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She certainly did have courage. Not that I necessarily liked courage in people who told me off and made me feel like I was second only to Attila the Hun when it came to hurting children.
As I turned to deal with Amanda, I could have sworn Tia threw me the finger. So much for her being a typical nanny. Mary Poppins she wasn’t, for sure.
“Do you have another family member shacking up here at your house?” Amanda asked as she leaned back against the couch to show off her long legs peeking out from under her black dress.
“No. That’s the nanny. Tia. She’s very good with my niece, thank God,” I explained as I sat down next to her on the couch.
“She looks like some kind of reject from the Good Ship Lollypop,” Amanda said before smoothing her long brown hair along the side of her face. “I didn’t realize women actually looked like that anymore since the internet. Has she never seen the way real women do their makeup and hair?”
Typical Amanda. Christ, was she ever not a bitch?
“I don’t care what she looks like. She could look like the wicked witch of the west for all I care. As long as she handles my niece, I’m happy.”
“What does she do with her exactly? I mean, how old is the child?” Amanda asked like just saying the words made her feel queasy.
I thought about that question and realized I didn’t know what Tia and Grace did all day. All I knew was the past nearly two weeks had been far quieter than that first week and the little girl hadn’t cried since Tia’s arrival, so my workdays weren’t interrupted.
Well, not until this morning.
“She does arts and crafts with her. That I know. She sits with her for meals, I think. Not that I’ve eaten any with them, but I think she does that since Agatha was happy to tell me she doesn’t have to perform that job now that Tia is here.”
Amanda turned her body toward me and ran her fingernail across my sleeve just above my wrist. “So she’s a live-in?”
“Yes. I didn’t want to take the chance that my niece would need someone at night and there would be no one around to take care of her, so Tia stays in the room next to Grace. So far, it’s worked like a dream.”
With a sexy grin, she let her gaze run over my body. “So you aren’t alone at nights? Pity. I was thinking I should stop over sometime and we could get together.”
She never failed to hit on me when she came for an appointment, even though we’d been broken up for over a year already. Neither one of us really wanted to get together, even to sleep with one another, but it was so ingrained in Amanda’s DNA to flirt with men anytime they were close that she couldn’t help herself.
It’s one of the reasons why we weren’t a couple anymore. That and her cheating on me with some stockbroker she met at a party a few weeks before we broke up.
I stopped her hand as she made her way up my thigh. “So you want to buy a building for some business you want to start? Is that what I understood from our phone call?”
Her expression fell, like she was having fun and I ruined it for her. “Yes, but I don’t know why you can’t let me enjoy myself for a few minutes before we get all involved in talking business. You really need to learn to lighten up, Nico. Smile for a change. Let a woman admire you. You have a great body. I should know. Relax and enjoy a good time when it’s offered to you.”
She sounded vaguely like Tia had when she was reprimanding me a little while ago. Of course, Amanda’s admonitions were couched in her own pleasure while Tia’s were centered in my not being a complete and total dick to my five year old niece, but at their foundations, both women were saying essentially the same thing.
“I prefer sticking to business,” I said as I stood up to walk over to my desk. “It’s far less messy than anything you’re suggesting.”
Amanda followed me, and as she leaned over to show off the two best body parts she possessed, she knocked over Grace’s pasta art onto the floor. Looking down at it as it sailed to its landing place near her feet, she kicked the paper away in disgust.
“Ugh! What is that? Did that just get glitter all over my brand new suede boots, Nico? Why is that in here?”
I leaned down to pick up my gift and set it down on the other side of my desk. “It’s from my niece. She made it this morning. I’m sure if any glitter got on your boots that you can just brush it off,” I said calmly, pretty much dismissing her near hysterics about a little shiny stuff getting on her.
She frantically rubbed her black boots like paint had been dumped on them. “Why are children always so messy? Oh my God! How are you living like this, Nico? When we were together, you couldn’t handle a single piece of lint on you, and now you’re dealing with glitter, of all things, all over the place?”
Clearly, we had moved into hysteria mode already. I didn’t exactly like children or having them around, but at least I didn’t act like this over a tiny hint of glitter in the air.
Well, not really. I had good reason to be surly before. Tia and Grace interrupted me at work. My work was the most important thing in my life. Everyone on staff here knew, so why didn’t she think about that before bringing that child to my office in the middle of the day?
“It’s my cross to bear, for sure, but I’ll handle it.”
“It seems like my brand new Louboutins are handling it. These boots cost more than that child is worth. Doesn’t she know not to get glitter all over the place? God, what is that nanny of hers doing all day? I’d fire her, Nico. It’s not like nannies aren’t a dime a dozen.”
Ignoring her, I focused on the reason for her being here today. “Now about that building you want to buy. I say we map out a strategy today and then I’ll see what I can do to get the price down to somewhere in the ballpark of what you’ll want to pay.”
Again, Amanda leaned over my desk to show off her assets courtesy of the best plastic surgeon in New York and turned her attention to her favorite subject. Her. “See, that’s my Nico. That’s the man I came to see. Let’s get me that building.”
