Chapter Ten

AVA

It was few minutes past 6pm when Ava got home. Nicole was doing her makeup, getting ready to leave for the club. Thank goodness, she's out of that shitty job, Ava prayed silently.

She toed off her shoes at the door and slumped on the bed, visibly tired.

She still couldn't get over the fact that she had sat and ate and talked with her employer. No one had ever paid her that kind of attention.

It was a thrilling experience, but she knew that it just couldn't be. Maybe that was how he was. Just being nice and friendly.

"I can see you got the job, since you didn't get back earlier than I expected." Nicole said, leaning closer to the mirror to get a good look at the eyebrows she was trying so hard to draw.

The way she drew them always made Ava think of the cockroach antennae. Funny!

Sighing heavily, "I did. Like I told you I would. Isn't it great?" She asked, not expecting a response.

Nicole stopped and turned to look at Ava, her brows raised. "Really? Is that ostentation I hear in your voice?" She scoffed.

Ava just shrugged and flattened her back on the bed, bringing up her knees to plant her feet on the bed, looking up at the ceiling. Subconsciously, her mind travelled back to that mansion and replayed the dining scenario.

Giving herself a mental shake, trying hard to withdraw from the memories, she chided herself. He was just being nice, Ava.

"Rayborne..." Her voice so husky. Dragging herself up to sit, she looked at Nicole whose face was now in the mirror. "Rayborne..." She called again, "ever been there?"

Ava reared back as Ava veered round to face her, her face the typical image of astonishment.

"I thought you went to Vizellan, not Rayborne?" She asked. She obviously knew what that place was and what kind of people lived there.

"Apparently, Vizellan is a smaller part of Rayborne and Rayborne is heaven." She declared.

Nicole frowned. "The email said Vizellan," she was trying to remember what the email had said.

Ava smiled, knowing Nicole doesn't really pay attention to emails. She doesn't even check hers. "It said I had to get past Vizellan to get to Rayborne from this side of Bellamy." She still haven't got an answer to her question.

"So, have you been to Rayborne or Vizellan?" She pressed.

Nicole stared at Ava for the longest time, that Ava thought she was going to say yes.

Finally, she just rolled her eyes and gave a snide chuckle. "Of course not, Ava. What could I possibly be looking for there? I hear it's a different place and very expensive."

Ava nodded and reached up to her hair to get out the rubber. Without a beat, it spiralled her back to the way he had looked at her hair.

He said it was beautiful.

"It is true, trust me, Nicole. I still can't believe I'll work in that mansion for three months."

Nicole gasped, rather dramatically. "Mansion? Now, tell me who you're working for."

"As if you'll know who he is."

Nicole reached behind her to pick up her iphone from the dresser. She pressed the side and the screen came on.

"The internet is your friend." She flashed Ava an innocent smile.

Rolling her eyes mildly at Nicole, she gave in. The man obviously had a certain personality to him, so it was only right she did her own investigation. Right?

"Richard... Richard McCaul." Even now, as she said his name. A wave of some sort hit her, right into realization. She had called his name effortlessly.

Nicole didn't pay attention to that as she punched in words into the search engine and gasped again. Her eyes wide with amazement.

Her eyes turned to Ava, then turned her phone to her. "This is the man you're working for? Not kidding right?"

Ava could see the thrill in Nicole's eyes. She was still thrilled too.

"I know it's unbelievable but it's true. He's my employer." She sat up and reached over to take the phone from her outstretched arm, she scrolled through the pictures of him with different people, men and women alike.

He looked better physically, Ava absently acknowledged. There was a particular one that caught her eyes. It wasn't the only one, because that should be the third picture with the same brunette.

Turning the iphone towards Nicole, "who's she?"

She took the phone and gazed at it, scrolled and chuckled. "Of course, that's Simone. She's an actress."

Ava's eyes went wide with amazement. "Really?"

"Looks like they're an item. It's only right that they be together. They have everything going for them. Did you see that movie?"

"What movie?"

Nicole raised her eyes to the ceiling as if it was written there. She was silent for a minute, trying to remember. "Cakewalk! She also starred in Big Leagues. She got the Oscars for both movies!"

Ava wasn't going to pretend she'd seen them, but since she had won two Oscars she must be a good actress.

Nicole shook her head and stood up to get her clothes out of the wardrobe, giving up on the makeup. "I know you haven't seen them but she's good. They look good together."

