8. Chapter 8 #2
I feel no shame in watching her sit on the large U-shaped sofa that occupies the centre of the living room.
With Theo gone for just a few minutes, I half expected her to snoop more.
That she’ll pull out her phone, scroll through social media or snap pictures of the place so she can sell them to the tabloids the moment she leaves, but I ended up disappointed.
It was clear she knew who I was; not to toot my own horn, but I was famous in my field, famous all over, in fact. Even that big fat mistake of accepting my entry in the World’s Sexiest Man spread all those years ago, that bloody thing still haunts me to this day.
The things you do when you’re young and stupid.
But the point I’m trying to make was, one snapshot of what the inside of my house looked like with the right hashtags this girl would make more than I plan to pay to play house.
Something I find unsettling, I will never understand why creeps in this world want to know what the inside of my house looks like.
Regardless, I refused to give her the benefit of the doubt, and my heart did jump a little in excitement when she stood up from the sofa to peer at the picture frames on the TV stand.
Maybe I should have searched her for a wire or a body camera when she walked in; she could be filming everything.
They were all milestones of Theo, as I had no photos of myself as a child apart from a school photo of Min-Joon and me, taken a week or so after I moved there, and it currently rests on his mum’s bookshelf back in South Korea.
She admires the pictures with a smile. Holding her cheek, acting as if the photo was so precious it gave her a toothache, then scrunching her button nose, and I don’t like the pang it causes in my chest.
What is this woman doing to me? Great, now my heart is beating weirdly; I’ll have to mention it in my next check-up.
I sit back in my chair, shoving my fist into my cheek with a sigh.
She’s been alone for plenty of time, yet she did nothing that gave me an excuse not to hire her, which just made me angrier.
Soon enough, Theo comes running back, crashing into her legs, wearing his pair of red tracksuit bottoms and a red shirt with Mario’s hat on it, declaring he was ready to learn the magic trick.
****
Shit,
I did something shameful; instead of keeping an eye on this stranger with my boy, I fell asleep.
I have only ever fallen asleep once during the day, and that was the day after my mother left Theo with me; he had finally passed out from the non-stop crying, and I hadn’t slept a wink prior to her banging on my door at 3 am, still severely hungover.
I was too afraid to close my eyes in case he went missing or something happened the moment I attempted to get some rest. It was safe to say the two of us slept all night and all the way through till the afternoon. Which led me to the moment I learned Theo could understand Spanish.
But back to the present, I hadn’t slept properly in over a week; I was already working overtime and then some. Not to mention having to leave work, pick up Theo, then take us back to the office with me and drive him home again late at night, only added to the exhaustion.
Yesterday had made things easier for me, although having an inset day when there was still one more day left in the week was utterly pointless, but I digress. All of that exhaustion combined with the zero sleep I got last night, thanks to the person in the other room with my brother.
My body just shut down without me even realising it.
I’m still in a daze from sleep when the sudden sound of music draws my attention, along with the sound of Theo squealing.
Looking at the monitor confirmed that I must still be dreaming, and what I was seeing right now was nothing short of a nightmare.
With no idea what this woman and Theo were doing whilst I was asleep, what I’d woken up to had only scared me further.
Having to assume since I couldn’t see what was on the TV, it looked as if the two of them were playing a game, each holding a Switch controller in their dominant hand, but the confusing part was which game it was.
I knew every game Theo owned, and although I myself never found the appeal of video games, I made sure to educate myself enough because Theo loved them.
The only games Theo owned were all Mario-themed, and he’d never once shown interest in any other kind of game, so it couldn’t be his. But that could only mean that the woman brought her own game, and without consulting me first, could I fire her for such insubordination?
I’m not sure, but I put it on the back burner for now and watched Theo jump up and down, clapping his hands while Luna was in some sort of trance with her eyes locked on the screen and dancing as if her life depended on it.
Her quick but swift movements made the camera feed lag, unbothered by the layer of sweat coating her body as she concentrated with such determination; it made her look a tad insane.
What the fuck was she doing?
