I would be lying if I said I didn’t dress up nicely for Markos. He’d given me an address of where I would go so I could start my new job. Putting aside my pride and accepting his help was the hardest thing I had to do.
Especially when I used to have everything handed to me.
I was dressed in the nicest clothes I could find. I was in a short sundress and cute flats. I had on minimal makeup and my hair was free. I didn’t have a curler but I improvised with the items in my tiny apartment.
I had to take three subways and walk through the busy streets of New York to the Upper East where his hotel was. I’d googled it but the name of the owner was not listed. I guess he must have been serious when he said he didn’t want his name on blogs.
The hotel was modern, extravagant, and a sight for sore eyes. I was almost too embarrassed to walk in because of how bad I looked in comparison. The floors were white marble, too clean for my shoes that had just been from the Bronx.
“Hello, I’m here to see Mr. Markos Petrakis,” I said to the receptionist when I got there. The receptionist eyed me up and down before giving me a questioning look. You could tell she didn’t believe me.
“What’s your name?”
“Hazel Thompson.”
She clicked a few times on the computer before smiling and getting up.
“Derek, the manager, is waiting for you in his office. That is who you will be seeing about your employment.” She said as she gestured at a door on her right.
I smiled at her and went in.
“Sir, my name is Hazel and I was sent here by Markos for a job,” I stated.
The man behind the desk was in a fitting suit and perfectly slicked back hair. He lifted his eyes to look at me and gave me a scornful look. You could see he thought of me like dirt on his shoes.
If it had been a year ago when I had everything, he would have kissed the ground I walked on. I hadn’t realized how much people who weren’t financially stable were treated badly until I joined the club.
Derek was nowhere near as nice as the receptionist. He was judging me off the clothes I was wearing. They weren’t designer and they were a little bit faded.
I still had some designer clothes from my old life but they barely fit me anymore. I had grown too small and thin for them. Putting food on the table was a problem in itself. It wasn’t common for me to miss meals.
“Where did Markos find this filthy girl?” He grumbled under his breath, not caring that I heard every word.
“Pardon?” I asked, daring him to repeat his words.
“Sit down and read your contract.”
I sat opposite him and took the document from his hands. He shivered in disgust when our fingers brushed and I tried my best to ignore his obvious disdain for me.
The position was for a housekeeping job at the hotel. I was to work from 9 am every morning to 6 pm. Those were doable hours because I needed the money.
I was a bit thrown off that Markos had gotten me a job as a housekeeper. I had expected…more. You would expect that a man who knew I was overqualified for that kind of job would help with a job of my qualifications.
I had a degree in Economics and Finance. He would know because he and I were in the same class in college. We graduated in the same class.
But I was in need and I couldn’t afford to be picky or ungrateful. I was in desperate need of employment. At least he helped me. Most people wouldn’t have bothered.
At the end of the day, pay was pay. Plus, the working conditions were decent enough and the pay was good. I had no reason to complain.
“You can read, can’t you?” The man asked as he sized me up.
I wanted to inform him that I studied at a prestigious Ivy League college but that would beg the question of why I wasn’t employed. I would have to explain that my grandparents and the people my father had burned as he laundered money had blacklisted my family from the job market.
No one wanted to hire me or my sister. Especially when we had no experience, having been groomed all our lives to be rich housewives. We all paid the price of belonging to the Thompson family when everything went down.
All my father’s friends pretended they didn’t know us when he was arrested. It was sad and a good thing at the same time. It proved rich people were never your friends.
“Are you deaf, filthy girl?”
Derek’s words didn’t move me. I’d been called worse and gotten used to it.
I shook my head and blinked back the tears at the memory. “I can read.”
I ignored the curiosity swirling in his eyes and read the rest of the contract. When I was done, I put down my signature and handed the document back to him.
“Good. I’ll show you where you can get your uniform and you can start.”
I nodded and followed him to a room where uniforms were kept. It consisted of black pants and a bright red shirt with long sleeves and white stripes on both the collar and sleeves..
At least it wasn’t slutty.
After changing, I put my hair in a bun and got to work. I busied myself with work to forget about the fact that I wanted to see Markos again. How was he doing? Was he thinking of me as much as I was thinking about him?
I knew I should not have been thinking of him. It was clear he thought of me as an acquaintance rather than a woman he used to roll in his sheets with.
I hoped that our time together at least meant something to him. But I couldn’t help but think it didn’t. If it did, he would have gotten me a job that lined with my qualifications.
