Not Playing by the rules

Chapter 12

Athena was almost done for the night when Jaques came in the kitchen and found her clearing away the mess that normally happens when you bake like crazy for a whole day. Although this was her first day in the restaurant she felt like she was in her element. Jaques stood there without disturbing her and found her to be humming to herself while she kept on clearing everything piling all the things she had used and utensils. It was like she was neatness and cleanliness freak, normally which Jaques had never found in any of the people who worked in a restaurant before, but then again Athena was unbelievably talented. Suddenly a spoon dropped from her hands with a clang and the reverie which he was in broke and he felt anything but like a creep perving on a beautiful woman.

“You know that we do have staff who are going to clean that up for you?” asked Jaques and the spoon again dropped from her hand and Athena shrieked out like a banshee.

“Whoa…I am sorry…I did not mean to startle you at all. It is just way past your working hours and I still heard someone working in the kitchen and came in on to check. Is everything alright? Where are the other girls?” asked Jaques as Athena turned towards him with a scowl on her face.

“What is it that you really want to talk to me about Jaques?” asked Athena sighing as she saw the disappointment on his face.

“Nothing. I told you already. I just came down to check what was going on in the kitchen this late. Really Athena, what are you doing this late?” asked Jaques shaking his head.

“I am just sorting everything in this palace keeping them at a position where I can get them back easily enough for my work tomorrow morning. Once it is done I am gonna leave for the night. Carrie and Stacy have just gone to grab a bite from next door and then I am picking my luggage up and heading for the place I am supposed to stay,” replied Athena as she removed the cap from her hair and pulled down her hair which was tied up tightly in a knot.

Jaques stood there transfixed at the sight that she posed. She looked naturally like a Goddess with her hair down creating almost the vision of a flame behind her head.

“You should let your hair down some time more, you know!!” said Jaques as his voice took a peculiar lilt making Athena conscious that he was standing right there.

“Jaques, now I know for sure that you are flirting with me of which I was not very sure of in the afternoon meeting but now we are alone once more with a lot of space in between us, can you really tell me why are you behaving in this way?” asked Athena not understanding what was going on.

“Why does it seem to you that I am flirting wiith you? Can you not take it as a normal conversation between two people??? I am just trying to strike up a conversation with you in order to know you better. Is that illegal? Because last time I checked it was an absolute normal thing to do,” said Jaques in a huff and Athena looked at him with her mouth hanging open.

“I really do not know what I should say that to,” was her reply.

“I don’t think you need to say anything at all apart from smiling and nodding and responding to what I asked and not react,” said Jaques as he turned to go away.

Once he was near the door Athena called his name out making him stop at that position. As he turned back slowly Athena went close to him and said,” Look Jaques I am really sorry for being rude. It is not every day that you have a sleepless night and then work the whole day and live my life in uncertainty. I have been always in so much of control that I ….”

“Thaat you never let your hair down. I get it. I absolutely get what you are trying to make me understand. You are in a new environment and it is bound to create some kind of issues in your mind. I am sure you are not facing anything hostile until now?” asked Jaques with a look of concern on his face.

Athena let out a loud yawn and placed her hand on her mouth with a guilty look on her face.

“It is just that I am so tired and sleepy at the moment that I can fall asleep standing itself,” said Athena yawning once more and then apologizing for it.

“I am sure you are not going to behave like a horse now at night, when it is absolutely natural that you are going to be tired. You have been working since before I came,” said Jaques as he pulled her towards one of the clean counters and Athena automatically sat on top of it.

“Jaques you need to get your details right you see. Horses actually don’t sleep standing. They really lie down and then sleep. That is the reality, so no more false-speaking about horses. They are the one animal that I love more than dogs,” said Athena smiling at Jaques.

“I think I am gonna get the girls. You are not in a state to be standing anymore at all. Sit here, without moving and I shall be back in no time,” but Jaques was speaking to whom. Athena was already asleep in the position that she was sitting. Jaques nodded his head as he left the kitchen with the woman sleeping on the counter. The staff of cleaning had not arrived yet but they will be there soon and it meant that she needed to be taken away from there.

