Chapter 12
She had every intention of returning the phone during breakfast. It was the only time before lunch when she was sure he wasn't busy working in his office, where she knew she couldn't disturb him.
She walked past the servant's dining area and into the hallway to Mr. Chastain's dining area while practising what she wanted to say in her head.
It would be a lie to say that she wasn't a little scared of how he would react.
Would he take it as an insult? She hoped he'd just silently accept it so she could move on.
She stopped just short of the dining area before knocking on the door but no reaction came. So she knocked again, in case he hadn't heard. No reaction again.
She debated on opening the door but that would only result in two scenarios.
The first one was that he was simply ignoring her and therefore didn't give her permission to disturb him.
In that case, it could be bad to open the door.
The second scenario was that he simply wasn't eating his breakfast in there, in which case there was no point in opening the door.
With a sigh, she turned around to take the small box back into her room. It would have to be returned another time, then.
The only time she was guaranteed to see him was tomorrow when he'd give her a ride to town. She put the box on top of the stack of books so she wouldn't forget and turned around to go have her breakfast when a sound stopped her in her tracks.
It was a strange buzzing and it took her to realize it had come from the box. Curiously, she moved to open it only to read 'Sébastien' on the screen. Wait, was he calling her? A slight panic set in while she debated whether or not to pick up.
In the end, it seemed rude not to, so she swiped the slide to answer before bringing it to her ear. "Er- Hello?" she answered. It wasn't that she didn't know how to use a phone, that'd be stupid. She just wasn't very good at calling in general because she never knew what to say.
"Ava," Mr. Chastain's calm voice came through the other side. "What time did you want to leave tomorrow?"
"I'm supposed to meet with my friend at ten. If that's alright for you?"
"It's fine, we'll leave at nine-thirty then. See you then."
"No wait!" she said hastily before he could hang up. "I, uh, wanted to thank you for the phone, it's super nice of you and it's a great phone but I can't accept it."
"Why not?"
"Because I-- I can't," she closed her eyes while silently reprimanding herself for not being able to come up with a better explanation.
"Alright, but look at it this way; I'm your boss and I have to be able to reach you. Consider it a work tool," he explained calmly.
"A work tool?"
"Yeah. What if I need to tell you something? I can't walk around the house just to look for you, now can I? It'd be easier for me to just call."
"Right."
"Right," he confirmed. "So just keep it, will you?"
"Alright, but only because it's for work, then," she confirmed solemnly. She still wasn't sure about it but decided to keep it for now.
"Sure. See you tomorrow."
And with that, he hung up and Ava was left to stare at the screen of the brand new phone. Her brand new phone. The shiny screen reflected her dumbfounded face back at her while she thought of what to do with it.
She was scared if she kept it on her it might break while she was working, but at the same time, she had to keep it on her in case he needed to call her. After weighing her options for a bit she decided to slide it into the pocket of her uniform dress before continuing on with her day.
She had almost forgotten the light device in her pocket until it buzzed the next day. Curious, she picked it up in order to see what was going on.
After unlocking the phone she could see the complete message,
It was then that she realized it was almost time to leave and she hadn't even put on her shoes yet. After almost falling over she quickly grabbed her books and practically ran down the hallway towards the front door. She stopped to open it and walked out as if she hadn't been running the whole way.
Because he was so deeply invested in whatever was going on on his phone he hadn't noticed her until she stood next to him. His dark brown snapped to her while he locked his phone and put it away again.
"Good morning," she greeted.
"Mornin'" he gruffly replied. Maybe he wasn't a morning person.
Now that she thought about it, she'd never actually encountered him in the mornings.
She briefly wondered how he even had the time to drive her to town since he had his own company.
He spent most of his time at the estate in his study working so it was odd that he was able to go into town on a Friday morning.
He moved to get in his car so Ava did the same. She wasn't sure if he was interested in a conversation since she was already burdening him with her presence in the car.
Silently, he started the car and drove away from the house. Even after all those rides in his car it still amazed her how much time she could cut from her commute just by taking the car. Especially the one he had.
They rarely passed any cars and Ava didn't really know where the road led beside the estate she worked at. The trees passed by in a blur and she kept herself busy by focussing on every other tree before it disappeared.
"How long do you think you'll need?" he asked, breaking the silence.
She turned to him only to find him already looking right at her. "Last time it took around two hours, but I can walk back if that's too long?" she didn't want him to think he had to wait around for her or anything, it was already very nice of him to take her to town. She'd survive the walk back.
"No, I'll pick you up in two hours then," he said definitively, giving her no choice but to nod. "Thank you."
He didn't really reply to her thanks but they were entering the town and he was busy focussing on the road. The smooth asphalt was replaced by pothole-riddled cement and she feared for the well-being of the expensive car.
