Chapter 22 - Jane
“A delivery? Are you sure it’s for me?” I asked the delivery man who was still gawking at Danielle.
She put her hands on her hips, which only made his eyes widen, “Uh… dumbo, he already said the delivery was for you. Your name is on the slip. Unless your name is NOT Jane Greiner and you have something you want to tell me?”
“Yeah, yeah, okay. It’s just that I’m not expecting anything. What is it?” I looked around, expecting to see a box hiding behind him or for him to pull out an envelope from his pocket.
“Do you mind signing here and then I’ll show you?” He said. The name tag on his shirt read Charlie. And I wondered if he’d always been Charlie, or whether he’d been Charles once upon a time.
“Sure, sure. Okay, where do I sign?” I quickly signed the papers and then looked expectantly at him.
“You girls are sure going to love this.” He said. “You’ll have to follow me outside though.”
“This is so exciting. Wait, let me get my towel quick. I can’t walk outside in my bikini now can I.” I could literally see as Charlie’s face turned from happy to disappointed when Danielle fetched her towel and wrapped it around her body. I reminded myself to let Danielle know that she needed to be a little bit more aware of the effect that she had on some men. It was good to be confident but it also just as good to be aware.
“Right, so anyway, come with me. Actually… do you want to close your eyes? It will be more dramatic and all that. We can do a big reveal.” Charlie seemed very excited. So either I was getting something cool or else he was still showing off in front of Danielle.
“No! For all I know you’re some weirdo and you’re going to shove us in your car and drive off with us.” I said and then felt bad when I saw the look on his face.
“Ma’am. I am certainly not going to do that. I just thought it would be more fun. That’s all. Never mind then.”
“Sorry. Sorry. I didn’t mean that. I’m just not good with surprises.” I wasn’t sure why I was being so snappy with him.
“Well, I think it’s a fabulous idea. And I LOVE surprises.” Said Danielle, who was big fan of secrets and surprises. “Come on Jane. It will be fun. I’ll join you. And if you don’t like whatever it is then you can give it to me.” Charlie beamed at her. I think he was falling in love.
So the two of us closed our eyes. I held Danielle’s hand and she held onto Charlie. Again, something I’d have to warn her about. If we got kidnapped I was totally going to blame her for it.
“Okay, we’re here.” Came Charlie’s voice, “Keep your eyes closed. Okay… are you ready? Now… OPEN!”
We opened our eyes. I looked around in confusion.
“Uh… what am I looking at?”
“Jane Greiner, I would like to present you with… your new car!” He pointed to the bright blue Prius that was parked up the sidewalk. It was obviously brand new and incredibly shiny.
“Excuse me?” Was this a joke? I looked at Danielle, half expecting her to burst out laughing and say ‘got you!’ but she looked just as surprised as me.
“I’m so confused. Are you sure this is for me?”
“Yes, it’s for you. I knew they should’ve put a big bow on it. Then at least it would’ve looked like a gift. Oh sorry. It came with a card!” Here we go. Poor Charlie. This was not the response he was expecting from us. I had a feeling that I would look at the card and see that he’d gotten the whole thing confused. Some lady down the road was probably waiting for this car while I was probably supposed to get some bill that I had forgotten or something. Charlie would have to go through the whole thing again.
“Open the card!” Danielle said. She’d stopped staring at the car and was now jumping up and down in excitement. But when I took too long she just took it from me. “Okay let me open it for you.”
She opened it, read it and then smiled. “It is for you Jane. Here.” She handed me the card.
Jane, I’m so sorry about your car and the accident. I know Mr Honda meant a lot to. Here’s a new one. You can call him Mr Prius. Or Mrs Prius if you prefer. XOXO, Sebastian.
“I told you he liked you!” Danielle said to me and then she looked at Charlie. “Isn’t this exciting? Do you do this often? Bring cars to people?”
“To be honest, this is my first car. I usually deliver boxes and never really get to see what’s inside them. So this was a big deal.”
