by Roxy Mews
Quinn reached for Coral’s hand as he told her, “And if I see one more of these flyers, or if these meetings become more than a secret gathering of idiots complaining, I will be accompanying you to the office.”
Then he wrapped his arms around Coral, and Paisley walked over to the fireplace and tossed the paper into the flames. Her beer sat sour in her stomach as she watched the hateful words curl and dissipate in the heat.
Chapter Four
The palace had never been her home. Paisley lived there and she enjoyed what she did as long as she was busy avoiding the jobs she was supposed to do. She spent more effort dodging chores than she did actually performing any of them. She wasn’t lazy and she wasn’t a slob. She was bored.
Going up to those gates, Paisley wasn’t surprised when her passcode was no longer effective. She’d ignored five calls from Miss Matilda last night. She’d also deleted the messages before listening to them. Voice mail was the devil’s work. Nothing brought as much anxiety to a person than listening to voice mail. Especially one left by a boss.
Miss Matilda opened the gates with the remote from the front door, and Paisley started forward. She would have bowed her head or called up tears, but really she felt like it was time for her to move on. The phrase “walk of shame” danced across her brain, but she wasn’t ashamed of anything. Shame was when you wished you could take something back. The only thing Paisley wished she could combat was the detox she was experiencing from not having a cup of Miss Matilda’s strong as oil coffee.
She didn’t want to take anything back.
Well, on second thought, she wished she would have left the palace sooner.
“I left messages,” Miss Matilda said. She was standing in front of the opening to the house with her arms crossed.
Paisley had always thought of Miss as her first name and Matilda as her last, but as Paisley humbled under the woman’s worried eyes, she realized there was room for more than a coworker relationship there. But first, she had to own up to running out on her shift. Matilda didn’t have much in the way of height, but what she lacked there, she made up for in width.
There was no way Paisley was going to get past her unless she took a flying leap.
“I’m guessing I’m fired.”
“What did you expect, with the way you ran out of here last night?”
“If I’d stayed, I’d still have a job?”
“Did that man assault you?”
Paisley pulled her head back and probably made some horribly unflattering rolls with her neck as she looked down at Matilda.
“He caught me. Then he took a minute to let me back up, but he didn’t fiddle my bean if that’s what you’re asking.” He didn’t have time, Paisley thought.
“I kicked him out anyway.”
Paisley smiled. “Always coming to my rescue. But how did you kick out a guest of the royal family?”
Miss Matilda’s lips slid from her teeth in a grin that looked like she was the illegitimate child of the Grinch. “His room suddenly became infested. The insect repellant bots must have malfunctioned.”
She put ants in the man’s pants. Paisley laughed. “I appreciate the thought behind it.” She waved toward the door. “Can I come inside long enough to get my things? I’ll wait for an escort if you want.”
The grin fled from the woman’s face and Paisley saw the sour look that she was used to seeing. “Who will bring me coffee now? Mr. Montgomery doesn’t want to chat with other maids. I can’t let you work here again with all the commotion. The king and queen wanted an explanation from you.”
What would she have said? She’d flirted with a guy at the robot shop while she’d been stalling and then he’d been at the dinner and she’d lost her balance and fallen on his lap, where she was pretty sure she’d left a wet mark on his pants.
That would have gone over well.
Nope. She would have had to grovel and apologize and overall been a professional. She was over it.
After digging the maid’s uniform out from her duffle bag, she handed it back to Miss Matilda in a ball. “I’m not really cut out for this job, and I think we both know it. It paid some bills. Ran its course. I’m not really the explaining type.”
“You leave me with Bridget.” Matilda let her pass then.
“If you don’t like her, why don’t you fire her?” Paisley walked side-by-side with her former boss.
Matilda waved her hand. “Pshaw. That girl has the ass-kissing gene. I know how she treats all the other girls but I can’t prove it. She must even know where the cambots are because she avoids being filmed. And I make her clean up all the worst things. But now I have to fill someone else’s shift.”
Paisley’s heart twinged at the thought of not getting to make her trips to the repair shop. If Bridget had to deal with Mr. Montgomery, he wouldn’t look forward to repairing the palace’s things like he did before.
“Who are you going to get to take the mechanics in?” Paisley opened her room door and handed the key over to Matilda when she was done.
She started packing up her things into her two mismatched suitcases. She still had room left over. Being a minimalist and being able to carry your life on your back was only cute if you were a hobo with a painted-on beard, or a college student backpacking across Europe. Paisley was only five years away from forty, and she felt every bit of middle aged as she packed.
Midlife crises weren’t supposed to happen when you had a good body and the ability to pick up the hot guy at the bar. They were supposed to happen when you had kids and realized you hadn’t spent enough time doing the things Paisley indulged in on a daily basis.
So why did she feel like she was the one who was missing out when she saw Coral and Quinn together?
Paisley didn’t bother to fold anything but the one suit she owned. There was a good chance she was going to need to get her shit together and go job hunting later today.
