Maid Of Haner

Alice's POV

I've been trying to get a model job for weeks but still, luck hates me. Don't even think about getting a cover for VOGUE or Cosmo, even a tiniest bit of teen magazine refused to hire me. What, am I not beautiful? Back in Mexico I was the beauty queen in my village. People worshipped my looks and I was featured in most ads even when I didn't even use the products.

I've been loitering around in California for almost a month, leeching off my sister Gabrielle or Gabe who works in a maid agency. I know that I shouldn't but right now what I can do to help her out is finding some small modeling job around town. There's not much going around here, especially magazines. California is big, but Gabe lives in Orange County. They mostly live off real stories like surfer athletes, volleyball teams, and stuff. The most that I could get was some bikini photoshoots for some catalogue. As long as they pay me, I don't have any complaint.

Yeah, I was feeling guilty for clinging on too much to Gabe. And the guilty feeling worsened when she felt ill all of a sudden, and asked me to replace her in the house that she regularly works. I'm not much of a housework kind of person like Gabe, but she's almost 40, plus she's a divorcee so it was logic.

Me? I'm barely 28 and I care for my nails more than my own life.

But today, seeing how helpless Gabe is, I really don't have any choice, do I?

"Please, Alessandra? Be a honey and help me? They pay me by hour, so if I still don't show up to work tomorrow, there goes our rent money for this month."

I bit my lip and thought hard. From what I heard, Gabe works for someone who's really difficult to deal with. Cocky, bossy, picky...basically a nightmare for all maids out there. That was at least what Gabe had told me.

"Don't worry," she coughed, after seeing me hesitating with my decision for too long. "He's not too bad once you get to know him."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Are you serious? I'm only going to replace you for a day, right?"

"Depends,"

"Oh Gabe! I have to go 'sightseeing' around LA. There's an audition for Lancome ad next week. Can't be stuck on maid work by that time!"

Gabrielle coughed again, harder this time. I sighed and ruffled my long hair into a mess. Seeing her so helplessly weary like that, I can't help but reminiscing my childhood, where Gabe and I watched how our mother fell ill, coughing..coughing and coughing until a gush of red blood came out of her mouth. It was the most horrifying thing that's ever happened to me.

"Fine. I'll replace you. But only for the hourly pay. Don't expect me to get friendly with your boss."

Gabe laughed. "Don't worry. It's not that easy to see him anyway."

_____________________________________________________________________________

My God. Is this a house or a freaking castle? I stood before a humongous black gate, mimicking a view pretty similar to a mansion in The Sound of Music, where in the middle of the front yard, stood a rhinestoned fountain with various of luxurious cars lined up in the porch.

My jaw dropped as I scanned the view all over the place. Gabe never told me how big this place was! I thought she worked for a mediocre rich people but she never said that this boss of hers is seriously richie rich!

"Excuse me, can I help you?" I looked to my left, a security guard was eyeing me from top to bottom.

"I'm Alice, a replacement for Gabrielle Rossi."

He narrowed his already small eyes and told me to wait here. After a few seconds of gaping and stunned in awe by the view of the mansion, he finally let me in. The gates opened automatically, providing me a path lead straight to the big front door.

"Just walk ahead and Mrs Haner will see you."

Mrs Haner? Gabe did told me about her boss's name is Haner...but she also told me that it was a 'he' instead of a 'she'. Hmm.

"Alright. Thanks."

Nevertheless, I walked further until I reached the front door and I wasn't even close to push the doorbell button when the door opened, revealing a slender figure of a woman - with golden blonde wavy locks curled until her breasts, small eyes accompanied her weirdly long nose, and small mouth smeared with red lipstick. She's pretty.

"You're Gabe's replacement?" Just like the security guy, she was eyeing me up and down too.

"Yeah." She sucked her teeth, making an annoying sound that I really hate, before she held out her arm to me.

