A Nanny's Love Story (Office Romance Series)

by Irene Bolton

  “Hooray!” cried the girl and she rushed to him, flinging her arms about his neck.

  “I wish you a lot of fun,” I said, when Karina had cooled a little.

  The girl immediately stared at me with amazed, round eyes. "Are you not coming with us? You also deserve to have a good time!”

  “I think you'll have a great time with your dad,” I smiled, pleased that she wanted me to join them.

  “Daddy, it's not fair,” she told her father. “Alex was also a good girl. And she is very brave. Do you know how well she climbed the tree to get the kitten? And she did not even cry when she fell down.”

  Stan looked at me with interest; I blushed with embarrassment. I did not want him to know all the details about my ‘rescue’… but it was too late. Karina was already recounting how I had jumped from branch to branch until I had reached the very top of the tree. I was as high as the clouds, she said. And then, fearlessly and without hesitation, I supposedly jumped down.

  If Lara Croft had heard the story, she would have burst with envy and asked me to give her a master class. Although this story also impressed my boss,

  “Wow!” he said surprised, playing along with his daughter. Laughter danced in his eyes. “Then Alexandra really should come with us. If the rollercoaster stops working, we’ll have somebody who can save us.”

  “Right!” Squeaked the girl. “She knows how to climb! She’s like a spider. No, like a monkey! Like King Kong!” The girl almost choked with delight, trying to come up with new, better comparisons. There was little sense in objection; they were not even going to listen to me.

  “We’ll be waiting for you in the car!” Stan said and took his daughter’s hand. They left the room. I had no choice but to go and change.

  The atmosphere at the park was delightful. I even began to regret the fact that I could not afford to behave as cheerfully as Karina, running from one carousel to another. She had decided to make the most out of the day. And her father went along with whatever she wanted.

  He bought her a whole bunch of colorful balls, and on her head now was a cap with a small, built-in fan, powered by solar batteries. She also asked for a ring with a huge artificial ‘diamond’. Stan granted all her wishes and met her every demand without question. I thought, if she had asked him to buy the whole adventure park, he would have done it without hesitation.

  The girl was happy. She was running back and forth, chattering non-stop. It seemed that her energy would never run out.

  “Dad, I do not like carousels for children, they are boring!” She declared, at last. “I want to go on the rollercoaster!”

  “Aren’t you afraid?” her father asked, a note of pride in his voice.

  “Pfff!” Karina said. “I've been on it hundreds of times already.”

  He took her hand and then reached for mine.

  “Come on!” she ordered, like a princess from a fairytale, and dragged us in the direction from which the most squeals of terror could be heard.

  The three of us went forward, hand in hand. Periodically, Karina would raise her legs and hang on our arms. Stan and I immediately responded by raising our hands, and she would fly forward, hanging on them as a monkey. It looked like we were a family, like we were together. We seemed to be the two adults who were always there and ready to support the third, smaller person...

  I caught myself on this thought, and immediately threw it away as rubbish. There was no ‘us’. There was ‘them’: a father and a daughter. He a successful businessman that could have anything he wanted, and she the little heir of the big financial empire. A girl who knew Chinese at age six, not because she had nothing else to do, but because half the world speaks it. And I was a hired employee who would leave the family in three months.

  “Here it is.” Karina stopped and looked with awe at the rollercoaster, moving with tremendous speed on the famously twisting rails. The voices and laughter of the passengers merged into one continuous rumble, which became a hundred times stronger on the most dangerous dips and curves. I did not understand how or why people voluntarily partook in a rollercoaster ride.

  But Karina understood.

  “I want to go on! “She was hopping impatiently on one leg.

  “Just a minute, I'll get the tickets.” Stan was not going to contradict the girl right now.

  “Honey, are you sure you will not be afraid?” I asked cautiously. “Maybe you’d rather eat ice cream? Chocolate with cherry syrup?”

