by Amy Star
*
When a bus pulled up at the stop sign at the end of the street, Ainslie was sitting on a lawn chaise on the wraparound porch while Paisley sat in the grass at the base of the porch steps, surrounded by plastic animals. Her voice was a quiet constant as she led her toys through possibly the most epic adventure Ainslie had ever heard, even with some of her attention still focused on the folder.
Ainslie glanced up as the bus squealed to a halt, but only for a moment before she glanced back down to the folder. She didn’t quite connect the dots that one of her charges was on that bus until Paisley leaped to her feet, toys forgotten for the moment as she shrieked in delight, “ANDY!” a few moments after the bus pulled away again.
Ainslie looked up again as the twelve-year-old turned from the road onto the driveway and began making her way down it, her backpack slung over one shoulder. She lifted a hand to wave to Paisley before letting her hand fall back to her side.
When she made it to the porch, she offered only a perfunctory, “Hey,” in Ainslie’s direction before she continued into the house without another word.
To Ainslie’s relief, she emerged again a few minutes later, sans her backpack, jacket, and shoes, carrying a notebook and a math book.
She was tall and slender for her age, with tight copper ringlets falling down to her waist. She was a touch paler than Paisley, and she had her father’s eyes. Someday, she was going to be stunning.
She threw herself down onto the wicker chair across from Ainslie’s chaise, contorting herself awkwardly to open the notebook and the textbook in her seat. She pulled a pencil from behind her ear and got to work without another word.
A full half an hour passed before she looked up again, peering over the top edge of her notebook. “You the new babysitter? Nanny? Whatever.”
Pulling her attention away from the folder, Ainslie nodded once. “Yeah. I’m Ainslie.”
“Andrea,” the girl offered in return. “Prefer Andy, though.”
“Nice to meet you,” Ainslie offered.
Andy grunted at her, possibly in acknowledgment or possibly in distaste. She didn’t say anything else before she turned her attention back to her homework.
Taking her cue from Andy, Ainslie looked down the stairs to make sure Paisley wasn’t getting up to anything she shouldn’t be before she turned her attention back to the folder.
Once again, the only background noise was Paisley’s fantastical narration as a plastic horse and its best friend (which was inexplicably a very large plastic wolf) got lost in the jungle.
CHAPTER TWO
Around four in the afternoon, after Paisley had curled up on the chaise and fallen asleep on Ainslie’s legs, and after Andy had gone inside and come back out with a different textbook twice, a bus pulled up at the top of the driveway.
Its doors opened with a squeak that Ainslie could hear from the porch, wrenching her attention away from the folder in her hands, to instead look towards the road, just in time to see Lily jump down to the ground, clearing the bus’s three steps in a single bound. She turned to shout something over her shoulder to someone on the bus, though she stomped a foot in scandalized outrage when the doors closed and the bus began to pull away before she could finish her conversation.
She spared only a moment to stare after the bus before she turned away. She cut across the grass, loping over to the porch, though she stumbled to a halt at the bottom of the porch steps when she spotted Ainslie.
She dithered for a moment, looking from Ainslie to the front door and back again a few times before she conceded that it really was the only way into the house and she crept up the stairs before darting into the house.
Ten minutes later, Andy closed her textbook and picked it, her notebook, and her pencil up and went back inside, and Ainslie was on the last two pages of her folder. The door banged closed, only to open again a few seconds later. Lily peeked out carefully, until Andy snapped from somewhere behind her. “Don’t just stand there or you’ll let Christopher out!”
Jumping in surprise, Lily skittered out the door, letting it slam closed as she did. Carefully, she sat down in Andy’s abandoned seat, wringing the end of her tunic between her hands.
“Um. Hi.” She offered it only after a moment of staring silently.
Ainslie smiled gently. “Hi. You must be Lily.” She got only a cautious nod in return. “I’m Ainslie. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you, too,” Lily mumbled in reply, staring down at her shoes. She darted a glance up to Ainslie’s face for only a split second before looking away again.
She was slightly heavier set than her older sister, already promising to be broader across the shoulders when puberty hit, though she had the same heart-shaped face. Her hair was black and glossy and pulled up into two wavy ponytails high on her head, her skin was slightly darker than Paisley’s, and her eyes were dark green.
“Are you going to stay here now?” she asked after a moment, voice so quiet that Ainslie could barely hear the words.
“That’s right,” Ainslie answered, glad that she didn’t actually need to ask Lily to repeat herself. It seemed as if the girl might bolt back into the house like a startled rabbit at the slightest sign of trouble.
Lily nodded slowly, already seeming distracted. After a few moments, she stood up and slunk back into the house, her steps light and careful.
Ainslie took that as her cue to head back inside. She tucked the folder under her arm, picked Paisley up, and carried her inside and up the stairs to deposit her on her bed, amongst her swarm of stuffed animals.
