Lucky Seven

by Elle M Thomas

  “Coffee or tea, Tasha?” asked Sandra.

  Jim stared at her, bemused as she asked, “Is it proper tea?”

  Sandra laughed, but understood exactly what she meant. “It certainly is, we’re only missing the chimps.”

  Tasha laughed too as Jim huffed. “What is the British obsession with tea and why would you have monkeys?” They laughed again and as they hadn’t answered his question he continued, “Sandra, I will have coffee please, thank you, proper or otherwise.”

  Tasha smiled at him as he appeared to sulk so went around the other side of the table and squeezed onto his lap.

  “You are very sexy when you sulk in your work clothes,” she said, smoothing her hand over his chest.

  “And you are very sexy wearing anything, especially my shirt last night,” he replied, nipping her ear.

  “Are you sure you can’t come back upstairs?” she asked in a whisper, hyper aware of Sandra’s presence.

  “No can do, baby.”

  She moved her position so she was directly over his groin and grinned with smugness to find just how hard he was.

  “Your loss, James.” A broad grin broke out across her face, her teasing made him smile and shake his head, but he offered no other response as the sound of the front door opening then closing was quickly followed by people entering the kitchen.

  Suddenly, a very bouncy and beautiful girl with curly blonde hair dressed almost identically to Tasha came flying in.

  “Daddy!” she cried and as Tasha was still on Jim’s lap as she hugged him she enveloped Tasha in it too. She was followed in by another blonde with incredibly long legs who must have been late thirties and very attractive, standing at almost six feet tall.

  Sandra laughed as Lizzie turned and hugged her.

  “Good morning to you too,” said Jim. “Lizzie, this is Tasha, Tasha, this is my daughter, Lizzie.”

  Tasha stood up and Lizzie hugged her again, but with a little less enthusiasm.

  “We are going to have such fun today. I know all the best shops. What are you going to buy? I need some new sneakers,” she said but Tasha was unsure if she was telling her or reminding herself.

  Tasha looked at Jim and decided Lizzie wouldn’t get told her sneakers were for the gym and not fucking. She smiled at Lizzie and her youthful enthusiasm.

  “I’m not sure what I’m going to buy, but I don’t need sneakers, do I, James?”

  He stared at her as the other blonde spoke.

  “Lizzie, leave Tasha alone to have her breakfast. I’m Sara, Philip and Lizzie’s mom.” She held out her hand.

  Tasha accepted it warmly. “Pleased to meet you.” She resisted the temptation to say oh number one.

  “I hope you don’t mind me coming in with Lizzie…”

  “No, stay for breakfast if you want,” offered Jim.

  “Stay, Mom,” encouraged Lizzie.

  Sara looked at Tasha as if asking for some kind of invitation or at least no sign of an objection.

  “I’m sure we can all squeeze in,” Tasha said, not entirely sure she was in a position to raise objections even if she had any.

  Sara sat between Tasha and Jim, opposite Lizzie before she explained the reason for her presence. “I just wanted to meet you before Lizzie was unleashed on you for the day.”

  Tasha laughed because she could see why the prospect of a day with Lizzie might be frightening or intimidating for someone perceived as being Daddy’s new or latest girlfriend, but she had no qualms about spending the day with a teenage girl. “She’s a lot like my younger sister, so I’m looking forward to it.”

  “Did you know Daddy’s credit card has no limit on it, so we can buy anything we want,” said Lizzie, focused solely on the shopping aspect of their day.

  “Lizzie!” Jim and Sara cried together as Tasha laughed.

  “That may be so Lizzie, but mine does have a limit and probably a fee for conversion.”

  Jim frowned.

  “Are you okay, James?” The others stared at her continued use of his full name.

  “I am absolutely fine, Natasha, but I really have to go and earn the money to pay my limitless credit card bill.”

