*The longest chapter yet! Enjoy!
CHAPTER 33
CC left the mansion as Niles began serving lunch to the Sheffields. The meal wasn't nearly as well-received as his waffles had been that morning.
"Niyals? Are you okay, honey?" Fran asked as she placed her hand on his forearm while he poured some gravy on her meal for her.
"Miss Fine, I'm perfectly... fine."
Fran looked beside her at Grace. The little girl didn't look convinced either. "Are ya sure, sweetie? Did something happen between you and ya girlfriend since breakfast?"
He put the gravy boat down on the table a little too roughly. "I don't have a girlfriend, Miss Fine! As I told you the first time, I'm not seeing anyone! So could you please just stop talking about-"
When the room went quiet he realized they weren't used to a Niles who showed heartbreak or genuine hurt regarding his own personal matters. His life and concerns had always revolved around the family. He was supposed to be there for them. Not the other way around. He straightened his tie to compose himself. "My apologies. If you'll excuse me..."
Once the Sheffields had finished their meals, Grace tiptoed into the kitchen to see the man who helped raise her.
He looked disappointed as he pretended to be concentrating on the butler magazine subscription in front of him.
"Niles?" She said, timidly.
He looked over at her and then back down at the magazine. "Yes, Miss Grace?"
"I need to talk to you about something..."
He looked up at her and then pulled out the chair beside his so that she could take a seat next to him. "What's on your mind, kiddo?"
"I don't know. I'm confused I guess." She scrunched her nose to play the part.
"About?" He wasn't sure where she was going with this.
"Um. Well, say there's this girl who is seeing someone but isn't sure if another guy, one she truly likes, likes her back, so she stays with the first one out of convenience... Should she break up with the one she's seeing even though she isn't sure of the other one's feelings?"
"Um, I'm not sure I follow... Although, I wouldn't tell your father you're seeing someone... You're much too young to be tainted by the hurts of love." He patted her head and smiled sadly.
"No, I'm not seeing anyone. I'm just saying hypothetically. If there was someone else the girl was obviously into... But she didn't do anything about it because she thought he hated her... I mean. Should she have to wait for him to find out how she feels? Wouldn't it be fairer to be honest with each other so that they can both stop being miserably ignorant?"
"Why would anyone hate you? I mean hate her? Wait, Did he do something to you? What did he do? Did he try to hurt you?" Niles was suddenly worried.
"No, no, nothing like that. Never mind. I'll figure it out. Thanks, Niles." Grace left the room wishing she could take a college level psychology course because her leisure reading didn't seem to be helping her to get the point across to Niles.
She wished she could just scream that CC doesn't know how he feels about her and won't do anything about her own feelings unless she knows her heart would be safe too.
***cccccccccc***
Later that evening, Niles sucked it up and decided to go over to Miss Babcock's to prepare her dinner. It's what he was being paid for in any case.
He let himself in with the key she had given him. The place seemed darker somehow. Not unlike the cold looks she would give him before the smile would work it's way through to her eyes. He reminded himself to buy more flowers.
He dropped the key onto the kitchen table and looked around. It was strange being there alone. It was still early and she probably wouldn't be back for hours. Now would be the perfect time to snoop. He grinned in excitement.
He skipped down the passageway and opened a door to the right. A study. There were a few framed newspaper articles on one wall, including the one in which he had "edited" her name to 'Boobcock'. He laughed when he read it again.
There was a frame resting on her desk next to her computer. He picked it up to see a picture of a man holding a drink in salute to the camera. It looked professionally photographed. The man had model-good looks.
Who the hell is this? Niles wondered. It's not Damon, Chandler, Collin or any of the other men she had mentioned before. It definitely wasn't family either. Niles had seen them all. He placed the frame back in its place and rounded the small desk to open the drawer. It was locked.
He sat in her chair and looked around, wondering why she came to work at the mansion all day if she had this quiet space to herself. Maybe because it's too quiet?
He lifted a book from her desk. It was titled, 'How to Get Ahead in a World of Men.'
Niles laughed. She wishes she had access to a world of men! He opened the cover and a key slipped out. He picked it up and looked at. He pushed it into the keyhole on the drawer and it twisted without restraint. He set the book down and pulled the drawer open.
It housed a bunch of loose paperwork, and her travel documents. He lifted an eyebrow evilly and checked her year of birth, making a mental note for later use. He placed the documents back inside and flipped through a few of the loose pages in the drawer. There were a few paperclips and rubber bands. Then he spotted his name on a folder. He withdrew it from the drawer and looked inside.