It had been weeks since I saw Markos again. He was nowhere in the hotel premises in my first three weeks of work. I started to believe that he never came around that hotel. It was probably his least-visited hotel.Disappointment hit me in waves. It felt like I was back in college begging for his attention, begging for him to tell him what I did after ghosting me. I hated that I felt like crying.Knowing he knew I worked in his hotel and he didn’t come to see me hit hard. I wanted answers for our past mess and at the same time, I also wanted his attention. I would be lying if I said I didn’t still have feelings for him.“Hazel, you’ve been asked to clean the penthouse,” Derek stated as he passed by me.I was at the reception checking my book of chores. The penthouse suite hadn’t been slotted for me in the book. I started to think that maybe Derek had mistaken me for someone else.But I squished that thought when I remembered how much he hated me. He never treated other housekeepers the
I didn’t fuck that woman I was with. I couldn’t even remember her name. I’d brought her into my penthouse so I could make Hazel jealous and by the looks of it, it worked. We’d gone into my room and fooled around a little.Then I’d told her I had work to do and I would call her soon. I didn’t think she realized I didn’t have her number.I purposely ripped a condom out of its wrapper and put it on the ground for Hazel to see. I saw the hurt swirling in those pools of hazel. I wasn’t stupid enough to think she was hurt.Her pride was just bruised because I was with the kind of woman she would never be again. She would never be a rich woman again and she would not be worthy of my love or attention again.That was less than she deserved for what she and her family did to me. Did she realize I knew what she did to me?“You fucking hired her!” Ivan yelled as he stormed into my penthouse. It reminded me to remove his access. He was fucking annoying.He’d found me standing by my glass walls, o
It had been a month since I started working at Markos’ hotel; Peak Euphoria. It had been a month of witnessing Markos bring woman after woman into his penthouse. Coincidentally, it was always when I was cleaning.If I didn't find his flavor of the week, it was used thongs and condom wrappers. Still, I carried on pretending it didn't affect me. Like I didn't find myself constantly comparing myself to every woman he spent the night with. Like I didn’t spend long hours in the mirror hating my flaws and sinking myself into the bottomless pit of self-loathing and low self-esteem.I found myself wondering if the money was worth all the mental torture. It was hard watching the man you liked choose everyone else but you.It didn't help that each woman was better than the last–prettier, sexier, and richer.Markos was a whore.A whore I had yet to go over. A whore who stole my heart and refused to give it back. All these thoughts were subsequently pushed to the back of my mind when the bills c
Everything was taking a toll on me. The bills were just too many to pay and the money was not enough.My salary at the hotel was more than I was paid in my previous bartending and waitressing jobs combined but it still wasn’t enough.I was starting to get frustrated. When things got tough, like they were starting to get, I often thought about how everything with my family fell apart.I was paying for a mistake I didn’t make. At that moment, I hated my father for what he had done. He had single-handedly doomed my sister and me to a life of suffering.I wished I had been smart enough to work after college instead of allowing myself to be groomed by my mother to be a billionaire’s wife—a billionaire who left me when my father was exposed for money laundering and fraud.But even if I had worked, my mother’s parents—my grandparents—would have still blacklisted me from the job market like they were currently doing.I was on the subway on my way to work when my phone rang. My heart beat loud
I could tell she was absent-minded. She didn’t react like she normally did when I flaunted women in front of her. Previously, I could tell it bothered her but on that particular day, she decided not to care.Something must have been bothering her but I knew she wouldn’t tell me what it was. She must have hated my guts. It should not have bothered me as much as it did but I couldn’t stand the thought of her resenting me.‘How can you think like that when you’ve gone out of your way to make sure she resents you?’ The voice in the back of my head said.She had to hate me so I could hate her.The next day, I decided to be alone in the penthouse. It wasn’t like I was doing anything with those women I flashed her anyway. I hadn’t been able to think of another woman since she resurfaced in my life.She walked in with a purple bruise on her cheek, a busted lip, and a cut on the side of her head. Someone had beat her up. Did she have a boyfriend I didn’t know about?There were grazes on her ar
“What happened to you?!” Julia asked when she saw me.She was the only one who was good to me. The rest hated me because of the rumors Derek spilled. It was only recently that I had realized his beef with me was not personal.Ivan, the guy that was fighting with Markos had to be the one telling him to frustrate me because he hated me. I had a feeling it had to do with the things Markos had told him about me.What had he said that was so bad? I had always been a good partner and supported him despite my parents’ disapproval of him.“Don’t worry about me….” I said in response to Julia’s question. She may have been nice but I didn’t trust her. Life had taught me not to trust anyone.“How can I not when you look like that? It’s good to come clean about your problems so others can help you. Come on, you know I’m not asking out of malicious intent.”I decided to just tell her because I was going to borrow her phone anyway. I needed it because I had to make a few calls. How was I going to co
ViolaEverything in Nikolas' room smelled like him. It was a masculine woody scent with a hint of apples. I was ashamed to admit sometimes I closed my eyes and inhaled it in, savoring it.A whole month passed since I saw him. I didn't know where he was in New York or what he was doing there. He didn't talk to me or ask how I was doing.That was kind of understandable because I didn't own a phone.To say I was frustrated was an understatement. I was lucky that I hadn't seen Mother since my wedding day. If she found out my newlywed husband had gone to New York instead of staying with me, she would go crazy.She already commented about how I was fat. She would only push the narrative further."Hey, do you want to go out for coffee with me?" Aurora asked as she poked her head inside my room—Nikolas' room.I smiled and nodded, ecstatic about the idea. She and I had yet to spend time alone. The time she and I went shopping, Lucia, her mother, insisted on coming with us."Let me change and m
I tried to pull down the dress further down but it wasn’t cooperating. It was too short, stopping right below my ass. For a moment, I contemplated taking it off and foregoing the party but then I took a good look at the bills on my coffee table and sighed.My date had sent me to pick the dress from a guard at his hotel. I didn’t imagine it would be so revealing or even slutty. I looked like a hooker in it.It hugged my body like second skin. There was nothing classy about it even though it was designer. It showed off a lot of my cleavage to the point that my breasts were almost spilling out.When Julia hooked me up with the job, I didn’t imagine it would be so demanding. She assured me I was safe and I wouldn’t have to sell my body for money. All I had to do was act like an arm candy to important and powerful men in the country.I was lucky I had walked in heels all my life. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to walk a single step in the six-inch hooker heels that came with the dres