by Sable Sylvan
Carmen’s heart skipped a beat. Aiden had put the number in his phone, and in his wallet, and he hadn’t been playing a game with her...but he had found a way to break one of the system’s rules. Yes. Her aunt had said no fraternizing was allowed, no matter what. But...Aiden was right. There was abso-frikkin’-lutely nothing her aunt could do if Aiden wanted to talk at her. She couldn’t control what Aiden did. Carmen put the sponge down for a second and looked up at Aiden.
“Carmen...this is gonna sound weird. But. I want to get to know you. That’s why I showed up early today. I knew that I would never forgive myself if I never saw you again, so...if you want to get to know me, even if it’s a one-sided conversation, can you nod ‘yes’?” asked Aiden.
Carmen didn’t do anything. Was this a trick?
“And...if you don’t want to get to know me, shake your head ‘no’. I don’t want to get you fired. Trust me, I’m a man who really knows the state of the economy, and I know that it’s hard out there to get a job. I don’t want to risk your job. So, if you don’t want to get to know me? I’ll leave. Right now. And I won’t ever bother you again,” promised Aiden. “And no, I won’t call your boss and complain. You do a damn good job, and if anyone’s gonna get my two hundred bucks, I’d rather it be you than anyone else in the whole state of Washington.” Aiden walked over to one of the drawers and opened it, pulling out a thin black envelope and passing it to Carmen.
Carmen opened the envelope. Inside was the same tip he always gave her, no more, no less. Ten crisp twenty dollar bills, two hundred bucks total. It was an extra eight hundred a month, life changing money to a young woman trying to help support her family.
“I know it’s weird, trying to get to know, ‘the help’,” said Aiden, using finger quotes. “But you’re a great woman. You are of course, drop dead gorgeous, but you’re hard-working, sweet, and downright sassy, and I’ve never met a woman like you. If the only way I can see you is by hiring you weekly to clean my condo...that’s what I’ll do, every week until the end of time. But if this makes you feel uncomfortable, now or ever, just let me know, and I’ll be out of your way, but I won’t complain to your boss, have you fired, ask for a new maid, any of that. Those are the cards I have on the table. I hope I’ve addressed everything for you. So...will you let me talk to you, and get to know you?”
Carmen looked up at Aiden and couldn’t help but smile. She nodded her head vigorously.
“Great,” said Aiden. “And technically...I’m guessing smiling, and nodding, and laughing, they aren’t talking, are they?”
Carmen shook her head ‘no’.
Aiden pulled out his phone and looked at the time. “Awesome, so we’ve got...thirty more minutes for us to get to know each other,” said Aiden. He opened his phone and went to a document he’d saved. “Believe it or not, Carmen...there’s a bunch I want to ask you. I guess some of these questions are questions I can’t ask, because they require, you know, actually talking, but...I’ll try to figure out something this week. In the mean time...”
Aiden spent the rest of the thirty minutes with Carmen asking her basic questions about her life and answering the same questions in return. He learned yes, she was from Seattle, but no, she wasn’t in college, but yes, she did want to go, but no, not for a humanities or a science degree. She learned that he was an executive at the Asher Lumber Co., and that his last name was Dixon, that he was Aiden Dixon, of the Asher-Dixon Clan, and yes, he was a bear shifter, and his shift was a grizzly, huge, with dark brown fur that matched his hair. When Carmen learned that, she had to put her sponge down for a second. She knew what that surname meant. It meant not just ‘bear’, but ‘billionaire’, and Aiden put it out there that yes, he was a billionaire, but he was also a workaholic, hence, why the apartment was always pretty clean. He was never there, but he’d been raised to keep his abode tidy for two reasons. One, it was less work for the help to do, and two, you never knew who would walk into your condo on a given day.
Funnily enough, Aiden had never exactly had an unexpected visitor he’d needed to impress...until he’d met Carmen the week before.
The half hour passed quickly enough, and like the week before, Aiden helped Carmen out of the apartment and to the elevator. The entire time she’d spent with him, he hadn’t tried any funny business. There were no dirty jokes about how she should wear a French maid costume, nor any brushes against her ample curves or gropes of her nice, broad ass. He’d just sat and talked at her, with her responding with simple nods and shakes of the head, and they’d actually had the nicest conversation Carmen had had all week.
