Maid

“Who wouldn’t? I’ve been cleaning all my life and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted to wonder how things would be if the shoe was on the other foot, but it’s not, and cleaning has got me to where I am today. I mean, I used to clean the orphanage constantly, knowing that if it was clean there was a higher percentage chance someone might adopt me, but unfortunately, no one ever did.”

“You wish you had that? Someone to take care of you? A…daddy?” the word comes out before I even realize I’ve said it. Before I can do anything about it she takes the ball and runs with it.

“Yes, a daddy,” she confirms, her eyes rising up off the floor and piercing right into mine. Her pupils dilate in real-time. “That’s exactly what I want.”

A moment passes where both of us are still enough to be mistaken for statues ourselves.

“Sorry,” she says, shaking her head first and ending our virtual stare down game of ‘chicken.’ “I’m very clumsy and I apologize for hurting your statue.”

I rise from my chair a