8 Professional

Jenna's POV

The following day Henry didn't go to work. He avoided me and I understood why. I didn't want to bring up the subject either because, somewhere deep inside me, I hoped that would never happen again and I took it as an unfortunate turn of events. I cleaned the house spotless while the catering company came early to bring the menu for the guests followed by arranging the tables and creating a nice décor that would go with the theme of the party.

While I was moving around the house preparing it, I could hear the workers talking:

"He's a mad man. I heard he took Christine Dunphy to Bali. After 2 days, the poor girl came back home upset because she found him in bed with two other girls." one said.

"I thought they were going to get married." another continued.

"Yeah right." the other man scoffed. "A wolf might change his fur, but not his ways." he stated. I had no idea who the woman was but I was intrigued to find out more. As soon as I finished the chores, I went to Henry to let him know I'll be visiting Tania for a couple of hours. He was in his office, going through some papers when I came in. He looked tired as if he hadn't slept for days.

"Mr. Strauss, I finished cleaning the house. I will give Tania a visit and be back in time for the party." I kept the formalities, trying to be as professional as possible.

"Be back until 6. You'll be serving drinks to the guests and the party starts at 7. Don't be late!" he said briefly without looking at me.

"Ok."

I changed myself quickly into a long-sleeve wool white dress and black knee socks with black snickers and texted Tania:

"Hey you! I'll be by your place in about 20 minutes. Are you free?" I didn't know if she will be home but the confirmation came fast.

"Sure thing, hun. I'll prepare the coffee." she texted back, so I called an Uber to come and pick me up.

Before I went by her place, I stopped by a small shop nearby to grab a bottle of rum. I couldn't go empty handed and I knew she will enjoy it as soon as the weekend starts. I knocked on the door two times before she answered. A squealed came out of my mouth when I saw her face. She had a green mask all over it and curlers in her hair which made her look like an alien.

"What the fuck happened to your face?" I asked amused entering the house.

"Can't you see girl that I'm trying to get my beauty treatment? I'm not 20 anymore." she answered. I gave her the bottle of rum and her eyes went wide open with excitement.

"Oh Jenna, you know me so well." she said with a big smile on her face. "Come and sit down, tell me everything! I didn't hear from you in 4 days. What the fuck happened?" she asked me worried.

"There's nothing to be worried about..." I told her feeling a small ache in my chest, aware that I had to be careful with the details and lie when necessary." I'm currently working for Henry Strauss." I added rubbing the back of my neck. She was so shocked about the news that she unintentionally pressed her hands to her cheeks, leaving palm marks on both sides of her muddy face.

"Shit!" she said looking at her hands. I'll be right back. Tania went to the bathroom to wash up and came after 2 minutes back to the kitchen, her face still stunned from what I said earlier.

"Wait a second! When did that happened?" she was so curious to find out everything and I knew I had to create a plausible explanation for my sudden disappearance.

"Well...you know the night we went out together?"

"Of course I remembered that night, I was drunk as fuck." she said giggling" You disappeared instantly. Where did you go?" she added, becoming serious again.

" I had a talk with Strauss and he offered me a job for one month. You know how badly I needed one." I lied trying to seem excited but all I could came up with was a faded smile.

"You don't look too excited..." she concluded, reading me like an open book.

"I am... it's just that..." I stammered and sighed, making a small pause to choose my words carefully," ...he's very hard to understand as a man." I told her, focusing my eyes on a green spot she left uncleaned. "You have a spot here" I said raising my index finger to the far left of the forehead.

"Shit!" she swore annoyed, ripping off a paper towel and whipping it off.

"If you clean your ass like you clean your face, you should consider buying a bidet." I chuckled.

"Shut up!" she said frowning as she threw the towel into the garbage." So..." she continued "how does he treat you? Do you get paid? I bet he pays you a lot." she stated rolling her eyes.

"He does...he treats me well." I lied." I have a question though and maybe you can answer me since you read so many tabloids..."

"Sure, go ahead!"

"What do you know about Dunphy? What was her name..." I tried to remember the name of the woman the workers were talking about but Tania was already ahead of me.

"Christine Dunphy you mean?" she asked shrugging." Girl, that woman has some bad mojo on her. Did she get back together with Henry?"

"No, I was just curious about their relationship. Why did they break up exactly?" She took a sip from her coffee and grinned at me assuming I had other intentions.

"Girl, don't tell me you fell for him."

"No! What? That's just stupid." I said, disgusted by the thought. She pierced me with her eyes for a couple more seconds, trying to read my expression. I adopted a poker face, after all I learned that from the master himself.

"Well, Christine and Henry were in a relationship a couple of years ago. Everybody was talking about it and the rumours said they were actually engaged. The interesting part was when Henry took Christine to Bali. I heard he saw her talking with her ex-fiancée and the man got jealous. Next thing you know, she found him in bed with two other women and ran back to mommy for consolation. It was a huge scandal!" she said full of pathos.

"But isn't there a chance that maybe something else happened?" I asked, curious that maybe she knew more about it.

"No, I'm telling you this is the truth!" Although she seemed convinced of her own words, I was doubtful. Even if I had only a small glimpse of his life, I knew Henry was not the jealous type or that he could be in any way invested emotionally in a relationship. He was a ruthless bastard and nothing more, or so I was telling myself. The rest of our conversation was mostly about Tania and her desperate attempt to find a wealthy man, the struggle she went through to seduce Mark but instead vomiting on him and her fascination for fast cars which tuned into a "run for your life" bad show as she thought she was a Maserati on high heels running away from the cops.