He found forms with his employment details and documents for his pension plan. There was one page he hadn't seen before. It declared that a percentage of his pay was being invested for him. The next page showed the interest he had gained on the investment.
Hmm. So I might have a little more than I thought I did?! He was glad at that discovery. He smiled as he flipped through the next few pages in his folder until a photograph and a card slipped into his lap. One was a picture of him that had been taken for his ID and other documentation. The other was a picture of him and the Sheffields at Christmas. Maxwell had had it printed onto greeting cards and asked Niles to send them out to family and friends. He opened the card. He recognized Grace's precise and impeccable handwriting. It read:
'Dear Miss Babcock,
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a happy festive season!
Thank you for helping daddy with his business. All the best for the New Year!
With love from all of us at the Sheffield residence (including Niles),
xoxo'
Niles had never seen the card before. He had just sent out the sealed envelopes. When he finished reading, he turned over a photograph that had been inside, only to find it was one of him and CC. The photo depicted the two of them posing together at their table at an awards banquet. It was one they had attended with his boss and Miss Fine. He remembered Fran running around with her camera like a headless chicken all night but he didn't remember this one being taken.
He looked comfortable in the picture. His arm was resting on the back of CC's chair and she was leaning nearer to him for the shot. She was grinning broadly for the camera while his head was turned to look at her face, perhaps wondering why she was grinning, as he hadn't noticed the camera. But he was smiling at her.
He wondered if Miss Grace had added the photo to the card or if CC had placed it in the folder for safekeeping. He liked the idea of the latter. He flipped it over and recognized CC's handwriting. 'I'm with stupid, 2001. And she'd drawn a smiley face next to it. He shook his head and laughed to himself. Then flipped it back over to look at the picture once more.
He snorted as he saw her hand had reached for his butter knife on the table. He remembered it clearly now. He had kept leaning on her chair while she ate and she had threatened to amputate his arm if he did it again. Naturally, he did. Lucky for him, the camera saved him by distracting her.
He liked the picture even more now. He looked over at the frame on her desk and decided to remove the picture of the strange man he didn't recognize and replaced it with their picture. He placed the frame back on the desk and smiled at it. He hoped he could tease her later by asking why she had a framed picture of them. She'd be so confused. I love playing with that woman's head.
He put away the rest of the contents and shut the drawer, locked it and placed the key back into its hiding place in her book. He was about to walk out but then ran back to her desk, grinning.
He grabbed a pen from the desk-tidy and once again opened the hardcover of 'How to Get Ahead in a World of Men'. On the first page, where the title was repeated, he scratched out the 'A' in 'Ahead'.
Then he put everything back the way he'd found it and chuckled to himself. He left the room, shutting the door behind him, and made his way to the kitchen to start preparing dinner.
He laid the table settings along with an understated centerpiece of short-stemmed, tightly-bound flowers in deep purples and blood reds.
He knew the lamb stew would take a while so he continued on his adventure. He made his way past the study and opened a door just beyond it. A guest bathroom. Nice enough. The door opposite it revealed a guest room containing a bed and end tables but no linen. She obviously didn't play hostess. He didn't need to see the unmade room to know that.
He closed the door and turned to face her bedroom door. He'd been in there before but both times she'd been there too. Now it felt as though he were trespassing. He took a step inside and looked around. The room smelled like her.
He treaded lightly, as if his footprints would be a giveaway that he'd been there. He stepped toward her closet and pulled open one of the silver handles on the crisp, white doors. Her closet was a sea of bold neutrals hanging in colour order. It was all business - pants suits, skirts, blouses and blazers. Everything was in the same colour range - black, navy, red, beige; nothing that could be considered offensive to the eye. Classic socialite straight from her cotillion training, he thought as he caressed the fabric of a few of the items he had seen her wear recently.
He spotted a few evening dresses; he even recognized one or two. Her shoes were neatly aligned along shelves above and below her hanging business attire. He shut the door and looked behind him at the drawer that he had emptied of chocolates and other expired junk food. He decided he should help her restock it sometime.
He resolved not to intrude on her underwear drawer. Some things were best left to the imagination, he thought. Or to exploring with permission.
He saw her Chanel body lotion on her vanity table and picked it up, inspecting the bottle as he walked into her bathroom, which was enormous!