Jaques left the kitchen and found a horde of the night-cleaning crew coming down towards the kitchen. He immediately retraced his steps back and took up Athena in his arms as if she weighed nothing and then took her to the room which adjoined his office which had a spare single cot in it where he spent his nights in case he was late. This woman had worked herself to the point of exhaustion in the first day itself. There was something which was hurting her pretty bad and Jaques innately wanted to know that.

Jaques lay her down on the bed and went out to find Carrie.

What happened next was absolutely out of the blue and he could have never thought of something like that to happen and even he would not remember it the very next moment.

Jaques tripped on the doorway of the hotel and the next moment he was standing in the doorway of an opulent room which was nothing less than that of a movie set. The ones which you got to see either in Ritz or heaven knows which hotels with chandeliers and everything.

“You might want to step in from the doorway dear,” came out the voice of a very beautiful woman behind the screens whose face was visible to Jaques as he came inside.

“May I know how did I even come to be here? I was in my hotel, what the hell is going on? What is this place and who are you exactly?” asked Jaques with his brows furrowed at the middle of his fore-head.

“My my for a guy who is going to be the negative character in this love-story I am sure that you ask a lot of questions. But fear not. You don’t need to know any of that since you would not be remembering it at all. Why are you still standing there? Come and have a seat. I won’t take much of your time,” said the woman.

“I am not ready to listen to anything unless you tell me how I came here and who are you,” said Jaques coming closer but still standing.

“If you are so insistent about it Jaques, I think you came in here through a portal which I opened only for a one time use. And for the next part I am your celestial Godmother whose name is really not important. The only thing that you need to remember is that you are desperately in love with the red-haired woman in your employ and you want to make her yours for this life and then you are going to fight off everyone who tries to take her away from you. And you are going to get married as soon as possible,” said the woman as her eyes changed colour and Jaques was dazed looking at it.

“I shall get married to her as soon as possible,” said Jaques in a monotone and the woman who was sitting in front of him in a dress that even Julia Roberts would kill for smiled with pleasure.

“You have my blessings to win the heart of the woman you are in love with and remember, nothing is immoral or unethical when you are fighting for your love. Just go with your heart tells you to do and believe in it. You of all people my child should not have the problem of getting the hand of the woman that you love,” said his Godmother and Jaques nodded at her still dazed and then again he was back on the street outside Nomaden when he found Carrie and Stacy having ice-cream and sighed.

“Women….Hey Carrie…come here,” shouted Jaques and both the girls looked at him in surprise and reached him in no time.

“Yes Jaques,” said Carrie as she took another bite from the ice-cream cone she was holding.

“I do understand that you are off your shift at the moment but do you not think that you should be a bit more responsible since a woman who is new to this place is depending on you solely for the sake of getting a place to live in. She is sleeping on the kitchen counter for the sake of mercy Carrie,” said Jaques with considerable loud voice as Stacy cowered behind Carrie in fear.

“Whoa Jaques…why are you getting so hyper in the first place? I am not saying that you are not entirely wrong but Athena said that she wanted to be alone for some time. She said that she wanted to get her thoughts together which is why we left her alone. If she is sleeping don’t worry we will grab her luggage call a cab and get her settled tonight itself. After all it is still early in the evening,” said Carrie as she looked at Jaques in amazement.

Jaques looked at the pavement and said,” Yeah, you are right. I was a bit more hyper than I should have been. Actually I did not understand what to do at all. She is in the back office in the spare bed. I left her there and I am sure she is still there itself asleep. Stacy can grab her things I think?”

“Yeah, sure,” said Stacy in a small voice.

Carrie went inside the restaurant through the staff door and Stacy followed her closely at her heels. Jaques rubbed a hand over his face and muttered to himself,” What the hell am I thinking? What is happening to me altogether?”

And Nemesis looked at them and smiled. Everything was exactly going how she wanted it to be. Aphrodite would never see this coming.