Page 11 of Whiskey and Regret

“I don’t know. I got a lot of experience when I walked out of here embarrassed so…”

“Do you want the job or not?” I cut her off, irritation taking over the lustful fog. There wasn’t a fog thick enough to make me ignore how immature she was. I wanted to tell her to leave again but I saw that guard forming around Frankie and opted not to. I’d give Xari a try for one month. If it didn’t work, at least I could tell Frankie we tried.

“Yes, I do,” Xari said, toning her attitude down.

“Good. I’ll have Navy give you my home address so you can get acquainted with the area. Then we’ll see how you interact with Frankie in her house. If you’re still the top pick…”

“Only pick,” she corrected with her finger in the air.

“As I said, if you’re still the top pick, you’ll sign the agreement for your living space, a standard NDA, service employee agreement, terms of service, and salary agreement. You’ll return them, signed, on your first day of work. How does that sound?”

“It sounds wonderful, Senator Freeman. Thank you.” We shook on the arrangement but I saw something playful in her eyes. “So, I have the job? You’re not going to go back on your word because you don’t want to piss Frankie off, right?”

“Something like that,” I said, folding my arms across my chest.

“Good. So you realized not hiring me at first was bullshit, right?”

“What?” I laughed.

“It was. I like Frankie and she likes me too. You were the problem.” She shrugged and looked up at me.

“You’re about to be the problem if you don’t watch your mouth.”

“You’re Frankie’s daddy. Not mine.” Her sharp attitude was enough to needle under my skin and make me question my decision-making skills. When I thought about the fireflies in Frankie’s eyes and the smile on the face when she talked to Xari, I realized why I hired someone with no experience and a cocky little mouth.

“Oh my god, you’re back?” Frankie walked through the door with a Target shopping bag hanging around her wrist. I saw the faint outline of snacks through the white plastic. “Wait, did you leave something, or did Daddy finally come to his senses and hire you?”

“I don’t know if I’d call it coming to my senses or losing my mind but I hired Miss Lucas…part two,” I said, putting my hands in my pockets. Xari’s rich espresso eyes bored into me, playing in the background of Frankie’s ecstatic squeals and laughter. She took me in slowly and I did the same to her. We were sizing each other up. We’d be living together for at least a month and I needed to get a feel for her.

“I will say this,” I said, pressing the pause button on Frankie’s happiness. “Miss Lucas is only hired after she comes to the house and gets to know our environment. Even after that, it’s only for a probationary one-month period.”

Frankie’s button nose scrunched into a wrinkle. “What does that mean?”

“That means,” Xari said, stepping closer to me. Her perfume was light but distinctive. It seemed to emanate from the pulse point at her throat. It smelled floral. Almost like jasmine flowers. “You get a thirty-day trial. If you like it, you buy it.” She narrowed those caffeinated pools at me and I smirked a little.

“Exactly,” I nodded.

“Well, that’s fine because I already know I like her. Look at her, Daddy. She’s crazy pretty and she has the best clothes. Please tell me I can go through your closet when you move in.”

“You can look, you can even touch but you can’t borrow. Deal?” Xari placed delicate hands on firm slender hips and Frankie nodded eagerly. I could never get her to agree to anything so easily. I had to learn Xari’s tricks.

“Alright, Miss Lucas…”

“Call me Xari. Miss Lucas makes me feel old and I’m not.”

She wasn’t old at all. In fact, she was new. Probably still wet behind the ears.

“I’ll call you Miss Lucas.”

“Do you call Navy that too? Wouldn’t it get confusing?”

“He calls her Navy, so I don’t know why he wants to call you by your last name,” Frankie shrugged.

Wow, my own kid snitched on me gladly for the new nanny. Well,possiblenew nanny. She had to make it past the one-month mark to be official. I was sticking to that no matter how happy Frankie seemed to be with her.

“So, I’m the one you’re discriminating against. Cool.” Xari muttered something else under her breath. Something that sounded like it was in another language. My ears burned and I wanted to demand that she tell me what the fuck she said but it would have been unprofessional so I swallowed the words and forced a smile.

“Nobody is discriminating against you, Miss Lucas. We’ll see you tomorrow at seven sharp.”