“How did you get it here?”
“Oh, I drove it here. But my company is just down the road, so I’m going to just walk back. Otherwise I guess I would’ve come with someone else. But you were luckily enough to live super close. I was so excited to bring this to you. And a bit nervous of course. I mean, it’s brand new. I didn’t want anything to happen to it. I had to practically fight all the guys in the office to be the one to take it to you. That’s a cool gift to receive, especially if it’s unexpected – which it clearly was.”
“I cannot believe this. Hey… Jane. What’s wrong? Why are Charlie and I more excited than you?” Danielle was waving a hand in front of my face.
I looked at her as if she were from out of space. I couldn’t believe what was happening and I had no idea why she thought that accepting a car from someone I barely knew was a good idea. I felt sick to my stomach. Is this the kind of man that Sebastian was? Did he just buy his way through life? Had he never heard of something like flowers? Or just a simple ‘I’m sorry’? Even a card would’ve been fine. I would’ve been happy with a card.
“Danielle, I cannot accept this. It’s a brand new car. A CAR! What was he thinking? There’s absolutely no way I’m taking this car. I’m sorry Charlie but you’re just going to have to take it back. I’ll let him know that it was a mad idea. I really do appreciate you bringing it here and I’m so sorry for ruining the whole thing. But I didn’t ask for this.” I was still staring at the car, trying to take it all in. What made it worse was that it really was such a beautiful looking thing. I never in my wildest dreams ever imagined that I would ever own something like that. I found myself almost wanting to accept it but then quickly shook my head and tore my eyes away from it.
“Jane!” Danielle exclaimed, “Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind? Of course you can accept this. It’s a gift. Actually it won’t look good if you say no to something like this. Especially since he’s your boss. Imagine you giving someone a gift and then instead of being happy with it they tell you that they don’t want it. You can’t do that to the poor man. Anyway, you don’t even have a car at the moment. And it was Sebastian’s fault for that accident. So he owes you one. Listen, Charlie, Jane has already signed for it so the car is hers. Thank you so much. It was very sweet of you to come over and to surprise us this way. Jane just needs to get over the shock. It’s not every day that someone gets a car delivered to their door. Thank you again. Come on Jane, let’s go inside for a bit.”
“Uh… thank you Charlie.” I didn’t know what else to say or what to do. I just let Danielle lead me inside.
“So, are you going to stop being so rude and be thankful that somebody actually bought you a car?”
“I’m not being rude. It’s just a very hard thing to accept from someone. I didn’t want him to do this. I would’ve managed just fine. I was on my way to sorting out another car.”
“Don’t be silly. We both know you were a long way away from that.”
“Well, yeah. But he didn’t have to buy me something like this. It’s so expensive. I think these go for like $20,000 or something. That is by far the most expensive gift I have ever gotten. If he had gotten me a necklace worth $200 I would’ve STILL thought it was too much.”
“Actually, that one is pretty upgraded, so I think it’s more like $35,000. I don’t know if you peered inside but it seems to have all sorts of fancy gadgets. I think Mrs Prius is going to bring you a lot more happiness than Mr Honda ever did. Also, Mr Honda still had Justin memories all over him. This is your chance to start afresh with new memories.”
>
She made a valid point. But all I could think of was the price. Thirty Five thousand dollars! What was he thinking?
“Also, Jane, you must remember that spending $35,000 or whatever it was, is probably nothing to a man like Sebastian. That’s probably pocket change. It’s like you spending $20 on buying someone a gift.”
“I don’t think his $35,000 is equivalent to me spending twenty!”
“Actually, it might be. You forget he’s a multi-billionaire.”
“Oh Danielle, what was he thinking? This is absolutely insane. Look at my hands… I’m shaking.” I held out my hands to show her.
“Well, I’m thinking it means that he likes you, he feels bad about your car and he really wants to give you a present. I’m thinking you should be happy and that you should let him know that you appreciate it. Otherwise… you know… you can give it to me.”
