Chapter 16 - The Morning After (2/2)
”Well, how do I explain this?” Lucille sighs. ”The black dress you were wearing? It was difficult to take off. It takes two people to remove because of the buŧŧons and zippers, remember? So what Master Gabriel did—”
”Did he see me nȧkėd?”
”Oh, no!” Lucille giggles. ”Master Gabriel, he looked away as we both worked to remove the dress.”
”How was that possible without at least seeing me?”
Lucille shrugs. ”He tried…He tried to look away, really.” Lucille giggles, and it's those giggles that make Claire want to strangle her with her bȧrė hands.
”After you removed the dress, how did you put the sleepwear on me then?”
”I was the one who did that,” Lucille says. ”Master Gabriel just stood right over there—” she points to a spot by the window—”looking outside, waiting for me to say that it was finished.”
Claire breathes a sigh of relief. ”So.” She looks around, remembering something. ”So where's the Balenciaga dress then?”
”The Balen-tha-ga?”
”The Balen—the black dress. Where is it?”
”I brought it back to Miss Cassandra, as ordered by Master Gabriel.”
”Oh, I see…”
”Oh!” Lucille jumps. ”I almost forgot. I brought you your breakfast! Here!” Lucille almost theatrically removes the cover on the trolley, revealing all sorts of pastries, a pot of coffee, what looks like freshly squeezed juice with still the pulp in it, fried eggs and bacon.
Claire salivated at the sight of it. Only then did she realize she's hungry. ”There's too much food. I can't eat all of this, Lucille!”
”Doesn't matter, Miss Claire! It's Master Gabriel's orders. To make sure that his fiancée is well-fed and happy.”
Claire almost chokes on the ”his fiancée” part. What's wrong with Gabriel Tan? Can't he drop the act already?
”Alright, I'll dig in, Lucille,” Claire says, pulling up a chair to hunker down on the food.
Lucille pours her coffee while she digs in. The eggs on toast is exquisite—this is five-star hotel fare, by all indications—and the Danish is just oh-so-right. ”Sorry, Lucille, but please dine with me. I'm famished.”
Lucille smiles as she watches her eat. ”I'm fine, Miss Claire. Besides, I can't be caught sharing food with our most esteemed guest.”
”Oh, no, the rules don't apply here. Come on.” She picks up a piece of toast. ”Here, get whatever you want, eat with me.”
”I can't, Miss Claire,” Lucille says. ”Sorry, but I've been trained to follow all the rules down to the last letter.”
”Oh, okay,” Claire says. ”If that's what you want, then have at it.”
Claire eats so voraciously that Lucille keeps on giggling at the sight of her. ”You're a little strange, Miss Claire.”
”Why's that,” Claire manages to say, in between mouthfuls.
”You don't look like you eat much. In fact, people looking at you and seeing your sėxy body, they'd think you only eat bird seed.”
Claire gotta laugh at that, especially with the phrase ”sexy body.” When was the last time anybody called or described her that? Never, is what. Nobody has ever said that she's sėxy, although maybe Russel, Karen's boyfriend, might agree. Claire often hides her figure with ill-fitting clothes and out-of-fashion denim jackets. She was only compelled to wear a nice-fitting corporate attire whenever she had to attend any of those job interviews.
”You know what,” Claire says. ”You're maybe the first person who ever said that I'm sėxy.”
”You're kidding, Miss Claire!” Lucille's eyes are wide open in disbelief. ”How could that possible be?”
”Yes, it is true. Only you.”
”But what about Master Gabriel, your fiancé?”
”Well, actually, he—” Claire is about to reveal the truth, but stops. Maybe Lucille must not know, because if her master realizes that Lucille knows, maybe it won't bode well for the poor maid. ”Well, he is the only other person in my entire life who said I am sėxy.” Claire smiles.
”Awww,” Lucille whimpers. ”That's so sweet!”
”Is your Master Gabriel really a nice person?”
”Yes,” Lucille says without hesitation. ”He saved my whole family from a famine. I'm alive today because of him.”
This piques Claire's interest. ”Really? How?”
”It's rather a very long story, Miss Claire. I hope I can tell you that story some other time. But to make it short, we were starving in a far-flung province when Master Gabriel, in one of his charity missions, found us and brought us all here.”
This is the first time Claire is hearing about this. And all the while—especially with everything that Mrs Gomez the office receptionist said about Gabriel Tan—Claire thought Gabriel is a one-track mind, a solid, true-blue monster. Charity missions, saving people's lives—these seem like not the Gabriel Tan Claire is led to believe.
”I didn't know Gabriel's involved in charity missions,” is all that Claire is able to say.
”Yes, he is,” Lucille begins saying, but the heavy doors suddenly swing open and Gabriel Tan appears, his face the face of someone who would want to crush people to death.