Another chapter is up, hope you enjoy it!

Christine awoke the next morning in her bed, still exhausted from the party last night. She and Meg left late, dancing the night away just the two of them. After a couple of glasses of wine, Madame Giry had joined them in as well. What a night!

She arose from her bed, suddenly feeling a headache coming. Her hands were at her temples and she looked for the nearest glass of water by her bedside table. Just how long had she stayed at that party and how much did she and Meg drink?

Nonetheless, she had a plan for today. One, breakfast and shower. Two, she had to let Raoul know about the job offer.

Even though she wanted to refuse, the money would do her good. She could pay Meg back for the dress and all of her other outstanding bills. Combining this with her university classes sure seemed overkill, but it was possible. She'd just have no time remaining for her usual Netflix series late at night in bed.

Christine walked to the bathroom and took out her phone on the way. She clicked on Raoul's profile photo and started a chat conversation:

Christine: 'Hey, it's me! Christine from the party yesterday. I'm not sure if you're up yet, but I wanted to let you know that I'm willing to take the job you offered me last night. Thanks again!'

She washed her face and combed her hair slightly, smoothening out the tangled and messy hair as a result of yesterday and her short night's sleep. Earlier than expected, she heard her phone chime notification sound.

Raoul: 'Little Lotte! How glad am I to hear from you! Did you have a good night yesterday? I will let the managers know immediately. Expect to hear from them soon!'

Little Lotte... she cringed at the old name, but it was sweet in a way. Her old memories came flooding back, remembering the old times. Way back when her father could still carry her on piggyback. Way back when he played her beautiful violin music to sleep. And later, when he promised her that an Angel of Music would come to protect her.

If that Angel of Music is her pile of music theory books from university she wasn't impressed in the slightest. That was a very expensive Angel.

When she was done in the bathroom, she headed over to the communal kitchen. No sign of Meg yet. She must be sleeping in today.

While preparing breakfast, Christine made sure to be extra quiet so she wouldn't accidentally wake up her friend from her beauty sleep. She prepared some toast with scrambled eggs and some tea. A good start to a new year, she thought.

She thought back to the previous night, not remembering as much as she would have liked. Arriving at the ballroom, talking with Raoul, eventually dancing with him… and the mystery man.

It was still so odd that he had left her at midnight in such a rush. Without even giving her a name or any kind of hint as to who he was. The fact that she also did not see him anymore later that night was even weirder.

Did he not like her?

Or was she overthinking this? It was just a random man. A very handsome man… And he smelled so good…

As she took a sip from her tea, dreaming away, her phone went off. Panic settled in at the loud sound as she tried to cover it up, only failing miserably. She picked up instead.

"Y-Yes? Christine Daaé speaking."

"Christine! It's Richard Firmin, one of the managers of the Webber Opera House. Monsieur de Changy has told us about your interest in working here at the opera?"

Yes, in becoming a professional opera singer.

"That's right, for the cleaner position."

"Marvelous!" the kind man on the other end of the phone line seemed to talk to another person for a short time, asking about something. Christine couldn't make out what they were talking about. Then, he came closer to the phone to talk to Christine again, "Forgive me for being so bold, miss Daaé, but I was wondering if you are ready to start your first shift today already?"

She was stunned. That was quick.

"Y-Yes of course, at what time?"

"Uhm, as soon as possible. Now?"

Well, that's quite bold. But there was no going back now. She had to make a good impression and she might even get to meet them to introduce herself. See it as an incredible opportunity, Christine.

Her short silence was noticed by Richard so he took the opportunity to explain, "See, our other cleaners have all taken a day off because of apparent 'illness'. How convenient, on January 1st don't you think?" he laughed awkwardly, "that's the only reason."

She heard some accusive murmurs in the background of the other line, and they seemed to go on for quite a bit until Christine decided to interrupt them, "Monsieur Firmin! Yes, I can be there in about an hour. Does that work for you both?"

"Oh, yes dear! Great news, thank you for coming in on such short notice. We will await you at the entrance of the opera."

They both said their goodbyes and Christine hurriedly ate her breakfast.

She slapped on some clothes. Formal, but easygoing. She wanted to look presentable, but also not over-the-top, as she probably would be cleaning up the insides of the enormous building all day.

She wore a dark-brown turtleneck along with light brown pants and a brown belt. On top of that, her usual beige coat would keep her warm on the way to her new job.

Christine hurried out the door and caught the bus towards the opera just in time. She sent a short message to Meg about the news and that she'd be away for the next couple of hours.

As she arrived at the opera, she didn't see anyone standing outside of the building. It also looked a lot grimmer than yesterday without all the lights, music and excitement from the crowd. It was a gloomy, grey day and all the colours in the building looked washed out. As if all the liveliness had been sucked out of it. What a dark thought. At least its architecture was incredibly stunning, no matter what.

