Victoria The Billionaires Maid

“Jason broke up with you and forced you into Alexander’s arms. Then, Alexander didn’t want any part of taking responsibility for his part in this. You’re the only one here stepping up and they both need a kick in the pants.”

Liz’s face was red. She got passionate when she was defending someone she cared about. More than one boyfriend had also burned her over the years, so men were not high on her list at the moment.

“I’m stepping up because no matter what part either of the two men played in this, I played mine as well. I’m choosing to have this child, not to punish either of them, but doing that anyways in a way. Jason’s been way more supportive than most men would be in this situation, I think.”

Liz snorted again and I saw Gloria bite back a smile. She stuffed whatever she had left to say on the subject. I was sure it was plenty and I loved her for caring so much.

“There,” she said. “Finished. You are so pretty, Victoria. And you know what else?”

“What?”

“You’re smart and funny and resourceful and you have a great heart. Neither of those jerks deserves you if you ask me.” Okay, she didn’t completely stuff it.

“Thank you,” I said. She waved a hand in front of her face.

“Stop it, you’re going to make me cry.”

I laughed, “You started it.”

“I know. I’ll stop. Go look at yourself.”

I went into the bathroom and was shocked by what I saw. My hair is naturally a dark blonde.

I’d gone lighter over the years when I was able to afford to have it done. Liz had lightened my roots and put some gold highlights in them.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

She’d also layered it softly around my face to get rid of the bluntness that I had put into it when I tried to do it myself. It was all even and soft and pretty now. I loved it. Her face appeared in the mirror behind me and I smiled.

“I love it! Thank you.”

Liz hugged me and said, “I love you, and remember that you’ll never have to put up with a man if you don’t want to. This will always be your home. I will gladly clean out my crafts room today if you want to move back in.”

Still smiling but with tears in my eyes I said, “And you’ll listen to a baby screaming at three a. m. every night in a few months, or try and have a date while he eats mashed peas in his high chair?”

She nodded, “All that and more, gladly… wait… he? You’re having a ‘he’?”

I smiled, “That’s the reason I stopped by,” I said.

I turned to the mirror and fluffed my hair and said, “I didn’t know I was going to get the beauty treatment too. I got the ultrasound yesterday. It’s a boy.”

Liz grabbed me and we hugged again. “Yay! I’m so happy, Vicki. I know things are hard right now, but I’m so proud of you for following your heart. Just promise me that you won’t raise him to be a man.”

I laughed again, “I’ll see what I can do,” I told her. It was so nice that someone was happy. As it would turn out, Liz was the only one in my life who felt that way.

I was so grateful for her. I was even more so about an hour later as I sat in the booth of a downtown diner across from my mother.

“Your hair is… interesting,” she said as I sat down.

“Hello to you too, mother.” My mom is forty-six. She looks like she’s twenty-five. She has the same blonde hair I do but she has hers professionally lightened and styled. She never misses an appointment, even when I was young and we were struggling financially.

She said her looks were her only asset. She tried to make me believe the same thing but I’ve resisted that notion so far. I’d hate to think that all I was good for was to look at. My mother wasn’t growing old graciously either. Everything about her had been lifted, tucked, or sculpted.

The picture left is beautiful, but you don’t want to peel the canvas back and see what is underneath.

“Don’t be snippy!” she said. “You just look… motherly with that haircut.”

“Well I guess it’s good that I’m about to be a mother then,” I said.

“It will be, when you can get that cheap bastard of an ex-boss of yours to pay up.”

She was team Jason on that point although there was no love lost there either.

“Mom, are you not even a little bit happy that we’re having an addition to the family?” I asked her.

I knew she wouldn’t be happy about a baby.

She wasn’t the grandmotherly type… or the motherly one.

She frowned and said, “You’re broke and unmarried. I’m too young to be anyone’s grandmother. What is there really to be happy about, Vicki? I’ll be happy if that bastard pays you what he owes you… unlike your father who got away Scott free.”

She was hopeless. My father and the men she danced for and now served had ruined her outlook on family and love a long time ago. We ordered our lunches and when I asked for the club with avocado on sour dough she frowned again.

At least I’m assuming the face she kept making was frowning. She’d had so much Botox that it was hard to tell. “What’s wrong now, mother?” I asked.

“I’m just hoping you know that weight’s not going to drop off by itself when you have that kid. I was out of work for six months after I had you just trying to get my figure back.” I rolled my eyes.

“I’ve gained ten pounds mom and I’m more than halfway through my pregnancy. Besides, I’m not a pole dancer.”

“Ten pounds can make all the difference,” she said, taking a sip of her lemon water.

With a sigh I almost asked her, “What difference?” but I didn’t. I knew it would have something to do with me catching a man who could “support” me. She was an independent businesswoman… albeit the owner of a strip club.

She should understand that all women do not want to be “taken care of.” No matter how good she looked or how hard she tried, she’d never achieved it even at almost fifty. I simply said, “Thanks mom, I’ll keep it in mind,” as I did with so many other things.

“I have a client who is looking for a housekeeper if you’re still looking for a job.”

That got my attention. I definitely needed a job. I’d spent so much money on this lawsuit that I wasn’t even certain that I wanted to pursue any longer that I was having trouble paying my own bills. It was one thing I had to be grateful to Jason for… at least I had a roof over my head and food in my belly.

I’d feel so much better though if I were contributing to that. Plus, my lawyer wasn’t going to take my I. O. U. much longer.

But this was one of mother’s “clients.” I was a little concerned about that. “Someone you know well?” I asked her.

She shrugged and said, “We had a brief affair a few years ago but then his wife found out…”

“Yeah, thanks Mom, but no thanks,” I said. I’d met a few of her “clients” over the years.

I’d fought off advances from a few of them as well. Not upstanding citizens in the least. She just rolled her eyes at me.

“I found out that I’m having a boy,” I told her, trying to change the subject and hoping to get some kind of emotion out of her about the baby.

“Hmm,” she said. The waitress had just brought our lunch and left. She had taken one bite of her salad.

“This salad dressing tastes like it’s loaded with calories. I don’t think that porky waitress gave me the light stuff…” And that was how the rest of our meal together went.

I left there with most of the happiness I’d had when I left Liz’s house gone.

I left the diner and went to the one place I’d always felt good, Seal Beach, to the pier. I browsed through a few of the small shops, but mostly I just stood on the edge of the pier and looked out at the ocean.

The sea was an unbroken, calm underneath the gentle sun. The small ripples of water that lay across it were sprinkled with millions of light fragments; each one tiny, but together they were intense and beautiful.

I slipped out of my shoes and stood there like I did when I was a kid, with the feel of the rough wood underneath my bare feet and began to feel nostalgic.

My life had never been much to be excited over but it had never seemed as lonely as it had since Alexander turned his back on me.