You Leave Me With a Dangerous Taste

I didn’t have what most considered the perfect life, but it was perfect for me. No, I didn’t live in a large house with a large pool underneath the Hollywood sign. But the people who lived in those houses didn’t have perfect lives either. I loved my life despite sharing a tiny one-bedroom house with my boyfriend. It wasn’t the material things that made me happy, it was the love I shared with my soulmate. All I needed was a roof over my head and food on a plate, but none of that would have been enough without him.

We met in high school. I was the blonde shy girl who had just moved from Kansas during Sophomore year, he was the biggest goofball I had ever met. Somehow, we immediately clicked. His confidence pulled me out of my shell a little and we quickly got to know each other. It didn’t take long until we were dating each other. In a matter of weeks, we were inseparable. Everybody thought we were an amazing couple, even our parents loved us together. They never had a problem with it. Even my over-protective father loved Jack.

I knew he was the one back then and I still knew so now.

Although we had been together for years, we made a promise to each other. Even in high school when everybody around us started doing it, Jack and I vowed to wait until marriage. It was difficult with our peers trying to pressure us into it, but we never gave in. We believed that with the love we felt for each other, waiting would make our marriage that much more magical. In no way was religion involved, just love.

After high school ended, we got our own little house that we could barely afford. It needed a lot of work, but we made it our own. We had worked our asses off all throughout high school just to get some money for our future, we both knew that we wouldn’t be going to college. It was just too expensive and neither of us could afford it. So, we skipped the whole college experience and went straight to work.

Jack was a real-estate broker, working every day while I tried to pursue my singing career. He was such a sweetheart for willing to let me try and live my dream. However, my dream quickly ended. It was difficult to get my name out there and I soon realized that it was unfair to Jack to have to try and keep us going financially. So, I took the one skill I knew from high school and expanded it: babysitting. I became a nanny for the rich people, coming home most nights to Jack but spending my days at other families’ houses.

We were only twenty, but we knew that we were meant for each other. So, despite the fact that we had no money to buy a ring, Jack proposed to me. All I needed was his words and my promise. The ring was just a minor detail, I didn’t need us to waste money on it. I much rather kept the money and save up for our dream wedding. It was what we had been doing for a year, not daring to plan without knowing we had a budget. But I couldn’t wait another five years, so I knew that I needed to take on a new job as soon as I could after the family I used to take care off moved out of state.

That was where Mr. Alexander Gaskarth came in.

One sunny summer afternoon, I made my way to his gated two-story Tuscany-style home. He had contacted me after the family who had to, unfortunately, let me go recommended me. All I knew was that his family situation had recently changed, that he needed a nanny, and that he lived in a beautiful house with an amazing view.

I was let past the gate after ringing the doorbell. To get the front door, I still had to walk past the fountain and silver parked car. By now, I had seen so many large houses and expensive cars, that I had become a usual for me. It was just the environment I worked in.

Once I knocked on the wooden front door, a tall man with tousled brown hair opened the door. He gave me a heart-swooning smile and stepped aside to let me into his home. His appearance was so different from my usual clients. I often worked for people who had kids at a later age during their second marriage, or I worked at the usual rich-guy with trophy wife home. But this guy… he could have been a model if he wanted to. What was somebody like him doing with a child?

“Hi, my name’s Alex, Alex Gaskarth,” he introduced and shook my hand after I entered the cooling environment. “You must be Danielle, right?”

“Yep,” I nodded and shook his hand back, noticing how the stone floor matched so well with the walls, “Danielle Paisley Jonas, but I prefer to be called Paisley.”

“Jonas? Like the Jonas brothers?” He wondered out loud.

“I wish,” I softly laughed despite having gotten that comment ever since their show and movies on Disney Channel became huge.

Soon after, I got to meet his son William, who was named after him. He was just a cute little boy with the same sparkling eyes as his father. I could tell that if he started looking even more like Mr. Gaskarth, he was going to be a heartbreaker. But for now, he was still a child who loved playing with his chewed-down dinosaur toys.

The meeting didn’t last long, William being too tired and shy to fully introduce himself to me. However, that just left more time for me and Mr. Gaskarth to discuss any possible arrangements--I always met with my clients before working for them. He brought out some cold drinks and led me to the sitting area that included a large coffee table made of a slice of wood.

“So, has anybody else worked for you before?” I inquired. It was always a question I asked in case I wanted to know why the previous nanny left. I had avoided some horrible jobs that way. Not all families were as nice as they seemed during the first meeting.

Mr. Gaskarth shook his head and looked down towards his hands and the floor as he sat leaned forward. “No, William’s mother used to be a stay at home mom, but she recently left us…”

I saw that he didn’t have a ring on his left hand, making me wonder if they had been married and had gotten divorced. However, when I looked to my left, I could see a collection of photos on a chest of drawers. All the way to the right of the piece of the furniture was a large photograph of a woman, a lit candle placed in front of it and a chain with a ring hanging from the frame. It was then that I knew this woman hadn’t left like most but had gone up to heaven. Usually, I wouldn’t have worked for a single man, but this situation was different. He wasn’t somebody having a midlife crisis.

We discussed further arrangements after that was cleared. It was mainly about my pay rate, the days and times Mr. Gaskarth required me, and some important details I needed to know about William. I was to be free most weekends unless Mr. Gaskarth needed my help with something, but he promised to warn me well in advance. He even promised to pay extra for those days even though I insisted it wasn’t necessary. I had worked seven days a week from seven am to ten pm before, never getting anything but minimum wage. Mr. Gaskarth, however, seemed to be a lot more generous. With what he was insisting on paying, he was going to be my highest paying client to date.

Maybe my wedding would happen sooner after all.

“I believe Will and I won’t mind having you around here,” he winked as he let me out of his house again, having sealed the deal.

I giggled quietly. “Well, I am looking forward to looking after William for you, Mr. Gaskarth.”

“Please, call me Alex,” he smirked and waved me goodbye.

When I got home, I had a permanent large smile plastered on my face. Getting a job had never gone this easily for me. Often, people would want to think about it for a little while longer, fully thinking out the terms they wanted. I had never gotten a job on the spot before.

When I entered our small yellow wood-board house, I found Jack sitting on the couch. When he heard me come in, he immediately jumped up and came toward me. He was always so excited for me when there was an opportunity.

“And, how did it go?” He asked, jumping a little with anticipation.

“I got the job, baby!” I squealed a little out of excitement, feeling that this was going to be different than my usual jobs. Different in a good way.

Jack kissed me deeply to congratulate me. “I already bought cake to celebrate!”

“I love you so much,” I grinned, knowing he probably had to figure out what exactly he could buy while doing the groceries with the limited budget we had per week.

“I love you too,” he smiled and brought me into a hug before bringing me to the kitchen to celebrate with the cheapest and simplest cake he could find.