In the car back to the cleaning service, Carmen couldn’t help but turn on the radio and sing to a pop song for two reasons.
First of all, her mouth was starting to feel weird for not talking for a whole frikkin’ hour.
Secondly, even though she was human...she couldn’t help like maybe she was a nightingale shifter, who just had to spread her wings and sing out of joy, given the awesome afternoon she’d had with Aiden, the best hour of her entire week...and best of all, she hadn’t had to break a single rule.
***
When she got back to headquarters, Polly called her into her office.
“Did you talk to the client?” asked Polly as soon as she shut the door.
“I told him what you told me to say, and gave him the card,” said Carmen. Technically, it was true.
“Good,” said Polly, looking over her niece. She could tell when her niece was lying, and she didn’t look like she was lying...but Carmen had a fresh glow that Polly had a suspicion wasn’t from cleaning fluid fumes. She still didn’t like the situation. “Well, the client didn’t call me, so I’m guessing everything’s alright. You can keep that schedule, because those geniuses down in tech, and I mean they must be literal geniuses given the salaries we pay them, still have not figured the issue with the algorithm out, so we’ve put a hold on all schedule changes. But Carmen...if there’s any funny business, and I mean any, whatsoever, I promise you, I will have your ass on the street spinning a sign looking for a job. Do we have an understanding?”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Carmen, with a gulp she couldn’t stop. “I understand.”
“Good,” said Polly. “Now get home, because the last thing I need is a call from my sister, asking where the heck her favorite daughter is. Plus, you probably have a dinner to be cooking. Scram!”
“Alright, alright,” said Carmen getting up.
Polly put a hand on Carmen’s shoulder and Carmen turned.
“Carmen...” started Polly. “You know that I have these rules for a reason, right?”
“I know,” said Carmen.
“I shouldn’t be telling you this, but...” Polly turned to look out over the headquarter floor, at all the maids hustling and bustling for that dollar and that dime. “I’m getting older, and...”
“Oh, no, Aunt Polly, are you okay?” asked Carmen with genuine concern.
Polly frowned. “Carmen, I’m in great health, stellar, and if I wasn’t, I’d be darn mad I had to drink all those green smoothies for nothing, especially given the price I pay for them,” said Polly. “No, I’m getting ready to retire.”
“Why haven’t you yet?” asked Carmen.
“Because I haven’t found my replacement,” said Polly. “Or rather...she isn’t ready yet.”
“You already have one picked out?” asked Carmen.
“Yes. She reminds me of a young me...but she’s missing two things. The first, a pesky piece of paper that can be earned easily in a few years’ time. The other, experience,” said Polly. “I supposed, maybe a third...she has to want this more badly than she’s ever wanted anything before, even if it means listening to rules that to her, seem silly, but that won’t in twenty years’ time. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Sort of,” said Carmen. “Who is she?”
“Are you frikkin’ serious?” said Polly, shaking her head. She couldn’t help but smile the smile that both she and
Carmen shared: wide, with white teeth, making her two hidden dimples pop out of their hiding place. “I set up this dramatic moment for nothing? It’s you, Carmen, gee whiz, kid, get out of my office! Your mom will be on my ass if I don’t get you back home in one piece. Shoo!”
Carmen thought about the drama bomb her aunt had dropped on her as she got on the bus to go home. It was her? Her aunt had these big plans for her and she’d had no frikkin’ clue...but when she thought about it all, it all made sense. It made the situation with Aiden even more complicated. There was more at stake here than just her current job...her future was on the line too, as well as her family’s opinion of her. Was all this really worth it in exchange for an hour a week with the most charming, handsome, polite man she’d ever met?
The worst part was, Carmen found herself saying out loud to herself, “Yes.”
