Victoria The Billionaires Maid

I laughed and said, “I would think you controlling.” He made a face and I leaned up and kissed him and said, “But I always have and I’ve come to accept it as one of your charms.”

He laughed too. “Thanks. I just can’t stand the thought of anything happening to you. Since you seem to be a little more comfortable leaving Michael for a few hours at a time, maybe you and I could go out to dinner tonight and have a real date?”

“I’d like that. I don’t know about Karen staying so late to watch him though… maybe I should ask Liz?”

“If you’re comfortable with that?”

“I am. Liz loves him like an aunt. I’ll call her now and see if she’s available.”

Alex went upstairs to change while I called Liz. When she answered I said, “I have news…”

She laughed. “What did you do?”

“Nothing, I just told Cook that I have this really pretty, really smart, really nice friend that I think he would like a lot…”

“Oh my goodness, I feel like I’m in high school, being set up by the bestie.”

“He was receptive to it. It seems that he has trouble finding women who don’t just want to use him for his money.”

“He has money?”

“Shut up!”

She laughed. “You know that I don’t care about that. I can take care of myself. Thank you… I think… maybe I should meet him before I thank you.”

“He told me to talk to you and set up a coffee date. In the meantime is there any possibility you’re free tonight for a few hours?”

“For the coffee?”

“No… to babysit Michael so Alex and I can have a real date.”

“Oh absolutely. For Sir Michael, I am always available!”

“Aw, thanks, Liz. You’re a great friend.”

“Hey, you hook me up with your cook, I babysit your kid, it all works out in the end.”

I giggled. “We have

interviews for a nanny this afternoon… just a part-time one. I’m looking to go back to school soon.”

“Good for you! I’m so proud of you, Vicki. Have I told you that lately?”

“You have, but I like hearing it. Thanks, Liz.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll see you tonight.”

The first woman showed up at three for the nanny interview. I’d just fed Michael and he didn’t want to sleep yet so he got to sit in. It was nice for him to be there and see how the woman was with him.

She was about forty and she looked like a Mom was supposed to look to me… far different from my mother. She said that she raised four children of her own and then went back to school to get early childhood development.

She’d never had a nanny job before, so she didn’t have any job references, but her character references were stellar. She held Michael for a while and said all of the things a new parent wants to hear.

“He’s beautiful, what pretty hazel eyes,” and, “Look at those eyelashes,” and, “He’s really strong for a newborn, especially a preemie.”

I liked her, but I could tell that Alex wasn’t happy that she had no real job experience taking care of children. After she left he said, “I’d prefer someone with job references.”

“I agree,” Karen said.

Alex looked at me and said, “What did you think?”

“I liked her, but as far as hiring employees goes, you and Karen have me there, so I will defer to you both there.”

He smiled and squeezed my hand before Karen led the next woman in. This one looked like a college student. She was cute, but a little over-bubbly, I thought. She did have references from two families she’d worked for.

With one of them, she had just gone on vacation with them and their newborn, but it was an extended holiday in Europe for three months. They recommended her highly. The second family was one that

Alex knew well. He’d gone to college with the man and he’d even attended their wedding. They gave her a high recommendation as well; they had only terminated her services because at three years old their child got into a very progressive preschool.

It was one that Alex had already mentioned to me that he wanted Michael to get into. It was another area where we slightly disagreed. I hated the thought of treating pre-school and grade school the same as the struggle for college admission.

It seemed like a lot of unwarranted stress on everyone involved. When all was said and done with that one, I didn’t care for her on a personal level, but Alex and Karen were leaning heavily towards hiring her before we even met the last woman.

The last one’s name was Becky and she was a pretty, young twenty-something who came from one of the most influential families in Orange County, even I had heard of her family.

Her father was a Bio-technical engineer as well and he had designed one of the L. A. area’s most prestigious theme parks. When Alex saw her name he said that he knew her family. I was confused right off the bat.

“I’m sorry if this sounds like a rude question… I don’t mean for it to in any way… I’m confused as to why you would want to be a nanny. It’s not something most girls of your… social standing would be interested in.”

She smiled and said, “That’s a legitimate question. I’m a trust fund baby, that’s for sure. But, my father was raised to believe that the one person and the one thing we will always have to depend on in this life is ourselves and our brains. My little brother works on a fishing boat in Alaska right now. My father is willing to pay for our room and board, utilities and education, things like that until we’re thirty, but nothing else. So if we want a car or nice clothes, anything like that, we’re to get a job and pay for it ourselves.”

“So you don’t have any experience?”

“Not yet,” she said. “I have a degree in early childhood development.” She looked at Alex then and said, “I used to be a counselor at that summer camp every year, you remember that, right? You worked with me one year.”

He smiled and his eyes looked like he was remembering as he said, “That’s right, I remember! I was already nineteen my last year and you were just a kid still…”

“I was fifteen, and very insulted then that you thought of me as a kid,” she said, in a flirtatious way. Alex didn’t seem to be fazed by her flirting. Sometimes, I think he gets so used to being flirted with that sometimes he doesn’t even notice.

“Oh well, sorry about that,” he said, laughing. “It must have been the fact that I was such a worldly nineteen… everyone seemed young to me.”

“And everyone either wanted to be you or with you,” she said, with another laugh. I looked her over as she flirted with my boyfriend and took in the Jimmy Choo shoes and the Prada pantsuit and the Michael Kors bag. I had to wonder if “Daddy” didn’t pay for those things and she’d been in school, how did she afford them? After she left, Alex again asked me what I thought.

“I don’t like her.”

He looked at me with a shocked expression. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you just flat out say you didn’t like someone.”

“You asked me what I thought.”

“True… but, I do like her and her family is above reproach. Karen, what did you think?”

“She seems like a nice, responsible young lady to me.”Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

“I don’t like her,” I said again. Alex laughed.

“Yes love, we’ve established that. What is it that you don’t like?”

“The way she blatantly flirts with you for one thing… right in front of me.”

He laughed again. “I don’t think she was flirting. I think it’s just the way she talks to people.”

“She didn’t bat her eyelashes once when she was talking to me,” I said.

Karen was trying not to smile as she said, “May I make a suggestion?”

“Sure,” Alex and I both said at the same time.

“I need to hire someone to help while Marco is out for his surgery. How about if we hire her temporarily for his position? That way, if the nanny we decide on doesn’t work out, we’ll have her as a backup.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” Alex said. “What do you think, Vicki?”