MEETING MY BODYGUARD

TWO YEARS EARLIER

PAULA

I come from a wealthy family. My father is a well-known business tycoon, and my mother is just always there by his side. I think that is why I was raised by nannies most of the time, and sometimes my older brothers would take turns looking after me because my parents were always away on business vacations and even when they were here, they were busy with everything else but me. My siblings were fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with them in their era because business was normal, but after I was born, everything seemed to have changed. They are more focused on the family business, bringing in new clients and making more money than actually having family time. I might sound like I am embroidering, but that is the truth.

I am the last born of four siblings. I have three older brothers, and I am the last and the only girl. They are all married, and they live in their own homes, and I am still stuck at my parents’ house. I feel like my parents would pop that question soon to me, asking when I am getting married because all my siblings got married between eighteen and twenty-one. They got married under pressure because apparently, our dad promised them a share in the company if they get married and continue the legacy once he is gone, but as for me, I am a petite brunette with shoulder-length hair, and I think you know what that means, so I won’t need to explain myself on that because there is no chance of me taking over the family company in the future. What do I even know about construction?

I was busy on my laptop when a knock came through my bedroom door, and I quickly shout for that person to come in.

“Ms. Paula, your lunch is ready downstairs,”

That is Daphne, our new maid whom I keep reminding all the time not to label me, but just call me Paula.

“Thanks, Daphne, I will be down there in a minute,”

As soon as she leaves, I check my petite self in the full-length mirror, fixing my brown sleeveless satin sheath dress with a split on the side. The colour of my dress is really making my golden skin-pop; my turquoise eyes can see that.

I slip on my unicorn slippers before I make my way out of my bedroom. I get downstairs and head straight to the kitchen where I find my food on a plate, placed on the kitchen counter. I take a seat on the barstool and immediately start engulfing the food.

“What would you like to have for a drink, Ms. Paula?” Daphne asks.

“Daphne, you are twenty-four years older than me, yet I call you by your name, but you choose to call me Ms?”

“I am sorry Ms. Pau– I mean, Paula,”

“It’s okay, but please get used to it. I would love to have cranberry juice, please,”

After I had my lonely lunch, I went to go and watch some TV in the entertainment room before my parents got home. Daphne came to call me and told me that my parents need to see me in the living room. I sighed, making my way downstairs.

I find my parents sitting on the same couch, and then there is another man whom I can only see his back from the direction I am walking towards them. He has broad shoulders, big arms, and neck-length caramel hair.

What now?

“Paula, come and sit here; I want you to meet someone,” My mother stands up, smitten like a little girl about to open her Christmas gift.

“What’s going on?” I ask, finally getting the front view of the man sitting on the couch like he owns this home. We are not getting kicked out of the house now, are we? He looks like one of those guys from Repo that repossess cars but in a suit. LOL.

“Honey, this is Sergio Huppert, and from now on, he is your bodyguard and wherever you will need to go, he will take you. Sergio, this is my lovely daughter that I entrust to you,”

After my father’s “mouthful” speech, the man gets up, and only now do I see that not only does he have a big body, but he is also tall-taller than my father. He has a smug on his face, as if he can see right through me that I am not happy about this whole situation.

He stretches his hand for a handshake and waits for mine to join in. I feel even shorter with him standing in front of me.

“Sergio, I am sorry that my parents brought you all the way here for nothing, but I won’t need your services,” I sarcastically smiled and then turned to my father. “I thought I was clear about this; I don’t need a bodyguard anymore; I can take care of myself!”

“Seriously, you can? How about you tell us about you getting mugged at the club,”

Oh, fuck! My brothers are snitches, aren’t they? I got mugged by two men outside a club about a month ago, but luckily, I had my phone in my jacket, so I called one of my brothers and explained the situation to him, begging him not to tell our parents, but he snitched, and I am going to give stitches.

“What? Paula, you got mugged?” Mamá didn’t know?