She walked inside, slightly insecure as to where to go. It was so quiet compared to yesterday. There were no other people or crowds to help her guide her in the correct direction. A bit further down the entrance, she saw two men talking. One seemed incredibly nervous, while the other fumbled around with some money in his hands, looking incredibly pleased. As she approached the pair, the happier-looking man immediately put his money somewhere in his back pocket, while the other still kept a tint of nervousness on his face.

"Miss Daaé!" the first one said.

Christine smiled at them and stuck out her hand to him, "Hello! You must be Richard Firmin."

"Correct! Pleased to meet you, Miss Daaé."

"Oh, please, call me Christine."

The other man also joined in, "Welcome, Christine, I'm so glad to have you here with us. I'm Gilles Andre, the other manager of the opera house."

She shook his hand as well. They started leading her towards another room.

"Now that you're here, we should give you a small tour of your new workspace. Which is, well, the entire opera, to be frank," Richard Firmin said, "but, have no fear. The other cleaners should be joining you in a few days. Today is an exception... and tomorrow."

She looked up in surprise. Oh, guess she had to work tomorrow as well.

Gilles continued, "You see, we had a masquerade ball yesterday for New Year's and we need the place presentable before the next performance tomorrow evening."

They walked into the ballroom and she saw the party's aftermath.

Oh. Boy.

"Oh! Yes, my friend Meg Giry invited me to the ball as well. It was a great party, monsieurs." she said, trying to stop staring at the mess in front of her.

"Ah, that's right! Our patron has mentioned that," Firmin said, as he continued guiding her towards a back room, "you will be needing all sorts of cleaning equipment, or gear? Outfits? I'm not sure what's all in there, but there is a special closet here containing anything you'll need for cleaning up the opera house."

Firmin handed her a key for the maintenance closet in front of her and they gestured for her to open it. As she was attempting to open the door, she heard Gilles say something along the lines of 'Gear? You must be joking, Firmin. You sound ridiculous' and 'Oh, hold your tongue, Andre. You don't know any better either'. They would have continued on ranting, but Christine stopped them by opening the door and entering it slowly, searching for the light. It... was just a maintenance room. It had anything that was needed to clean up a place, only slightly fancier than what she had back at her house. And she had the bare minimum to work with at home.

She turned around to face the two men. Gilles spoke, "So, we're going to need to ask you to clean up the ballroom today, as well as the entrance. Tomorrow you should clean up the auditorium and guest facilities-"

"Like the bathrooms and the bar." Richard cut in.

Christine nodded, "No problem. I can do that."

"Marvelous! Well, I'm sorry Christine we have to let you go so early but we have a brunch with some... investors. And we shan't be late, am I right, Andre?"

"C-Correct. If there is anything, please do give us a call. You have our numbers," they both turned to head off, but Gilles Andre turned around for one last question, "are you going to be okay by yourself for now?"

Christine was slightly concerned, "T-There's no one else at the opera currently?"

"As far as we are concerned, no."

Christine's concern did not fade with that comment. In fact, it only made it worse. She was terrified at the thought of being alone in such a big place. She didn't even know the way here yet, what if she got lost in some alley? And there's no signal there to call for help? Oh lord, she was overthinking this. She nodded to the two men and quickly said her goodbyes.

The men walked off, and she took note of where they were headed, so she would know later on where the exit was.

As they disappeared, reality snapped in, "Okay, Christine. Just you, alone at a historic opera house. Nothing weird, nothing creepy. You just need to do your job."

She took out the necessary supplies, which were a broom, gloves and trash bags for now, so she could pick up all the trash lying on the ground in the ballroom.

It was a nasty task, as some drinks hadn't been finished and she heard all the liquid pouring inside of the bag, rummaging around the other items. It also took quite a long time for her, and she used up at least four trash bags to fill up only half of what was laying on the ground. What was on top of the bar and other surfaces was still to be cleaned up.

She filled up another bag and made her way down to the maintenance room, where she could dispose of the bags in separate containers. Once in the maintenance room, she heard a noise. She had gotten quite used to the quietness from before, so hearing something else sent shivers down her spine.

Christine crept closer to the door leading towards the hallway, careful not to make a sound herself. She heard footsteps, and they were awfully close! Did someone come to rob them? Is it a homeless person looking for a place to sleep, or something to eat? Either way, knowing she was supposed to be alone didn't help. Her phone was in the ballroom, playing some music as she cleaned there. So there wasn't anyone she could ask for help at this moment.

She held in a breath and stepped outside, looking for the intruder. There was no one. She walked slowly towards the ballroom, attempting to get out of that hallway as soon as possible.