“The car IS pretty awesome. But what message am I giving if I accept his gift?” Surely if I take it then he’s going to think that I want to take the relationship further. That he can just easily buy me with gifts. Surely if I accept then he is going to think that I’m the type of woman that is easily swayed by money.
But Danielle just batted her eyelashes at me and feigned innocence at my question. “I think that if you accept his very generous gift than the message you’re giving is – thank you.”
Chapter 23 - Sebastian
“Will that be all Sir?”
“Mary, you know you can call me Sebastian. I’ve known you for almost two years now!” I said to the cleaner that came in every second day. She was a sweet lady who refused to look me in the eye. She always said please and thank you and she always made it look as if my apartment was immaculate. I could never quite understand how she managed to make it look so polished. I wasn’t always around to see her, but when I did we’d have the same conversation over and over. I was starting to think that she saw it more as a joke now – but perhaps this was just the way she was raised. There was a part of me that liked it – because who didn’t want someone looking at you with that much reverence. And there was a part of me that felt slightly ashamed by it – because she was at least fifteen years my senior.
“I know Sir.” She said and I grinned at her.
“Oh Mary. You’re a funny one. Thank you for all the hard work you’ve done today. It looks brilliant. Now, are you going to take a bit of time off? You haven’t had a break in ages.”
She looked at me as if I were a complete stranger and I realized that I had never spoken to her with so much kindness before. What was happening to me? I was growing soft but it felt good for a change.
“Uh… Sir?”
“Take a week off. Get some rest, and then come back. You deserve it.” I said, before I could change my mind. Before she had arrived into my life I had been through at least five different cleaners, if not more. It was a similar thing to the whole secretary debacle. I kept hiring young and gorgeous cleaners who I loved nothing more than to see in their little uniforms cleaning my apartment. It would be same story with each one. They’d come in to clean and soon we’d start flirting. Soon, they’d be cleaning my apartment without any clothes on – or else I’d be demanding that they keep their outfit on while we had sex. But soon, as was inevitable, I’d grow bored with them and then the whole boss/cleaner relationship would get skewered.
“Oh no, Sir, thank you but I cannot accept. My sister is staying with me now and she has just had a baby. I have promised to help her get on her feet. I cannot afford to take any time off. We need all the money we can get. Thank you for the kind offer but I don’t mind working. It’s nice here.”
Just how little did I know about my staff? I looked at her then. Mary – pretty if not for the lines around her eyes and the way that the skin around her fingernails were all broken. Exhausted by the sheer volume of work I always gave her to do and the million things she still had to deal with when she got home.
“Don’t be silly. That’s all the more reason then. So, I’ve changed my offer now that I know about your sister. Two weeks off – and I apologise in advance for the messy apartment you might come back to – and you’ll be fully paid during that time. Now, Mary, I want you to take my offer before I change my mind. As you can see I’m in a particularly good mood today.”
She stared at me, blinking a few times before finally finding her voice. She must’ve thought I had lost my mind. “Thank you Sir. Thank you Sebastian. I appreciate it.” She practically bowed down before rushing out.
The phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Sebastian, I have a Jane Greiner here to see you. Shall I tell her to come up? Or would you like me to tell her that you’re busy? She says she works with you.” I had been very strict about who was allowed to come up to see me and who wasn’t. Most of the time I asked them to call it through to me. The last thing I wanted was a million girls thinking that they could just come up and see me anytime that they wanted. Especially since most of those girls were just one time affairs that needed to know where they stood. This rule had been implemented after a few unfortunate incidents.
“Jane? Yes, you can send her right up. Thank you.” Ahh… Jane. Now that was a face I was actually looking forward to seeing right now. And she was coming as soon as Mary was leaving. I looked around at my beautiful apartment with pride – great timing.
I waited impatiently for her to come up and then was surprised by the loud pounding at the door. I thought of Susie the Cutie and her tiny little timid knock when she had first come to see me. Jane was small and timid in her own way but she still managed to surprise me sometimes. The knock got louder.
