It's Sunday morning, officially 35 days left and I'm looking forward to just taking it easy today.
Steph and Mia are still sleeping so I decide to leave the house to do a little shopping for some new work clothes. I don't have a ton of money to be spending at the moment but I do need more professional-looking clothes, I want to make a good impression on Marlene and the team.
I stop by a nearby store and rummage through some of the clothes. I found a couple of outfits spending a tad more than I had wanted but it's worth it. I picked up some black pencil skirts and some cute tops to go with them.
I get back in my car and head back to the dreadful house. As I'm driving, I call my mom again. It goes to voicemail and I leave a message:
"Hey mom, it's me. Again. I'm having a rough couple of days just feeling out of place. I know it will all be better in just 35 days. I'm so excited to start working at my new job and have a place to myself again. I just bought some new clothes that I know you'd love. Well, okay I love you so much, mama."
I hang up and have an overwhelming feeling of missing her more than usual. I need to pay her a visit soon.
I pull onto Sunset Avenue, pull into the immaculate driveway, type in the code for the gate and when it opens, I pull my car into the same spot as when I left.
I leave my new clothes in the trunk of my car and slothfully walk to the front entrance. Instead of going inside, I sit on one of the steps of the beautiful staircase. It's a warm beautiful day and I can smell the salty ocean in the air, I let the sun's rays hit my skin. The front door opens and out comes waltzing...Penelope.
Ugh.
She struts right to where I'm sitting and says "Nice job pissing off Ghost." I roll my eyes at her forwardness and ask
"What is your problem with me, Penelope?"
she snickers a laugh and says" My problem with you Nellie, is that you do not belong here and I want you out."
Damn, she sugarcoats nothing.
"It's Millie…and it's one month, so get over it." I snakily reply, I stand up and walk away through the door. I hate this place more with every passing minute. I'm not playing these games with this little entitled brat or anyone else for that matter.
I get back up to the suite to see Steph and Mia are up and lounging on the couch watching TV. I join them and we do this for the rest of the day just enjoying a lazy Sunday snacking on anything and everything. When it's time for bed, I grab my phone that I haven't checked all day, and see I have another text from Chase:
"Friday evening?"
I text him back that Friday is good for me and set my phone down on the nightstand. I fall asleep but toss and turn for hours because I have so much on my mind.
I get up and check my phone, at 2:07 am. This will be a long sleepless night so instead of trying to fall back asleep, I grab my laptop out of my backpack and tip-toe out of the bedroom careful to not wake sleeping beauty with her mouth wide open and snoring.
I get into the living room and see Mia sprawled out on the couch sleeping. Shit, I don't want to wake her. I think long and hard debating on whether I should go down to the common kitchen area, surely no one would be in there at this hour.
I leave the room with my laptop in hand and walk to the elevator. Luckily, all the hallways are lit up so I don't need to struggle finding my way. I enter the kitchen and praise the lord, no one is in here. I take a seat on a bar stool and power on my laptop.
I'm sifting through emails, nothing important. An hour has passed and then decide to take a look at motels in the area to see if I could afford to leave sooner than a month.
"E-mailing Mommy?" a voice says from behind me.
I freeze.
What the hell? I think to myself and turn around.
It's the asshole wall guy. "Excuse me?" I ask confused. He's standing in the doorway of the kitchen and leaning against the dark wooden frame with his arms crossed. He's wearing that zip-up hoodie again and the hood is up like the night before. I can see tattoos peaking through the sleeves on his hands and god if he wasn't a complete ass I'd think it was incredibly sexy. He opens his mouth to speak again
"Ya know, since you didn't get to finish your conversation last night? You have a weird relationship with your mom. She'd be proud of you for starting a job here? Most girls here keep this kind of shit from their family but here you are being a star child for getting guys off and bragging to your mom about it. So proud..is she also proud that her incompetent little girl doesn't even know how to take out both contacts?"
OH HELL NO! Those words did not just come out of his fucking mouth.
I'm fuming, like smoke coming out of my ears mad! I'm fully turned around facing him now and grit through my teeth
"Don't you dare say that, you know nothing about me asshole."
He's stunned that I just spoke to him that way and I couldn't care less. What a prick. I slam my laptop closed, rip it from off the counter, and tuck it under my arm.
I shock myself by storming right up to his face with so much confidence, looking into his dark green eyes that I can now tell the color of because of the lighting, and say
"Just for the record, I'm not wearing contacts. These are my natural eyes and I was not e-mailing my "mommy", I was looking for a motel to get out of this fucking, dysfunctional place you people call home."
His eyes grow big with surprise and I try to leave with as much dignity as I have left but he grabs my arm holding me in place. I rip my arm away like his hand is made of acid and he blocks the doorway from letting me leave.
My confidence is dwindling away and fear is replacing it.
"Sit down," he says sternly.
He moves out of the doorway and walks over to a cupboard.
"You clearly need a drink and I need one too so sit down." He says and doesn't even look back to see if I'm still there.
He grabs two glasses and sets them on the counter. He pulls out a bottle of liquor from a nearby cabinet and pours the brown liquid into the glasses. I stand in the doorway with arms crossed over my chest building back some confidence now that he's a distance away and say "Why would I have a drink with you? One, you're an asshole, two I don't even know you, you could've slipped something in there and take advantage of me, three…"
He cuts me off annoyed "Would you stop counting and just sit down already."
He sits on a stool, lifts an eyebrow, and pulls off his hood revealing his perfect face and hair. His hair is a medium brown color, short on the sides and longer on top by a few inches, it's parted on one side and styled back. The hood made it a bit messy so he takes a tattooed hand through it and brushes it back with his fingers.
If I didn't hate him so much I'd be drooling at the sight before me. I reluctantly walk over and take a seat as I'm told. He slides over the glass and stares at it for a second too long before he says "I didn't put anything in it, you were right there when I poured it, and trust me, I'm not going to come on to you, you're a little too crazy for my liking."
ouch.
I roll my eyes and bring the glass to my lips and take a sip, out of the corner of my eye, I see him down his in a second flat. He pours himself another glass.
I go to pull the cup away from my lips but he reaches over holding the bottom of the glass upward encouraging me to finish the drink. Once I down it all, I set the glass on the counter. Wall guy hasn't even looked at me since I sat down, he's either looking straight forward at nothing in particular or down at his drink.
I wearily glance over to him "I'm Emily by the way, everyone just calls me Millie though."
He doesn't even look up from the glass on the counter that he's fiddling his fingers around and coldly responds in a monotone way " I didn't ask."
Jesus.
This man is infuriating and rude. I uncomfortably take another sip from my drink that he refilled after I downed it.
Crickets, just absolute unbearable silence.
I break the quietness and say just as cold as his previous tone "Well, you can at least have the decency to tell me yours."
Still not looking up, he scoffs a chuckle and says "Funny".
Okay….I see the irony here because he's anything but.
What's with these weird nicknames that these people have? I shouldn't even be surprised by how bizarre this whole house is.
I grab a hold of my laptop that is on the side of me and stand up. "Alright then funny, I'm off to bed." I push the chair in and take a few steps before he says
"You're such a smart ass."
I turn on my heel to face him and his head is up now with his gaze searing into me.
"And you've got a stick up yours," I say turning back around and walking out the door.