by Tamara Blake
The girl turned away from the window and drifted out of the room, brushing by Ruby like she didn’t exist.
“Nice to meet you too,” Ruby said to the girl’s retreating back. Then she sighed in exasperation. Of course she was just the cleaning lady, a hired hand, performing the shitty job of cleanup so the Cottingley crew could party endlessly and not be buried in their own filth, but did they all have to be so frickin’ rude? Last time they couldn’t leave her alone, and now they wouldn’t even acknowledge her presence. Something in between would be nice.
She kicked at the half-filled garbage bag she’d been dragging around. Who was she kidding? None of these people probably ever had to work a day in their lives, or ever would, because in addition to being beautiful and pampered, they were undoubtedly mega-rich with trust funds and bright futures lazing about the Hamptons in the summer, and Aspen or maybe Malibu in the winter.
Meanwhile, she had to skip school, put her dreams on hold, and perform manual labor just so her mother could get proper medical attention. The unfairness of the situation welled up in her throat until she wanted to scream. Or cry. Or both.
There was a little less ruined designer clothing and fewer empty champagne bottles since the last time she’d cleaned the place. But the lack of high-end garbage just ended up revealing more ordinary filth. Dirty oriental carpets. Grime-coated crystal. Dead insects around the windows. Shoe prints on the upholstery. Most annoying of all, patches of a sticky substance had been flung everywhere, as if someone had run around the house with an open bottle of honey.
Honey.
The memory of her dream with Tam popped into her head. His beautiful smile and his sculpted muscles…and his totally pampered lifestyle. She wanted to see him, yet also hoped he’d stay away from her. It bugged her. Usually she was pretty clear-headed about guys, but something about Tam confused her. He was the only Cottingley resident who acted normal, decent even, speaking to her like she was a person instead of an object. Yet he was still one of them. Against her will she wondered what he was doing, or where he was.
“Probably sleeping it off,” she murmured. She knelt in front of the door with the Egyptian hieroglyph painted on it, trying to scrub at one of the gluey patches on the floor. She gave the door knob a rattle, just in case…Nope, still locked.
“Who’s sleeping it off?” a male voice chuckled.
This time she was certain. It was Tam.
Hastily she scrambled to her feet. Holy crap, he was even hotter than she remembered, with a jaw-line that could cut glass and knowing dark eyes. He seemed to make the corridor glow.
“Uh, no one…I mean, nothing, just talking to myself,” Ruby said.
“Uh-huh.” Tam leaned one shoulder easily against a doorjamb, stretching the fabric of his shirt tight across his bicep. He watched her watching him. “It’s great to see you,” he said. “Really great. You look…good.”
Ruby flushed. How could she look good wearing a gray work t-shirt, jeans, and zero makeup? Was he mocking her again? Or trying to get in her pants? “Thanks. It’s nice to know I can still look okay after two hours cleaning up after slobs.”
“You’re super-talented,” he agreed solemnly.
“Or you’re a grade-A bullshitter.”
He laughed. “Maybe. Or maybe I’m a truth-teller, and you don’t want to hear it.”
She frowned at him suspiciously, but his face gave nothing away. He seemed to be playing a game, but only he knew the rules.
“Why don’t you take a break and hang with me for a while?” he asked.
She was tempted. It’d be great to get off her feet and spend time with Tam. Then she shook her head. “I’d better not. You and your party-freak friends have left too big a mess. Speaking of, why is this house full of teens with no supervision? Where are the adults?”
“Adults?”
“You know, ’rents. Parents,” she clarified at his mystified expression. “People who pay my cleaning bill?”
“You look tired. Would you like a cappuccino? Espresso?”
Wow. Coffee sounds so good right now…
Ruby shook her head. “You’re not answering my question.”
“I know.” God, his smile was so devastating. And he obviously knew it. “Come on, take a break. I won’t tell the others that you’re slacking.”
She bit her lip. She needed to at least get some of the cleaning done so she could go home to Mom and Shelley without worrying that she’d lose the job, but then again, it wasn’t like these people were paying much attention to housekeeping details in the first place. After a moment’s indecision, she shrugged and said, “Why not? Just a few minutes, though.”
