2. Safe Bet

A month in, and Cecilia started to warm up to Emily. It was a slow progress, but it was progress nonetheless. They weren’t best friends, and they didn’t need to be, but they were growing closer as coworkers.

Emily wasn’t used to speaking unless spoken to, but she was trying to get out of her shell more often. It wasn’t an easy process. Hell, it was one hell of a change to the eighteen year old. Back in high school – which hadn’t been that long ago – she had never had friends, and had only just managed to get a date here and a date there, but boys were rarely interested in her – at least not the ones she was crushing on.

She remembered feeling all kinds of hot and bothered for one boy in particular – Thomas Clarington was his name – but she could never gather enough courage to speak to him. He was from the popular crowd, and that alone discouraged her from pursuing the undoubtedly one-sided love interest. She settled for watching him from afar, and admittedly fantasizing about him as well.

She was one of the rare girls who didn’t have anyone to escort them for prom. But since her parents didn’t want her to miss out on anything they deemed suitable for her age, she attended the damned prom . She basically spent it in a corner, by herself, reading on her phone for the most part.

She was a little bit hurt that no one would even ask her for a dance – not even out of pity. But then again, she did bury her nose in her phone, feigning indifference. What did she expect?

Emily wasn’t vain enough to consider herself beautiful, but she did know she wasn’t ugly either. Plain? Maybe. Boring? No doubt. But not ugly.

She had long black hair that almost reached her hips but which was nearly always in a tight bun. Her big almond-shaped green-colored eyes were hidden behind her thick-rimmed square glasses. As for her body, which she deemed rather decently proportioned, she was much too shy to flaunt it. Baggy tees, oversized shirts and unflattering jeans were the norm for her.

Well, not anymore.

Nowadays, she had to put on a black dress and a white frilly apron every day. What a big change for her indeed!

She often found herself fisting the material in the first few days, almost as if just by wishing it, the attire would be replaced by something else more to her taste.

Paul, the gardener’s son had taken to join her and Cecilia on lunch break every other day. He didn’t get to have the break always at noon. They were four to watch the gates, during the day at least. And they made teams of two, and took turns in their lunch schedule.

And whenever he joined them, her coworker sported a little fond smile.

Emily, too, could admit he made her smile a lot. With his funny personality and his easy-going demeanor, it wasn’t hard to make friends with him.

Admittedly, he was easy on the eyes as well.

Call her biased if you will.

The housekeeper, on the other end, was just as haughty as ever. She basically looked for the tiniest fault to reprimand anyone, and had no compliment to offer to anyone.

Emily had only been reprimanded twice. Both times for getting to the estate five minutes late. She reasoned that she deserved the chastising, and thus received it with a small smile. Even though it wasn’t her fault the bus came late, she didn’t bother to argue.

“You know he’s got the hots for you, right?” Cecilia mused out loud, addressing her, just as Paul waved them goodbye, about to resume work after lunch.

“Who?” Emily asked with a little bit of a perplexed frown.

“Paul. Who else?”

Emily dismissed the very thought with a wave of her hand. “Nah. You must be imagining things.”

“You told me you have no one,” Cecilia argued in a slightly displeased tone.

“Yeah, no family, and no boyfriend to speak of.” Emily’s lips stretched into a bleak smile at that.

“Well, here’s your chance to date, girl.”

Emily could only shake her head negatively at the woman.

It wasn’t long before they were busy working on the first floor as per usual, too busy to chat and argue about such a meaningless matter.

Despite her obvious denial of what Cecilia thought of Paul’s intentions, Emily couldn’t help but wish he was indeed interested in her.

She figured it wouldn’t hurt to date someone.

Like any girl her age, she was entitled to have fun – not that kind of fun, mind you. She was still a virgin, and believed in waiting for Mr right. She just hoped she wouldn’t have to lead a life of abstinence because of said belief.

Besides, Paul was the perfect boyfriend-material. He was easy to talk to, easy to be with, easy to understand. He was such a safe bet, she wished he was indeed interested in her that way. With her insecurities, she had a bit of a doubt regarding his feelings-slash-intentions… but a girl could hope.

All in all, that had been her naïve and oh-so-innocent wish before she got to meet the owner of the estate.

Indeed, she never knew that dangerous and mysterious players held so much appeal. But she was going to find out – the hard way.

All bets were off the moment her path crossed that of the owner of the estate. The absurdly handsome devil was called Theodore King.