after me
As I get to the kitchen I can smell so many great flavors, from waffles to pancakes and bacon and eggs. Elena and Maria are so in sync making eggs, frying bacon and sausages, pancakes and waffles all simultaneously. Nothings burnt or over cooked it’s a truly beautiful sight. They move around the kitchen so gracefully, clearly enjoying what they’re doing.
I take a seat on one of the stools at the island. It was either that or I sit on the floor. Natalie takes a seat beside me and we begin with the emails. She’d already sorted them from least urgent to most urgent and planned my schedule accordingly so I can attend to the most urgent ones. I grab a banana and start replying some of the emails while Elena and Maria finish up with breakfast. We set the laptop aside and I make a large plate of food, did I mention the got croissants. I start eating but Natalie just stares at her laptop. It’s just us in the kitchen Elena and Maria left as soon as they were done cooking. Probably to do some other stuff around the house.
“You’re not hungry?” I ask her. She looks at me sheepishly. “Make yourself a plate. I don’t bite. “She hesitates and gets a plate but she takes only two waffles.
I roll my eyes and grab the plate from her hand I fill it up and pour her a tall glass of orange juice.
I hand the plate back to her and settle down to continue eating. She smiles, says thank you and starts eating.
“Can I tell you the schedule now?” She asks after taking two bites.
“Ohh you have been dying to do that haven’t you.”
“First things first you have an appointment with Brianna by 11. Said you owe her some samples, anyways she booked you guys the deluxe package at the opal retreat.”
Elena suddenly walks in and Arjun comes in after.
We just ignore him and continue talking
“Ohh my goodness, you have got to get the deluxe package with s it is to die for. You’ll feel like a whole new person. I’ll text her.” I grab my phone and start texting her.
“No, its fine. I…I don’t wanna intrude or anything.”
“Nonsense, it’s not a problem. She basically owns the place.”
“Wait, we’re talking about Brianna Miller? Her email says address says Brie Sanders. Wait you know her?”
“She was my roommate during freshman year at college but afterwards she moved to her boyfriend’s place. We were both Brie and it was fun having the exact same nickname but completely different names. Sometimes we were Sabrina and Brianna, other times we were Brie and Brie.”
“Wow, rich people really do know each other. Speaking of wealth, I called the Dior store they have a new manager so it took a while but your appointment is by 4 pm and I gave them a list of the pieces you requested”
“Ohh my goodness you are so efficient, you’ve barely worked for me for 24 hours and I'm already scared to lose you.” I joke making her laugh a bit.
I look up and Arjun is just standing there like a stranger.
“Just join us there’s more than enough for everyone.” I say patting the empty stool beside me, trying to be nice.
He stares for a while, the gears in his head clearly turning. He then grabs the lunch bag Elena packed for him and heads out without saying a word.
Arrogant f**k
- Writer
