I didn’t want her to survive only, I wanted her to enjoy it.
But how much fun could it really be to look after a six-year-old? Nikki had a brain; she was a young woman who wanted to have fun.
I decided I needed to liven things up for Nikki.
Chapter 5
Nikki
I was cleaning our toilet, scrubbing away at the porcelain with as much enthusiasm as I could muster for what was a shitty job. In every sense of word. But Simone had done most of the packing and I couldn’t expect her to do all the cleaning too, especially the tougher jobs. Our bathroom was a bit of a sore point and always had been.
It had always been a damp, miserable space, with cracked tiles and a moldy tub with a wonky shower fitting. We’d taken turns to clean it over weekends and both of us spent as little time as possible on it. I don’t think we ever cleaned the tiles, not properly.
At one point, Simone came in and looked around.
“It’s looking a lot better,” she said encouragingly. “Do you think we should replace the mirror?”
I looked up from the floor, where I was sitting, scrubbing away at the grubby tiles underneath the tub.
“I guess, right?”
The small mirror stuck over the basin had a crack across one corner, the result of a party we’d had a while ago. We’d only noticed it the following morning and nobody had owned up to causing the damage.
“I’ll go pick one up when I get us lunch,” said Simone.
Later, when we ate sandwiches on our bare living room floor, she asked me about the new job.
I shrugged. “It’s fine, you know. I’m a nanny, it’s not exactly rocket science.”
“And Will,” she pushed. “Is he being nice?”
Again, I lifted my shoulders. “He’s always at work.”
I didn’t tell her that I felt like there was a bit of a vibe between us. How to explain that exactly? The buzz you get when you walk past someone in a room, and you accidentally touch their arm? Or when your eyes meet after a little kid says something unintentionally funny and you can’t show that you know and want to burst out laughing? I found myself noticing Will more than before, liking the way he looked in his casual work gear, the way he carried himself. He was a grown-up, a professional, but I no longer thought of him as being arrogant or conceited. I had the feeling he was shy, introverted, not sure how to be around people, and me. I was his sister’s friend and he obviously liked me but now I worked for him. I didn’t really know how to make him feel more comfortable or relaxed around me. Sometimes I thought about kissing him and wondered how he would react.
Probably fire me on the spot.
I couldn’t say anything to Simone about it either.
She’d always been more serious, more responsible than I was. She’d never forgotten an assignment or missed a class while I was constantly getting things mixed up.
The first week on my new job went well. I was on time with the pick-ups and drop-offs, I made sure to watch Zoë do her homework, and go to her swimming practice and extra art classes. My efforts at making dinner were less successful but I noticed that neither Zoë nor her father were picky eaters. I made a chicken casserole and had to throw away half after forgetting about it in the oven. In the end I scraped the top off and dumped a whole lot of cheese on top, melting it with crumbs and they each had second helpings.
I had a feeling Shelley hadn’t been a big cook.
In my free time, I worked on my assignment, and I was almost done.
Things were looking good when I got an email from Zane.
Hi babe,
I’m in town the weekend, would love to catch up.
U keen?
X
I was still working on Friday night, and he suggested going for coffee on Saturday. I was tired after cleaning the bathroom, not really in the mood for a sexy hook up.