Titled: The Step Before the Fall
Authur: Sasusc
Fandom: The Cleaning Lady
Characters: Arman, Thony
Rating: G
Summary: Pre-series. Arman noticed Thony long before she was dragged in front of him.
When he hired people, he always checked to see if they used undocumented people. It was his little way to do good and honor the sacrifices his own parents suffered through when they fled their homeland to give him and his siblings a better life. He tried to find the better ones that treated these people as decent human beings. It was why he knew the light blue work shirt belonged to the Jackpot Maids cleaning services when he spotted two women giggling off in the corner. It was the woman with the longer haired pulled back into a ponytail that drew his eye. She was slightly familiar, probably because he's seen her working here before. The way she was laughing with her friend…the sound of her laughter…it was so genuine and wholesome--something that had been lacking in his life recently.
Lately, it was all false smiles and false gratitudes as he worked through deals and favors to help make acquiring the hotel where his club was attached to go smoothly for Hayak. Getting the hotel and becoming co-owners with Hayak had been a dream he and his wife, Nadia, had been working towards for awhile. It was almost in his reach. They also had plenty of money to show his boss how serious they were about running the hotel. He wanted to be more than Hayak's right hand man. It was time for him to start putting his own roots down.
Isabel was getting married soon and it had just stirred up all his old feelings about starting a family and having kids of his own. They had always starred her in the role of his wife and the mother of their three or so children. They would have had a house with a large backyard for the kids to play in. And his parents would come to dinners on Sunday enjoying some time with their grandchildren.
Nadia wasn't ready for kids…and he wasn't even sure she wanted any. It wasn't something they had discussed all that much in the beginning of their relationship and not at all in the last handful of years. She was still hosting her speciality parties which always had half naked women and men, drugs and alcohol, and sex. He stopped attending them years ago unless it was for business.
And so, here he was sitting in a dark corner and pretending to scroll through his phone as he watched and listened to the two women.
"I think I know where I can get enough things so Luca could play basketball with Chris and Jaz. A few more coverings and some filters…I found a vendor who's willing to sell to me."
"Really? That's great news!"
The woman grinned. "Yes, but don't say anything in case it falls through. I don't want to disappoint any of the kids."
The other woman nodded and mimed closing her lips. "These lips are sealed."
There was more chatter about their kids and basketball. The shorter one switched the topic to a play at her daughter's school. He couldn't help but notice the sadness that darked the other woman's face when she said she wished Luca was well enough to go see the play. He watched how she straightened her back as if she could block her pain from taking over her body. He'd seen that same look cross his mother's face when his older sister would come home from school crying after being bullied most of the day. He couldn't tell from their conversation how sick her child was, but he could see it was taking a troll on her.
It was likely the woman was undocumented and she might have some concerns about taking her child to a hospital. He's seen it with friends and his workers. He's always tried to do as much as he could to help them get the care they might need. The kindness Hayak showed to his father years ago when he needed a heart surgery struck a chord with him. If it was within his means, he paid it forward.
"Fi, there's another fight tonight. I'll be working late again."
"There's too much blood for my liking. I know you're used to it."
Ah, if he hadn't noticed her working in the hotel or other various locations, he probably noticed her working at the fight club he's been doing business with Theo who ran it. He didn't have any plans to visit the fight club tonight. Hayak wanted Tarik to be involved and tonight the Barsamian family had dinner plans with Isabel's future in-laws--and there wasn't a good way to introduce him to the family with his history with Isabel and the nature of his work. He understood.
The women moved away, cleaning another area in the room. They were too far to make out any conversations but the laughter and teasing was back on their faces as they met up with another maid. His eyes were drawn back to the first woman again. She was stretching her arms over her head, pulling her shirt tight across her chest that jaunted out slightly with her movements. A flicker of lust shot through him. She was a beautiful woman and the light natural makeup covering her face only enhanced her looks. As much as he appreciated the efforts women like his wife and Isabel put into their looks, he never needed a woman to look fake or to spend hours getting herself ready to heat his blood.
His phone lit up with an incoming call. He turned away and answered it. When he finished, the maids were gone.
The next time he was at the fight club, he noticed the woman right away. He may or may not have been keeping his eyes on the lookout for his mysterious maid. She was finishing taking the trash out of Theo's office as he followed Theo into the small office.
"Thanks, Thony," Theo said after she greeted them. She smiled at them and left.
Thony. That was her name. He liked it. Even a week later, the woman still crossed his mind. He had found himself looking at the different maids he encountered throughout the week. He thought he saw her once but he couldn't be sure.
Theo must have seen something on his face as he stared after her. "She's great at her job. She's been working for me for a few months now. She even got a blood stain out that I thought would be impossible." The man chuckled. "She came from the Philippines with her young son. I've hired her a few times to clean my house. She's always willing to take on an extra job or two." It was all he said about her before they got down to business. He didn't dare bring her up. He already thought his fascination with her was strange.
She was standing outside video chatting on her phone when he was leaving. He hadn't had much to discuss with Theo today so the fight was still going on inside. It would have been too loud to hear anything in there. She had a huge smile on her face as she stared down at the screen.
"Okay, okay. I'll sing you one more song and then it's really time for bed." A soft melody in her native tongue reminded him of all the times his own mother would sing him and his siblings to sleep.
Longing filled him. He closed his eyes and breathed in the love emitting from Thony as she sang. He wished there was a child waiting for him to come home to… Or maybe he would be on the phone, as she was, singing a Spanish lullaby. Maybe his wife would be holding the phone next to their child singing along. And when it was over, she would give them two kisses goodnight--one from him--and then tell him to hurry home. The woman wasn't Nadia, but she also wasn't Isabel anymore. He tried not to focus on the imaginary woman who was slowly changing into the image of a woman he hadn't even talked to yet. It was a ridiculous notion; and yet…
He shook his head, forced his eyes open, and briskly walked to his car. He was on the verge of possibly co-owning a hotel and becoming business partners with Hayak. This wasn't the time to daydream about family. He had to leave those dreams for later.
Notes:
I can't imagine that Arman would risk everything on a stranger...trusting a woman he just met that night wouldn't go to the cops of Theo's murder. The way he clenched his jaw when he saw who had been dragged in front of him, I took it as a sign he's seen her a few times. Hopefully he didn't come out as a creep. I imagined him noticing her, maybe finding out a little more about her without making look like a stalker. Something about Thony grabbed his attention and he just wanted to know her a little more. His first interaction with her at the fight club give him a reason to finally talk to her. And then after Theo's murder, he couldn't bring himself to end her that easily when she give him some kind of feelings.
I had to write something about it but decided not to insert it into something longer...at least not yet. I feel like I need to wait until the season is complete before attempting to write more than a drabble. But this is my head-canon for how Arman's feelings for Thony started.
