“Uhm… sorry, I got lost.” My excuse was lame, and he could tell as his scowl only deepened.
“I don’t know how things are done where you come from, but here, you don’t fucking wander into places you have no business wandering.”
His deep blue eyes were like two raging storms, and the full force of his intense stare at me left me a little out of breath.
“I’m sorry.”
“Leave, now.” He says.
It had been a long time since I’d been chided like a child. That was precisely how I felt, and there were many things I could have said to him at that moment, none of them pleasant, but I stifled my anger. He was unnecessarily mean, and I would be lying if I didn’t say it got to me.
I nodded and headed for the door right behind him and he made no move to step away from the entrance.
I had been avoiding his gaze, but standing in front of him, I could not do that.
“Excuse me,” I said, looking him dead in the eye. For a second, the air felt thicker, dryer, just like my tongue. We engage in a staring battle for a moment before he moves, and I released the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.
I hurried out of the workshop and made my way toward the outdoors. Walking blindly away from the house as I felt my chest pressing down on me. I did not know why, but I was on the brink of tears.
Being in his presence felt overwhelming, coupled with his unprovoked cruelty; it was a little too much for my already fragile state of mind.
I wondered if I should just cut my losses and quit, maybe go back home and become a waitress for a short while. I wasn’t sure I could handle this.
“Looks like you need a breather.” The voice startled me out of my sad thoughts, and I turned to it, wondering to whom it belonged.
It was him.
A young man who looked around my age or slightly older. He was very handsome, and I could tell he had Native American roots from his coloring and full long hair, which he packed back in a man bun.
“Who are you?” I asked, a little panicked. Christian and I were the only ones in the house. The nearest neighbors were miles away, and it would take roughly forty minutes for the cops to get here, even if I called them now.
“Hey, calm down. I’m just the groundskeeper.” He must have sensed my panic because he tried to calm me down.
I stopped my retreat, although still a little suspicious. “What?”
“I’m the groundskeeper. I do most of the menial jobs around the house, like clean the pool, maintain the trees and flowers, that sort of thing?” He explained.
I realized, of course, they had a groundskeeper. The house was spotless, and the trees and flowers all looked well-kept. But I had seen no one like that in the past four days, so I drew back again.
“How come I haven’t seen you in the past couple of days since I’d been here?”
“Because I come in twice a week. I was here the day you arrived; you must have missed me by a few hours.” He was smiling, and his teeth were dazzling white. A little distracting, if I was being honest.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, Alba said she went out for some groceries and that you and the boss were alone in the house. I was just about to come to announce my presence before I saw you bolting out. Are you okay? You look a little upset.”
I noticed two things from what he said: he knew about Alba and knew that Christian and I were alone in the house. It could be a ruse to deceive me into trusting him; I could not be sure.
“You still don’t trust me?” He sounded exasperated, although in a way that told me he found it funny.
“Why should I?”
“One, I know your name is Vanessa Hughes, and you are a nurse employed to care for the boss. You got here on Monday from New York City. That’s all Alba told me about you, but you can call her if you want to be sure.”
He looked genuine, and I did not want to look stupid, so I let it go.
“No need for that, I believe you,” I said to him, and he lets out another big smile showcasing his white teeth. The guy should walk around with a warning sign.