“Just a few minutes.” Tam dipped his head in agreement. She followed him down the hall to one of the smaller lounges, the one with the bar and the broken fish tank that was now mercifully empty of dead sea-creatures. A huge professional-grade chrome coffee machine dominated one end of the bar, stocked with tiny espresso cups, Illy and LavAzza coffee, around forty varieties of Monin syrups, turobino sugar, and other mysterious flavorings in cut crystal containers.
Tam moved behind the bar and flipped on the machine. “What’ll be? Espresso? Macchiato? Cappuccino?”
“Err…what would you recommend?”
“Cappuccino.”
“Sounds good.” She watched as Tam unclipped the frothing pitcher and began making coffee as expertly as any barista she’d ever seen. Which admittedly wasn’t that many because a four-dollar latte was far too extravagant for her budget. Still, Tam seemed to know what he was doing, measuring this and steaming that.
“One Tam’s Special, coming up.” He ladled a spoonful of syrup from one of the crystal bowls into her cup, then put the cup under the spigot. Fragrant coffee streamed into it, mixing the two liquids.
It smelled amazing, like baking cookies and mocha. Ruby’s mouth watered. When Tam’s attention focused on frothing the milk, she dipped her finger into the crystal bowl to taste the syrup. It was so good she almost moaned—like honey steeped with exotic spices.
Tam handed her the bowl-like cup. He’d even marked the top of the foam with one of those heart-shaped squiggles of milk. “Hope you like it,” he said.
She took a sip.
It was incredible. Sweet and spicy, the heat of the liquid seemed to spread throughout her body. Now she knew why people got hooked on the stuff.
“It’s delicious! Seriously, it’s so good.”
He lit up like she’d made his day.
He went over to the leather sofa in front of the fireplace and invited her to have a seat. Gingerly she sat on the edge of the cushion, taking sips from her cappuccino while he leaned back into the upholstery, remote in hand. With a touch of the button, the gas fireplace roared to life.
“So tell me what a nice girl like you is doing working in a place like this,” he said.
“Your pickup lines need work.”
“I don’t get a lot of practice.”
“Liar.” She smiled at him over the rim of her cup.
He grinned back, boyish. Charming. Careful, Ruby. “But seriously. You’re not planning on wasting your life cleaning houses?”
Ruby shrugged. “Are you planning on just being a trust-fund baby, partying your life away?”
“Is that what you think I do all day?”
“Don’t you?”
“Mmm.” A shadow clouded his eyes, and the corners of his mouth tightened before he looked away. For a brief moment Ruby thought he’d dropped the mask to reveal—loneliness? But that wasn’t possible. Cottingley was full of people like Tam—rich, beautiful, carefree. What did Tam have to be sad about?
“How about we make a deal?” Ruby said. “I don’t bug you about your situation, and you don’t bug me about mine?”
The shadow lifted, and Tam’s expression cleared. “Deal.”
He turned the conversation to school and Ruby found herself telling Tam about the drama classes she�
��d taken, and the time she’d won the lead in the school’s production of Our Town even though she was only a sophomore. She’d been bitten by the acting bug ever since.
He listened to her attentively, almost raptly, and laughed when she told him the story of Shelley sneaking into her makeup bag and using all of Ruby’s CoverGirl supplies on her dolls.
“I was so mad at her at the time because I’d spent all my babysitting money on that makeup, but she was so proud of herself. I mean, every single doll had lip-gloss and eye shadow smeared all over its face. It was such a mess.”
“She sounds cute,” Tam said, chuckling.
“She is cute,” Ruby said. “She’s amazing.”
“A friend of mine is opening an art gallery in Manhattan this weekend. Would you…” He hesitated. “Would you go with me?”
“An art gallery?”
“You look surprised.”
“It’s just that…” I’d imagined you spending all your time on a jet-ski somewhere, flexing. “I didn’t take you for a guy who’d be into art, that’s all.”
He smiled sheepishly. “Well, actually, I can’t make heads or tails of it, but my friend Kentaro is opening a new gallery and I said I’d go.”
