Cinderella | Keanu Reeves

Chapter 2

''Pardon?'' is the only word that escapes her lips before she parts them in disbelief.

   A fork held in man's hand stops halfway his mouth while his body freezes in awkwardness.
''Did Liam seriously just remove that fact?'' Keanu thinks and then puts the cutlery away.
''I'm sorry, Nancy, I thought you already knew it.'' he starts carefully while looking directly into the girl's eyes, ''As you can see, there is a lot of duties to take care of in here so I thought you could just take one of the rooms and stay here for a while instead of commuting to work every other day.'' he says softly and brings his hair back from the forehead.
''It's not a problem, not at all. I don't want to cause any troubles, sir.'' she speaks after a few seconds of silence but the man sitting in front of her does not allow her to say another word of objection.
''Girl, who taught you to be so stubborn?'' he asks with a serious tone of voice although his dark eyes are somehow joyful, ''You won't be any trouble, okay? I have already discussed it with Liam, your lease runs out in two weeks, right?''
''That is correct, sir.'' she answers averting her eyes just a bit. Nancy did not manage yet to find herself a new place to stay at and she knew it was going to be burdensome sooner or later.
''Let me offer you a deal.'' he speaks after taking a bite of the freshly cooked turkey which starts getting cold with every second, ''You can live here so you don't have to worry about finding a new apartment. Just do all the housework from the list but instead of paying you I will pay your debt with Mr. Smith.'' The room they are both in becomes deathly hush, with the man just glaring at the girl and waiting for her reaction. But she does not know what to say, sitting in her chair and processing what Reeves just said to her.
''Why would you help me with that, sir? It is my responsibility to pay my due. Besides, I cannot just live here like a parasite.'' she pauses while taking a quick glance at the man, ''I will work more, at different houses so I can pay rent to you, sir.'' she adds a second later.
''I assure you that you don't have to do this. But let's discuss it later, now eat before it gets cold.'' he tells her before both of them enjoy the supper.
Nancy's mind is now drowning in many thoughts, mostly connected to the dilemma if she should really take the opportunity and stay here or find another place to live. She thinks her presence by the side of Mr. Reeves is going to be troublesome for him and he will not admit it.
But the truth is, the man is not blind yet and he clearly sees how overworked the girl is, pale skin under her freckles, blue eye-bags just screaming for regular sleep hours and dry skin covering her delicate palms. He wished he could give her some rest, the woman he just hired is so young yet put under a lot of pressure and stress. After he's finished, the man stands up and puts his plate into the dishwasher machine. Moore does the same thing after thanking for the meal and without a single word she starts to clean up all the mess after cooking, beginning with the saucepan.
''Hey, it's alright, I can do this.'' Keanu tries to send the girl away but she disobeys. ''This is my job, sir.'' she simply says sending him a soft smile before she gets back to washing the skillet, ''It's really late, you should go to bed and rest, sir. Let me handle this.'' The man backs off eventually and sits again by the table, observing how the girl's hands work so deftly. "It was my mom, sir." she speaks with her eyes still focused on the dishes, "It was my mom who taught me to be stubborn." Nancy continues after hearing no response, the warm memory of her parent causing her to grin softly. "My father left us when I was just a little girl and it was my mother who had to take care of me, provide for the both of us. She always knew how to bite on the bullet and was my role model since I can remember." the girl wipes her hands dry after she is done with washing. ''Was?'' Reeves blurts out quietly although he already conjectures what is she going to say next. He does not shift his gaze from her green eyes, he knows that look himself too well.
''She passed away five years ago. She was fighting leukemia but even though her unbreakable nature she failed to win.'' a young woman reaches a hand to a hair strand that escaped her ponytail and tucks it behind her left ear. ''I am really sorry to hear that, dear.'' the man says still being focused on the girl's silhouette, not wanting her to grieve but he knows it is not so simple.
She turns around to take a look at the man and smiles at him shyly. "I apologize, sir. I don't mean to bore you with stories like these." she says quickly while intertwining her slender fingers behind her back. But Keanu just shakes his head and replies "You're not. I'm glad you feel free to tell me such things.''
Moore stands still in her spot, feeling flustered because of how gentle the man is behaving towards her. She does not even know how to respond to that so she just thanks him for being so kind while slightly nodding her head before asking ''Could you please show me my room, sir?''.
''Of course, let's go. It really got late.'' he stands up after taking a quick glance at the watch and goes upstairs with the girl following him. ''I allowed myself to bring your luggage here earlier. I hope you don't mind it?'' he opens up the door and lets her go inside the bedroom.
''Not at all, sir. Thank you so much.'' she speaks politely and faces him, ''For everything.''
''Honestly, it's nothing.'' he responds while leaning against the door-frame, ''There is a bathroom behind the door on your right, it's all yours. My room is right there, if you ever needed anything.'' he points at the door on the left and gives her the one last look, ''And Nancy, one more thing...''
''Yes, sir?'' she reacts immediately and gains a soft chuckle from the man standing next to her.
''I told you my name was Keanu, you don't have to sir me every time.'' he says merrily not wanting his employee to stand-offish towards him and seeing her face getting slightly lighten up assures him that she will not be obstinate about it.
''Okay, got it.'' she manages to bite her tongue just in time, not being used to getting that kind of a request, not even from Mr. Smith who she has known for such long time and yet he preferred to keep purely professional relations with her. ''So... is that everything for today?''
''I guess it is. Now, if you'll excuse me, I really need my beauty sleep.'' he breaks the eye contact with her as he slowly leaves the room, ''Goodnight.'' is the only thing the girl hears from Mr. Reeves before he heads to his own bedroom.
''Goodnight.'' she replies and soon after closes the door. She wants to take a quick shower before going to sleep but feeling hot droplets of water on her body after twisting the spigot in the bathtub makes her forget about the bed. She enjoys every second of her bath time, finally being able to relax all the muscles hidden under her thin skin. She takes a deep breath and slowly exhales, letting go of all the worries just for a second.
"How did all of that happen?" a single thought comes to her head yet she has no answer for that. Maybe the fate has decided to be on her side this time. Or maybe it is just a dream and she will wake up the next day with just a memory of today's events. She shakes her head not wanting to believe that, it must be the chance to fix everything in her life.

Nancy wakes up at 7:30 AM as usual, she quickly gets up and makes her bed. Before she goes to the bathroom she can hear her phone's vibration. It happens to be the text message from Mr. Smith but after reading it the girl furrows her brows in confusion and scratches her neck.
"What?" she mumbles under her breath and reads it once again to make sure she got that right.