Single Daddy

Alice was amazed to observe the wide and beautiful grounds of the large house she entered. It was one of the most beautiful houses he had ever seen in his entire life. He has had a lot of jobs, but this house is even more unique that it looks like a kingdom in its breadth and size. He never thought that he would enter such a big house. This is the beginning of Alice Domingo's work. The 25-year-old girl who came from the province of Samar.

"I've been calling you mom, you've been dumbfounded by that." A voice spoke from behind Alice.

Alice turned behind her and only then did she realize that there was someone behind her.

"Oh! I'm sorry and I was just entertained by the beautiful environment. It's like I'm in a fairy tail because of the beauty of the place." He apologized to the lady.

She was playing in her sixties, wearing a maid's uniform. At his age he still has eyebrows and thick lipstick. Based on the appearance, it looks like a grumpy butler.

"Are you Alice? Criselda's niece?" he asked, referring to my aunt who recommended me for the new job.

"Yes, I am Alice Singson. I will take care of the child. Are you Ma'am Ester?"

"You can just call me Sister Ester, because we both just enter here. Come inside and I will show you where your room will be.

From the outside to the inside, I am still in awe of the house's beauty and grandeur.

"This house is really beautiful. How many people clean here?" I wondered, I don't think one or two helpers can handle cleaning the size of the house.

"There are five maids here, but each one has their own job. You're only job is to take care of the children, so don't neglect your job because that's the most important job here. To take care of the only child of our boss. I will teach you some things to remember because if you make a mistake you can be fired immediately. Our boss does not give second chances, nor does he accept any excuses.

I nodded at Ate Ester's words. The work is so demanding that's why the salary is so high. That's why I didn't hesitate to go to work even though I would be far away from my brothers. That was because of the triple salary my aunt offered me so I grabbed the job right away.

Manang Ester and I entered a room. The bed was cozy and alone.

"This will be your room. You also have uniforms in the cabinet. Leave your things there first and we will go to the room of the child you will be taking care of.

I put in the bag I was carrying and quickly followed Sister Ester.

On the second floor of the house we entered the room which was also near the staircase. Opening the door, I immediately heard the cry of a child. So Ate Ester was confused and entered the room.

"What happened, Aiza?" Ate Ester asked another maid who was taking care of the child.

I think this is what I will change at work. Because my aunt said that the caretaker is leaving because of family problems.

"He doesn't want to take a bath, it's already noon."

"Oh, if you don't want to take a bath, let it go first. Maybe if we kick the child, he will cry and our boss will scold us again!" Ate Ester said to Aiza.

"He didn't take a bath until yesterday. I just wiped it so he wouldn't smell."

"Leave it alone, and crying might make it worse. It turns out that this is Alice who will replace you. This will introduce me to Aiza.

"Good luck, Alice. I hope you can keep this boy for a long time." Aiza welcomed me strangely, she seemed to have a strange reason why she was leaving work. But whatever that reason is, I can handle it, for my brothers and sisters who depend on me.

"What are you talking about, Aiza?" Ate Ester wondered.

"Nothing, I'm just wishing him good luck."

"Oh come on, I'll leave you for now. Explain to Alice what she will do. And the rules and regulations too. I'm just going to do something downstairs and I'm hiring an electrician to work in the kitchen. Alice, it's up to you to take care of this." Ate Ester encouraged me.

"Okay, thank you Sister Ester."

Aiza and I were left inside. The child has calmed down a bit because he is playing with the tablet. Maybe it was still playing, Aiza immediately insisted on taking a bath.

"Hi, I'm Alice Singson, I'm from Samar. You?" I asked.

"Aiza Lavides, from Quezon Province."

"Ahm... why are you leaving work? Is it hard to take care of..." I pointed to the child because I didn't know his name yet.

"Kenny, his name is Kenny. I have only been working here for about two months. And yes, the work is really hard. This child is very dumb, and because he is so dumb, it is difficult to take care of him. If it wasn't for this daddy, I wouldn't have lasted long in this job."

"Huh? W-what do you mean?"

It smiled as if showing me that there was something about our man.