"Michelle Dibenedetto, soon to be Michelle Haner. But you can call me Mrs Haner." I raised my eyebrows. Oh so Gabe's boss has a fiancee. I shook her hand and introduced myself.

"Alice."

"Alice? Short for Alicia?"

Nope. It's short for Alessandra anyway. But I don't wanna tell her that, I might lose my visa. I smiled at her, not responding to the question. She moved on and breaking the ice for me.

"This is the living room, as you can see, my fiancee's awards are in that cabinet. I suggest you don't touch them unless you wanna clean them."

I held back the temptation to roll my eyes. But I also held back the curiosity to look at each award. He truly has so many. I wonder what he looks like, this mysterious boss of Gabe.

"This is the kitchen, where you mainly will be. Mr Haner doesn't drink anything other than Heineken and plain water. So make sure the fridge is full of them. We don't eat tofu and stuff like that, so it's gonna be meat, meat and meat."

Woah. Is this a kitchen for a house or for a restaurant? For real? The kitchen is huge like hell. The fridge, the built-in oven, the island counter with champagne glasses hanging over it, the fire place...everything seemed so unreal. I feel like Cinderella only I'm excited about a fucking kitchen!

"Alice? Do you hear what I said?"

"Huh? Sorry?"

"I said, there will be gathering every weekend for Mr Haner and his friends. We will be having cook outs in the backyard. So make sure every ingredients are ready by 7 am, especially tomorrow. Since tomorrow's Saturday. And clean up the backyard too."

"Yes, Mrs Haner."

I made a footnote in my head to check out the backyard later. They must have a huge swimming pool there. Mrs Haner then led me upstairs where there were six doors leading by a carpeted hallway. She explained which is which.

"This is the bedroom," she said proudly. As if all the magic happened in there. "Do not disturb us in the morning. We have some 'activities' to do."

Excuse me, I just threw up in my mouth.

"You can do the laundry later, after we're both have gone out of the house."

"Yes, Mrs Haner." Jeez, I'm obedient, aren't I?

"This is the studio room. My fiancee always hang here to write music. Sometimes with his friends, sometimes alone. And he does not like to be disturbed whenever he's in here. Understood?"

Oh wow. He's a musician? Gabe never told me this! She only told me that her boss sometimes bring back some musical friends, but never told me that he's a musician himself! Wow, I'm a sucker for guitarist..I really do hope he plays guitar..

"Hey! Why are you always not paying attention when I'm talking to you?" Mrs Haner put both of her hands on her hips.

"Sorry. I was...fascinated."

She snorted proudly. "Damn right you should. This house cost my fiancee 20 million dollar to build. You should be fascinated."

Once again, I rolled my eyes in agony. What an arrogant bitch isn't she? The other four rooms were spare bedrooms, according to Mrs Haner, her 'fiancee' as she suppressed it, sometimes brought his friends over for brainstorming and they spend the night here. Meaning I have to clean them all after their stay.

"So that's about it, I think. Any question?"

I ran a hand through my hair and fiddled with my sling bag. "Uh, yeah. Where is Mr Haner?"

Her face apalled, watching me in a complete curiosity mixed with anger and jealousy. What? I was just asking!

"Why do you wanna know? Are you a fan of him?"

Fan? Why would I be a fan of him? Is he famous? "Er..no."

She sucked her teeth again, bearing that hateful sound.

"He's not here. He's at the studio. They have recording today. He'll be back before sunset." I nodded.

"Are you going to have dinner here?"

She narrowed her eyes at me. Somehow, I can sense a tinge of jealousy in her stare but I ignored her. Relax, bitch. You're already engaged to this person. Besides who knows, he might not be good looking. He might be bald with a big fat belly, and the only thing that attracts this blonde babe to him is his fucking money. Or maybe his music.

"Me and Brian are going to have a dinner date tonight. You can go home after you've done cleaning."

Yesss ma'am! That's what I want to hear.

Notes

Hi there! In need of comments from you guys! XD