Chapter Three
The next Friday, Carmen was just as messed up inside as she had been the week before, but at least she knew that she could still talk with Aiden through their system of nods and shakes and technically, not break any rules. Yes, she was breaking the spirit of the rule, but not the letter of the law, and wasn’t that what was most important? Her aunt was a smart business woman, but she didn’t understand the bond that Carmen had with Aiden, and there was no way Carmen could ever make her understand...so she might as well enjoy the hour a week she had with Aiden.
Carmen arrived at the penthouse and knocked at the door. Aiden opened the door. “Hey, Carmen,” said Aiden, opening the door. “Welcome.”
Carmen walked in. The condo lights weren’t on, but the apartment was filled with a warm, glowing light. She followed Aiden to the kitchen, where, on the kitchen island...
There were candles.
Lots of candles, and they were filling the condo with a vanilla scent. Next to the candles, in large platters that Carmen had never seen in the apartment before, as the apartment only had a few sets of plates and cups and silverware the last time she’d done a complete washing of the kitchen wares, was lots of food. It was Thai food, the kind he’d asked her about last week, that she had told him, no, she hadn’t tried, but yes, she would like to try one day. There were two coconuts, open, with umbrellas and straws in them, and two of the large bear-shifter sized bar stools were by the counter. The mineral water was the main beverage and palate cleanser, as the coconut water was very thick and sweet.
“Bone apple tea,” said Aiden.
Carmen raised her eyebrow. Did this dude really just say ‘bone apple tea’?
“It’s an in-joke with my family,” explained Aiden. “When I was a kid, I tried to mimic one of my older relatives, and instead of saying ‘bon appétit’, I said... ‘bone apple tea’.”
Carmen gestured at the food. What was going on?
“I hired an additional cleaning service this week,” said Aiden. “I...wanted to be able to spend this hour with you to its fullest. I wanted you to be able to just sit back, and relax. Technically...the rules don’t state that you have to clean during the hour. I’m the customer, right? And the first rule is...the customer’s always right. Well, this customer wants to enjoy a delicious meal with a wonderful woman.”
Carmen shook her head and smiled before crossing her arms. She put down her bucket and walked over to the sink and washed her hands before walking back to Aiden. Aiden held out a plate, and she took it. She started to serve herself small portions of the food, but before she could start, Aiden went through the platters of food and put more food on her plate, to ensure she would have an ample portion of each dish, as well as all the best bits and cuts of meat.
Carmen resisted breaking the rule and saying, Really? to him. Aiden got up and opened the fridge. In the fridge, he’d stashed a large bottle of luxury mineral water, and he opened it, serving them each a crystal tumbler full of water that Carmen knew cost double-digits.
Aiden made himself a plate...but before sitting down, opened a drawer. He pulled out a few things.
First, the black envelope, which he passed to Carmen. She put it in her apron.
Secondly, two pads of paper.
Thirdly, two pens.
Carmen raised her eyebrows. What?
Aiden didn’t reply. Instead, he started writing something down on the paper, and then, after a minute, passed the paper to Carmen.
My dear Carmen,
I like talking at you, but I’d love to talk with you.
Of course, we can’t talk...but nobody said we couldn’t write to each other.
Use your pad of paper to write me notes, and I’ll use mine to write to you.
Yours,
Aiden
Carmen took her pad of paper, and, smiling, she wrote out...
My dear Aiden,
Wow. This is a great idea! I can’t believe I didn’t think about it...but then again, you are the one who likes to break the rules. Or at least, the one with a knack for it. Were you always this much of a rule breaker/troublemaker/hooligan/what-have-you, or is it just something about me that makes you break all these rules?
Yours,
Carmen
As Carmen and Aiden sat there, one would write while the other ate. Aiden explained the names of all the dishes on the table to Carmen, and it turned out he’d actually cooked all the dishes for her specially. The only sound was the sound of them writing, eating the delicious food.
Through notes, Aiden explained that what he’d cooked was traditional Thai cuisine. He’d taken a half day at work, had the ingredients delivered, but done all the actual cooking himself. Carmen had to admit she was very impressed. Aiden’s time was valuable, as in it cost thousands of dollars an hour valuable, and he’d done all this, just for her, a girl he’d only met twice? He was definitely taking this dinner seriously...and in a city where hook-ups and one-night-stands were more the norm, having something serious and old fashioned was really right up Carmen’s alley.
