A Week Alone

Monday morning came too soon for Emily, as she found herself alone in the grand house. She walked down to the kitchen to feed the boys before making something of herself. When she entered the kitchen she was met with a middle-aged woman working on a crap cake. She turned around with a smile on her face and flour all over her pink apron. It took her a second to meet Emily's eyes because her rather large glassed were sliding off but when she did her face lit up.

"Oh! Hello," She took a step forward. "My name is Catherine Kay Romano, I am the housekeeper here." she wiped the buttercream off her hand on a small towel that was in the pocket of the apron. "You can call me whatever you see fit." Cerberus walked up to the housekeeper and she crouched down to pet him.

"Hi. I'm Emily Ann Lavender Valentine, but please just call me Emily or a nickname." Emily smiled and walked next to the counter and started to get the dog food ready.

"Well, Emmie, I'm guessing that Mr. Bear didn't tell you about me this past week. Part of my job is to feed the little ones."

"I don't mind feeding them. It makes it feel like I can actually do something around here." she gave the boys their food. "Catie, who is Mr. Bear?" The older woman smiled at the nickname already seeing that they were going to get along well.

"He is Mr. Charles, I call him a bear because he can be scary like one but he cares about us and the boys." She glanced at the dogs as they ate with vengeance. "He asked me to make sure you go over everything the doctor assigned you." She adjusted her glasses again. " He also wants me to make sure you eat this week. So I made you a cake for breakfast!"

"Theo has been making me eat healthy since I got here. Are you sure he will be ok with it?"

"It's made of crapes, that's technically a breakfast item. If you don't want it I can save it for later."

"NO!" she cleared her throat. "I mean you did so much work it would be rude not to eat some." Catie laughed. "It looks delicious, thank you." Emily hugged her before getting plates. "You have to eat with me I can't eat it all."

They walked over to the bar stools and ate chocolate crapes with strawberry buttercream. They talked and Catie realized that Emily was a sweet and kind young woman, not some stuck-up spoiled brat like her last implore was. Emily learned why Theodore hired this woman before her, she had a motherly disposition, and working for Theo made her remember why she loved cooking in the first place. The Chinese family she worked for before treated her badly from a young age, they tried to sell her on the black market because they thought she was too old now. Theo took the company they ran away from them and saved all the servants by hiring them. Catie saw him as an angel for saving them.

When lunchtime rolled around the women had become close. They did all the memories exercises and went exploring around the house (except for Theo's home office). Catie didn't know that Theo knew Emmie before the accident, but she could tell that he loved her from the way he decorated her room with all her family pictures. He put so much care into everything that was for her that Catie was almost scared of what would happen if this girl didn't wake up. She only knew him for a year and a half, but he was like a son to her.

When dinner was ready they sat down in the kitchen to eat.

"Catie, how well do you know Theo?" Emily had been wanting to ask all day but she always stopped herself.

"Hmm. Almost two years now. He hired me to look after this house when he is in the city. A butler would have been harder for you to get alone with so he hired a housekeeper."

"Why would he want me to be comfortable if he didn't even know if I was going to wake up? I don't remember him and yet he told me that we knew each other. He even got dogs to protect me, all my favorite colors, pictures of my family, and now you to help me recover when he isn't home. Who is he?"

"I don't know him well enough to answer all your questions, but I can tell you one thing, he cares deeply for you." they sat in peace for a while. "How about something sweet?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"How about some cookies, I made some yesterday."

"You baked on your day off? You shouldn't have, don't overwork yourself for my sake. I want you to take care of yourself." Emily's voice was full of concern.

"Oh, it's nothing." she laughed lightly. "He said the same thing to me when I made him a cake for his birthday on my day off. It was a delicious chocolate and strawberry cake." she looked off into the distance at the memory."

The next morning Catie was in the kitchen with a big cookbook in front of her.

"Morning Catie! Can I help with anything?"

"Good morning dear, How do you feel about learning how to bake some carrot cake?"

The women hugged before Emily responded. "What kind of carrot cake? The only one I know how to make it a little dry, or I'm over baking it."

"I can teach how to tell if you over bake something. Did it have cinnamon in it by any chance?"

"I honestly have no idea what was in it besides carrots." the younger said sheepishly.

"Today we will make an amazing carrot cake with some frosting."

They set off to work on the cake and it took most of the morning to complete but by the time lunch was ready so was the cake. It was saved for after dinner in the massive refrigerator.

As the week progressed Catie not only helped Emily do what the doctor wanted her to do but she. was teaching her how to cook and bake. Without trying to Emily found herself excited for the next activity they would get to do that she almost forgot that Theo was going to be home soon.

It was almost unexpected when he came home to the kitchen turned upside down and the women giggling over something that he clearly missed. "Am I interrupting anything?"

This ends chapter 9. Thank you for reading :)