The Nanny Diaries

I woke up to the sound of a shrilling noise and fumbled around for a bit before I finally turned the alarm off my phone. I lay in my bed for a few minutes and the memories from yesterday started flooding back. Harry and I got in a fight, he had told Lou about it, and now she was going to fire me this afternoon over tea and crumpets.

It was seven in the morning so I figured I had a long while until Lou called me to meet her somewhere. I decided that I was going to look fabulous while she was ripping away yet another job I had managed to screw up.

I hopped in the shower and used some cheap shampoo and conditioner that I bought from the convenience store on the corner and hoped that I was going to smell okay. The water in this apartment wasn’t the cleanest but who was I to complain? I thought about how Harry had tattled on me to Lou and how she probably hated me by now. If I lost this job because of him, I was going to kick his ass.

I wrapped myself in a towel and walked over to my phone. It seems that Lou had called while I was shampooing and left me a message. Figures, I always have the worst timing.

Hey, love! Wanna meet me at Seoul Bakery over on St. Giles street around eleven? Ring me back if that doesn’t work for you.

Lou sounded happy and I took this as good news, maybe I wasn’t going to lose my job today. Or she was sugarcoating her foul mood. The more time I thought about it, the more anxious I got.

I set my phone down and went to go start on my hair. I was normally pin straight all the time, but today I wanted to make sure there were no kinks or bumps in it. I blow-dried it straight, then for good measure, ran a straightener through it. I quickly did my make up, but making sure that my cat eyes were perfect. I slipped on some leggings with an oversized sweater that I snagged at Goodwill and some riding boots. I looked to see that I only have twenty minutes to meet Lou and I didn’t live that close to St. Giles street.

I grabbed my satchel and gave a quick glance in the mirror to see that I actually did look quite fit. I jogged out of my flat and down to the tube, hoping that I wasn’t crowded. Luck was on my side and there were no delays and I got a seat as well.

I walked along St. Giles street until I came upon Seoul’s. I noticed Lou’s mop of blonde hair near the back and walked into the bakery. I said a quick prayer as I neared her table. She was focused on her phone, not even detecting that I was there. I cleared my throat and her head shot up in surprise.

“Tatum! Love, ya scared me there. Well, go on, have a seat,” she motioned to the chair across from hers and I quickly sat down. I noticed that she ordered me some tea and I added some sugar from the sugar packets in the little holder in the middle of the table, waiting for her to say something, anything.

“Well, love, I wanted to talk to you about something, yeah?”

“I’m so sorry!” I blurted out. My cheeks burned red and Lou’s face contorted. She looked confused as she picked up her teacup.

“What are you talking about?”

“Harry came over last night and-”

“Love, don’t listen to Harry, he’s a twat. He was probably just puttin’ ya on edge.” She smiled at me and grabbed a waiter going by and ordered us some blueberry muffins.

“So, he didn’t tattle on me?” I spoke up as the waiter left. Lou laughed a little as she shook her head at me.

“What would have he said? I knew ya were gonna have a rough time with Lux, so stop worrying dear! Anyways, I would never get rid of you, yeah? You’re practically family, even if I haven’t seen you in years.” She winked at me and I felt a warm happiness spread throughout my body.

Lou was like the mother I never had. My mum I’ve never had a very close relationship, we were always arguing about one thing or another. She never wanted to take me shopping with her or never asked me to help her with the baking. It had never really bothered me before, but seeing Lou and how mothering she was, it reminded me of how much my own mum lacked in that department. I had other sisters and it seemed that she liked doing those things with them, just not me. And it wasn’t like I could look to my dad for nurturing since he was always with my brothers and didn’t even bother inviting me along. I guess I was just the black sheep of my family, but Lou made me feel like I belonged, that I was wanted.

But one thing lingered in my mind, if Lou wasn’t going to fire me, thank god, then what did she want to talk about?

“Well, then what did you want to talk to me about?” I asked. I saw her eyes spark up and she flung her bag on the table as she began to dig around in it.

“Well dear, as you may know, we are heading to the States in a couple of months to start tour over there. I wanted to prep you on all the dates and when you’ll be flying with Lux, and occasionally Tom.” She pulled a piece of paper out of her bag and it had a list of dates scrawled out on it.

She handed it out to me and I scanned over the cities that we would be going to. I saw that she had circled certain ones, and I assumed those were the one that Lux and I would be headed.

