22. Noree Marcell #2
Ms. Royale was already at the door when I pulled up, and she gasped so loudly when she saw Oaklynn that my baby got shy and buried her face in my neck.
“Oh, look at the birthday girl!” She reached out, and Oaklynn went right to her. “We got a whole party planned for you today. We got cupcakes and everything, cutie.”
“Y’all ain’t have to do all that.”
“Ms. Marcell, hush. You know we take care of all our babies, and we love little Miss Oaklynn.” Ms. Royale bounced her on her hip, then looked at me. “You look nice. Where you going?”
“Interview.”
“Ohhh.” She raised her eyebrows. “Go on then. We got her. Say bye-bye, Mommy.”
Oaklynn waved her whole arm at me. I kissed her cheek, then got back in my car, keeping my feelings at bay.
I put the address in my GPS and pulled off.
Twenty-five minutes later, I was riding through an area I had no business being in.
I kept looking down at my phone like the address was gone change. I was literally in awe of the long driveways, nice cars, three-story homes, pools the size of football fields, a golf course, and more.
“What the hell?” I said out loud.
I pulled up to a gate.
Not a little gate either. This wasn’t no puppy. This was some big-dawg shit.
There was an intercom, so I rolled my window down and pressed the button.
“Good afternoon,” someone said through the intercom. “How may I help you?”
“Hi, um…” I cleared my throat. “My name is Noree Marcell. I’m here for the nanny interview.”
“Oh yes, Ms. Marcell. We’ve been expecting you.”
The gate started opening real slow, and I drove up the driveway looking like a kid in a candy store.
A young dude in a polo came walking up to my window before I could even fully park.
“I can take it from here, ma’am.”
“Take what?”
“Your keys.” He smiled real politely. “We’ll move it for you.”
“Oh.” I laughed nervously before opening my car door and gathering my things.
An older woman was waiting at the front door. Her silver hair was pinned up neatly, glasses hanging from a chain over her cream blouse, and she had a real warm face.
“You must be Noree.” She stepped aside. “Please, come in.”
The ceilings had to be twenty-five feet high because, damn, they were way up there. Beautiful chandeliers hung over my head as I walked farther inside, my heels click-clacking against marble floors so clean I could see my reflection.
The windows stretched from the floor to the ceiling and looked out over a beautiful garden filled with flowers.
Everything smelled like eucalyptus and money.
“Please, have a seat.” She led me into a living room where the furniture looked like it had to cost a good million dollars.
When I sat down, I almost wanted to curse.
I had never sat on a sofa that felt like a cloud.
It was pretty obvious that a man lived there without the touch of a woman. I wondered if the owner was an old widowed man because, hell, the old ones were popping out hella babies nowadays.
Being damn near seventy-five with a two-year-old.
“I’m Opal. I manage the household and the family’s day-to-day activities.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
She took a seat across from me.
That was when I heard little feet slapping against the marble, and a boy came running around the corner in socks. He looked about six, maybe seven. He was too cute, with big old eyes, just cheesing and looking around.
I was happy he was a little older because caring for a baby would’ve made me feel even guiltier about leaving mine with my mama.
“Hi!” he said.
“Well, hey, cutie.” I smiled at him. “What’s your name?”
“I’m King.”
“It’s nice to meet you, King. I’m Noree.”
“King, what did I say about running in this house?” Opal asked, but there wasn’t any bite in her voice.
She turned to me.
“This is King. He’s the young man you’d be working with. His uncle took him in almost two years ago, and with the schedule that man keeps, he needs somebody consistent here.”
“Okay. Maybe I can be that person.”
Maybe?
As soon as I said it, I wanted to kick my own ass because I didn’t sound confident at all.
Opal continued. “And he’s easy, I’ll be honest with you. He doesn’t cause trouble. He doesn’t talk back. He’s a simple child. He wants his snacks, his tablet, and his cartoons. If you let him watch Skyward Rangers, he’ll love you forever.”
“Skyward Rangers is the best show ever made,” King informed me.
“I agree,” I said, not knowing what show they were talking about, but I needed this job.
King grinned so hard he showed both of his missing teeth.
Opal sent him off to the playroom, then picked up a folder and looked through it.
“Alright. Let me ask you a few things.” She opened it. “This is a live-in position. You’d be staying in the guesthouse, where you’d have your own private everything. How is your availability? There are stretches when the family travels, and we’d need you to be flexible, sometimes on short notice.”
“My availability is open,” I said. “I don’t have a lot of obligations pulling at me right now, and I’m used to a demanding schedule.”
Yes! Okay, bitch. That was a real good answer.
“And are you comfortable handling his activities? He has swim lessons twice a week, soccer on Saturdays, a reading tutor on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and he attends a private academy about twenty minutes from here. Pickup is at three fifteen. All of that would be your responsibility. Driving, waiting, homework and cooking his meals.”
“Not a problem at all,” I said. “I’ve done pickups, drop-offs, aftercare, and enrichment activities before. I’m also CPR and first-aid certified, so the swim lessons don’t worry me.”
She wrote while I talked, nodding a little, and for the first time all day, I felt my shoulders come down from around my ears.
Then the front door opened.
Opal looked up over her glasses.
“Well, now. We weren’t expecting him back this soon. He was supposed to be out of town until Monday.”
I stood out of instinct and smoothed my dress down.
Someone came through the door talking on the phone, a black hat pulled low over his head. All I could see was the bottom half of his face and his jawline.
“Nah, tell Dre I said we’ll do it Tuesday,” he was saying. “I ain’t flying back out for that.”
Opal stood too.
“Noree, this is Ozyris Brentley. Ozyris, this is—”
He looked up quickly after hearing my name, and my stomach dropped directly into my fucking ass.
“Noree?”
The room went silent.
For a few seconds, I felt like I was going to throw up and pass out at the same time.
“Ozy?”
To be continued.