Cinderella for Hire

"April, if you're calling me just to annoy me, I swear to God—"

"Way to make assumptions, Nicholas," I replied, frowning. "I'm calling because I need a favor from you."

"I'm busy," he said. "Can't this wait till I get home?"

"Just please, Nicholas?" I pleaded. "It's supposed to be lunch break anyway."

"It's a busy month. I don't have lunches."

"What? Seriously?" I said, aghast. But then decided that this was Nicholas Fulton I was talking to. "No, actually, that was rhetorical. Just please come down, I'm waiting at the steps to your office building anyway."

"Fine, but this better be worth my time," he said before hanging up. A few minutes later, he walked briskly down the steps. He looked as immaculate as ever that day, if not a little bit hassled and annoyed. "What is it?"

"Let's go talk at Starbucks."

"April!" He said, ready to scold me but I stopped him.

"Come on, it's literally right across the street!" I exclaimed. "I won't take up much of your time, I promise you."

He sighed as he grudgingly followed me to Starbucks. We ordered coffee (and a muffin for me, because it looked so nice and poofy and nyummy – it practically had my name written boldly on it, really) and sat down by the window. Some people, I realized, were staring at him. Probably people who worked in the company too.

"Curious."

"What is?" he answered.

"Your job. You mentioned that your dad was an architect before moving into business, what do you guys actually do?"

"We're real estate developers," he replied after taking a sip from his cup of Joe. "We mostly build apartments around the city, like Urban 206."

My brows furrowed. "Isn't that the luxury apartment or something?"

"That's the one."

Oooofff course.

"Do you guys have a lot of employees? With all the chains around the world, it's quite intimidating to think that you guys have that much employees."

"You said you wanted to ask for a favor. How is this a favor?" he said, raising his eyebrows. I rolled my eyes and took a huge bite out of my muffin.

"I'm curious, I'm going to be staying at your place now and then you know. And I don't even know much about you and vice versa. Don't you think it's a little bit weird?"

"No, not really. It's like having housemaid," he said, smirking.

"You are not funny," I said, deadpanned.

"To answer your question, it varies. This place is basically the HQ so there's bound to be more people here in any other offices of ours. In one branch in Asia, we have only like 20 people working there currently so."

"Oh, okay. So like, what do you do?"

"I'm a chief marketing executive," he answered and gave me a look. I had a feeling he didn't really want to talk about work anymore. "Don't you have other job except for this one? You're an art major, right?"

"No. I do commissions but it barely covers for my food, let alone my rent," I said and paused. He looked at me quizzically. "It's what I wanted to talk about in the first place actually," I continued as I felt the heat taint my cheeks. I felt so self-conscious and embarrassed all of a sudden, because here I was sitting with someone successful whereas I was a failure.

So it was only logical for said successful person to look down at such a failure.

Sigh.

"You need money," he said slowly, as if in thought. I couldn't read his expression.

"Well, yes. I know you said you'll pay me by the end of each month but I kind of need it now. My landlord is starting to get pissed off with all the overdue rents and is threatening to throw me out. So like, I need to pay up or…" I trailed off, feeling more ashamed. I was an adult who couldn't even pay off her bills. And had Hello Kitty printed on her bed sheets.

He shrugged and was quiet for a long while. "Then live in my place for long-term."

"That's not necessary," I said quickly. His place was huge. His entire wardrobe was the size of my tiny studio apartment. It was ridiculous. The rent on that must be ridiculously expensive. So expensive that I could probably buy a Vespa or something with the rent money.

"I don't like having companies over too but I don't see why not," he said, shrugging. "It would solve your rent issues at the least and you'll always be around when I need you to accompany me to stupid gatherings. People are starting to warm up to me ever since you showed up a few nights ago."

"What, really?" I said, beaming. I must be good.

"I'm rarely home nowadays," he continued on. "And about the rent, I'll cut it off from your salary," he said. I cringed. Nooo, salary deduction! "It won't be much deduction," he said. I think he saw that I was in agony. "And for electricity and water, we'll split the bills. That way, it'll be easier on both of us. I've seen where you live anyway, it's dreadful. So, what do you say?"

I must be insane for considering it in the first place but…

"Okay," I said nervously.