Page 27 of Just So You Know, I Don't Work Friday

“Okay, then.” I nodded, shocked that Finn Joseph had gone to bat for me. Especially because Gladys was most probably right. And if Finn was the richest, or at least one of the richest, men in the country, that meant he was smart, and it suddenly struck me that why a smart man would hire me didn’t add up. I licked my lips nervously. “So Mr. Joseph isn’t here, right?”

“No. He had a business meeting in Tampa,” he said. “He’ll most probably be staying at one of the top hotels there, unless he buys a condo there.”

“But Tampa is only a couple of hours away. Why would he not come back?”

Benedict looked at me and frowned. “Because his business meeting goes until late.”

“Okay, and what’s that got to do with the price of tea?”

“Let’s just say that Mr. Joseph will not be back this evening, Ms. Campbell. That’s enough questions for now. Let me show you to your room,” he said. And then I remembered that Benedict had said he was also the chauffeur. If Benedict was the chauffeur, why was he here? I shrugged. That wasn’t my business right now. They knew what they were doing, and it wasn’t like I cared if Mr. Joseph was here or not. Sure, I wanted to get a little flirt on, but it wasn’t like I was expecting anything to go down the first night. I wasn’t expecting anything to go down, period. I didn’t want anything to go down. Finn Joseph didn’t even deserve my daydreams, let alone my reality.

“And this is your room,” Benedict said as we stopped outside a door. I gasped as I walked into the room. It was humongous. Like, it had to have been almost five hundred square feet. This was not a room; this was a suite. My jaw dropped as I saw the king-size four-poster bed in the middle of the room. To the far side, bay windows let in a tremendous amount of light. My room was on the far side of the property, so I could see the swimming pool from my window. There was an ottoman and a chaise lounge on the other side next to a beautiful wooden chest of drawers. I walked through a small doorway and entered the most luscious bathroom I’d ever seen. There was a separate clawfoot tub and a huge walk-in shower with a rainfall shower spout.

“Wow,” I said. “This is amazing. Gladys was in this room?”

“No,” Benedict said. “Gladys had a room on the other side of the house. She preferred not to be in the main sleeping chambers.”

“The what?” I asked.

“This is Mr. Joseph’s side of the house. Normally, we help sleep on the other side, but Mr. Joseph said that you would prefer a room like this.”

“Oh, well, that was very thoughtful of him.” I pressed my lips together. “Is your room just as nice?” I asked Benedict, hoping he wouldn’t hate me for having been given this amazing room, and I’d only just started.

“No, my room is nothing like this,” he said. “Anyway, ma’am, is there anything else?”

“I still have some more bags in my car. Do I get a front door key or…” I stared at him for a couple of seconds. “Like, how do I get in and out of the house, or are you expected to open the door for me every single time?”

Benedict reached a hand into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. “These are for you,” he said. “I thought it was too soon to give you your own set of keys to the house, but Mr. Joseph did hand them to me to hand off to you.”

“Thank you, Benedict. I promise I’m not going to steal the silverware or a TV or anything.” He didn’t laugh at my joke. “And do you know what my hours are?”

“Your hours, ma’am?” He raised a single eyebrow again. His face was long, narrow, and almost comical, but he certainly wasn’t trying to entertain me.

“Well, you know, I have two sisters that live in town, and we might want to grab a cocktail or dinner or, you know, have some fun.” I smiled at him. He had to have fun, didn’t he?

“You’re the housekeeper, ma’am. You have no off hours.”

“Well, legally you have to have some time off,” I said. “That’s the law. You’re meant to have a fifteen-minute break every—”

“Ma’am. You are a salaried employee. Your hours are when we need you.” I licked my lips. I didn’t want to make any comments about only staying for the summer. I didn’t want to antagonize Benedict or make him think I had taken the job with false expectations. I hadn’t said I would be staying for any particular amount of time.

“How much money am I making again?” I said, my eyes wide. “I know the newspaper said one amount, but I haven’t heard anything from Mr. Joseph about my salary, and Gladys was meant to tell me today, but—”

“I believe you’re on a one hundred fifty thousand dollar salary per annum, ma’am.”

“A hundred fifty thousand! Woo hoo!” I shouted. “Benedict, we need to party it up! Maybe I’ll have that glass of champagne after all.”

“I don’t believe I offered you a glass of champagne,” he said stiffly.

“No, I’m joking. Remember when I came here for the interview, you asked…”

“That was a test, ma’am.”

“I know, and I’m just testing you. Ha Ha. Funny, right?”

“Is that all, Ms. Campbell?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

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