Mr. Chastain didn't seem to have that concern as he kept driving until they reached the library where he stopped. "You can call me if you finish early or something," he said.
"Thank you," Ava replied with a smile before getting out. Just before she closed the door, his voice rang out, "Ava."
She had to slightly bend down again to see his face before he continued, "you have to stop thanking me for everything."
Not really knowing how to react to that, she just nodded. It probably got annoying to him and she had to find other things to say. Maybe 'okidoki' would be a great substitution.
After closing the door and watching him speed off she made her way to the library. The librarian seemed too busy to notice her and she didn't feel like interrupting whatever she was doing so she quietly slipped by towards the spot she and Everly would hang out.
As always, Everly was early but this time she wasn't alone.
A blonde girl of around their age sat next to her and the moment her cold blue eyes snapped to her she felt a little uncomfortable.
Ava silently reprimanded herself for feeling negative about someone who she had never talked to since she probably was a nice person.
Surely Everly wouldn't bring someone mean to their book club?
"Ava," Everly excitedly called out as soon as she saw her. Her curly hair bounced with her every move and Ava wished she had the same hair texture. "Hi," she timidly replied, slightly intimidated by the unknown person sitting next to Everly.
"So, this is Jane," she said while pointing to Jane. "I told her about you and our little book club and she wanted to join! I thought, the more the merrier and I wanted to ask you if you were cool with it but I realized we never exchanged numbers," she said while smacking her forehead.
"Anyway, Jane, this is Ava," Everly finished while gesturing to Ava.
"Hi," Ava greeted politely. The cold blue eyes ran over her outfit and back to her own before she opened her mouth. "Was that Sébastien Chastain who just dropped you off?"
Alright, no polite greetings then. She looked at Everly for support but found nothing but curiosity. If she'd known getting dropped off would draw this kind of attention she'd probably have declined the offer.
"Um, yeah. I work for him and he said he had something to do here so he dropped me off on the way there."
"Huh," Jane said almost in disbelief. "You guys hang out often?"
"No, not really. His place is really big so I usually only see the other servants."
"Right, of course. So what's he like?"
"Mr. Chastain is very nice," Ava said while looking to find the words to describe him, but she came up empty. She hoped Jane wouldn't think she was a loser because she couldn't find the right words.
Jane didn't seem satisfied at her answer and opened her mouth again before Everly interrupted, "I didn't come here to listen to you guys talk about men. Not real men, at least. Fictional men, now that's a different story," she said while tapping the books in front of her.
"Right, sorry," Ava replied while secretly feeling relieved at the save. Mr. Chastain and she really weren't close enough that she could say anything meaningful about him.
And so they delved into the books, the ones they'd read and the ones they'd planned to read.
Jane didn't really say much after that but it was probably because it was her first week and she hadn't read anything yet.
Everly made her choose between a few books until she caved in and went to grab it, promising she'd read it.
Unlike the other times, Ava only grabbed one book.
Since she'd gotten access to Mr. Chastain's library there wasn't really any need to borrow anything from the library anymore, but she liked coming there and she didn't want to explain to Jane why he would give someone like her access to his possessions.
"Same time next week?" Everly suggested, making Ava nod along with her. "Same time next week," she confirmed. Jane just nodded but wasn't really looking at them. Instead, she'd turned her gaze to the street outside before turning to Ava. "So, is he coming to pick you up?"
Ava knew who she was referring too but her intense interest in Mr. Chastain made her a little suspicious. Why would she be interested in her employer?
"Yes, he'd pick me up at one," she replied. Jane glanced at the large library clock before smiling at Ava, "that's in a few minutes already, we should wait for him outside."
Ava didn't like the way she implied they'd both be waiting for him. It wasn't like he was going to take Jane home too, not unless she liked to be stuffed in the trunk since there wasn't enough room for three people. Everly didn't say anything about it but followed them outside.
The chilly air made Ava pull her jacket closer to her body while crossing her arms for warmth while they waited for Mr. Chastain to pick her up. George had warned her for possible snowfall but it thankfully hadn't started yet.
They heard the sounds before they saw the unmistakable shiny black car arrive which stopped right in front of them. He'd stopped precisely at the right spot for Ava to be able to open the door without having to walk anywhere.
"Well, see you guys next week," she said. "It was nice meeting you, Jane."
"Uh-huh," Jane replied while bending down to look into the car. A big smile spread across her face when she found what she was looking for.
"Sébastien, hey!" she waved excitedly. Ava briefly made eye contact with Everly who threw Jane a weird look before getting in the car.
She glanced at Mr. Chastain who was too busy ignoring Jane to really pay attention to anything. She fastened her seatbelt and as soon as she heard the 'click' they were gone.