While Harvey was at work debating mergers and bankrolls with Mike, Natsuki was exploring his beautiful apartment. She scrubbed out the bathtub, turned over the sheets and washed the linens, before restacking them in the closet. She dusted, scoured, and mopped. She scrubbed the countertops, emptied the garbage's, and washed out all the dirty mugs in the sink. She cleaned out the microwave and threw away all the rotten food in the fridge. She even cleaned out the expensive coffee machine that looked like it was off a space ship.
When she was finished it was four thirty. She took a meditative moment to make herself some black tea. When she had finished it, and Harvey still wasn't home yet, she had the brilliant idea of cooking him dinner. She made traditional rice balls and set the table for two, thinking that the two of them would eat together and it would be wildly romantic and he would realize he loved her, like a proper man.
She ran to the bathroom and pinned her messy hair back in a bun. She scrubbed all of the bleach and ammonia off of her hands and shook the dust off of her uniform. There was nothing she could do to improve the dingy, brownish pink uniform, but she figured that she filled it out well enough to make it look good.
She sat at the table and waited. And waited. And waited.
Harvey got home around nine at night and was shocked to find a cold dinner and an unconscious Natsuki at his countertop. He shook her awake.
"Oh!" she said in surprise, wiping drool off the side of her mouth. "I'm so sorry! I must have fallen asleep!" she laughed at herself. "Want a tour?" she asked with an enormous smile.
"What? No," he said. "I know my own damn house." Affronted, Natsuki blinked in surprise. "Go home." he said. "I said you could clean my apartment, not try to be my mom. I'm paying you to do this, Natsuki, so you can quit it with the kid stuff. Stop acting like a five year old and grow up." he had raised his voice at the end and didn't realize how angry he sounded until he saw the tears in her eyes.
"Fine," she said with a shaky voice. "I understand. I didn't before, but I do now. You don't have to yell, Mr. Specter." She tilted her chin up proudly and then gathered her bag, and then walked out, edging her way past the beautiful woman he had brought home. She slipped out.
She didn't have money for a cab, or the subway. She had been hoping to ask for an advance on her first paycheck, as it was twenty blocks to the women's shelter, and her shoes were already falling apart, but there was nothing to be done about it now. She practically ran the entire way, her mind filled with terrified images of rape and murder, but nothing happened. She made it to the women's shelter sweating with fear, and threw herself into the thin mattress on the cot, sobbing.
She had never been so humiliated in her entire life. After all her hard work, after trying so hard to win Harvey over, and all she'd gotten was a good chastising. She felt like a fool. Clearly Harvey wasn't the kind of man with a heart. He was cold, and distant. He was no different from Yuki, in her opinion. She sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes. She refused to cry any longer. And she knew in her heart that she was much better off scrubbing Harvey's toilets than facing Yuki's fists. Still, it was a hard pill to swallow. She let out a long breath and curled up in her bed.
Tomorrow will be better, Natsuki, she promised herself. Why do we fall down? So we learn to get back up again. And with this happy thought, she fell asleep.