Page 10 of All Out of Love

The beaming girl, and a few of the others, grinned. Toya’s heart dropped. Maid work? They wanted her to do the one job she swore she’d never do? She couldn’t believe it!

But she was in no position to turn it down right now. She had little money left, less than a hundred bucks to her name, and zero prospects of any other employment. She needed to get out of her mama’s house – that was a big must. As much as she hated it, and believed it to be so unfair, she couldn’t turn it down. Her back was against that wall again.

And like every unfair thing that ever happened to her, nobody cared anyway. She had to suck it up and get over it.

Miss Javits certainly had. She had already moved on. “Mr. Carrington is a stickler for detail,” she said. “The downstairs is his home office. He does a lot of work from home and has many of his executives coming and going during the course of the day. But the second and third floors houses his private residence. Nobody goes up there. Nobody. He doesn’t allow anyone, and I mean anybody, to so much as spend the night in his home. Not even his parents or his girlfriend or anyone else has ever spent the night in his home. That’s how uncompromising he is about his abode and you had better never forget that. He will fire you on the spot if you mistreat his home.”

It seemed a bit much to Toya. The idea that his own parents wouldn’t be allowed to spend the night, or even his girlfriend, was just weird to her. What kind of man, she wondered, was this big man? But the very rich were very different. She’d been taught that all her life. Now, she assumed, she was about to see it in action.

But Miss Javits wasn’t done. “He also does not allow anybody to work in his home until he has personally met them. Which is what you’re about to do.”

The other ladies seemed intimidated by the very thought of meeting the big man. But Toya perked up. Getting to see somebody of Mr. Carrington’s apparent wealth would be a first for her. Leonard and Lowe, the accounting firm she once worked for, were wealthy individuals in their own right. But nothing, she thought as she looked up at the massive chandelier above their heads, on this scale. This was going to be so different.

But Javits was still talking. “You will follow me to his office. He’s a very busy man who has no interest in you whatsoever, other than to personally eyeball you, so do not ask him questions or say anything whatsoever to him. You will simply smile and nod to whatever greeting he gives to you collectively. And that is all you shall do. Understood?”

They all voiced their understanding, and Javits wasted no more time. She escorted them through a few more corridors that led to another busy space. There were several huge offices in that section of the home where people were busy on computers or conducting meetings or just standing around in the corridors talking amongst themselves. They all wore suits. They all were white men. They all gave all of the ladies, including Toya, assessing looks. As if they were mentally picking out their favorites. Which creeped her out.

But the younger girls, and even some of the ladies in their upper twenties, were all smiles and flattered. They enjoyed the attention from those obviously highly-successful men. But Toya would rather eat spikes than have anything to do with anybody who worked where she worked. Her job was her livelihood, and she knew better than to allow some man to whisper sweet nothings in her ear and expect him to provide for her. That was the stuff of fairytales. It rarely, if ever, happened in real life.

Although many of the men gave her looks that showed serious interest, she didn’t give them a second glance.

What she was most confused about was how the house they were in looked more like a business space than anything remotely resembling a home. Yet Miss Javits made it sound as if this was a sacred kind of home that the owner just cherished. With all of these people everywhere and all of this activity, Toya didn’t see how anybody could cherish this place.

But that was the least of Toya’s concerns. Her main concern was about the theft that had just taken place. That theft in broad daylight. Miss Javits had taken her assignment and given it to another person without batting an eye. Was this that kind of job? No matter what she did somebody else would get the glory? Would it take her thirteen more years to get a solid promotion? She’d be a middle-aged woman before she hit her stride again. If she ever hit her stride again.

She walked behind everybody else as they made their way to tall double doors with knockers the size of horseshoes. She wondered if this job, if the hope she had had for this job, was going to turn out to be horseshit too? Like when she worked thirteen years for Leonard and Lowe and gave them all she had, only to lose it all the morning of her greatest achievement just because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and the wrong man walked through that door.

This, she hated to admit, was beginning to feel a lot like that.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Miss Javits knocked once with those huge horseshoe-looking knockers and then opened the double doors. Two men were seated in front of the desk, a woman was standing beside the desk, and a man, whom Toya assumed was the namesake of the house/business, was seated behind the desk with his back turned to everybody as he appeared to be talking on the phone and looking out of the large window behind his desk. None of them so much as glanced their way when they walked in.

But she wasn’t even looking at them anyway. She was looking beyond them, at the man behind the desk. And that was when he turned around and tossed his cellphone onto his desk. As soon as Toya saw him, she knew it was him. It was that mess of a man from the bathroom. What was he doing behind that desk? She thought they were going to see the big boss, Mr. Carrington himself.

Then she froze. Could that man from the bathroom be . . . She couldn’t even bring herself to say it. She called him a mess. She combed his hair! She told him to be better. And he was the big boss? She felt like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz when she realized what she was up against: “Lions, and tigers, and bears. Oh my!”

Without acknowledging their presence at all, she looked as Grayson tossed his phone aside and began continuing a conversation he apparently was having with the two executive-looking men seated in front of him before they arrived. “If we can contain the damage to two million dollars,” Grayson was saying, “then I’ll be a happy man. But not a dime over,” he added as Dena realized he hadn’t even noticed the ladies.

“Excuse me, sir,” Dena said to Grayson as if she didn’t want him to discuss anything personal in front of guests, “but Miss Javits is here with the new members of your household staff.”

Toya could tell that the man was a bit irritated to be interrupted like that, but he did at least look over at them. But when he did, she could feel every single one of the ladies tense up. None of them, Toya included, was accustomed to being in a room with a man who would be happy to pay damages of two million dollars. But the way he was sitting there in his white dress shirt and blue suspenders, his thick biceps straining the fabric of his shirt, a blue suit coat flapped over his highbacked chair, he had the look of a man who was a boss.

But he still looked a mess to Toya. And drained and exhausted. He had beautiful hair, thick, rich hair, but even after she’d just combed it, it was a mess once again. As if he had a bad habit of ruffling it.

When Grayson continued to talk to his executives instead of speak to them, Dena stepped in. “Good afternoon Lois,” she said as they walked toward the desk.

“Good afternoon,” Lois said. “This is Miss Dena Allen, Mr. Carrington’s chief-of-staff,” she said to the ladies. “Mr. Carrington,” she added as she turned her full attention to him. She waited until he stopped talking and looked at her, as if she carried some weight herself in that household.

He finally gave her his attention.

“We’re here because, as your house manager, it’s my job to introduce you to any new person or persons who will be working in your home. These, sir, are our new hires. These seven,” she said, motioning to Toya and the other ladies, “will be working in housekeeping. This young lady here,” she said, “will be in clerical. And this young lady,” she added as she looked at the woman who benefited from the theft, “will be answering the phones until Paige returns.”

“Very good,” Dena said, although the comments were directed at Grayson. But he said nothing. Because he realized she was in that group. That firecracker from the bathroom. His entire focus was on Toya.

Which wasn’t lost on Toya.

“Welcome ladies,” Dena said seemingly on behalf of Grayson. “I’m sure you will enjoy your new jobs immensely.”