Andy had already disappeared into her bedroom, but Lily was once again watching Ainslie cautiously from around Paisley’s doorframe. Carefully, she accepted the offer of a snack.
*
Dinner was a surprisingly simple affair that night. Ainslie had expected a cook, but Malik cooked it himself. Ainslie attended, curious to see the family all in one place.
Lily sprang to life with her father present, and she and Paisley talked nonstop, voices getting louder as they spoke over each other, only to get quiet again whenever Malik cleared his throat, then once again, get steadily louder.
As a sharp contrast, Andy ate her food in silence, never saying a word and never looking up from her plate.
Every so often, Malik slid her a concerned glance, but only when he thought Ainslie wasn’t looking. Unfortunately for him, Ainslie had spent seven years herding children around and had gotten very good at spotting almost everything.
After dinner, leaving their plates on the table, both Andy and Lily left the kitchen to head to their rooms and Malik picked Paisley up. He paused just long enough to speak to Ainslie. “The rest of the evening is yours to do whatever you’d like,” before he carried Paisley off for a bath.
Taking the cue from the rest of them, Ainslie left her plate on the table for the time being and headed back upstairs to her room.
She paused in her doorway when she realized there was a guest in her room.
Curled up in the middle of her bed, there was a pile of long white fluff. It wasn’t until it lifted its head up, smelling carefully, that she could confirm that it was a cat. A beautiful animal that seemed to consist of eighty-five percent tail, and likely big enough to weigh a solid twenty pounds without even being overweight.
“You must be Christopher,” Ainslie observed, and one pointed ear swiveled in her direction. The end of his tail twitched as Ainslie stepped closer to the bed and sat down on the edge of it.
She drew in a breath in surprise when she got close enough to actually see the cat’s face, and she realized he had no eyes. Instead, there was skin and velvet fuzz over where they should have been.
The cat seemed content enough, though. If he wasn’t bothered by it, it was probably silly for Ainslie to be. With that in mind, she held a hand out, pausing long enough for Christopher to actually realize her hand was there before he started sniffing it.
He sneezed and laid his head back down on hi
s paws, his enormous tail curling around him again until he nearly disappeared under his own tail.
Taking it as a sign of approval, Ainslie scratched the top of his head for a few seconds before turning her attention back to her luggage. Every so often, she talked to the cat, making largely senseless observations on whatever she was doing. He was a good listener.
She was finished filling the dresser and beginning to work on hanging things in the closet when she heard Malik and Paisley in the hallway.
“You can try flying off the roof if you grow wings of your own, but that’s it.”
“But Daaaaad, that’ll never happen!”
“Exactly.”
It wasn’t until a few minutes later, though, that Malik knocked on Ainslie’s bedroom door. Ainslie emerged from her closet to gesture him into the room.
“I see you’ve met Andy’s baby,” he observed wryly, standing in the doorway and glancing in Christopher’s direction. “You can toss him out, if you don’t want everything magically covered in white hair.”
“He’s keeping me company,” Ainslie returned pleasantly. “And just based on Paisley’s energy levels, I figure white hair is the least of my concerns.”
“Probably accurate,” Malik agreed. “How did your first day go? Did any of the girls give you any trouble?”
“Andy’s a little sullen and Lily’s definitely on the shy side,” Ainslie replied, “but everything seemed to go pretty well. Paisley knows a lot about the dietary habits of sharks.”
Malik cleared his throat to mask a quiet laugh. “Yeah, she can get a bit… fixated, from time to time. I don’t know if she’s actually aware that people need to kill the sharks to see what’s inside them; I haven’t really had the heart to ask.”
“A wise decision,” Ainslie assured him somberly. She cleared her throat. “Anyway, the first day went fine, as far as I can tell. I’ve nearly made it through that folder Evey left.”
Malik nodded once and began backing out of the room. “Alright. Sounds like you’ve got everything in hand, then.” He stepped into the hallway again. “If you need me, I’ll be downstairs.”
Ainslie nodded and let him go. A few minutes later, she could hear Lily darting down the hall to the stairs. Andy, however, seemed content to keep herself sequestered in her room.
There was probably a story there, but Ainslie was pretty sure she was still too new to ask about it. She would be around for a while, though; she would figure it out eventually.
She turned her attention back to her closet and pulled her phone out of her pocket as she stepped back in to continue hanging up her clothing. She dialed her old roommate’s number without even needing to look at the keypad.
Carrie answered after barely a single ring, squealing, “I was starting to think you’d forgotten to call me!” into the phone.
“I do still work a full day,” Ainslie reminded her dryly. “And I need to eat dinner. Plus, there’s this whole unpacking thing that needs to happen. I know you haven’t had to do that in a while, but I expected you to remember that it’s a thing.”
Carrie blew a raspberry against the receiver, and Ainslie recoiled from her phone when all she heard was an overly loud burst of static.
