AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Except for at school.”
“Well, yes, except for at school. But someday you’re going to graduate, and you’ll be glad you spent all that time learning that stuff.”
“I don’t know about that,” she said. “But maybe.”
After she’d given me the tour, we had lunch, then spent the afternoon outside. I was amazed with how she kept on her long sleeves the entire time she was in the sun. But she turned me down when I asked her if she wanted to change into something cooler, and she didn’t seem to be overly bothered by the heat. When she did decide she was too warm, she went back inside the house where there was air conditioning.
The afternoon flew by, and after dinner, Libby said she was going to hang out in her room. I told her I’d go take a shower and get some of my things unpacked if she wanted to help me when I was clean, so when I heard the knock on the door, I figured it was going to be her coming back.
I was wearing a sports bra and a pair of cotton shorts, carefully unpacking the few things I had brought and putting them into the dresser. This time, I brought my diary with me, and I flipped through it to see the last time I had written. I’d taken a couple days off knowing I was coming down here, so now I wanted to figure out where I left off.
I loved my diary. It was nice to have a place to put my thoughts and keep a record of the things that were going on in my life. It wasn’t ever long between my entries, and it was always easy for me to get lost skimming the pages I had already filled.
It was even easier to get distracted once I realized I hadn’t packed very many items, being I didn’t have that much that really felt suitable for Florida. The tops didn’t even fill the drawer halfway.
Someone with a deep voice cleared their throat right behind me, and I whirled around, surprised as I realized it wasn’t Libby who had come into the room. I immediately became incredibly conscious of the fact I wasn’t wearing a shirt, and I was glad that I was wearing a sports bra rather than one of my usual bras.
“Oh, sorry,” I said. “I thought you were Libby. She said she might come in and give me a hand with unpacking, so I figured it was her.”
I set my diary on the dresser, then turned back to Neils with an awkward smile.
“No worries,” he said. “I want you to feel comfortable here.”
“I’d say I’m settling in well,” I said with a small smile. “You both have been wonderful.”
I didn’t pull on a shirt, not wanting to give off the impression I was uncomfortable with how I was dressed right now. He was already in the room, and if I put on something now, it would be obvious.Not to mention, I reminded myself,I wore a lot less than this when I went swimming, and I was around complete strangers then.
But I did feel his eyes on my body, and there was something about the feeling that made me excited.
“I’m realizing now that I didn’t bring very many things. I mean, I knew I wasn’t going to bring many, but looking at them in the drawer is making me see that I don’t have a lot. I guess I really wasn’t prepared to live in Florida,” I said. “It’s surprisingly a lot hotter here than what I’m used to in North Carolina.”
“Yeah, there seems to be a massive temperature change when you cross the state line if you ask me,” he said. “Libby could use some new clothes, too. Why don’t the two of you go out and have a girl’s day, shopping and getting a nice summer wardrobe going? On me, of course.”
“Oh, you don’t have to pay for my clothes,” I said quickly. “You’re already paying for like everything else on top of paying me to be here. I would feel bad if you also paid for a new wardrobe for me. I mean, I’m going to take that with me when I’m done here, and it’s like, I don’t know. You don’t have to.”
“What did I tell you about arguing with me? I guess I should be clear that you’re not to do it even when Libby isn’t around. I don’t appreciate being challenged,” he said as he held up his hand to stop me from rambling. “I told you I would pay for it, and I don’t want to argue about it. I’m paying you what I think is fair to pay you for what you’re doing, and if there is anything else I want to do while you’re here, I’m going to pay to do it. No arguments.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “I just don’t want you to feel like you have to pay me extra for things. I agreed to work for the pay you offered, and I expected to use that money to pay for the extra things I wanted while I was here. Whether that was food or activities or clothes or whatever.”
“Well, now you know that you don’t have to pay for those things, so you can do something else with the money. It’s not up to me to tell you how to handle your own finances, but you don’t have to worry about paying for shit while you’re here. I’ll get you a credit card you can use that’s in my name. You will use that,” he said.
“And you won’t let me argue?”
“No.”
“Okay then. Thank you, I guess. I hope you know I’m going to spend a lot of it on Libby.”
“And I hope you do. I hope you spend just as much on yourself while you’re here, too. It gets hot here, and you’ll want to be comfortable.”
“Speaking of that,” I said, hesitating a moment.
“What?”
“Being comfortable,” I said.
“Yeah?”
I glanced behind him. Libby’s room was right next to mine, but there was no sign of her anywhere. I didn’t know if she was in there doing something, or if she had left. I had been in the shower for the past twenty minutes, so she might have gone out to the living room.