“As you can see, I’ve circled the cities you’ll take Lux to. Some of the dates are not right next to each other, so either you’ll beat us there or just stay in the city a little longer than us. I don’t want Lux traveling on the buses and planes with us, so I got management to give you your own plane with Lux so you guys can easily get in and out of cities. Sound good?”

My head was swimming with information. A private plane? I have never even flew anywhere before. I haven’t even been out of Britain before, let alone flown across the pond. And I’d have to do it all with a little child in tow.

Lou could tell that I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. She let out a little chuckled and put a hand over mine.

“Don’t worry, love, it’s not for a couple of months. In the mean time, you’ll be traveling with us across the UK. That should be loads of fun and not that crazy. It’ll prepare you for the outrageous States.” I let out a strange laugh, it almost sounded like a dying cat.

“Okay, sounds good, I mean, I’ve never traveled outside of Britain before, so this should be fun?” Lou laughed at my hesitance and plucked off a piece of muffin that arrived a few moments ago.

“Hon, you’ll have a blast. Oh that reminds me, do you have a passport? I’m assuming not.” I shook my head at her question and she wrote something down in her planner.

“Okay, no worries, we’ll get you one soon enough, yeah?” She nodded to herself and started digging through her huge bag again. It reminded me of Mary Poppins’ purse, how it was so tiny, but had everything you could possibly need in it.

“Here, dear, this is all the dates of the Europe tour, as well, and some more important dates, like when Tom will be meeting up with us and when we have short breaks. Just schedule those into your mobile, yeah?” I pulled out my phone and started typing each and every date into my notes. I didn’t really see the point of it, since it wouldn’t even alert me of the events, but if it’s what Lou wanted, then I would do it.

“Tatum, what is that?” I looked up and noticed that she was staring that my mobile. I played with it in my hands and looked up at her.

“My mobile?” I said sheepishly. She would have had to know that I was lacking on money, but it was still embarrassing.

“Oh no, that won’t do. We’ll get you a new one pronto, yeah?” I dumbly nodded my head. If Lou wanted to get me a new mobile, I was totally okay with that.

“And is it okay if you’re paid in salary? I find it easier that way with the nannies, checks just make everything messy. Biweekly sound good to you?”

“Lou, that sounds perfect. It’s honestly sounds like too much. You don’t have do all of this for me, it seems like an awful too much.” I had to draw the line somewhere. I felt like I was charity or something.

“No, I insist. You won’t survive with that on the road, trust me, love. Just relax! And get excited! You’ll be traveling, that’s every girl’s dream at your age.”

The waiter dropped off the check and I went to go grab it, but not before Lou slammed down her hand and gave me dagger eyes.

“Don’t even think about it,” she joked. I widened my eyes and pulled my hand back. I was still reeling from the fact that I was finally going to do something with my life. And I didn’t even care that it was nannying. And Lou was willing to give me anything and everything to help me be a better nanny. I could only imagine what she was going to pay me, salary wise. My mum mentioned that she was very loose with money and I imagined what I was going to buy. I was getting very ahead of myself, but my thoughts kept carrying me to foreign places in my mind and I couldn’t help but be excited for this new chapter in my life.

“Love,” Lou was waving her hand in front of my face. I noticed that she has already paid and was all packed up to go, just waiting for me to follow along.

“Lost in thoughts? Come along,” I got up quickly and followed her to the door. We were going opposite ways and she kissed me on the cheek as a goodbye. I had only been walking a few steps when someone put a hand on my shoulder and turned me around. It was Lou with a smile on her face, but it looked like whatever she had to say was important.

“Tatum, I forgot to mention something. I just want to warn you about the boys. They can be very…flirty. I don’t want you to get involved with any of them. It’s happened in the past and came back to bite me in the butt, so I would really appreciate if you just kept them out of your personal life.”

“More than okay. Don’t worry, I’ll stay away from them.” I gave her a smile and she patted me on the shoulder. We parted ways again and I made my way towards to tube.

Lou’s request to stay away from the boys was going to be an easy one to abide by. I could see why she wanted me to be cautious around them. Imagine if I got in a relationship with one of them, only to be heartbroken or get in a huge fight. I’d want to go back home, therefore I’d have to quit being Lux’s nanny and screwing Lou over. Lou was smart to give me those guidelines and I was going to do everything in my power not to fuck up this job.