Confessions of an Innocent House Maid

I woke up the next morning excited to get a new assignment and move on from yesterday’s awkward embarrassment. Unfortunately God never wants me to be happy. We walked into the office to find out that Mr. Yuhan had requested to have the two of us as his permanent maids. Nicole was excited but I wanted to quit on the spot.

“It’s just an assignment” said Nicole when I started complaining. “In and out. I don’t get why you’re so scared!”

“I’m not scared! I’m nervous. I don’t like this guy. You weren't there when he caught me on the bed. He’s weird!”

Nicole started laughing. We were already in the car and on our way to the house. “Just avoid him. Or find me. I’m sure he won’t pull anything when we’re together.”

I didn’t say anything.

* * * * *

About a half hour later we arrived at the house. Nicole had a smile on her face but I just had this bad feeling at the pit of my stomach. Nicole knocked on the door and after trying the doorknob, found it unlocked. We both headed to the kitchen recalling the location of the job list yesterday.

Nicole grabbed the list and started reading it off. “Vacuum the living room, family room, bedrooms, wash the dishes, clean the kitchen, cook dinner, and clean the pool in all caps and italicized.”

“You can’t be serious!?” I inched forward to scan the page myself. It was true.

“Guess he realized we didn’t clean it yesterday.”

“Fine. But we do that last” I said narrowing my eyes at Nicole.

She smiled back and nodded. “Deal. I’ll do the rooms this time so you don’t run into Mr. Fabulous and you cook since I’d probably burn the house down if I tried.”

This time I smiled at Nicole and nodded.

After setting up dinner on the table, I decided to head into the living room to check on Nicole. I found her laying on the couch watching TV.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, I finished half an hour ago.” She didn’t even bother looking away from the TV when she answered. “Did you know this guy has nothing but Asian channels and movies? I mean they’ve all got subtitles but still.”

“Can you stop? Let’s go clean the pool so I can get out of this hell hole.”

“Jeese!” she said getting up off the couch. Nicole turned off the TV, and walked passed me with her voice dripping in sarcasm. “Aren’t you in a wonderful mood.”

I silently followed Nicole to the swimming pool as she talked on about how fabulous Mr. fabulous was. “You know, he really isn’t a bad guy.”

“You haven’t even spoken two words to him” I said while handing her the net to supposedly fish out anything that may have fell in. I say supposedly because it was an indoor pool with a built in filter. There was nothing to clean. Regardless, I continued to dip the net in and out of the pool hoping to catch something.

“Neither have you! If you ask me, I think you just need a nice second encounter with this guy. One that will make you see how charming and hot he is.”

I scoffed. “Oh really? And how do you suggest I get this second encounter?”

When she didn’t reply, I turned my head to check on her but got a suspicious smile in return. Before I could question it she blurted out, “you’ll thank me for this later” and kicked me into the pool.

There’s something you should know. I can’t swim. I took classes at the YMCA when I was a kid but one day I got kicked in the face during a race and drowned. Ever since, I’m afraid of water. I can’t swim. Nicole, on the other hand, was a life guard for two years! But for some logical explanation that I can’t seem to understand, when I was yelling for help and gasping for air, she was yelling and screaming herself as if she couldn’t swim either.

Thankfully, someone finally dove in to rescue me. I thought it was Nicole until my head finally came above water and I noticed Nicole was standing on the deck. I turned my head to realize the one who was carrying me up in his arms and walking to the side of the pool (guess the pool wasn’t so deep after all) was my boss. Immediately I knew that this was probably Nicole’s plan all along. Sir put me down in the deck but I couldn’t seem to breathe evenly.

“She won’t stop coughing! Maybe you should give her mouth to mouth!”

Sir and I both gave Nicole a look that was hopefully a cross between “shut up!” and “Are you serious?”

“Are you okay?” Sir asked while rubbing my back to help the coughs.

“I think so” I replied, hardly recognizing my whisper of a voice for my own.

“What happened?”

I shot Nicole an angry look. “I guess I slipped.”

There was a long pause and then I guess Sir realized that he was actually being nice for once because he suddenly cleared his throat, stood up and said “well, please be careful next time. You can use the bathroom to wash up. I’ll leave some dry clothes for you to change into before you leave. Don’t bother about cleaning the pool. If you’ve finished everything else on the list you may leave.” And then we was out.

Nicole offered me her hand to help me up. I took it, giving her an annoyed look.
“What?!”

“Don’t even.” I continued to the bathroom without giving her a second look.

* * * * *

“Are you ever going to talk to me? I said I was sorry!” Nicole was still trying to justify her thought process for pushing me into the pool. We were almost home now but I still hadn’t spoken a word since we’d left the house. “Jess, come on! I’m really sorry.
I knew you wouldn’t drown! I just wanted you to feel more comfortable in the house, around the boss.”

That made me angry. “More comfortable?! How Nicole? By feeling his arms around me, giving me mouth the mouth?!”

“At least now you know we wants you safe!” After a pause she added “and you can’t tell me that having his arms around you didn’t stir something in you.”

“Stop joking, please!” I realized I was yelling so a brought my voice down to an indoor level. “Everything’s been a joke to you Nicole. I could’ve drowned. You have no idea how scared I was.”

There was silence in the car for a while and I realized the car had stopped. Nicole’s voice was a whisper when she finally spoke. “I’m sorry. I forgot how much you don’t like water. I promise I won’t do it again. Ever.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Jess, I’m sorry, really. Say something.”

“Fine, whatever.”

“Okay.” Nicole said putting the car in drive. “How about I take you out for some ice-cream.”

‘I’m not a child.”

“Fine. Then how about you take me out for some ice-cream.”

That made me laugh. I looked over at Nicole’s hopeful face and gave her a forgiving smile. “Fine.”