As with so many people who had come before her, things did not work out anywhere close to how she had imagined they would. It was beyond embarrassing when she thought about it now, but Alison had actually harboured the ridiculous belief that she would waltz into town, find some shitty little apartment that would be nothing but a place to rest her head and entirely temporary. She actually believed that she would be discovered by some big shot movie producer who would pick her up out of the gutter of anonymity and make her into a star. She would move away from the awful apartment and into a swanky penthouse with a beautiful view and a fancy car and a job she loved waking up to every day for the rest of her life. That was what she thought she would have. What actually took place was far, far different from her expectations.
She felt so childish now, looking back on, what, almost two years now, to when she had first come to LA full of her young, naive hope. Suffice it to say, things had not gone quite that way. Two years, and she was no closer to catching her dream. The temporary dingy apartment had become much more permanent than she was comfortable with and instead of waking up to her dream job she was forced to drag herself into a series of bizarre and entirely annoying jobs that she couldn’t have cared less about. Now she had stumbled upon her latest job, something that was not at all related to the field of acting but at least got her out of the apartment she completely loathed. She had recently become aware of a series of crimes that made her apartment not only unpleasant, but also unsafe. The new job she had just accepted was as a full time maid for some crazy rich hotshot. One of the perks of the job was that she was expected to live in the hotshot’s apartment which for some people might have felt like a major imposition but for her was actually getting her out of a less than ideal situation.
“Um, Alison? Earth to Alison? You better not have hung up on me. Or god, who knows, put the phone down and wandered off somewhere.”
“No! Shoot, I’m sorry, I was just thinking about how to answer your question.”
“About what you’ve been up to? I didn’t realize it was such a difficult question to answer.”
“I know, it’s just that a whole lot has changed recently.”
“Ok, like what?”
“Well, I took a new job.”
“Oh, exciting. Right? Is that a good thing?”
“I don’t know. I think it’s good enough. I’m working as a maid now, but like, a live-in maid.”
“Seriously? People still do things like that? Who is this guy, the president?”
“No, his name is Aasir Almasi. His family is like crazy wealthy and I guess he’s something called a Sheikh? I don’t know. All I know is that he runs one of the family company’s from here in LA, some high end luxury jewel company.”
“Oh my god! Are you for real? Aasir Almasi? That guy is like, totally famous. And he’s richer than god, so that’s pretty fantastic. And you seriously get to live in that guy’s house? I can honestly say I have never been so jealous of anyone in my entire life.”
“Really? You’re jealous of being a maid? You realize I’m not his girlfriend, right? I’m just going to be cleaning up after him and whatever crazy parties he has.”
“I know, but still! What’s he like? Is he dark and brooding? Is he wild and crazy? Old, young? Come on, spill it.”
“Good lord, you have a lot of questions! And I honestly can’t answer very many of them. I only just moved in a couple of days ago, maybe a week, tops. I’m still trying to get used to everything. I can tell you that he’s young, maybe thirty-five, and that he works hard and seems to play just as hard. He’s been nice enough to me, if you count pretty much ignoring me as nice. He doesn’t hover over me or anything, so that’s good. He’s got some model girlfriend who seems to be pretty unhappy most of the time. That’s about all I know about him. Satisfied?”
“No, not really, but it will have to do. I know you aren’t really much for the details. At least not the ones I’m interested in. Still, I would die to be in your shoes. And you’re like, in his house, right now, while we’re talking? What’s that like? Is it one of those super mansions? What about your room?”
“Ok, on that front I’ve got to admit, the house is insane. I’ve never seen a house this big, and everything is made out of marble. I’m pretty sure just the front door alone cost three times more than my car.”
“Well that doesn’t surprise me. Your car is a piece of junk.”
“Thanks. I don’t know, it’s beautiful. My room is amazing, like quadruple the size of my apartment. There’s a massive canopy bed and a marble bathroom with a walk in shower and separate tub. It’s like living in a swanky hotel. It’s fun, but I feel kind of like I shouldn’t touch anything. If I ever broke anything I would never be able to pay for it, that’s for sure.”
“Oh whatever. You’re finally starting to get a taste of the lifestyle you’ve wanted since you came here! Who knows? Maybe he’ll have some kind of connections that will be able to help you break into acting. He’s bound to know tons of super famous people, right? Just make sure he likes you. Are you being likeable?”