First off, he’d prepared them a bevy of appetizers. There was chicken satay as a starter. The chicken was cut into thin slices, marinated in a sauce that gave it its yellow color, put on skewers, and grilled. It was served with a savory peanut sauce that was more like a barbecue sauce than a peanut butter spread. The chicken was served with a small salad, much like a Western salad. It had lettuce, slivers of carrots and cucumber, and wedges of tomatoes. There was a spicy peanut dressing similar to the sauce used on the chicken satay, as well as sliced almonds, bits of satay that had fallen off their skewers, and bits of mandarin oranges, which weren’t traditional. That was Aiden’s own special touch, and it gave it a bit of a sweet and sour flavor.
For the entrees, he’d made a variety of foods. There was of course shrimp pad thai, which was a noodle dish with a peanut sauce and shrimp. The noodles were flat and thin. They were rice noodles rather than traditional Western wheat or egg noodles. The pad thai also had bean sprouts, basil, and chili peppers that gave it a bevy of textures and an herbal and spicy flavor along with the savory flavor of the shrimp and the peanut sauce. Aiden had also made fish with a special garlic sauce, with bell peppers, zucchini, and carrots in the sauce. However, his choice of fish is what made the dish special. He’d used fresh, Pacific Northwest salmon, and the pink fatty flesh fell into flakes with just a touch of a fork.
Aiden explained that as a bear shifter, he naturally had a soft spot for salmon. He told Carmen about the various kinds of salmon he could purchase at fish markets in Seattle, and how, down in his hometown, Port Jameson, a shifter town in Oregon, he had fond memories of fishing for salmon. Like most young cubs, he had taken a while to get a hold of how to manage his big bad bear shift. Going from a two-hundred-pound business man to a six-hundred-pound predator wasn’t exactly a cake walk, and even as someone in his late twenties, he still found himself getting used to being a part time bear when he was a full time billionaire. It was summer, but closer to autumn than the start of the season. This mean that it would soon be the end of the fresh salmon season, and he hadn’t had a chance to go down to P
ort Jameson and stock up on salmon by fishing with his family.
However, they were going to save up extra salmon for him anyway, because they were family, and family takes care of each other. Every year, they always had extra salmon, because one never knew what might happen unexpectedly. Of course, fresh salmon tasted better than frozen stuff, but there were six freezers full of salmon down in his grandma’s house in Port Jameson that he’d be raiding next time he went down to see his family. Even though the salmon fishing season was about to be over, he could still bulk up other ways, although small hors d'oeuvres served at galas and museum parties wouldn’t help him that way. He needed to bulk up because if he didn’t, he’d wake up all winter and wouldn’t be able to get a good winter’s sleep, because, after all, bears hibernated.
Carmen was fascinated by all that. It was hard to think of Aiden as anything but a kind, sweet hearted billionaire. It was hard to think of him as a big grizzly bear, or even as a small town family man, but that was a side of him that she just hadn’t had a chance to see yet...and she hoped that she would get to see Port Jameson with him one day, maybe in a few months when she could find another job so that they wouldn’t have to sneak around behind her aunt. She had no idea that for a shifter, they had to balance human life with animal biology, but Aiden was very good at explaining to her things like hibernation, which he was going to spend down in Port Jameson with his family, like he did every year.
For dessert, he’d made something special indeed. He’d made fried bananas for them, right at the stove as Carmen watched. The bananas he used were actually plantains, meant for cooking and they weren’t too tasty by themselves. Aiden gave Carmen a taste of the plain uncooked plantain so she could see why they had to be cooked. After being cooked in a delicious sugary vanilla sauce with some butter, the bananas tasted like a caramel pudding. They were topped with sesame seeds before being put on vanilla gelato, which Aiden had purchased rather than made from scratch. The hot bananas melted the white ice cream, and Carmen had to admit, the sight of that big hot banana covered in white cream reminded her of something very naughty...but she didn’t write that down on her notepad...