Is this what people call dancing, something that had never been my preferred form of physical exercise, but I had no idea this was what it looked like? And how the hell was she doing it with such vigour, without stumbling once?
It was nothing like when you see girls dancing in the club, where they just jump up and down. It was more like one of those dance rehearsals K-pop idols film and put on their YouTube channel.
Never been a fan of the music genre, but I’ve been tortured by Min-Joon throughout the years to watch things like that.
I try to think of a counter reason why I should stop this, but I can’t tear my eyes away from the screen. The worst part is feeling the blood rush to my cock every time her hips snap or gyrate.
But my balls could get as excited as they wanted; it doesn’t mean I was ever going to act on this urge, and definitely not with the likes of this one.
No matter how captivating her movements were.
After a minute and a half of watching her move her body in sync with the K-pop song, I watch her collapse on the sofa, wiping her forehead. Theo cheers and hands her a bottle of water.
“Again, again!” he pleads, but Luna looks like she was on the verge of passing out, slightly red in the face whilst reaching to pull down her top, exposing part of her midriff.
“H-hold on, Theo. L-Luna’s gotta r-rest a bit first,” she pants between breaths, no doubt swallowing the strong taste of iron right now after that monster of a workout.
I realise how wrong it is to watch her catch her breath. How inappropriate it was to pay too much attention to how her chest rises and falls, the way her head drips backwards, exposing the few loose hairs stuck to the heat of her neck, makes heat surge through me.
I jump up from my desk, needing to move, but I bang my knee against the desk in the process.
FUCK, that hurt.
The only good thing, this room was excellent at blocking out sound from the outside, so they had no idea what was going on in here.
I was in desperate need of movement, so I took a brisk walk around the room because clearly sitting down for too long and still being delirious from my lack of sleep was causing my body to get excited for the wrong reasons.
After a few laps, and reminding myself that any future excitement like this will not be tolerated, no matter how tired or strung up I seem to be.
Once I gave myself a good talking-to, I returned to my desk. Minimising the surveillance camera, no longer trusting myself to watch it right now, but I can still hear everything and bury myself into some good old-fashioned work.
****
Luna continued to be the perfect candidate for the live-in nanny position throughout the day, helping Theo with his homework, then helping Theo into one of the bar stools and starting on making dinner.
She listens to Theo list his top ten favourite Mario characters and why. Showing zero indication of looking bored, never rolls her eyes or even tries to change the subject after hearing him talk about Mario for the entire half an hour it takes her to cook.
She retrieves the containers she put in my fridge earlier and then continues prepping some vegetables.
Then she starts frying what smells like chicken, sending an unbearably delicious smell around the house.
By the time it reaches my office, I can’t pretend I wasn’t dying to know what that heavenly smell is, even if she was the one who made it.
If it tasted as good as it smelled, dying of the poison she probably put in mine might just be worth it. I exit my office just in time to see them in the dining room, where she places a Theo-sized portion of brown stew chicken and rice in front of him.
I’ve been trying to find fault in this woman all afternoon, when I’d forgotten something important. The true challenge of being Theo’s live-in nanny was his picky eating habits. He only really eats what Min-Joon or I make for him.
The moment she fails, then I can deem her unfit to take care of Theo and finally get rid of her. Without trying not to burst from excitement, I do my best to stay quiet and watch to see how she will handle the situation.
“What is it?” Theo asks, turning his nose up and looking at the food from different angles.
By the way his little nose wiggles, it is proof he likes the smell of it, unlike when Min-Joon offered him Kimchi for the first time; he absolutely hated the smell, pinched his nose, and pushed the plate as far away from him as possible.
It took Min-Joon a few rejections until he made kimchi-bokkeumbap, where kimchi is mixed in with the rice for it to be a success. Theo ate the whole bowl before Min-Joon told him what was in it, but in this case, regardless of the smell, Theo pushed the plate away from him.
“It’s chicken and rice,” Luna explains with a smile, nudging the plate back towards him.
“I don’t like it.” Theo shakes his head.