“I don’t know! I’m being as likeable as I know how to be. Hopefully it’s enough to keep my job. That’s all I’m really thinking about right now, to be honest with you. I just want things to get a little bit more stable. I don’t even care about having the lavish lifestyle at this point. I never really did, honestly. I just wanted to have the opportunity to do what I loved for a living. Hopefully someday I will, but I can’t think about that at this point. I just want things to be a little bit more peaceful than they have been.”
“Alright, alright. If you say so. I’ve got to go, girl, but you keep me updated, ok? Don’t make me hunt you down in that big beautiful house. I’m pretty sure neither you nor your boss would enjoy a thing like that.”
“Nope, not even a little bit. I’ll talk to you later, ok?”
“Ok, sounds good.”
Alison hung up the phone with a sigh of relief. She loved her friend but sometimes talking to her was a little bit exhausting. She was just so spunky, so demanding with her questions! And Alison didn’t really know how to answer any of them, which made the conversations all the more stressful. Honestly, she just needed some time to herself, to try to really take in her recent changes in life. Just a moment of peace and quiet would do her an amazing amount of good. Unfortunately, it was beginning to seem like that was something she was never going to get. Almost immediately after hanging up the phone she heard the massive front door slam open and then slam shut again, announcing the return of Aasir with a bang. And from the amount of noise being made, it was clear that he was not alone.
“What is it? What do you want from me, Nicole? Is there anything on god’s green earth that could even come close to making you happy?!”
Great. On top of everything else, now she was stuck in the middle of a real life, bona fide couple’s fight. Perfect, absolutely perfect. This was just the way she had been hoping to spend her Friday night.
Chapter Two
“Seriously! That wasn’t a rhetorical question. What is it going to take, Nicole? What do you want?”
Aasir stormed through the lavish entryway of his home, his girlfriend Nicole Tesler following closely behind him. It seemed impossibly that this evening could have turned out so far from the way it began. He had honestly tried this time. He had tried to do everything in the perfect way, in a way that made Nicole happy. She was still wearing the massive canary diamond he had presented to her at the beginning of the night, for christ’s sake! Not an engagement ring, not yet, but still an absolutely stunning piece of jewelry. He had thought that her happiness with the gift was a good sign, that it would be an indicator of the way the rest of the evening would go, and once they arrived at the restaurant things had continued so well. The restaurant was beautiful, the view astounding and the drinks exactly the kind he knew she loved. Even now, looking back on the last several hours, he couldn’t pinpoint where things had gone awry.
Perh
aps it had been a look he had given a woman without even realizing it that had first set her to sulking. Maybe he hadn’t refilled her drink quickly enough or maybe he had ordered the wrong thing. Whatever it was, by the time they were in the car on the way home she was hardly speaking to him and the few words that she did say were full of a thick hatred he couldn’t understand. It was amazing to him, how quickly Nicole could flip her switch from totally loving and content to simmering with anger over something only she was aware of.
The two of them had been together for just over two years and he kept expecting things to get better. They would, too, for a little while. They would have these periods of time where everything felt like a dream, like everything was perfect and they were going to stay together and be genuinely happy. It would last for weeks or sometimes even months and then the switch would flip again and it would feel like nothing had ever been good at all. He loved her, loved her deeply in a way he hadn’t anticipated loving anyone, but he was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to be able to please her. And how was he supposed to build a life with a woman he couldn’t even keep happy for more than a couple of months?
“Nicole, please. Just tell me what you want from me. Tell me why you’re so upset. I just don’t get it.”
“No, you don’t. That’s the problem, you never get it, do you? I have no idea how you ever got to be this successful in the the first place.”
“Watch it, Nicole, you’re getting into dangerous territory.”
“No, seriously,” she said with one perfectly manicured hand resting on her jutting hip, “explain it to me. how in the hell did you guys get so fucking rich when you seem so completely clueless? Did you just steal it all? That’s it, isn’t it? You, your whole family, you’re nothing more than a bunch of criminals.”
“Stop it! Don’t speak of things you know nothing about! You think that just because you’re a model, that gives you the right to say whatever it is you wish? I am not impressed by either your profession nor your beauty. I love you Nicole, but not for those things, and not when you behave this way.”
“And what way is that?”
“Like a brat, that’s how. Is nothing sacred to you? Is there nothing you respect, nothing you care for? Because you certainly can’t care for me, not and speak that way about what I hold dear. What have we even been doing together all of this time?”
“You’re right.”
“Well that’s a first. Right about what?”