  And although I understood that nothing terrible would happen – every carousel passed all the necessary checks, and in principle, it was safe – I was still worried. I did not trust this train, which violently jolted and violated all the laws of physics.

  “No, no, you will like it!” Karina was surprised. “It’s so much fun!”

  As I had expected, I was not able to convince the girl otherwise. And when Stan returned tickets in hand, Karina skipped in delight, “Daddy, you're the best!” She screamed, crying over the voices of those who had already experienced incredible ‘pleasure’ by entering the attraction’s ‘dead loop’.

  Stan’s face was radiating with happiness.

  “Hold on!” He handed the girl a ticket. “And this is for you.”

  Another bright piece of paper appeared right in front of me.

  “For me?” At this moment I was more frightened than ever before in my life. “I'm sorry, but I have to refuse. I ... am afraid of heights… and my head starts spinning… and I become disoriented.”

  “How did you jump from a height of one million meters then?” Stan’s eyes were twinkling with amusement. “I thought that after such adventures, a rollercoaster for you would be just an ordinary train ride.”

  Chapter 12

  "No, no," I tried to assure him. “The thing is, I cannot stand the high speed, and I do not enjoy hanging upside down, and…”

  I knew I was talking nonsense, but I did not care – I was too focused on trying to persuade Stan not to take me on the rollercoaster. I might even have succeeded if it hadn’t been for Karina.

  "Alex, you cannot leave us," she said authoritatively. "You must always be with me. You're a good nanny, aren’t you?”

  How did she even come up with such strong arguments? I tried to say something more in retaliation but then the car stopped, the man at the entrance unfastened the chain and invited the ‘lucky ones’ to receive their portion of adrenaline. Karina grabbed my hand and dragged me forward.

  "Don’t worry, this attraction is adapted for children," Stan tried to reassure me. “Here even a ‘dead loop’ is almost a toy. I'm afraid you’ll get bored.”

  Though these words had the complete opposite effect – I felt even more frightened. I glanced at the man by the entrance, hoping that he would save me, but he preferred to stand aside.

  I didn’t even remember getting in the car and fastening my seatbelt.

  “Wow!” Karina eagerly kicked her legs. “It will be so cool!”

  I tried to calm myself. After all, it was unlikely that something bad would happen, right? After all, thousands of people before me had already swept along this crazy serpentine track, and none of them had fallen out of the car, right?

  But my heart had seized, and my body trembled. I gave a low scream as the engine started and, picking up speed, the car began to crawl along the track. Just in case, I closed my eyes, but it still did not help. We soared upward, then sharply rushed down, and I was preparing to accept a quick, but painful death at every turn.

  "Five minutes, you have to hold out for five minutes," I repeated to myself. But every second spent in that desperately swaying rollercoaster car was unbearably long.

  At some point the speed began to decrease.

  I opened my eyes and froze in horror. This stop was just the respite before the most desperate moment. Having stopped at the highest point, the locomotive suddenly fell so abruptly that it seemed some part of myself hadn’t had time to orient and had remained there, on the very top.

  Havi
ng gained the necessary speed, our small train went up and briskly entered the ‘dead loop’, turning all the passengers upside down.

  “Cool!” I heard Karina's voice from somewhere far away. I squeezed my whole body, shut my eyes as hard as I could, and nervously gripped tighter whatever was beneath my hands.

  It seemed that we spent an age in that inverted state. But finally, it ended. The car returned to an upright position, one that did not contradict common sense, and quickly ran further along the rails.

  The fear that held my body began to recede. And suddenly there was delight. I made it! I suddenly felt so light and cheerful, and wanted to yell with Karina with all my might. But, of course, I could not afford to.

  The train again lost speed, and solemnly drove into the ‘garage’. People were talking, sharing impressions; Karina was cackling incessantly.

  "Alexandra, it's over," Stan told me.

  "Yes, and it was unexpectedly great," I smiled at him. “And not that scary...”

