The District Lights

It was one of those days where you knew it was going to be a bad day. For Nina it started out as simply waking up to a silent room. Usually her extremely loud alarm clock woke her up, but this time it failed her.

Cursing herself, she got up and ran madly around the room searching for her uniform and necessary things to get on with her day. Of course her room had to be an extreme mess at that moment and her hairbrush had to be on the floor at the precise timing, she slipped and fell flat on her ass.

After her shower, her hair, like always, became a pain to fix, but unlike before it came out frizzier than she would have wished. After what seemed like forever, Nina decided to give up on trying to tame her wild hair and just put it in a messy bun and went on her way to work.

Getting into her shitty car was another pain in the ass to her already painful day, and it was only morning. The door got stuck again; forcing her to really consider getting it fixed instead of being cheap. She was only thankful that her baby decided to be remotely nice today and ran perfectly.

Nina stepped into work exactly twenty-two minutes late and when her boss's secretary called her saying that Amy wanted to see her, Nina knew she was in trouble. Tardiness had to be one of Nina's many faults, but unlike her other faults, tardiness had the tendency to get her fired often.

Her hand hovered over the door shakily as she contemplated on whether to open the door or just make a run for it and go home. She was certain that she was going to get fired, this had been the eighth time this month she was late. And it wasn't those one minute, two minute late things; it was twenty to even an hour kind of late.

"Come in Nina," Amy ordered Nina.

Nina quickly rushed in, not wanting to anger Amy any more than she probably already was. Her mind already formulated a string of apologies and excuses as she entered the small office. Her eyes carefully examined Amy's demeanor.

"Amy, I am so sorry-"

"I have a new house for you," she interrupted the brunette and held out a folder.

Nina puffed her cheeks, confused. She was sure that Amy called her to fire her because she was late again. Quickly taking the brown folder, she opened it and quickly read the contents of the paper.

"But, I was assigned to the Bennings. What happened to them? Why not let Lisa take this house?" she said in askance and looked up from the papers.

Amy turned away from the computer and gave Nina a blank stare. "I re-assigned Lisa to them. Your new house is an important customer, and I trust you not to act stupid. As for Lisa, I don't trust her with this," she answered. "Now go. You have a house to clean."

Nina obediently nodded and left the office. Clearly it was not her day, the Bennings were her favorite house to clean, as the Bennings were nice and loved her. Not to mention it was closer to where she lived. Judging by the address in the paper this person's apartment was located downtown.

It seemed like hours that Nina had been glaring at the owner's name of the house she now would be cleaning. Staring at the large building in front of her, she glared her hardest at her new 'boss' for making her travel so far into the city. 'Who honestly needs help cleaning a fucking apartment?' she thought angrily to herself.

"Stupid rich bachelor," she swore and made her way inside the building. Mumbling a thank you to the door man, she pressed the floor number the paper told her to go to.

From the looks of the building and interior, she guessed this person to be rich and a bachelor, because it seemed like something a bachelor would buy. Right at the heart of Chicago where all the clubs and bars seem to be at large. She hoped that she wasn't going to be dealing with some asshole.

Nina remembered Amy telling her that the owner of the apartment wasn't home at the moment and that he was away on a road trip. She handed Nina a key to the place and warned her not to lose the key or it'd be her head and job.

She simply rolled her eyes at her boss's odd behavior. Amy acted like this person was some celebrity or something. It annoyed her to death but she still took what Amy said to heart.

Grudgingly, Nina fished the small gold key from her uniform pocket and shoved it into the key hole. To her surprise, the apartment was fairly nice, if you ignored all the mess, it was rather spacious.

Rolling her eyes at the shirt she accidentally stepped on the moment she entered the apartment; she picked it up and threw it into a pile. She clicked her tongue and her jaw tensed when she saw the huge pile of dishes in the sink.

"Patrick Kane, you are one lazy bastard," she whispered under her breath and began to clean, starting with the kitchen.