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STEPHANIE
The next morning, there were a lot of strangers in the house.
I woke up a little after eight and was surprised to hear two people arguing in the hallway right outside my bedroom door. I listened in for a second, then heard a third unknown voice enter the conversation, and that’s when things became really confusing.
“I told you, that’s not where it goes!”
“And I’m telling you, this is where it goes!”
“Can you two go five minutes without jumping down each other’s throats?” The newest voice was a woman, and she had a tone of authority. “Mr. Becker hired us to clean every inch of this house, and if you think that isn’t going to take us all day, then you clearly haven’t been paying attention to how insanely massive his home is! So, I’m going to need you to stop arguing, andget back to work.”
“But you don’t understand,” one of the male voices said. I got out of bed and put my robe on, but hesitated before opening the door. “I’ve cleaned for Mr. Becker before, and he is very particular about where his stuff goes. He yelled at me when I didn’t put everything back the way it was before I dusted and—”
I think I had an idea of what was causing the confusion, so at that point I reached out and opened the door. The two men stopped fighting, and all three people turned to look at me. “Oh goodness,” the woman said. “I’m so sorry. We had no idea anyone was sleeping down here. Mr. Becker told us to be quiet so as to not wake his son upstairs but we didn’t—”
I put a hand up. “That’s okay,” I said. “I would’ve been woken up by my alarm in about five minutes anyway.” I smiled at the two men. “One of you mentioned that you had cleaned for Mr. Becker before, can I ask, did you clean for him in this house?”
The man on the right shook his head. “No,” he said. “It was in a different house. A bigger one, a couple neighborhoods over.”
“Right, well, I think you might be thinking of a different Mr. Becker then. You see, Matt Becker actually has four brothers, all of whom go by the last name Becker. His father is still living as well, so he could also be the person you cleaned for. In fact, from the way you described him, I’m going to guess that it was probably Mr. Becker Senior that you were working for before. Matt Becker would never yell at someone for putting something back in the wrong spot.”
“That’s very good to know,” said the woman. She had a nametag on while the other two did not. I guessed she was the manager of this cleaning crew. “Thank you. Now, we will get out of your way and get back to work.”
“Hang on,” I called and she stopped before walking down the hall. She told her two underlings to go ahead without her and turned around to face me again.
“Yes?”
“Sorry, but I was just curious, does Matt have people come and clean his house every Saturday?”
She smiled. “If he does, he doesn’t hire my team to do it. We are more specialized than that. People hire us when they are getting ready for a big event. Like a wedding or a bat mitzvah.”
“Ah,” I said, nodding. “I see. And do you know what event Mr. Becker is planning exactly?”
She smiled. “I believe it’s a dinner party of sorts.”
“Going on tonight?”
“That is my understanding, yes.” Her smile became a wicked one as she narrowed her eyes at me. “You know, if I were a gossiper, I would have quite the story on my hands.”
“Huh?”
“All I’m saying is that you might want to be a little more discreet when you’re staying the night at Matt Becker’s house. He’s one of the most sought-after eligible bachelors in the city, and according to rumor, he doesn’t like people to think he’s tied down. So, he might be upset when he finds out that you were fraternizing with his cleaning crew.”
I frowned at her. “I’m not Matt Becker’s latest hookup. I’m the nanny,” I said, folding my arms and waiting to see how that information would sink in.
Her eyes went wide. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry.”
“You should be.”
“I didn’t mean—I was just—Shit. I’m so,sosorry.” She winced and backed away. “Please don’t tell Mr. Becker about this. I can’t afford to lose his business.”
I pursed my lips but then sighed. “Fine. I won’t tell him. But you owe me.”
“Deal.” The woman left after that and I went back into my room, wondering why Matt hadn’t told me he was having some fancy dinner party that night. Especially after he made such a fuss about me treating this house like it was my home. I personally didn’t like to be blindsided by surprise dinner parties in my own home, but perhaps I should’ve made that more clear when he hired me. I yawned, still feeling a little sleepy, so I decided to lay back down for a bit. My phone buzzed on the bedside table right as my head hit the pillow, so I answered it from bed.
“Hello?” I said, not even looking at the caller ID.
“Hey, it’s Gina.”