I opened the door and grinned at her. But she wasn’t grinning back.
“Did you walk up the stairs?” I asked her. A ridiculous notion because I was staying in the penthouse in a very tall building. I peered out to see if perhaps the lift was broken.
“No. Why?”
“So why are huffing and puffing like you’ve just blown a chimney down? And… would you like to come in?” I opened the door wider and let her in.
“I’m just annoyed. I’m angry. And I’m very confused. And at the same time I feel bad for being annoyed and angry. I realize that to an outsider that would look as if I was ungrateful. But I’m not ungrateful. I’m just highly frustrated.”
I smiled inwardly. Frustrated was something that I could definitely help her with. But I still had no idea what had gotten her so worked up and bringing up any sort of sexual matters right now might not go down well. “Jane, slow down. Take a seat. Take a breather. Tell me what’s on your mind.”
She gave me a funny look then. “You really have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”
“Well no, because you still haven’t told me. If you think back to the crazy conversation you just had with me you’ll see that in that entire speech you never told me what was making you so angry and annoyed and frustrated. And what was the other thing?”
“Confused.”
“Ah, yes. Confused. So… care to enlighten me or are we going to keep playing the guessing game?”
“The car Sebastian! The car. You cannot possibly expect me to accept a gift like that. You are insane.” She said. Her hands were flapping wildly in the air as if she didn’t know how to get rid of the anger inside of her. Again, I could think of better ways of releasing her anger but again it wasn’t the best time to tell her that.
“Wow. I was hoping for a different reaction. Like, you know, a thank you.” I raised my eyebrows at her.
“Thank you. Really. It’s… well actually it’s crazy of you. And I really cannot accept it. How can you get me such an extravagant gift?
“It’s not extravagant. It’s a good gift and a very good car. Anyway, I got you into that last accident and I really did feel bad about it. I know that you were very close to Mr Honda. I was just trying to be nice.”
She almost smiled but then frowned again. “Sebastian – do you have any idea how strange this is? You
are living with your head in the clouds! This is not what normal people do! Not that you would know what normal was.”
“What do you mean? I am normal.”
“No, giving someone a car as a gift is not normal. Danielle told me that the car probably costs about $35,000!”
“Well, I have no idea who Danielle is but she’s pretty close. $36,000. A pretty good deal really.”
“But how are you not seeing that this is crazy? I earn $40,000 a year and you have just given me a present that’s only shy of that by four grand.”
“What? You get 40 grand a year? A YEAR? Sorry, I don’t deal with the salaries. That’s all handed by the accounts department. But I had no idea. Goodness, I’m going to have to look at paying you more. How can anyone live on that? I wonder if all the other staff are getting paid that? No wonder some of them look like they’re in a bad mood every day. Is it even possible to live with that?”
“See what I mean… head in the clouds. You will not believe how happy I was when I saw what my salary was going to be working at the casino. I was not expecting it to be that much! This is more than I have ever earned. And from my calculations it wouldn’t have taken me too long to be able to afford a nice second hand car. Remember that not all people live in penthouses and go out to restaurants every day and spend probably more in clothes in one month than some do in a year. This is good money for some people. For people like me.” She huffed when she said the word ‘me’ and I tried not to laugh at her. She was cute when she was angry.
“Listen, Jane. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I do have my head in the clouds. But it’s all relevant isn’t it? If you gave a homeless guy a brand new outfit he’d probably think he’d just won the lottory. I wanted to do this for you and it was the only way that I knew how. Looking at it from your point of view I can now see that maybe I had misjudged the whole thing. But I honestly had no idea that you would take it this way. I actually thought you would be happy. And that’s really all I wanted to do. I wasn’t trying to prove a point or to throw money in your face. I’m sorry if you see it like that. I truly just thought you would like it.”
Auctioned to Him Book 8 Page 102