As she was looking around carefully, she did not see the figure walking into her from around the corner of the ballroom area.

"Whoa, watch where you are going."

The figure had a voice. She recognised that voice! She looked up...

Ugh. It's him.

"Well same to you! You scared me, I thought I was supposed to be alone." Christine said as she backed off from him.

"Well, you are not, as you can clearly see." Erik made a gesture when he said that and brushed past her to... keep doing whatever he was doing there.

Christine's thoughts from the day before came rushing back. When this... insolent man had taken that cab right in front of her. 'It's time to stand up for yourself, Christine, you know it's what father always told you to do' she thought to herself.

"You know, Erik," when she mentioned his name, he turned around, curious as to how she knew, "it's not very gentlemanly to steal someone's cab, especially if you need to push that someone out of the way for you to steal it. Even if you were in a hurry, it's honestly just rude!"

He scoffed, looking down amused at his shoes, "You still hung up on that?"

She tried to ignore that comment and straightened her back, looking straight at him, "I want you to apologize to me. Maybe then I'll forgive you and I won't bring it up again."

He slowly walked towards her after her comment, "You're quite confrontational, are you?"

She kept her posture straight, not losing eye contact with him. Those golden eyes made it incredibly hard for her to focus. He continued, "Do I look like I'm intent on apologizing?"

He was now close enough for her to see the strains and the dark bags that hadn't been there during their previous meeting, she saw how incredibly tired he must be.

"There's no valid excuse to not be polite to others."

With that, she walked off towards the ballroom. Still, a bit shaken from the confrontation, the only thought in her head was to keep on working.

However, in all the hassle she forgot to bring a new trash bag with her to clean up. She had to return to the maintenance closet.

As Christine stood in the hallway again, she saw him fixing something opposite the maintenance room. It looked like it was a fuse box.

She walked towards the maintenance door and quickly glimpsed at him, catching quick eye contact. She quickly looked at something else, not wanting to see him again after the last interaction. Christine put her hand on the doorknob and noticed it wouldn't budge. The door must have closed itself, or he closed it. She wasn't sure, but she was certain that her key was inside the maintenance room.

Christine groaned as she tried to open it. After a while, Erik turned around, confused by the sounds she was making.

"Having some trouble?"

"N-No." she lied.

"Do you need some help?"

She let go of the doorknob and slightly turned towards him, "Preferably not from you."

He closed the fuse box and set down the things he was working with and walked towards Christine, "Sorry, but you are stuck with me, sweetheart."

Erik took out a large keychain containing different keys from his pocket, each one of them opening a different door from the opera, she assumed. He found the correct one in a short time, but the door seemed to be slightly stuck. With a bit more force, he managed to loosen it and it slammed open.

"Ah, there you go."

She made her way inside, took a quick look at his face and said, "Thank you..."

Christine grabbed her key first and put it in her back pocket, as well as another trash bag she could use to finish up the cleaning.

"How do you know my name?"

She turned around and saw him still standing in the same position as before.

"I have my sources."

"Who told you?" his voice sounded a bit more demanding. She wasn't sure if she should attempt to walk out of the closet now with him standing at the entrance.

"Look, I'm not going to tell you. But I know people that work at this opera. I know you are the owner of all this," she walked a bit closer, hoping he'd make way, "but that doesn't mean you will get any special treatment from me."

He looked rather taken aback. How much did she know about him? "I don't require any kind of treatment from you."

Christine now stood in front of him, gesturing with her eyes for him to move. So he did.

She just continued working and cleaning up the ballroom. When she returned to throw the trash away, he was long gone.

Her shift was over and the entirety of the ballroom was clean. It took her an incredibly long time and she was exhausted from all the heavy work. Not necessarily a great start to the year, but hey at least she will get paid. As she walked outside, ready to grab the next bus, she saw Raoul waiting outside. He clearly talked to the managers and asked them when she'd be finished with her shift. She wasn't sure if she should be flattered or creeped out, to be honest. Ah, what is she thinking? It's Raoul. She should be flattered.

"Christine! Fancy seeing you here."

She laughed slightly, "Raoul, what are you doing here?"

"Well actually, I came to wait in the cold here to uhm... ask if you wanted to join me for dinner somewhere this week?"

Christine was definitely flattered. Ah, but how could she ever refuse? Not only do they have too long of a history together, but he also secured her a job at the Webber Opera House last night. She was also not appalled by him either, it might be worth a try.

"Y-Yes, that sounds wonderful."

"Great! Will I see you on Saturday, perhaps?"

She nodded and gave him a slight smile.

Her first day into the new year and she had already scored a date! Meg is going to lose her mind over this.