Chapter Eight

— Dulce, can you come here for a moment? — He shouted from the other side of the door and I let out the air that was in my lungs. I got up and went to his office, where I found him as usual sitting in his chair, sailing on a sea of ​​papers.

— How can I help?

— Do you have a commitment for tonight?

— Why? — I asked suspiciously. That sounded a little strange.

— I need a favor from you, back at home.

— I'm not going to your house, are you crazy? I may be crazy, but I haven't completely lost my mind, you'll know what you're going to do with me there.

— Oh, what a horror! What do you think I am?

— I do not know. Here you are my boss, but what about outside?

— If I wanted to do something with you, I would have done it when I stuffed you in my car and took you away, don't you think?

— Yes, but who guarantees that you were not softening before?

— Dulce, for the loveof God! I am neither a sex maniac nor a psychopath. I really need your services, it is for a greater good, and at the moment I have no one who can help me.

— Do you think I'm a prostitute? — I opened my eyes wide. — My services, you are crazy, how could you?

— Gee, can you hear me a little? — Despite not being patient with my questions, he went on as if he already accepted that I was not normal. — It's urgent, I need you to do a job while I'm gone.

— Ah, you're not talking about us ... — I made an obscene gesture and he started to laugh.

— Of course not. Can we go? It is really very urgent; I will explain to you when we arrive.

— It's all right. I'll get my things.

It was really strange, but his look was something of a plea and I couldn't resist. Why didn't I resist? Maybe because if I denied it, I could lose my job, but so what? You will know what kind of work he would have for me to do at his house.

He didn't say much on the way, in fact, he just explained that he needed to make an urgent last—minute trip, but that he would be back at night, but that he needed me to do something while he was gone. As for me, I was quiet all the way, trying to think of a way to escape if it was something strange, but when he stopped in front of his house, I was so overwhelmed by the size, that I forgot why we were there.

— This is where I live.

— What's a big house for?

— Believe me, she seems very small at times. Let's go in. — Once again, he opened the door for me and helped me out of the car, while I watched, gaping at that mansion.

There were so many windows that I couldn't count. The front part was all stone and part of the wall, it had a beautiful vertical garden, and the entrance door was twice the size of mine, both in height and width. I followed him towards the entrance, still astonished by it all.

— Do you have children, Miss Saviñon? Christopher asked as he opened the door for me to enter. I arranged my bag on my shoulder and sighed.

— I have one. — I said, thinking about my cat, but who knows, he would be relevant if he decided to do something with me, thinking that I had someone to take care of?

— Seriously? How old is he?

— Three years.

— A difficult age, huh? — He fixed his tie.

— Not much, considering that Teo only eats and sleeps. It doesn't give me any trouble.

When I entered, the vision was already expected. A gigantic entrance hall with a wide curved wooden staircase in the middle, connecting the two floors. On the left, a door that I could perceive to be the dining room, with a table with twelve chairs and on the right, the living room, with white sofas and a coffee table, only.

— Wow! My apartment fits on your stairs!

— I believe you will have time to get to know the rest of the house, but for now I need your services. Can you come with me, please?

He started walking and then went up the stairs. What did he so want me to do in that mansion that I couldn't do directly from the office? I started to follow him, while watching every little detail there. At the end of the stairs, a cream—colored corridor and several white doors. On the walls, paintings that made no sense to me, but that certainly cost a kidney.

— Where are you taking me?

— Don't worry, it's not for my room.

— I really wanted to see your room. — I spoke quietly, enough for him not to hear me. What the fuck, Dulce, what were you thinking?

— Did you say anything?

— No, no. I was just thinking out loud.

He stopped at the penultimate door on the right and looked at me. — What's it?

— Dulce, I want you to meet my children.

He opened the door and I looked inside. The instant it opened, I started to hear screams and laughter and then I took another step forward to see. Did Christopher have children? From the noise, it wasn't just one or two.

— Look at the water balloon! — He pushed me aside and then I felt something fly past my ear and hit the wall behind me.

— Gabriela! Christopher shouted authoritatively. I could see his face go red, as he always did when he was nervous on the phone.

— I'm Isabela, not Gabriela.

— I'm Gabi, dad! Won't you ever get used to it?

The two girls stopped side by side. They were identical, from head to toe, from the color of the eyes to the nails painted blue, both in physique and in clothes. I looked around more and there was another apparently older girl lying on a pile of pillows listening to something on the megaphone, and two younger boys, one practically a baby, and he was all dirty.

— Are they all your children?

— Yes. These are the Twins Gabriela and Isabela, that is the oldest, Natalie, and these are Henrique and Lucas.

— Are you a rabbit, or what? Don't you know how to use condom?

— What is a condom?

— Deer, it's where we live, Henrique! — Said one of the twins and I chuckled. Poor innocent girl, she probably understood condo.

— Daddy. — The smallest came towards him, just in diaper and all dirty as if someone had drawn on him with coloring pens.

— What did you do with Lucas? — Christopher took and apparently two-year-old son in his arms.

— It was Henrique. — The twins spoke in unison pointing to their brother.

— Liars, you helped me! — He picked up a teddy bear and threw it at the twins.

— Natalie, why did you let them do that? — She ignored him, so one of the two twins went to her and tore the phone off her head.

— Isabela, leave me alone.

— Dad is here.

— So, as I already asked, why the hell did you let your brothers do this to the baby?

— Do they hear me there, dad? — She rolled her eyes. — Who is this? Another girlfriend? At least she left Natália.

— What?

— No. It is nothing like that, this is my secretary, and she will stay here with you because I need to take a last-minute trip and you sent the nanny away.

— Will I?

— I'll be back today, before midnight. I really need your help, don't let me down.

— Wait, did you take me out of my chair to take care of these children? I don't know how to take care of children!

I started to panic, mainly because, looking at their faces, they didn't seem to be good children.

— You said you had a son.

— And he has four legs!

He opened his mouth to contest but fell silent. — We don't need a nanny. — Natalie said.

— If you noticed them, your sisters had not painted everything in here with water and ink balloons and your little brother would not be all colored. — I looked around, and really, everything was painted in different colors and wet. What kind of children were those?

— I am not their mother, and as far as I know, you are a father. — She put the headphones back on and did what she was doing, completely ignoring our existence.

— Sorry, I really need you, I promise I'll reward you. There is no one to stay with them now. I would even have Natália, but as you noticed, they don't like her one bit.

— Hire a nanny, I don't do that kind of work, I'm just your secretary.

I looked at the little one on his lap and then walked away. Children, I knew nothing about children other than that they cried and ate. I turned and headed for the stairs. That was insane, how could I be taking care of those kids if I had no experience with them?

— Dulce!

Christopher called when I was already in the middle of the stairs. I stopped and watched him come after me.

— I pay your full salary if you stay with them today. It's just today! You don't have to do much, just bathe the two minors and put them to sleep.

— Tempting, but no!

I turned to leave and stepped on the wrong foot. At that moment I could see my parents through the crack of the door, but Christopher pulled me back up. My heart racing because I almost rolled down the stairs, I didn't react as I looked at him, directly in his brown eyes. People were never as close as they were at that moment and when I realized that I moved away.

— Okay, but that will never happen again, and I will not cook or tell stories to anyone to sleep.

— As you like, just break this branch for me. — He put his hands together in front of me and I smiled, letting myself go by that boyish face he was doing at that very moment. Damn you! He knew how to disarm me and that was not a good thing.