  "If you're not scared anymore, can you release my hand?" He was laughing somewhere deep inside his dark eyes. I looked down and blushed. Turned out, I had grabbed his hand at the most terrible moment. And I was still holding it tightly as if it were a normal thing.

  "I beg your pardon," I muttered, unclenching my hand.

  "It's okay," he laughed. “I myself had to resist the urge to grab the bravest soldier in our line” he indicated Karina with his chin.

  “You are so cool!” she exclaimed, noticing that all the attention was now on her.

  We got out of the car, that had just cost me billions of nerve cells and ruined my King Kong reputation, and I immediately felt the weakness in my legs. Those five minutes spent on steep twists and turns between heaven and earth had almost deprived me of all my strength.

  Meanwhile Stan and Karina seemed to be full of energy and joy. Karina was jumping around her father, "Will there be ice cream today, daddy? I can eat two at once!”

  Chapter 13

  “Of course, even three,” Stan winked at her. "If you still eat dinner. Only snowmen can eat ice cream all the time. But then, they don’t go to adventure parks in summer.”

  A few minutes later we were sitting at a table in a cafe, which looked more like a fairytale house. Karina, strangely enough, readily accepted the fact that the ice cream came after the main meal. However, Stan declared this in such a tone that it was impossible to disobey it. If I ever decided to go on a diet, I would ask him for help. Let him say the way he would do it, "No sweets, and after six you can only drink water!" And that's all. I certainly would not dare break the rules.

  “We still need to have a ride on the boats on the lake, then go to the races, and play with the inflatable swords!” Karina was impossible to stop. “And we also have to ride a horse. There’s a white one, I saw it on our way to the cafe”

  Judging by the way Stan nodded approvingly, our evening was going to be great. I could only hope that I would not be forced to mount a horse. It turned out however, that the ‘white horse’ was a pony, which meant that I would not have to ride it. Good thing I was already an adult.

  "And you can also dress up as princesses and take pictures," the girl continued. "I want to be Belle. And you, Alex, how do you want to dress up?”

  The question was so unexpected that I almost choked on my ice cream.

  "I'm afraid there are no adult sizes there," I tried to get away from the masquerade, but it was not so easy.

  “There are! I saw them!” The girl exclaimed briskly. “And come on, you can be Fiona, and my dad – Shrek?”

  I burst out laughing as I imagined Stan as the big green ogre. We made good company – two adult monsters and a small beauty. Apparently, Stan was imagining the same picture, and laughed too.

  “No, girls, without me,” he also tried to escape the photo session.

  "Very well.” It was suspicious that Karina agreed so easily. "You do not want to be Shrek, ok, you'll be the Beast. I also need a groom.” At that moment Karina looked so charming that it was impossible to be angry at her... We welcomed every new idea with a friendly laugh, and she continued imagining more and more things, inspired by our approval.

  We did not pay any attention to the people around us. And we did not even turn around when the voices at the next table became louder and more demanding.

  "Hey," someone shouted in a bass tone. “Waiter, bring your ass here! I made the order half an hour ago! Why should my son wait?”

  "Papa, how can anybody bring his ass?" Karina immediately reacted. "Should you take it in your hands and carry it? Or put it on a tray?”

  "Do not pay attention to them," Stan threw an angry glance at the troublemaker. If I’d been the one shouting, I would have stopped for sure. "So what outfit will we choose for Alexandra? Did you think of something?”

  But we could not return to our peaceful conversation. The waiter, who had run to the table, quickly delivered the order. But the client apparently, was still dissatisfied.

  "What took you so long? Did you have to milk a cow in order to make my son’s milkshake?" Judging by the way he was speaking, he certainly had not limited himself to milk drinks today. And he was looking to incite a conflict.

  "Well, have you finished eating?" I asked, trying not to sound excited. "Maybe it's time to go boating."

  “No!” Father and daughter exclaimed at the same time and began to eat faster.