He opened the lid on the lotion to smell it as he looked around the room. He sat on the edge of the tub and noticed the cordless phone on a rug on the floor. He picked it up and placed it onto its stand. He inspected her bath products - the shampoo and shaving cream, the loofah and facial scrub. It all smells like her. He could finally put an image to the myriad of scents that radiated off of her all at once and shot through his nose to his heart.
He smiled when he saw the detachable sprayer. He had teased her about it when she'd told Mr. Sheffield about her renovations. He found himself wondering whether she had pleasured herself with it. He snapped the lid of the lotion closed and got up from the tub to return to his duties before this daydream could get the better of him.
He looked at his wristwatch and noticed she should have been back by then. She should have been back almost an hour ago! How long had he been exploring?
He checked on the stew and the potatoes in the oven. They were just about ready. He turned off the stove and oven and turned on the warm drawers just in case the meal would cool before she got back. He placed the stew into a serving dish with the potatoes and placed the dish in the warm-drawer before setting a bottle of wine on the table.
***cccccccccc***
Damon and CC made their way back to her place much later than she had planned.
"I didn't realize you had arranged so much activity for our day!" She smiled. He walked her up to her apartment and waited as she unlocked the door.
"Thanks for the lovely time," she said.
"Pleasure. Oh I'm so exhausted! I wish I could just stay here with you all night." He said, yawning. She knew what he was trying to hint at. She didn't enjoy his passive manipulation. She could see right through it and wished he knew she was smarter than that. It was almost condescending.
She opened the door and saw Niles, fast asleep across her sofa. She quickly pulled the door shut and turned to Damon. She didn't want to upset him by having another man asleep in her home.
"I'm exhausted too, I'm afraid. I need an early night. This day seems to have worn me out."
He looked annoyed.
"If I had known we'd be out so long I would have prepared my work for tomorrow. You've set me back, darling. Too bad I have to catch up now otherwise I would surely invite you in."
She wanted to remind him she had already done what he'd wanted by spending all day with him. She wanted him to feel guilty about expecting more of her time. It seemed to work.
He pulled her into a kiss. "Next time. It's going to be amazing." He kissed her again. There he goes again, assuming he'll get what he wants. Amazing for whom? He's on an ego trip!
He kissed her deeply, probably taking one last shot at getting her in the mood. He must not yet have realised CC was a stubborn woman. She greeted him once more and he walked off. As he stood, waving pathetically from the elevator with puppy dog eyes, she realized she couldn't leave it like this.
She ran to him and he held the elevator doors open as he heard her call out his name.
"Change your mind, my darling?" He grinned.
"Damon, I've been thinking about us a lot these past few days..." Lies. She often forgot he existed.
His face lit up and he reached out to hold the elevator door as it had started to close. "I have too, Miss Babcock," he winked.
She grimaced, knowing he had called her that only because she had found it a turn-on the last time. She was irritated that he went straight for the intimate memory.
"Um. I think that it would be wrong for you and I to continue doing this."
She could tell he hadn't been expecting that. CC always went straight for the balls.
"I don't follow."
"I'm sure you've noticed that our nights have been ending short of what you'd hope would happen. I'm not sure why but I just can't bring myself to... I mean on paper, you're perfect! But I don't know..."
"You're not attracted to me?"
"No, you're very handsome. You're an attractive man. Women would probably think I'm mad to be doing this but there's just something missing between us. A spark or..." She looked at him hoping he would be able to help supply some sort of explanation why she felt this way.
"Women would think you're mad to be doing what exactly? Are you breaking up with me?"
She winced. "I don't want you to be angry or to take this out on Maxwell and the show. I still want it to be a success and I'm sure you do as well?"
He nodded. "Well, then. CC, I suppose I'd be lying if I didn't say this was somewhat inevitable. You did seem a little uninterested on some occasions. I just didn't think it would be happening this soon. I was hoping to get to opening night at least."
"Is that your euphemism for having your way with me?" She smirked.
He winked. "If only we had that thing you think is missing. You read me so well." He laughed and reached out for her hand, taking it to his lips.
"The show must go on!" He said confidently. "If I can't have you, at least promise me a hit?"
"Of course!" She grinned and then added, "We're talking about the show of course?"
He nodded, laughing. "And perhaps that nanny's phone number?"
CC sure was glad she had broken up with this one. "With pleasure. I'll see you around the theatre this week. I'll give it to you then."
He made a gun gesture with his hand and winked. "See you, babe."
She waited until the elevator doors had closed and then she quickly but quietly open the door to her apartment once more.