“It wasn’t bad, I am fine,” I assure them.

“But it can get worse, so you are going to need me, Ms. Paula,” This Sergio talks. I aggressively turn to him and give him a nasty look.

“Who asked you to talk? Can’t you see I am having ‘family time’ with my parents?” I whiplash at him.

“Paula, cálmate!” My dad speaks fluent Spanish when he is pissed and right now, he sounds furious.

“I am calm, papa! You are not calm because if you were, you would have never got me a bodyguard. Argh, you are so annoying!” But I am just

“Excuse my daughter, Sergio: she can be a firecracker sometimes. Her mother didn’t give her enough hugs when she was a baby,”

Sergio laughs at my father’s remark. I can’t believe that he actually said that because he is just the same as my mother.

“Don’t worry, Señor; we will get along, right Paula?”

I roll my eyes, shaking my head.

“Paula, I made my decision. You are going to have a bodyguard and that’s that,”

“What is going on; something happened, didn’t it, and now my life is at risk?” I let out a bitter chuckle. “I am never going to have a normal life, am I?”

Of course, I am not. Most of my relationships never worked because I always had a bodyguard and it made all my boyfriends leave me because they felt like criminals, and as for my friends, it’s another story. You will understand why I say that when they meet my new bodyguard.

“Excuse me, I need to make a call,” Sergio excuses himself, walking out of the house.

“Excuse me too,” I said.

“Paula, let’s talk,” My mother insists.

“Not now, mama. I need to go fabric shopping and meet up with my friends,”

“Your friends can wait, señorita. I want you back here after shopping!” My father barks.

***

SERGIO HUPPERT

I lit my cigarette, leaning on my car with my back before I made a call. I needed to excuse myself from the ‘family time’ because I am not cut up for that shit.

The girl seems to be quite tough and stubborn; I don’t think that we are going to get along, but I am not here to generate friends. I am here on a mission and in order for me to get it done, I have to be in to play bodyguard for this spoiled brat. The mugging they were talking about, I made it happen. It was all planned because I knew how rich this family is and they were going to hire a bodyguard for their princess in an instant. I had that planned too. There is a certain company that offers well-trained bodyguards, and I persuaded my way in so that I can be hired by this astonishing family.

“Huppert, tell me that you are in,” The man at the end of the line says as soon as he answered my call.

“I am, señor, but the girl was not breastfed enough, so she is quite a tough nutshell,”

“Easy, Huppert,” The man laughs. “She will come around, but make sure you make her perceive how much she needs you. I need you in that family for as long as possible,”

I take a long puff on my cigarette and blow the smoke in the air.

“I know, and I won’t leave until the job is done,” Paula walks out of the house with a handbag and a change of shoes. She was wearing unicorn slippers earlier and now she is in her sandals. “Look, I have to go now. I will call you with an update later,” I hang up, throwing the cigarette bud on the ground, stepping on it.

“Going somewhere?” I ask.

“Without you,” She smirked bitterly through her response.

I am going to need to attend ‘Keeping my composure’ classes because this señorita here is going to send me to death early. I see us clashing a lot.

“No, you are not. Give me the car keys, please,” So calm, I ask.

She ignores me, unlocking the car before she got in. I held the door, preventing it from closing when she was about to close it. If looks could kill, I would be dead right now with the nasty-ass look she has on her face for me.

“Let go; what the fuck!?” She sneers.

“You are not going anywhere without me, I said. Jump to the other side so I can drive,”

Did she even listen? No, but she wore her seatbelt before starting the car. She must be a bad girl for owning such a luxurious car with a roaring engine like this. Bentley Bentayga for a small body like hers is quite a turn-on; especially because I love big cars.

“Suit yourself,” She reverses the car with me holding the door. Shit, this girl is crazy! I don’t think I met girls like her in France. We don’t have girls like her and that’s a good thing, right?

