Beauty and the Billionaire

Chapter 10

As though Amy had been giving Claire a welcoming parade the first few days, as the days went by, Amy went from slightly difficult to handle to impossible to deal with.

Claire realized that Jayden had been right after all. Amy would put her through hell. It seemed that this job was just a test of how long she would last. It seemed that she might quit the job even before she messed up grandly enough to be fired. Amy looked like an angelic child, but Claire knew she was far from that. Very far.

The next few days of work would be some of the most trying for Claire. Amy would unceremoniously refuse to eat however sumptuous the meal looked, tasted. If she got annoyed enough, she threw the food. She stopped throwing it at Claire after Claire gave her a five-minute long speech the Wednesday morning of that week, on how she was going to deny Amy food for the rest of the day and get away with it, if Amy continued such a behavior.

After Claire gave her a piece of her mind, Amy played the victim and began to cry. She ran out of the house and headed for the gate unsupervised, crying to go meet her grandmother at work- preferably to report Claire to her.

Claire had bounded after Amy as Amy tried to evade her and had slipped on her flats and landed heavily on the floor ...And Amy had only laughed.

Thankfully, Claire hadn't hurt herself, but she was rethinking her employment...very strongly.

That had been Wednesday, the third day of her job. On Thursday, Amy had pulled a prank on her, a malicious one, Claire would add later when she told her roommate about it that Friday. Amy had put glue on her hairbrush unbeknownst to Claire. When Claire took up the brush to brush Amy's hair, she hadn't been able to separate her palm from it because of the very adhesive glue.

Claire spent the next hour trying to free her palm from the brush and finally, she went to a hardware store and got a glue dissolver.

It has been five days now. Friday had finally reached, Claire thought. Amy had been the bane of Claire's existence this week, but finally, she had successfully gotten this week over with.

That Friday night, she sat with Amy downstairs as they waited for Mrs Kimberly. Claire had dressed Amy up and made sure she had had dinner, given that Mrs Kimberly and the others were running late. During the time Claire ensured Amy ate, neither of the Rex children arrived.

While Claire gazed at the annoying cartoon playing on the TV with a glazed expression, Amy got off her seat.

"Sit," Claire told her.

"I want to go and play outside," Amy responded.

"Amy, I don't have the patience for this," Claire said under her breath. "It's too dark. You should be preparing to go to bed."

"No," Amy said. "I want to go outside."

'Don't you ever tire of being annoying?' Claire wanted to ask her. "Sit," Claire said simply and when Amy tried to get up, she raised her palm in annoyance and Amy began to cry calling for her grandmother.

Knowing her grandmother could arrive any moment soon, Claire looked about furtively and then turned to Amy, after ensuring that Mrs Kimberly was not in sight.

"Stop crying," She told Amy. "I didn't mean it," she said. "I'd never hit you."

Except I want my ass dragged to jail for domestic assault that is, Claire completed in thought.

"You just can't go out now, okay?" Claire said. "It's too dark for you to be playing around. I'm trying to protect you. "

"From monsters?" Amy asked.

Claire sighed, realizing that parents were kinda justified for the stories of monsters they told their kids. Some kids wouldn't take their minds off certain things except they knew some monster was involved- or some serious penalty as the case may be.

"Yes," Claire said. "From monsters."

At seven-fifty, Mrs Kimberly came in, in a suit skirt and jacket, her graying hair pinned up on her head, with two shopping bags in her hand.

Claire smiled at the woman as she arrived. "A good evening to you ma'am," she said. "Amy just had dinner and I will be signing out very soon."

Mrs Kimberly looked tired. "Of course," she said. "I'll see you on Monday."

Claire smiled and headed for the kitchen to meet the housekeeper and sign out for the day.

Once she had done that, she bounced happily out of the house and headed for the front gate to board a taxi. She noticed that Jayden was still not back- his car was not in the premises- but what did she care? She finally had two days of rest from the little devil she was to babysit until she was back on Monday.

She was going to make the most of her rest period.

She finally got a taxi and headed home. Regina was back home earlier than Claire and she looked dressed up- despite the time- as she held a plate of food in her hand and devoured it quickly.

Yes, Regina was dressed...but she was dressed in casual wear which she hadn't worn that morning when she left for work.

"Where are you going?" Claire asked her, dropping her tote bag on a couch and slipping out of her flats.

"You mean where are we going?" Regina asked. "The club, my dear."

"We?" Claire asked. "I just got off from my soul-sapping job. I want to hug my bed."

"Don't be like that," Regina said. "It's Friday. You can sleep in, all you like tomorrow."

Claire let out a long and exaggerated groan. "Regina…"

"I'll hear your excuses later," Regina said. "Go dress up."

Claire trudged inside to the bedroom.