There were two more hours until the cocktail party and I was looking over the projects I had to present the investors. I knew it was a big opportunity for my company so I spent the entire night entertaining myself with numbers, trying to avert my thoughts from something else...or better said someone else. The worst part was that, even if I was trying to focus on the task at hand, I couldn't get pass what happened with Jenna. As much as I was trying to picture her as a scum who gets what she deserves, those fucking big brown eyes always made me think otherwise. "She's not even my type" I said to myself as I tried to remove her face out of my head...that sweet childish face. "Stop it you fucking idiot!" I mumbled, frustrated by the thought. Suddenly, my phone ranged and I picked it up, looking at the screen. It was Mark.

"Hello my old friend! What can I do for you?" I asked amused, thinking that he may call to organise another night out.

"Henry, man, I am ready for the party tonight." he shouted, loud music playing in the background along with women voices laughing.

"I can see that...Where the fuck are you? I can barely hear you." I told him, annoyed by the noise.

"What? Speak louder!" he said to me on the same tone. Jesus Christ, as much as he was my friend, sometimes he was a real piece of work.

"Fuck off man! Go somewhere quiet so that I can hear you."

"I can't! It's crazy out here. I don't want to miss the fun!"

"Are you high?" I asked drumming my fingers on the desk.

"Man, a little but listen, that's not the point. I'm coming to the party tonight with four beautiful girls by my side just so you know." I grunted at the thought of having to deal with him for the entire night in his current state.

"Mark, what the fuck? It's a cocktail party. Important people will be here. Try to keep a low profile, ok?"

"What? I will get to die?" It was so annoying when I had to repeat myself.

"Yes, you will die by my hand tonight if you don't pull your shit together." I shouted irritated so that the fucker could understand.

"Yes, boss! You don't need to shout; I can hear you." I rolled my eyes, thinking that now I have to babysit him and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid.

"Yeah, I saw that. Listen, I have to go and get ready. I'll see you at the party!"

I hanged up the phone and began preparing for the event. I chose a black suit combined with a white shirt and a black tie. When I went to the living room, I found my mother sitting comfortably on the sofa with another woman at about the same age as her with short red hair and blue eyes. When they heard my footsteps, they turned their heads to me and stared like I was the USA president.

"There he is!" my mother said to the other woman next to her cheerfully. I got to the couch where the two women were changing looks smiling at each other. My mother made the introductions:

"Jane, this is my son, Henry!" she said looking at the woman and pointing her hand to me." Henry, this is Jane, Mila's mother!" she continued doing the same in my case. The woman stretched her hand and I kissed it politely.

"You raised a gentleman." she told my mother with a warm smile." It's a pleasure to meet you, Henry!" she spoke to me while removing her hand.

"Likewise!" I lied with an apparently delighted face, as I now had two problems to worry about. I thought that the evening could not get any worse. The clock was almost 6 and I had to go through every last detail before people would start coming. As if the universe was working against me, Jenna just got home a little disheveled, dressed like a teenager and stopped confused at the entrance.

"Did I interrupt something?" she mumbled, her eyes moving back and forth from me to the two women and vice-versa.

"No, just go and change. Please wear..." I was about to say that I want her to change in a more formal attire as the loose t-shirts and shorts she was usually dressed with were not fitted for the occasion, but my mother had to stick her nose in my business and interrupt me.

"Who are you girl and what are you doing in my son's house?" she inquired Jenna raising her left eyebrow. She was taken aback by my mother's question and moved her scared eyes to me, asking for help. I stood there for a couple of seconds analysing her, waiting to see if she would say something, but as I saw her face beginning to redden, I stepped up and tried to fix the entire misunderstanding.

"Mom, she is Jenna, my new maid." I said firmly placing my hands in the pockets.

"What happened to the old one?" she asked puzzled.

"I had to let her go. She moved back to her children in Europe." I lied, but the truth was that I fired the woman over the phone which was far from professional and gave her a nice departure gift of 10.000 $ to last her for a couple of months and this were only one of the things I had to do to have Jenna close to me. I took a glance at my mother and saw her pursing her lips and dismissing Jenna with a brief hand-wave.

"I need to go and look around, see if everything is ready. Please excuse me!" I told the two women. They nodded and I went downstairs to briefly inform Jenna about the garment. She didn't even notice that I entered the basement as she was too focused brushing her hair while she listened to music on her headphones. I smiled at the scene because she looked like a child, standing on the edge of the sofa with one foot under her while the other was beating the rhythm of the song. I went behind her silently and took the headset out. She winced at my touch and turned around. When she saw me, I noticed her moving a couple of steps back.

"Did I do something wrong?" she silently asked, watching me with her big eyes and nervously biting her bottom lip. I felt a strong desire to caress her lip and taste it as for some reason even the smallest gestures she was doing were lighting up my sexual desires, but flashes of what happened a day before came into my mind and made me control my urge.

"No, I came to tell you that you have to dress with white shirt and simple black pants. I didn't prepare an attire because I didn't think it was necessary. There will be two more girls serving with you tonight so if you have any questions, ask them. The party will begin soon!" I told her coldly and left the room.