  He bent down and kissed Lizzie first. “Have a good day and be good, oh and make sure Tasha gets something to wear in the pool. Something very, very expensive and charge it to my card, sweetie.” He then bent down and kissed Tasha. “And the same goes for you, be good. Please keep your phone on and don’t argue with Lizzie about your swimwear.”

  She gave him a little, slightly sarcastic salute with a reply of, “Yes, James.”

  He stared at her for a second and then smiled.

  “Sara,” he said and kissed the other woman on the cheek with genuine affection but nothing more. “Mike will take you wherever you want ladies,” he called as the front door shut.

  Tasha sat feeling slightly uncomfortable as she looked around the table until Lizzie leapt up. “I’ll get my stuff from my room, give me half an hour.” Then she was gone.

  “She’s very lively.” Tasha smiled, until she considered the unconventional start of the relationship she now found herself in. The oddness increased by the fact she was now sat opposite her boyfriend’s first wife.

  “She’s very excited. Jim doesn’t usually introduce his friends and they don’t make it back here, so she thinks you must be something special and I would be inclined to agree. He looks happier and more relaxed than I’ve seen him in a long time. It’s nice to see. I also think you were teasing him with the James thing which says a lot.”

  Tasha laughed. “The James thing really gets under his skin, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes it does. But he seems to like it from you, or at least tolerate it, which is a first. Are you in L.A. long?”

  “Til the end of the week.” It was then Tasha realised the idea of leaving in four days was making her feel genuinely sad.

  “Maybe. I’d be very surprised if Jim let you leave, Tasha. He likes you.”

  Tasha felt her face flush and was glad when her phone vibrated a text alert in her pocket.

  Sara took that as her cue to leave but not without a final comment regarding her daughter. “Lizzie can be a handful. I know it. Jim knows it. She has been let down in the past with Jim’s partners and has also manipulated situations, but she’s not a bad girl.”

  Tasha was unsure if it was a warning not to let her daughter down or if it was a warning to be careful of not being taken advantage of by her, maybe a little bit of both.

  Chapter 10

  Returning to the kitchen a confused Tasha found Sandra clearing away. “How long have you been over here?”

  “Seventeen years,” she replied without pause or hesitation.

  “Have you known Jim since you arrived?” Tasha wondered how he’d ended up with English staff he was clearly fond of.

  “Most of it. Mike started driving for Jim about twelve years ago and then when he moved here and was looking for a house keeper I applied.”

  “Have you always done this kind of work?”

  “Not always. I did office work in England and when we came out here I took whatever work was going and eventually ended up working as a nanny come cleaner for an English family nearby. They moved back home and Jim was buying this place…”

  “Oh right. Good timing then?”

  “Yes. Are you settling over here?” Sandra turned the tables now.

  Tasha shook her head. “I have no plans to. I’m only here until the end of the week, but I’m looking to work out here in the future.”

  The other woman looked at her suspiciously. “You’re an actress?” She sounded suspicious too. Her tone as she’d uttered the word actress made it sound like an insult.

  Tasha could see exactly what Sandra was thinking about her, especially with her admission about leaving. With a small frown for herself rather than the other woman Tasha wondered just how she was going to walk away without another thought and knew she wouldn’t be able to do it, even if she wanted to and sh
e really didn’t want to.

  “Yes, but fortunately I’m unknown over here so I can at least hit the shops with Lizzie without raising any eyebrows,” she replied, hoping to lighten the mood and remove the potential to be judged by the other woman.

  Sandra’s expression softened, albeit slightly, meaning there was clearly still some judgement to be had. “Hollywood is full of actresses looking to find their lucky break—any way they can.”

  Tasha nodded. “I know, but I’m not one of them. I like to earn my roles based on my ability to do the job not the guy doing the hiring.”

  Sandra seemed slightly uncomfortable at Tasha’s direct summing up of her inference. “I wasn’t suggesting—”

  “I know,” Tasha interrupted, smiling, waving off the other woman’s protests, but thought Sandra was in fact suggesting exactly that. But who could blame her? And she was actually attempting to protect Jim in some way. “Which is why nobody knows I’m here. Not my family, my friends, nor my agent. They all think I’m still in New York.”