“So how did it go?” Carrie asked finally, chipper and expectant as she awaited a description of the day: the more in-depth the better. If there was any kind of dirt to dig up, she wanted to be part of it. She always needed to be in the middle of everything, and to a certain extent that was what had drawn Ainslie to her. Getting close to the local rumor-monger in high school had seemed like the best way to avoid being on the unfortunate end of those rumors, and from there she’d acquired one of her best friends.
“He’s really handsome,” Ainslie stated plainly. “Like, super handsome. It’s a little hard to believe.”
“Luckyyyy,” Carrie whined. “Why can’t I have a hot employer?”
“You work freelance,” Ainslie reminded her blandly. “Do you even know what any of your clients look like?”
“Sometimes,” Carrie sniffed indignantly. “I mean, usually no, but sometimes. Anyway, what does he do? Or is he just magically a billionaire?”
“Uh…” Ainslie cleared her throat. “It didn’t really come up at dinner today,” she offered sheepishly, “but I think he does a lot of alternative energy stuff? Like, there’s a wind turbine statue in the yard and a good chunk of the roof has solar panels, and I think it’s a case of ‘practicing what he preaches.’”
“You should see if he could get the apartment complex hooked up,” Carrie sighed. “I would love it if I didn’t have an electricity bill anymore.”
“The landlord is a dick, though,” Ainslie reminded her patiently. “There would just be some other fee instead. Turbine maintenance fees or whatever.”
“True,” Carrie huffed. “Anyway. Anything interesting happen? Weird? Shocking?” Ainslie could just imagine her over-eager expression. “If there are any spicy details, I need them. And how old is this guy, anyway?”
Ainslie rolled her eyes. “I spent the day with a three-year-old,” she stated flatly. “Other than a lot of animal trivia, I don’t know what sort of scandal you’re expecting. And he’s… thirty-one, I think. His oldest daughter’s last birthday was in one of your magazines and the writer made a big to-do about how he was only nineteen when she was born.”
“Not old enough to look distinguished, then,” Carrie huffed. “But seriously, we should get lunch at some point. Before you forget about me from your new tower.”
“It’s been a day!” Ainslie laughed. “Were you always this needy or is it a new thing?”
“I’ll shrivel up and die without constant attention,” Carrie informed her earnestly. “Like a fussy plant.”
“I’m trading you in for a spider plant. Or a succulent,” Ainslie threatened wryly. “Something low maintenance.”
“You could trade me for an agave plant and get tequila,” Carrie mused thoughtfully.
Ainslie snorted. “Yeah, I’m sure no one will notice if you’re suddenly replaced by a plant the size of a truck.” Shaking her head, she sighed and wondered, “Anything else to ask, or are you just being ridiculous for the sake of being ridiculous now?”
Feigning a wounded tone, Carrie heaved a long, drawn-out sigh. “I guess I’ll let you go,” she lamented. “You finish unpacking or seducing the guy or whatever it is you were doing.”
Ainslie sputtered incoherently for a moment, and in return she got a cackle of laughter and a click as Carrie hung up the phone.
Every so often, she questioned her taste in friends, but she supposed life would be a lot quieter and a lot less interesting if that wasn’t the case.
CHAPTER THREE
Ainslie fell asleep that night with Christopher curled up at the foot of her bed, though he was gone by the time she woke up. She slept well that night. The house was far enough out into the country that there weren’t any traffic sounds. There weren’t really any noises she would associate with the city. Just birds and bugs and other animals.
She woke up at five the next morning. She was used to early mornings; she had to be, working with kids. It seemed like school started earlier and earlier every year.
As she made her way to the bathroom to take a shower, it seemed like no one else was up yet. Even so, the idea of scampering down the hall in nothing but a towel wasn’t the most appealing, so she brought her stack of clothes for the day with her.
By the time she was out of the shower, the house was coming to life. She could hear voices drifting up the stairs from below. Ainslie dressed in a hurry and headed downstairs, though she paused in the hallway once the voices were actually clear enough for her to pick out the words.
“I already told you, I don’t want to go!” That was definitely Andy’s voice, raised in outrage.
“Andy, please, it’s not like you need to—”
“I said no!”
Malik didn’t get another chance to reply after that as Andy stormed out of the
den, slamming the door shut in her wake. She paused mid-stride when she saw Ainslie in the hallway, and then blushed up to the tips of her ears before she scuttled off to the kitchen. Ainslie could hear plates rattling a moment later.
Malik emerged from the den slowly, and he slid Ainslie a slow look. She blinked back at him, the very picture of innocence.
“I’m guessing you heard that,” he sighed, running a hand through his hair.
“Unfortunately,” Ainslie confirmed.
Malik pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers. “On Saturday, we’ll be heading to my wife’s family’s house so the girls can spend some time with their grandparents. Andy’s had… something of a disagreement with them, so I suppose she’s decided she won’t be joining us.”
