The nerves began to mound the second her alarm sounded the following morning. Cally rubbed her eyes, made her way to the bathroom where she showered and changed, and then she met Erica in the kitchen who was almost as anxious as she was.
“Are you all set?” she asked her with a grin.
“Just about,” Cally said as she adjusted her hem and tightened the belt around her middle just another notch tighter. She had gone for a classic black dress, something demure and alluring but not too sexy. She didn’t want to come across as some kind of vixen on her first day, but at the same time, she didn’t want to subdue her personality and natural style.
“You look amazing,” Erica beamed. “Now go and enjoy it!”
As Cally made her way toward the door, she could feel the rising panic inside her and the tiredness that was becoming second nature was almost consuming her again. But she straightened up, grabbed her purse, put on a smile and headed out into the morning Autumn sun.
The walk across the city didn’t take as long as she had feared, and as she stared down at her cell phone and at the address she had stored the previous evening, she could see on her GPS tracker that she was almost just around the corner.
As she had walked from street to street, the buildings had slowly given away from commercial and office to more residential, and they had gradually become bigger and bigger. She was walking along almost in awe at the size of them and it was with a pleasant surprise that she realized that the house she was looking for was the one on the very end, set back slightly from the road and guarded by a tall set of iron gates and two large and perfectly groomed poplar trees. She waited for a moment and took it all in. The gates were protective and kept the house completely private from the road. Unless you stood and really looked beyond, you wouldn’t even know it was there, but from her vantage point and with the knowledge she had, Cally could see the incredible house beyond, set back almost like a Tuscan villa in the middle of the city. A beautiful hideaway with a fountain out in the center of the courtyard, flanked by two large stone statues of wild, savage bears. Her eyes darted over them and she gasped as she realized that they weren’t stone at all, but marble and completely awe inducing. Whoever had carved them had made them look as if they could have been real, each curve and point was delicate and perfectly smooth.
“Wow,” she whispered.
She took a step forward and looked down at the keypad on the side of the gates and she reached to press the call button. The buzzer rang out for a few moments before she heard the sound of it being answered and then a soft click. Within seconds, the gates began to open.
As she stood there and watched them, she couldn’t help but feel as if she was about to step into another world entirely, but one that she also sensed was vaguely familiar. She brushed her hair over her shoulder and looked around. She had the feeling that she was being watched, but she put it down to first day jitters and stepped inside.
The gates slowly closed behind her and she turned back toward the house. In the driveway, she could see the red gloss of a shiny Ferrari and a selection of 4x4’s, all in black and all lined up in a row. She whistled through her pursed lips and looked down again at her battered old court shoes and hoped to Hell that whoever this guy was, he wouldn’t look down at her feet and notice.
She approached the front door slowly and breathed in deeply. Now that she was there, her nerves were slowly fading and she knew that it was now or never. She was just going to have to get on with it and put her best foot forward. She reached up and pulled back the large, silver door knocker and brought it back against the black wood of the door with a deafening thud.
After a few moments, she heard a set of footsteps coming briskly toward her and as the door creaked open, she smiled her happiest smile as she was greeted by a short, much older man in a very smart suit, complete with tails.
“Mr. Carter is expecting you,” the man said sternly as he stepped backwards and motioned for Cally to enter.
She did so meekly and tried not to look ridiculously impressed as her eyes looked up and around at the beauty of the house in front of her. It was like nothing she had ever seen before in her entire life, the terracotta walls and the color of the décor made it almost as if it were half Tuscan and half Moroccan, but it was completely incredible. It was hard to believe that it had been nestled in the heart of her own city for all of this time. The sound of the water lapping in the pond in the center of the atrium led her to see that it was full of orange and gold Koi carp and she smiled as they flicked their tails and disappeared back underneath the lilies.
“Please make your way along the hall to the right and find Mr. Carter in his office,” the butler said. “The door is second from the end on the left.” He bowed slightly to her and then he shuffled off down another hallway that led off the open aired atrium and away into another part of the house.
“Jeez,” Cally breathed as she composed herself. “This is something else.”
And then she did as she had been told and made her way down the long, mosaicked hallway, looking for her new boss somewhere deep in the belly of the villa.