Page 65 of That First Night
“Hello?” I ask in a questioning tone.
“Peyton,” Thomas says over the speakers with a small laugh in his tone. “I see you figured out how to answer the phone.”
“What kind of spaceship is this that the car just automatically connects to my phone?”
“It doesn’t.”
“What do you mean it doesn’t?” I ask. “It rang through the speakers-”
“I connected it to your phone.”
“You… what? But when?” I stutter.
He laughs at me stuttering over my words that he did that for me. “The day you started, Peyton. I wanted to make sure you were all settled. I set the car up with a remote start in an app on your phone and connected the Bluetooth so you can be hands free and safe in the car.”
“Well,” I pause because I’m at a complete loss for words. “Thank you.”
“It’s no problem at all, Peyton.”
“Hi, Daddy!” James screams from the backseat.
“Hey, bud. Are you being a good boy for Ms. Peyton?” he asks James.
“Yes, Daddy. The bestest.” He smiles so big at the fact that he has been so good. But honestly, the kid is always thebestest. “We got bagels with cheese cream!”
“Oh man,” Thomas huffs. “I’m jealous of you, JJ. You know those are my favorite.”
James giggles before I speak again, “We’re almost to Gigi’s house.”
“Okay, Peyton,” he says to me, changing his tone from three-year-old talk back to adult talk. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” is all I manage to get out. I don’t know how I am so like every female in the world, we use the four-letter word just to keep the questions and emotions at bay. Between the events last night, the events this morning in the bathtub and now moving my mind the last ten minutes to worrying about Gigi. I’m not sure I’m actually fine, but I hope he believes it.
“Don’t sound so convincing,” he says. I’m willing to bet he’s shaking his head on the other end of the line because he’s not dumb. He’s the CEO of a billion-dollar investment company, for Christ sake. He can read people like a book. But I allow myself a small smile and I shake my head even though he can’t see it. “You know I’m here if you need anything right, Peyton?”
“Thomas,” I say through a pleading sigh. I want to say more but James is in the backseat. I want to tell him he doesn’t have to be there for me. He shouldn’t be there. He’s my boss. I’m the nanny. We aren’t in that type of relationship.
“I know,” he says through his own exhale. “I know,” he repeats, as if I said all of that out loud. Did I? Shit. I don’t respond back to him, but he breaks the short silence when he says, “I have to get back to work. James, be a good boy when you visit Gigi. And Peyton,” he pauses as if he’s trying to work through his own thoughts. “I’ll see you at home tonight.”
“I’ll see you at home,” I repeat and hang up the phone just as we pull into Gigi’s driveway. I’m staring straight ahead, and my mind is running wild with thoughts.
I’m falling for my boss.
* * *
“Gigi, where do you want me to put these pots?” I shout from the kitchen. I’m helping her clean up her place a little bit because she’s having a ‘tired’ day, as she calls it. This visit was even too much for her. She will never tell me that she’s in pain or hurting. Her calling it a tired day tells me all I need to know about the state she's in.
Her and James are in the living room and James is telling her so many stories about school and life while he colors her pictures. He told her all about his love for donuts while we ate the bagels, which those two have in common. He talked about his best friends and the first person on his list was me. I have grown so close to James the last couple of months without a shadow of a doubt. But the problem with that is that if anything backfires with Thomas and I, I’ll lose James. I don’t want to lose James. I don’t want to lose this job and dare I say it… I don’t want to lose Thomas.
Gigi walks into the kitchen, and it breaks me out of my trance, and I remember I asked her about the pots. “Gigi, where do you want me to put these?”
“Don’t worry about them, sweetheart,” she says as she pours herself a cup of water. “Come. Sit and tell me what’s bothering you.”
“Oh Gigi, nothing is bothering me.”
“I’ve been around this earth for a long time, Pey,” she says with a side eye glare and a smirk. “Something is happening in your life and it’s time to tell me about it. You’re not glowing from the damn sun, sweetheart,” she adds with a wink. “Sit down and tell me about him.”
“Gigi!” I whisper yell at her so that James doesn’t hear. “You are a dirty bird. I am not telling you about my love life.”