I originally come from France, but I moved here in Madrid, Spain three months prior to work. I am not sure if it is going to be a permanent thing, or I might find myself moving back to France. I came here because I was hired for a mission, but as soon as I am done, I am going to need to embark on something new.

“Come on, are you being serious? You are going to damage the door,”

“Then let go,”

“Fine, take this,” I let go of the door when she stops the car. I take out my business card and give it to her. She stares at it, then at me probably wondering why I am handing it to her. “In case you need me,”

“I am never going to need you,” She snatches it and throws it at the back seat.

I want to tell her how much I also hate that I am going to see her face almost every day, but I must suck it up because I signed up for this, didn’t I? God damn, I hate my job.

Without saying anything, she closes the door, driving out.

“You are going to need me, Señorita,” I say to myself.

Again, I make a call to someone else, and they answer after a few rings.

“How can I help you?” They ask.

“Remember the last job I ordered? I want you to do the same thing. The girl just drove out of her home, so I need you to scare her more than you did the last time. I will send you her car registration number in a few. And please, you know the rule; do not hurt her,” I instruct them.

“Got it.”

I walk out of the garage, making my way to my old white Toyota Cressida but before I could get in, Mr. Alonso summons me.

“Was that my daughter leaving?” He asked.

“Yes, sir. I think she hates me,” No, I don’t think… I know for sure she does.

“Don’t worry about her–she will get used to the situation. Why don’t you go home for today and return tomorrow morning at seven; Paula gets out of the house at that time to her apparel company,”

Oh, baby girl has her own company too? Interesting. I should have made my research even more about this family.

“7 AM, I will be here, Señor,”

“Good.”

I get in the car and send a quick text before I drive out of the driveway, hitting the road to my house. Forty-five minutes later, I was entering my driveway.

As soon as I stepped out of my car, my two fur babies came running towards me — my two black one-month-old Rottweiler puppies. If you want a loyal partner, get yourself a Rottweiler.

“Hey, buddies… come here. What are you doing outside this time? Where is mommy?” As I carry them in my arms, I walk towards the house, and I open the door.

My house is a mess, and I don’t expect it to look like this, especially when I have someone living here throughout the day.

“Cassey,” I call for her as I enter even further into the house, but she does not respond. Seeing that the sliding door to the patio is slightly open, I walk towards it and as I get closer, I hear different voices. I put my dogs down and then step out.

“Amour, I didn’t expect you so soon,” Cassey brusquely gets up on her recliner chair, and her two friends shift uncomfortably on their chairs.

“Follow me,” I said, unsympathetically, walking back into the house. She follows suit.

“Hey, baby… you know, I was going to clean and then my friends unexpectedly came,” Guilty!

“Or you called them to come over because I told you that I might be home late. Is this what happens here when I am not around, Cassey?” I stop in my tracks, entering the messy kitchen. “Goddamn what the hell was happening here?” It looks like a tornado its mark.

“I am sorry, I had no time to clean today or-“

Excuses. This happens almost every day, and she thinks I never notice. Cassey is my girlfriend of eight and a half months. We met at a casino in France where she used to work but got fired for skipping work continuously without a reason. That’s the thing about Cassey; she is so lazy she takes the dirty dishes and puts them in the fridge and wipes the kitchen counter clean just so that I can find the house supposedly ‘clean’. She thinks that I never notice, but what she never notice is that I do those dishes at night when she is asleep, I clean this house because she is never going to. If I could, I would employ a maid, but poor maid would be used as a slave here. Already can’t wait for her to fly back to France.

“Sergio, you understand, right?” She cups my face. As much as I don’t want to think about it, I think she is illiterate.

For how long am I going to understand?

“Did my dogs at least get food today; did they get water to drink because I passed their empty bowls?”

She fiddles with her fingers, not able to keep eye contact with me.

“I’m going to take a shower, but when I get back here, my dogs better be fed, your friends better be gone, and this house must be halfway clean.”

I turn on my heels, walking away. My phone pings a message that reads:

“It’s done”.

Now, we wait.