She wasn’t going to freeload off her robobestie any longer than necessary. Although, after spending the night in a posh hotel, she really couldn’t get out of the cement walls of the palace fast enough. What had felt like a regal building ten years ago now felt like a tomb. All she would get from continuing this job was a paycheck and a death sentence. Seemed all it took was a new setting to make the queen bed next to her seem a little less empty. The beds in the maids’ quarters held Coral’s ghost for her.
She still had enough youth in her that she realized she needed to get out of here. The problem was that now she had grown up enough to realize she had no direction in her life, and while Miss Matilda had tried to convince her that supporting roles were very important, Paisley’s gut said she had some shining of her own to do.
The problem was she was so covered in dust and dirt from cleaning up after other people she didn’t even know how to polish herself up anymore.
It would be wonderful to sit back and figure out what she was good at, and what she was meant to be. Daydreaming didn’t pay for meals. She had to figure that out too.
“I guess I’ll do it,” Miss Matilda said.
“What?” Paisley tried desperately to remember what they had been talking about before her inner voices started arguing with each other.
“You heard me. I’ll have to start taking the mechanics in myself. I don’t trust the other staff. They don’t show the machines any respect for the jobs they do. Not like you did. Some of them might drop the things on purpose so they could do the work and get paid themselves.”
Paisley recalled some of the conversations she’d had with Bridget and realized Matilda’s concerns were founded in spoiled-brat reality.
Paisley had to ask, “Who will keep an eye on the staff while you’re gone?”
“You know as well as I do that the trip doesn’t take all day. It was my way of letting you get out of here. I thought it would keep you around longer.”
&
nbsp; “I’ll miss you too, Miss Matilda.”
Paisley hugged the woman. Matilda’s arms went around Paisley briefly and patted her twice.
“Enough of that. I’m sure I will see you around the repair shop. You have to get coffee sometime.” Miss Matilda cleared her throat. “Don’t forget to lock up when you leave.”
“I usually go for coffee at nine. I’ll probably be there tomorrow.”
“You go at 9:30. I have to finish breakfast service first.”
“You got it.”
Paisley was pretty sure spending what little money she had on coffee was not a great idea since she was unemployed and the hotel provided it at the continental breakfast, but there was something about her relationship with Miss Matilda that she had to hang on to.
As her boss tried to make her face resemble a smile, she was pretty sure Miss Matilda needed her too.
* * * * *
Paisley snapped the lug strap of her purple carry-on bag to latch on to the larger red one. She’d scored a fake set of pearls when she’d bought the red one, so hopefully her luck would continue as she packed them up again.
She decided to do a last walk through to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. Sure enough, like always, she found a shirt under the bed, a few bobby pins on the side table, and a bottle of coconut oil under the sink. The coconut oil had been Coral’s—it was part of her skin maintenance routine.
Paisley never took the time to sit around naked and oiled up. Tucking the large pump bottle under her arm as she latched the door closed, she thought she might just have to give it a shot.
Miss Matilda had insisted Paisley use the palace driving service to get back to the hotel. Paisley did a quick mental calculation of the funds in her account and took Miss Matilda up on the offer. If she mooched the ride, she could pay for her own coffee the next day.
Back in the hotel room, Paisley wished she had money. She could get used to the silky sheets and fluffy pillows. These hotel rooms weren’t your standard bed, bath and minibar. A sitting room led out to a balcony, with a separate bedroom and a huge jet tub in the bathroom. Paisley looked outside. It was really warm.
Then she looked at the bottle of oil. Oh hell. Why not take a little bit of time to get some sun on her skin?
Paisley giggled as she oiled her body. Sure, she was thinking of all the times she’d told Coral to put some damn clothes on, but she was also laughing because it tickled. Little drips began to slide in awkward places, and she nearly landed on her ass before making it to the bathroom to retrieve a towel.
Opening the balcony that overlooked nothing but a huge body of water, Paisley looked from side to side, and saw with the waist-high slats. As long as she crouched, she’d be blocked from the view of everyone on the top floor of this building. She put the towel on the sturdy wooden Adirondack chair and pushed the back down flat. The sun touched her through the bits of shade, and a breeze made the tiny hairs on the small of her back stand on end.
That was when she heard the voice.
Chapter Five
She was completely settled onto her towel and about to enjoy her free ride before she figured out how to pay her friend back.
Then that voice interrupted her thought process.
It was obvious who that deep confident tone belonged to. It was the guy who she had run out on after he made the goo in her brain bubble with lust in the middle of the palace dinner service.
Ben McHotpants was her next door neighbor. Fucking wonderful. At least she wasn’t the one he was talking to. The porch offered enough cover she might be able to hide out until he went back in.
Maybe she should just hop on his pogo stick and get him out of her system. It would kill off the nervous gnomes jigging in her stomach from being unemployed. Sex always made her feel better. And it wasn’t like she’d need a repeat performance. She’d tried those. No guy ever did much for her after that first run. First moves were usually their best ones.
Paisley knew the monogamous gig worked well for some people, but it really didn’t for her. She needed her freedom and her variety.