  The situation at the next table was heating up. The man, offended by the sluggishness of the waiter, was shouting even louder. The manager was already there to help the employee and diffuse the situation.

  "I'm sorry, I must ask you to leave the cafe," he said to the loud man.

  “What did you say?” the man roared in response. He launched himself at the manager and threw him over the table. The manager landed on the opposite side. Karina screamed in fear. The noisy and aggravated customer obviously did not have enough time to let off steam. He ran at his victim once more and grabbed him by the jacket.

  Stan pushed us aside and quickly approached the man. I could see his strong body through the thin fabric of his shirt.

  “Oh, no don’t!” I cried, but my voice was more like a squeak and, of course, absolutely no one paid attention to me. I ran to Karina and hugged her by the shoulders. But she, contrary to my expectations, was not at all afraid.

  "It would be better if he did not do it..." she said calmly.

  "I think so too," I supported the girl. “There is no need to approach a drunk person”

  “No, you don’t understand. I'm talking about this man... it’d be better if he did not touch my dad.”

  Stan shook the man gently, forcing him to let go of the poor manager.

  “Hey!” the drunk man roared like a wounded bear and lifted his hand ready to fight. It was of quite an impressive size, as was the hooligan himself.

  But it did not escalate further. With his free hand, Stan grabbed the man’s arm and brought it back down by his side. I saw how his muscles tensed, and his eyes narrowed. It seemed that in a moment he would tear the trespasser into pieces. But nothing happened. The troublemaker backed off, looking at his abuser perplexed, and stopping in his tracks.

  "Well, man, what are you doing…” he muttered.

  Stan looked at the table where his opponent had been sitting. There was a thin boy seated at the table, looking frightened. He had already forgotten about the milkshake that his father has been so upset about.

  And then Stan simply let go of his hand, freeing his opponent.

  It seemed that after that small incident, the noisy man immediately sobered up. He left money on the bar and hurried to the exit, nodding to the boy who was still at the table.

  It seemed that everything had ended peacefully, but I still felt that the day had been spoiled. I was wrong.

  “Well, have you finished your ice cream?” Stan sank into his chair and started eating his portion. "Mmm... raspberry, I hadn’t tried that yet."

  He began
eating as if nothing had happened.

  Karina also pulled her ice cream closer. As if nothing had happened.

  We eventually returned home tired but very pleased. Even Karina was tired and dozed off in the car. Well, she tried to stay awake and share her impressions of the outing, but in the end it proved too much.

  “Well, in general, the rollercoaster was the coolest. And the pony! He was so sweet, I think he liked me. Dad, can we get a pony? He could live in the garden.”

  "I'm afraid he will get very bored," Stan laughed. Oh, so in the end, he could refuse his daughter something?

  “Well, I'll play with it and ride it,” the girl did not want to give up.

  We pulled into the yard. It was already starting to get dark outside, so the lamps were switched on. The air smelled of flowers. And even the annoying mosquitoes did not disturb this peaceful picture.

  The lawn in front of the house looked much better, although not as good as before we had tried to dig through it. Deciding that I would certainly offer my help tomorrow, I ducked through the doors that Stan opened in front of us. The evening seemed to be perfect.

  Karina was unusually obedient which made this evening even better. She kissed the kitten, and then welcomed a warm bath with foam, spreading the aroma of strawberries all through the room.

  "We had a lot of fun, didn’t we?" she said while I was rubbing her back.

  "It was one of the best days of my life," I confessed truthfully.

  “Yes, we are a great team!” She rejoiced. “I like you. You are kind. And beautiful, like a fairy.”

  "Thank you, dear, you are also a real beauty," I answered, smiling at her.

  I was often complimented in my life, but this one sounded particularly sincere and cute. Karina, pleased with what she heard, looked at her wet hair. Then, as if she had remembered something unpleasant, her face darkened.

  "Can you promise me something?" She asked quietly.

  "I think so, unless you ask for a pony."