“Wait a minute. Kentaro? The Kentaro?”
“You’ve heard of him?”
“Yeah, I have. In my art class at school, we spent a month studying contemporary Japanese art. Kentaro’s work took up a full week. He’s super-famous for fusing pop culture with traditional Japanese drawing techniques, like ukiyo-e and rinpa. I even wrote a paper on him—he’s a genius!”
“Uhh, if you say so.”
Ruby rolled her eyes. “For someone who could buy half the paintings in the Met, you’re kind of a caveman, Tam.”
“I’m just a dude, Ruby.”
Yeah, right. “But you’re friends with Kentaro. Wow. That actually blows me away.”
“Sooo, does that mean you’d like to meet him?”
“Well…” She hesitated. Tam was a smooth operator, and he was wiggling right past her defenses. But meeting a famous artist like Kentaro was an opportunity of a lifetime.
“Think about it,” he said as she considered. “No pressure. Can I get you another?” He pointed to her empty cup.
Ruby nodded. She’d be buzzing on caffeine for the rest of her shift, but she really wanted more of Tam’s killer coffee. “Could you add a little more of that syrup, too?”
“Sure. That’s my secret ingredient.” He winked. Ruby laughed, feeling lighthearted all of a sudden as Tam headed over to the chrome coffeemaker and began making her drink. She was having a good time, and it had been a long while since she’d had one of those.
As Tam returned with a fresh cup, she saw that something had changed. After all the laughing and joking, there was a look on his face she’d not seen before. A sad look. He passed her the cup and sat, not meeting her eyes.
He was so close she could have reached out and touched him.
“Ruby,” he said at last. “I—it’s been a long time since I met a girl like you.”
The air hung heavily between them. Ruby felt her whole body buzzing with adrenaline. She tried to smile and act natural, but her voice came out thick and mumbled.
“There are loads of girls here, Tam. They’re all beautiful and—”
His deep black eyes met hers at last, and it made her heart jolt. “No Ruby. Not like you.”
He was even closer, leaning forward. She could smell his skin, a sweet, floral scent. And then she was leaning in too…
The lounge’s door banged open. “Not this bitch again,” a girl said.
Violet.
Chapter Five
Ruby jerked away, almost spilling her coffee. Violet’s black hair had been swept into a chignon, showing off her graceful neck as it rose from the glittering beaded neckline of her scarlet mini-dress. Ruby felt like a sack of potatoes in comparison. The other girl’s delicate features knotted in disgust as she took in the two of them sitting together on the sofa.
“Ugh. You could do so much better, Tam.”
Tam didn’t miss a beat. “You mean you, I suppose? Been there, done that, didn’t find it all that great.”
Violet’s mouth fell open like she was getting ready to shriek. Ruby braced herself when Violet’s attention instead swung to her. “Go make yourself useful and clean my room,” she snarled.
“That’s not in my contract.”
“Then let me remind you who’s paying your bill,” Violet hissed. “Get off your ass and get back to work.”
“She’s not your personal maid,” Tam protested.
“She’s not your personal plaything, either. If I want her gone, she’s gone.”
The image of her mother’s sick face flashed before Ruby’s eyes. She could not afford to lose this job.
“You don’t get to make those kinds of decisions,” Tam was saying.
Ruby stood. “I’ll clean your room, it’s not a big deal,” she said.
Tam came around from behind the bar. “You don’t have to do that, Ruby. She’s just being bitchy because she’s jealous.”
“Jealous?” Violet’s laugh was ugly. “Of a domestic? Oh, please. This one’s even uglier than the last. What was her name? Sofia? Sabrina?”
Ruby froze.
Tam was glaring at Violet, his hands clenched into fists.
“Selena,” he said, and his voice was low, like the warning growl of a dog. “And how many times do I have to tell you, Violet? I don’t want to discuss what happened. If I were you I’d be grateful for that. You do not want to make me angry.”
Violet sneered, but for once she seemed lost for words. Ruby took her chance to butt in.
“I don’t want to cause problems. I’ll just—”
“The only problems being caused around here are by Violet.” Tam stepped between them, and his expression lightened in an instant. He gave Ruby a cheeky grin. “You really don’t need to listen to her. She’s nothing.”