The look in her eyes was utterly cold and void of any real feeling. It was like looking at a beautiful statue and nothing more. Honey colored skin with honey colored hair and sharp green eyes, the body of a supermodel and the heart of nothing at all. All he saw in her features was spite, this woman he loved. He had never know how painful it could be to look upon the face of one you cared for so deeply. And he knew. Even before she opened her mouth to speak again he knew exactly what she was going to say. He didn’t know whether he should be filled with dread or with relief, and in the end he supposed it didn’t really matter all that much. His feelings would do nothing to stop the saying of the thing. Not a damned thing.
“You’re right, Aasir, I don’t care for you. I don’t love you. I said the words and I didn’t mean them, not ever, not once. Half of the time I don’t even like you.”
“Well then,” Aasir said with a throat that felt like it was on the verge of closing up, “I suppose there isn’t anything more to say, is there?”
“No?”
“I would like you to leave my house. I don’t want to see you again, Nicole. Not ever. I can’t believe I wasted so much of my time on you. I can’t believe I ever tried to convince my family that you were a woman worth breaking tradition for.”
“I never asked you to do that.”
“You did,” he said in a voice that sounded dead to his own ears, “every time you told me you loved me and that you wanted us to be together that is exactly what you were telling me. Now get out.”
Miraculously, her eyes changed some when he said that, softening a little as if she had just realized exactly what it was that she had said. She started to pull the ring off of her finger uncertainly, as if she wasn’t quite sure what the next step should be. He wasn’t surprised. In all of the fights they had been through, and there had been many, things had never gone this far. This was far enough that they would not be able to come back from it, and yet somehow she still seemed to hesitate.
“Keep it,” he said dully, “I don’t want the ring back. I don’t want any of the things I gave you back.”
“Thank you” she said softly, tears springing garishly into her eyes.
“Don’t thank me. I’m not saying it out of kindness. I’m saying it because I don’t want anything that has touched you. If I want jewels I can get others, ones that haven’t been tainted by your lying skin.”
That was the last thing he said to her. She let out a little sob that almost broke Aasir’s resolve, but something wouldn’t let him call her back. Not this time. He just couldn’t do it. It felt like to do so would be to spit on everything he was, everything he came from. That was something he was not prepared to do. And so he remained silent and watched the woman he honestly believed he loved walk out of his front door and slam it as loudly as her rather small frame could manage. That was it. Such a massive home and nobody to keep him company. What an awful cliche. How pathetic.
But no, he wasn’t alone, was he? Not really, not completely. There was also the maid who had only recently moved into his home. Sweet christ, what must she think of him? She hardly even knew him, and as embarrassing as it was to say, he could not for the life of him remember her name. She had only been living in his home for a little bit over a week, and already she was being subjected to couples fights that would have been completely at home on an episode of Jerry Springer. Aasir had taken great pains, gone to great lengths to make sure this girl, this Alison Phelps felt as comfortable as could be expected while living in his home. He had made a point of staying out of her way and had hardly seen her since she had moved in. He didn’t want to hover or make her feel as if he didn’t trust her to do her job. He tried to put himself in her shoes and consider how he would feel had the roles been reversed. He knew from the way he had grown up, with a family who had their fingers in every single facet of his life, that it was difficult to do much of anything when you were being watched that way.
That being said, there was something that was really driving him mad about all of the fighting Alison had heard in such a short amount of time. It was just that he has made a point of telling her how important it was to him to have a maid who lived in his home and was available to him with much more frequency that the typical maid would have been. He was almost asking for a kind of a maid and personal assistant hybrid, which was a lot to put on one person. To add on top of that already considerable amount of responsibility the television worthy relationship drama of her employer seemed like too much to bare. Simply put, Aasir was feeling a little bit like a jackass. It might have been at least a little bit because of his slightly intoxicated state, but he felt the need to offer some kind of explanation, whether she had asked for it of not. He poured himself a glass of scotch with one large cube of slow melting ice and then picked up his cell phone to call Alison. Yes, the two of them were currently living in the same house, but he still needed to call her if he wanted to speak with her. The house was really that big. To his great satisfaction, the phone rang only twice before the girl picked up. Good. That was very good. He appreciated such promptness in his employee.
“Hello, sir. What can I do for you?”
“Alison, hello. I hope I’m not troubling you…”
“No! No, of course not, not at all. What else am I here for?”
“Well thank you for saying, although I do hope that you feel free to enjoy your free time as well. I know how important that sort of thing is to having an overall good quality of life, which is something I want you to have. Of course I do, absolutely.”
The Sheikh's Secret Page 63
