Beauty and the Billionaire

Chapter 5

Thirty minutes later, Claire led Amy back inside the house. Claire was breathless as she'd practically chased the little girl around the place and Amy just bounced beside her happily, like physically exerting Claire had been her goal.

Claire swore under her breath, but only because of the child beside her. She knew she should have taken gym classes very seriously. She felt like she'd lost five pounds just now.

At this point she was willing to negotiate.

"Can you not do that?" Claire asked Amy. "You're too cute to be putting anyone through hell."

Amy watched her, an impish grin on her face. "I want ice cream for breakfast!" She announced.

"You're just messing with me," Claire said, sighing. "I bet your grandma won't let you do that. Why am I the scapegoat?"

"I want ice cream!" Amy said.

"No," Claire said firmly.

She had to be firm, else her job would only become more difficult as time went on. She had to discourage these tendencies from its root.

Amy began to cry and Claire rolled her eyes.

"Will you stop?" Claire asked. "You don't even have any tears in your eyes."

Amy's noise got louder.

"Do you like parks?" Claire asked. "I think we can go to a park today. No ice cream for breakfast, but I think we can get some ice cream there when it's close to noon."

Amy stopped crying as suddenly as she started.

"Do we have a deal?" Claire asked."If you cooperate with me throughout this morning, I'll take you to the park. But only if you cooperate."

Amy nodded.

Claire mentally claimed a small victory.

For a child from such a home, it was surprising that a trip to the park would enthuse her so much. But more importantly, Claire feared that if she went down this path, she would have to constantly give Amy incentives to do the littlest of things. She knew that was the wrong way to reach out to Amy- to reach out to a child- but she had a job to do.

Claire entered the main house, pulling Amy along with her. Amy had quietened considerably and Claire could think clearly now. She organized their day: first, a bath for Amy, then breakfast- that was not anything close to junk- then see if Amy had any summer assignments and then they could go to the park.

At the lobby, a woman waved Claire and Amy over.

Claire headed for her. "Hi," she said. She must have seen this woman earlier in the house, but she couldn't tell. There were quite a number of domestic servants walking about.

"Hello," the woman said. Claire smiled. The woman looked down at Amy. "Hello Amy."

Amy did not reply. She watched the older woman as she chewed on her pinky nail.

"My name is Mia. I am the housekeeper. You're Amy's babysitter, aren't you?" The woman told Claire.

"Yeah," Claire said. "I'm Claire."

"Nice to meet you," Mia said. She passed a glance to Amy. "I see you've been able to handle her well."

Claire smiled slightly. "Let's just say we came to an agreement."

"All right," Mia said smiling. "Because I know how difficult she can be. I'll be leaving now but will be back soon. See you later. If you need anything, feel free to ask me."

"Thanks," Claire said. "We'll just head upstairs and ensure Amy takes a bath."

Mia waved them bye and headed for the doors. Claire went upstairs and when she came downstairs, Amy had had a bath and was dressed in shorts and T-shirt with a cartoon splashed across the front. Claire made her hair into a small bun on her head and Amy pulled at it.

She didn't stop until it was undone. Claire shook her head. She took Amy to the dining room and got her some food from the cooks.

They spent an hour and thirty minutes on breakfast because Amy wouldn't eat and when she did, she picked at her food.

"Is the pasta bad?" Claire asked.

Amy shrugged.

"Do you want something else?" Claire asked.

Amy shrugged again. "Ice-cream."

"Aside that," Claire said. "You can't eat that for breakfast."

Amy shrugged again, rolling her fork in her food and dragging it slowly across the ceramic plate. The action grated on Claire's nerves and she felt like banging her head on the glass table.

"Remember, you promised to cooperate," Claire said, sighing. "Else, no park."

Amy dug into her food with gusto, hardly chewing properly as she sent the food into her mouth. She grinned with her mouth full at Claire and Claire shook her head. She gave Amy a glass of water.

"Easy, so you don't choke."

Two hours later, Claire and Amy were at the park, as per Claire's promise. The summer sun was high in the sky as they made their way past single adults and their kids. The kids laughed and jumped in excitement. Claire could see why Amy would get excited at coming to a park. The excitement was contagious.

Some couples were seated too, with their kids or without kids, just enjoying the ambience, soaking in the sun.

Claire reached a bench and let Amy play in a sandbox just nearby. She leaned back on the bench as she pressed on her phone. It was just eleven fifty and Claire felt like more time should have passed by now. She couldn't believe she'd only done the first half of her job today.

She brought out her tote bag and took out the sheets of papers she'd been given by Mrs Kimberly. Thankfully, Amy was not lactose intolerant. It would have just been the universe messing with her if it so happened that Amy was lactose intolerant and she wanted ice cream...And she'd just promised Amy that.

Claire slid a gaze to Amy as she played with some kids. Her gaze moved to the rest of the park, watching the others just beyond the sandbox. To her shock, she saw her ex, and his girlfriend- her nemesis, Anita. They stood to her right, conversing about something.

Claire watched them closely as they stood, feet from her. Harvey still looked as he'd looked when they'd dated...and broken up. Anita was still as fit as when Claire had first met her at a party in college and became friends with her for a brief period of time. Anita never gained weight no matter what she ate. Claire muttered about monster metabolisms as she tried to not focus on the couple, annoyingly perfect-looking as they looked.

Claire tried to ignore them but soon they were headed in her direction. She knew that they'd spotted her. She heaved a sigh as they approached.

"Hi Claire," Anita said brightly when they reached her. "It's been a while. Didn't think I'd see you after so long."

Claire did not hide her resentment. "Me neither," she said. "I might have reconsidered coming out today."

Anita laughed slightly. "Still funny as always."

Claire turned to Harvey. His eyes were on her.

"Claire," he said.

"Harvey," she replied curtly.

"I heard you lost your job-" Harvey was saying.

"-Dont pity me. I got another," Claire snapped. "I'm on my lunch break as you can see."

"That's good," Harvey said lamely.

Anita smiled too. "Now you're working, I hope you can now afford to come for our engagement party. We will be doing it in Paris. Next weekend. We would just love to have you there."

"Engagement." Claire blinked as Anita finished speaking. "Congrats," she said weakly.

" Thank you," Anita said, giving a wave of her hand just to flash the ring on her finger.

"So will we see you there?" Anita asked.

Claire sighed. "I don't know why you even bother- why you pretend. You must be addicted to having me around," she said, standing up. "I'll never accept the both of you together. You betrayed me and still I have the grace to even talk to you. And wow, you want to push your luck. I hate both of you. Just avoid me, will you?"

"Claire you can't possibly mean that," Anita said. "We all used to be friends before- before you know what. You know Harvey and I are in love. You can't hold our love against us."

Claire had never felt this villainized before. She couldn't believe Anita was making her seem like the bad guy.