A Call From Home

Nora Sullivan sighed and dropped the grocery bags on the kitchen island before glancing down at her wristwatch to see what time it was.

It was seven fifteen on the dot. Damn, she still had to clean and cook before the owner of the house came back from work.

She was supposed to have been here since the afternoon but she had slept off because she came back from work at the club where she was a waitress in the morning around ten o'clock. She had picked up a couple of shifts, and then another waitress who was supposed to come in had been unable to, so they had swapped shifts, so she had worked from ten o'clock last night until she had to leave. As soon as she got home, she had cleaned, cooked, and showered and without even eating anything, she had fallen face-first into bed and slept off.

It wasn't as if she had forgotten she was supposed to come here, but she just couldn't help it. She still had work tonight at the club anyway, so getting in much sleep was nice as well.

Nora did as many jobs as available and she could just to make ends meet and keep a roof over her head. She had two brothers that depended on her, and her parents as well.

Her parents were not solely depending on her, because her mother was a nurse, but her father had a gambling problem. He would always gamble so much that he would even borrow money from a loan shark just to be able to continue gambling. Every time he was caught, he would promise them never to do it again, and she and her mother would work their asses off to pay the debt, only for him to do it again.

At some point, she had gotten tired and spoken to her mother about their separation. When she did, he had come back again to beg her, and she had taken him back. Not to get her wrong, she loved her father, and her mother too, but she didn't want them to get her because it only brought them all heartache.

Although, they had wanted to marry her off to a rich man just so that they could pay off her father's debt, but she had disagreed and left home, which meant that going back home wasn't an option, so she had to do as many jobs as possible. She was a waitress at the club as well as a cleaner, housekeeper, cooker, and sometimes, house sitter.

Paying rent, sending money home to her mother and brothers, saving and paying bills wasn't something she could do easily on one job, and even at that, she had to live with someone as well, just to be able to do all without having to beg.

She started to clean the kitchen and was soon done, then she proceeded to the living room before going to the bedroom finally. She was used to the feeling she got in her hands and fingers from all the cleaning she did. It wasn't as if she had any choice though.

Luckily, her hands weren't as callused as she thought they would get.

She started cooking, glad that it wasn't something complicated. She was a fair cook, but not super in every meal, so there were some meals she had to avoid.

When the food started to cook, she began to get the groceries into the fridge, and that was when the thought of the man from the elevator came into her head. She smiled when she remembered what he said about his grandmother and mother and what they would do if he didn't help her. He was such a gentleman, she thought.

He was six feet three inches, towering over her. He had piercing grey eyes and he was really sexy.

Nora knew she could only dream about having a man like that to herself as her man, but there was nothing wrong with dreaming. In fact, it was very noble, because that way, she was contented and not overreaching. She was sure that that was all it could ever be, a dream, so she wouldn't have any problem.

He must be a rich man, because of the wristwatch he had on and the navy blue suit he was wearing. It was a three-piece suit that looked like it was tailor-made to perfection and sewn against his body. He had a white shirt on inside, with the two top buttons undone and the tie at his neck loosened.

He was hot with a capital H, gorgeous, and really nice looking. She could also tell that he was powerful from the way he carried himself. She wondered who he was and where he was staying. Maybe she would ask Ryan, the owner of the apartment she was in. He could probably know, and she was only going to ask because he could become a client of hers.

She needed all the money she could get.

At long last, she was done cooking and getting the groceries in the fridge, so she walked to where she had dropped her bag and carried it, then she went to where Ryan usually left her pay and took it.

Hoping that the food would still be hot by the time Ryan got home, but knowing that was unlikely, she picked out a plastic that he could microwave it in and quickly wrote a post it note.

"Microwave it with this!"

Smiling at her silliness, she walked out of the apartment and got into the elevator. Soon, she arrived downstairs and handed Ryan's key to the security man, Sam, who was on duty tonight. He had been the one to give her the key when she arrived as well.

"Good night!" she said and walked out.

She walked to the bus stop where she would board a bus going her way. As she approached the stop, she heard her phone ring.

She picked it out to see it was a neighbor, Ms. Teddy. She was an older woman; a professor at the local university that was ten miles away living in the room in front of hers. Perhaps, she needed her to get something for her when coming home.

Quickly, she picked the call up before it dropped. "Hello, Ms. Teddy." She said in her usual cheery voice, smiling.

"Nora, did you move out of your apartment?" the woman asked.

She frowned. "What? What do you mean?" she asked, looking down at the screen of her phone to make sure it wasn't a wrong number before putting it back against her ear.

"Your apartment is empty, Nora. I'm standing right at the door looking inside. Everything is gone."

"What the hell are you talking about?" she asked. Before Ms. Teddy could say anything, she waved down a taxi and got into it, rapidly telling him her address.

"Get here soon, Nora. I think you might have been burgled."