Cinderella | Keanu Reeves

Chapter 1

"Shoot, shoot, shoot."
Nancy covers her mouth with both hands to prevent more of the curse words pour from her full lips. Her petite body starts to sweat of stress while she manages to slowly turn around on her toes and that is when her green eyes become full of dread. The wooden floor under her feet is covered in shattered pieces of glass, once being an extremely expensive vase brought from Venice. She stares at the mess she's just made with horror written on her face, not exactly understanding how the heck that thing slipped from the deck. The girl does not even get the time to think as the next thing she hears is a heavy step towards her direction. Not daring to move nor speak, the woman focuses her sight on the man who just came into her view and now was approaching her. She lowers her palms while the 40-year old businessman gets mad with every other glance at the disaster lying on the floor.
"Mr. Smith, I am terribly sorry for that. It was an accident, I swear, I-" the girl tries to speak but soon after she gets interrupted.
"Nancy, for God's sake, what happened here?!" his huge hands start to gesticulate while pointing the remnants of the white vessel. "How could you be so careless around that vase?" his anger starts to grow as he remembers how much money it cost him. "Who do you think is going to pay for that?" the question is so simple and so is the answer but Nancy is not able to imagine the vision of another workplace. She is already under heavy workload and paying her employer for that mess is going to finish her off. Eventually she lowers her head compliantly, knowing that it must be done in order to pay off her due. The man standing in front of her furrows his brows while growing impatient with the silence filling the living room they are both in. "What are you going to do now?"
Nancy slowly kneels down and starts picking up the glass shards with no expression on her oval face.
"I am going to pay you back the money, Mr. Smith, as soon as possible." she says without hesitation, although she already knows how much of an effort it is going to be.

   Seven days have passed since that incident, seven terribly long days especially for Nancy Moore who is sitting in the car at the moment, next to Liam Smith who gives the girl a ride to another workplace. She bites her lip not being able to calm herself down after hearing the news. Mr. Smith has a lot of connections and thanks to that he managed to find her a new job, consisting of doing all the same house chores she's done before which made her unbelievably happy and grateful for.
It cuts both ways, though. The house they are driving to surprisingly belongs to a Hollywood star who apparently is too busy to do all the housework and needs help with it. Probably anyone put in this situation would be excited, but not Moore. She feels completely stressed out about the huge building that needs to be taken care of, all the rooms, furniture and around five bathrooms.
"Is one day going to be enough to do everything?" she thinks to herself until she does not hear the car's engine anymore. Nancy tries to wash away all her negative thoughts once she arrives at her destination. She takes a quick glance at the glamorous residence which causes her to gasp unwittingly. Her pink lips are slightly opened at the realization that all of this is real and she is going to tidy up that house today. She moves her eyes on the man sitting next to her, waiting for a word of support but all he says is "We're here, do you need help with your luggage?"
"No, thanks, sir." she shortly replies while unbuckling her seat belt. Before she manages to get out of the car Mr. Smith hands her a bunch of keys and a piece of paper with the door code written on it. "Is he not there?" the girl asks and her employer just shakes his head.
"He won't be here until the late evening if not at night." he finally looks at her and then continues "Don't worry about it, just do your job as usual and then wait for him. Mr. Reeves will take you to your new apartment."
Nancy silently gets off the vehicle and gets a chance to stretch her legs out after more than an hour of riding. She bends down to glance at the man for the last time and says: "Thank you, sir. For everything. I promise to pay my dues while working here." she smiles lightly and closes the car door before she takes her red suitcase from the trunk and walks to her new workplace.

The girl completely loses the track of time while vacuuming and cleaning up all the floor on both levels of the house. She is not even close to take care of the dusty shelves nor tables and yet she can feel her back aching and begging for a minute of rest. Her long curly hair is tied in a ponytail which swings here and there as her whole body moves without a break. As the time slowly flows she finds herself exhausted after couple of hours of working but to her satisfaction she is almost done with all of the chores. The last thing on her long to-do-list is ironing the clothes left in a laundry room.
She does not even notice when it gets dark outside, nor she knows it is already past 11 PM. The only time stamp is her delicate body feeling sore after so many duties in this spatial house. She does not even realize someone's presence in the same room, being so busy and careful while ironing a white shirt until the next thing she hears is a deep masculine voice in the corner of the room which makes her raise her head and look at this direction.
"Good evening, Nancy." the man says as he approaches the young woman.
"Good evening, sir." she says feeling awkward for not noticing the man before and she puts the iron away.
"My name is Keanu Reeves. Nice to meet you." he puts his hand out and the girl gladly shakes it. "Nice to meet you too. Thank you for the opportunity to work here, sir. I am honestly grateful." she says with a soft smile while letting go of his hand and reaching out to the iron again. "Would you mind if I finished, sir?" she asks politely and the man chuckles at her directness. "Of course, I won't stop you. Just go downstairs after you finish here, okay? I want to discuss with you everything." he brings his hand to his long hair to fix it and then leaves.

"Mr. Reeves?" the girl calls the name out while entering the living room or at least one of them. "I am right here!" she hears the voice coming from the kitchen and she immediately goes there. "Come and sit, you must be hungry." he speaks cheerfully while stirring lovely smelling food in a saucepan. Nancy looks at him with confusion plastered on her face and replies: "But sir, I'm here to work, I'm not allowed to eat with you."
"Who told you that?" he asks while turning around and facing the girl, tiredness just written on her beautiful face. "Besides, you're done for today, it's not your work time." he smiles at her and gestures to sit down at the covered table which she obediently does eventually. She worked for so many people at so many houses and yet she always kept her work and personal life separated. It is brand new for her to hear such carefree things coming from mouth of her new employer who seems to be unbothered by this. She rests her chin on her palm while observing the man cooking.
"Is he really a Hollywood star?" a thought crosses her mind and a few seconds later Reeves puts his freshly made fricassees on the plates handing one of them to his employee and sitting in front of her. She thanks him saying it was not a necessity but he just smiles at her.
"I'm not sure if Liam instructed you, however your room is on the second floor." he says suddenly and basing on confused look on Nancy's face he assumes the girl had no clue she is going to live here for a while.
"Pardon?" is the only word that escapes her lips before she parts them in disbelief.