Something in Ava's heart sank. "He said my hair is beautiful." She murmured more to herself than to Nicole. She couldn't help saying it. There was something about the way he'd said it.

Nicole stopped dead and turned sharply to her. "He? Who said that?" When Ava didn't answer, her eyes went round in realization. "Your boss? He flirted with you on your first day?"

Flirt? Ava hadn't thought of it that way.

Was he really flirting with her? Was that what people say when they flirt?

"He... He wasn't..."

Nicole sighed and scoffed, turning squarely to face Ava. "You're so naive for your own good. He wasn't flirting? I bet you thought he was just being nice and making you feel comfortable."

Right. Nicole was right. That's what she thought. Stupid!

Nicole took her silence as confirmation. "Oh! Ava what am I going to do with you? Men like that don't look our way. Besides, he's old enough to be your father."

"But he's not." She said, as calmly as possible.

Men like that! It rang in her ear.

Dragging a blue sequin short gown up her legs, she zipped it up and closed the wardrobe. "Yes, he's not. We should stick to our class."

Ava couldn't understand why Nicole felt the need to lecture her. She hadn't said anything insinuating.

"You've never said my hair is beautiful. No one has ever told me that."

Her friend spared her a glance, while shoving her feet into her Jimmy Choo. Ava remembered how Nicole had coughed out the money just to get those.

She shook her head with the look of slight exasperation. "You should concentrate on your work, Ava. You can't be falling for your boss on your first day at work!"

"What? No! I'm totally not falling for him. He was just being nice to me." Ava's cheeks turned the color of her hair, as she shook her head in sheer denial.

She's not that naive to fall for such a man.

"Of course he was!" Nicole humphed, picking up her iphone from the dresser to slide into her matching blue purse.

"We'll talk later. When do you get back from work?"

"Whenever he tells me to." She said simply and it earned her a sideway glance from Nicole.

"It's fine. Whenever we see we'll talk. I'll be off now."

Ava watched her silently as she let herself out through the door. Sighing loudly, she flopped back on the bed and stared at length at the white ceiling. It wasn't white anymore since there were patches by the sides.

She shut her eyes and thought about what Nicole her drummed to her. Maybe, she was right.

She shouldn't be feeling this way. She couldn't even place a name to how she was feeling but she knew it was something. Something she shouldn't be feeling.

Turning on her side, with her eyes still shut, all she wanted to do was lie there till morning. She needed to get out of her clothes and take a bathe, but she felt too tired to get out of bed.

A lot of things ran through Ava's mind as she laid there and tried to draw strength into her weak bones.

Suddenly, a chilling wave ran over her and she wrapped her arms around her. The wave blew her back to Salta.

She remembered how her grandmother would make her sit on the cold wooden floor and comb her hair as the heavy snow would fall. Grandma Sherri was the only person who said she had a beautiful hair.

She had met her mother only twice in twenty three years, and although she'd moved past those memories, she knew they were etched into the walls of her life.

Even when Grandma Sherri had died, her mother never came. Feeling the tears that were threatening to slip through her eyes, she tightened her eyelids and they rolled into the sheets.

She wasn't meant to feel this way tonight. Infact, she shouldn't be feeling this way. Ava couldn't tell what triggered the memories she'd buried.

Hugging herself tighter, a deep groan escaped her lips. Snapping her eyes open, she drew the light and red old duvet over her head, deciding right then that she wouldn't be getting out of the bed anytime soon.

Curling up under the duvet, she felt the way she had felt years ago. When she's stay up all night and sit outside the house all day, waiting for her mother.

She waited for her on her birthdays, every year, having the false hope that she'd come visit. She never did. It had dawned on her, on her 10th birthday that she was never coming.

It was a realization that haunted her, even when she was in denial. It broke her in many ways than one.

But...

Tonight, being in that mansion in his company. A father of two daughters. His love for his daughters were undeniably proven.

Stamped and sealed.

She'd never asked of his father, since there was no mother to begin with. She never really wanted to know.

So, maybe... Just maybe it wouldn't hurt to have that kind of attention from a stranger. Her employee.

An innocent attention wouldn't hurt. Would it?

She had probably cried herself to sleep because she woke up the next morning, still in yesterday's clothes.

Nicole wasn't home by the time she was done getting dressed, trying hard not to look ugly. Rushing off to Rayborne, she prayed she wouldn't get there later than she was meant to.