  Sandra smiled again now. “Well my lips are sealed, but Lizzie’s may not be.”

  Tasha had to agree and decided Lizzie was likely to be loose lipped and a loose cannon. She struggled to know what to say so settled with a simple, “Hmmm.”

  Her phone text alert sounded, reminding her of her unchecked earlier message. She wandered out poolside and sat on one of the loungers to open the three messages she now had from Jim.

 

  She giggled and was rather pleased her ass may not be safe, although she was unwilling to analyse why she of all people found that quite so enjoyable. She moved down to the second message with a subconscious rub of her still tingly behind.

 

  She opened at the third message, wondering what Sara’s text had said.

 

  Tasha smiled because even though he was annoyed with her his kiss on the message remained.

 

  She grinned at the screen as she waited for a reply and thought she was indeed playing with fire.

 

  She could do this all day, all week, maybe beyond. He was really under her skin now and she liked it, but she couldn’t really consider this long term, could she?

 

 

 

  She wondered if he was going to continue this level of texting and sexting all day, and hoped he would because it gave her the freedom to do the same. Hiding behind her screen gave her the bravery to be more open.

 

 

  She hit send and winced at the fact that she’d just offered to sew for James Maybury. Why? He had Sandra who did laundry and probably sewed his buttons on, or she just threw worn or clothes in need of repair in the bin. She allowed herself an embarrassed giggle at her offer.

 

  Tasha realised this texting and sexting was not simply a way to pass the time during a lull in his day. He was actually doing it whilst in a meeting and like everything else he did, she found this a serious turn on. Her smile broadened at the knowledge that no matter what else was going on around him he was as focused on her as she was on him. A sigh followed as Tasha questioned how she could be so consumed by him so soon and knew it was surely going to end in tears, her tears, sooner or later. She composed a reply to his new shirt text hoping to push negative thoughts from her mind.

 

 

 
 

 

  Tasha nervously rolled her phone in her hand as she waited, each minute seeming to pass more slowly than the previous one making her wonder if she had said something wrong or pushed her luck. Maybe it was her reference to discussing what was going to happen after Friday. Perhaps she was thinking this thing between them meant more to him than it actually did. Had she read it wrong, trusted that he was being honest in his claims that he didn’t pick actresses up like he had her and never brought them home and introduced them to his daughter. Sara and Sandra had seemed to confirm his claims, but then she didn’t know them either, so maybe they couldn’t be trusted to be honest with her. She jumped when the message she’d been waiting for finally came through.

  pool. Jx>

 

  She smiled a genuinely happy smile that he too wanted something beyond the week they’d agreed and then laughed at the idea of him in his meeting discussing the heat in her behind.

 

 

 

  Tasha locked her phone and headed back into the house, virtually skipping. Jim really was like no man she’d ever met before and he did things to her that no one had ever done, even by text. Once she’d freshened up she rounded Lizzie up and managed to get them out of the house to find Mike waiting. Lizzie immediately rushed to hug him.

  “Dizzy Lizzie,” he called.

  Tasha laughed at the obvious fondness between them. “Morning, Mike.”

  He offered a warm and ready smile as she climbed into the car. “Morning, Tasha, how are you?”

  “Good, thank you.” She really was good, she acknowledged to herself. She was possibly better than she had been for a long time, maybe ever.

  “Where to then ladies?”

  Lizzie immediately gave him instructions.

  Mike dropped them off and Tasha felt very self-conscious as she got out of the limo and people stopped to stare at them, maybe hoping to spot some celebrity. Lizzie seemed oblivious to it and Tasha thought this was probably normal for her. With the younger girl linking her arm through hers, Lizzie was clearly ready and eager to hit the shops with gusto.