Maybe if she had shopped around more in her younger days… Paisley shook off her thoughts. There was a reason the past was the past and the present was the present. Yesterday was gone and today was a gift. And what do you know, she was already unwrapped.
She was ready to pop up and give him the prize, but she thought better of it. He was obviously tied to the royals somehow. And she didn’t even want to think about her old job. Moving forward was much easier if you cut all ties to the past. Paisley settled in again, determined to not worry about the hot jerk next door and let the sun and oil warm her.
It wasn’t her fault they kept talking. She wouldn’t have eavesdropped if they hadn’t spoken out loud.
“You know that girl got fired because of you.”
Oh…Paisley knew that voice too. Robohippie was on the balcony with Mr. Hottie. And what do you know, they were talking about her. She had to listen.
“I was just playing around,” Mr. Hottie said. Paisley could imagine him pouting out his lower lip.
“And getting us kicked out of the palace.” Robohippie probably looked pensive. Paisley wondered if he had his suspenders back on.
She would have to ask Coral if there was a certain type of android that used electrically charged clothing to run.
“We didn’t get kicked out.”
“Not with feet, but we definitely were not welcome to come back. You were supposed to be helping me make a good impression, and I’m pretty sure you ended up getting a big red X on my paperwork. The queen looked like she was ready to buy me and put me to work without a break.”
Paisley imagined Robohippie in a maid’s uniform. He would probably have to shave his beard so he didn’t shed on the beds as he changed the sheets.
“Relax. I talked with Quinn afterward. He said the royals weren’t happy with us, but aside from Coral’s fate, they really don’t have anything to do with approvals for the general population.”
Maybe Paisley could get Coral to screw with his application process as payback.
“If only Coral wasn’t taken, I could actually put my skills to use.”
“You used them plenty to get us where we needed to get overseas. I swear, I’d give my left arm for your programming when it comes to women.”
“I definitely need to teach you a few things if the move with the maid was your idea of flirting.”
Paisley found herself leaning forward on her chair to hear better. They weren’t being quiet, but the wind had picked up and was making a loud whoosh through the wooden slats.
“Don’t give me any more crap about that, please. She sat in my lap. And her little hips fit there just perfectly. Can you blame me for not wanting to let her go?”
“Can I blame you? Yes.” Robohippie had a deep laugh. He wasn’t as funny when she spoke to him, but his laugh wasn’t unpleasant. “She’s one of those Anti-Mech rally people anyway. I saw her with a poster. I’m worried she’s the one Quinn is looking for and I plan to tell him as much next time I see him, no matter how well she fit into your lap.”
He was calling her prejudiced? Her? Paisley scrambled to her feet.
She stood up tall and made sure her voice projected well over the balcony. “I am thoroughly insulted. I was the one who helped Coral get out into the world and discover humanity. She wouldn’t have even had an orgasm without me.” That sounded wrong. “I don’t mean she and I had sex, she just wanted to have sex with Quinn, but I’m the one who told her to go for it. Wait. That doesn’t sound right either. However you put it, I helped her out, and I’m insulted that you think I’m one of those Anti-Mech assholes.”
Both men were silent as she finished. Her hands went from the railing at her waist to her sides and back again. She was proud of putting them in their place until she tried to put her hand
s on her hips. They couldn’t grab hold because the oil was still heavy on her skin. Paisley watched as both men remained silent but their eyes began to move down her body.
She didn’t know if Robohippie was scanning her, but she felt every inch of her skin tingle to have both men staring her down like she was the hottest thing they had ever seen.
Not having the same luxury, she turned to make as graceful of an exit as one can make while oiled up and naked. She grabbed for the sliding-door handle and pulled. Her hand slammed back as she couldn’t hold her grip and the door didn’t open with her movement. The momentum took her elbow all the way back and smacked the balcony. Pain shot up her arm as her funny bone vibrated all the way down to her fingers.
“Ow. Owowowow.” Paisley grabbed her elbow and hopped around to shake off the pain. Realizing there were lots of exposed parts of her that were bouncing with her arm, she stopped and didn’t look back toward the other balcony.
Trying the door again, she noticed it wasn’t her lack of grip that kept the door from opening. She had bumped the latch. She was locked out.
“Having trouble?” Robohippie asked.
“I appear to be locked out,” Paisley said.
“And naked,” Robohippie said.
Paisley turned to him and crossed her arms. She meant to cover her breasts, but the oil made them slick and they popped right out over her arms. She would have been embarrassed, but there wasn’t a whole lot she could do. She was trapped without any clothes. All she’d brought out was a towel…
Oh…she had a towel.
Paisley dropped below the level of the rail, grabbed the fabric, and wrapped it around herself.
Hottie shook his head and actually looked at her eyes. “I’m so sorry. It was extremely rude of us to stare.”
“Just get enough blood back in your brain to realize that now that I’ve covered myself, stud?”
“Pretty much.” He looked at her door and back at her. “What do you plan on doing now?”
Paisley tucked the towel under her arms to give herself a makeshift minidress. It covered her ass. Barely. She eyed the door and rattled the handle again, just in case it actually worked this time. It didn’t.