Ooh, harsh. But Violet deserved it. Ruby smiled at Tam as she handed him her cup. “Thanks for the coffee.” She couldn’t help adding, “And the invitation. I’ll think about it.”
He smiled, eyes wide. “That’s all I ask.”
“Invitation?” Violet asked sharply. She gazed intently at Tam.
“Again, none of your business, Violet.”
“Well, I’m making it my business.”
Ruby slipped out of the room. Behind her, Violet’s voice rose to a shriek. “You made her a drink? What the fuck are you doing?”
Ruby had to admit Violet had a point. What the fuck was Tam doing? Or Ruby, for that matter? Whatever had happened between Tam and this ‘Selena’ girl, it didn’t sound good.
Except for a note of annoyance in his voice, Ruby couldn’t hear Tam’s answer. But unless she wanted to run the risk of Violet catching her eavesdropping, and really going ape-shit on her, she needed to get back to work. She grabbed her abandoned vacuum cleaner and work bag lying in the hall and headed upstairs. What happened to her? Who was Selena, anyway? It bothered her. Obviously it bothered Violet too. That girl had serious jealousy issues.
Also pretty serious: the mess in Violet’s room. It was like Violet had emptied out her entire extensive wardrobe and scattered the garments all over the place. Underwear spilled out of drawers. Jewelry was dumped on the leopard-print carpet. Shoes everywhere.
It was even worse than the last time Ruby had been here. She glared suspiciously at the mess. Had Violet done this on purpose to make her life more difficult?
Ruby snapped latex gloves over her hands. She gathered up most of the clothes from the floor, then turned her attention to the wreck of a vanity cluttered with high-end beauty products. The surface was crusty with dripped makeup, dust, and glitter. She spent ten minutes on her hands and knees, scrubbing at a drying patch of moisturizer that had spilled on the floor next to it. Just as she stiffly rose to her feet, the v
anity rattled. Another bottle of moisturizer tipped, the cap flew off, and the shiny gel splattered all over floor. In the same exact patch she just cleaned.
Ruby groaned. It’s like this place is out to get me!
Or maybe life is out to get me.
Tears of frustration welled up. She was so, so tired all of a sudden. Ruby picked up a pile of silk scarves tangled with jewelry off the zebra-striped chair and sank down, the silky mess on her lap. Life was so damn unfair! Broke, hungry, dreams slipping away. Life passing her by while she cleaned up the filth left behind by the rich. Forget Tam—his invitation could be a fun distraction, but that’s all it was. He was never going to be her Prince Charming. This was real life. Was it gonna be like this forever? Struggling to make ends meet, endless worry about bills, car repairs, putting food on the table?
Loved ones dying. First Dad and now Mom?
She swallowed a sob.
“We could use just a little bit of luck, that’s all I ask,” Ruby whispered, feeling a tear slide down her cheek.
She sniffled and wiped away the moisture with the back of her hand. After a long moment, she drew in a shuddery breath. Crying never solved anything.
She clutched at the snarl of scarves and necklaces, and something poked into her palm. She looked down. It was a wine-colored stone the size of a half-dollar coin. A web of filigreed gold surrounded the gemstone—a ruby—with tiny diamonds cunningly placed in the setting like a sprinkling of fairy dust. The pendant was beautiful in an old-world way, with a clasp carved into a tiny hand, the chain itself made from thick gold links heavy with carats. Definitely high-end.
Ruby began untangling the pendant from the knot of scarves. A necklace like this, for example, treated like crap by its owner and carelessly discarded, was probably worth thousands of dollars.
Or a year’s worth of medicine.
Her heart started kicking against her chest. She freed the necklace and stared into the gemstone’s blood-like depths. Was it a sign? This jewel—this ruby, her namesake!—could solve all her problems.
In a daze she slipped the necklace over her head. The pendant nestled against her chest and hung low enough to be concealed by her work shirt. No one would know it was there. She could pawn it and use the money for Mom’s medicine and hospital bills, and she’d never ever have to come back to Cottingley…