"You will also know that when you meet his Daddy. Before I forget, here are Kenny's daily schedules. And the rules and regulations in this house." He handed me the folder. I opened it right away and read what was written so that I would know what to do and I could also ask if there was anything I didn't know.

"It turns out there is a long time... about this in the rules and regulations, why is there a time for sleeping? What if sleepiness hasn't visited me yet? Is this serious, 8pm should be asleep?"

"Yes. At first those rules were really unbelievable. Because there is time for sleep too? Maybe Sir is really strict with the helpers, so maybe his wife looked for another man, because he is too strict in everything." Aiza said.

"Huh? Are his parents divorced?" I asked in shock.

I felt sorry for the boy in front of me. At a young age, he experienced being separated from his parents immediately. I remembered my parents, they were together but they didn't care about the children.

"That's why this child is really pitiful. Even if whatever wealth surrounded him was still lacking, because he was deprived of a complete family." Aiza added.

I approached the boy and stroked his hair. It looked at me, but only for a moment and it was busy playing.

"I'll be the one to bathe him, so he can get used to me being with him."

"Okay, that's a good idea so I can rest before I leave tomorrow."

I'm used to taking care of children because I took care of my siblings and I almost became their mother. Now I know how pitiful this child is.

It's my first night at work and I'm still barely alive. I can't sleep but because of those rules and regulations I'm not allowed to go out to get some air. I stood up and looked out the window. The night is very quiet and I think everyone is asleep. Maybe no one will see me if I go out to get some fresh air.

I slowly left the room. I went through the kitchen so no one would see me coming out. I headed outside near the pool. I sat in the hammock that stood near the pool. The moon is round, that's why the surroundings are so bright. The scent of the breeze. I was facing the pool but I was staring at the sky. I could hear the rustling of the leaves being slightly blown by the wind. Out of nowhere, a head suddenly appeared from the pool right in front of me. I almost screamed in fear, but when I looked, a person appeared there. It rose from the pool and my two eyes could clearly see its entire body. A muscular body appeared before me. My eyes widened when I saw his abs on his stomach. I didn't look at his face anymore but I knew it was a man. So I quickly turned around and was about to leave but suddenly he spoke.

"Stop! Who are you?!"

I stayed back, biting my lip unable to speak. I was upset when he reported me to my boss that I was still out there. I will definitely be fired soon.

"I said who are you? Why are you here at the pool?!" His voice sounded a little scary because he seemed angry at the question.

"I'm sorry if I bothered you in the shower. I'm just venting because I can't sleep. Please don't report me, we're just the same outside. If you think I'm peeking at you, that's where you're wrong because I don't know you're there." Come on, why am I explaining? He is the one who should be afraid because he is bathing in the pool. Maybe it's a gardener or a house boy. But why is her body so beautiful?

I can feel it rising in the pool. He walked closer to me, but I still didn't face him because I didn't want him to see my face.

Maybe in the darkness around him he didn't see my face right away. That's why this is my chance to run. I could have easily denied going out because he didn't know me. I was about to run, but it seemed to predict what I would do.

"I'm warning you! Don't run or else I will call the cop!" he threatened.THE NEXT DAY there was talk in the kitchen about what happened last night. I was silent while listening to their conversation.

"Who is the strong woman who hit Sir in the face? What happened to him was so bad that he has a scratch on his cheek. Aling Lita said. The cook in the kitchen. It's also quite old that's why it talks like that.

I almost choked on what I heard. I didn't think it was our male boss who was in the pool. I made a big mistake. Why would I think that a gardener or houseboy would be able to swim at such a time? Why didn't I immediately think that this could be our boss? Because of my nervousness last night, I scratched it on my face. This is the only way for me to escape. I got that style in self defense for people who always try to attack me. After it stopped me from running, you grabbed me by the shoulder, so I used it as self defense to escape. When I had the chance to run away I did. I couldn't sleep all night because of what happened, that's why I'm still shaking.

"I don't know, no one dares to go out at night and we all know here at home that we have rules to follow." Sister Ester replied.

Ate Ester is older than Aling Lita. This is the only thing he wants to call her instead of manang is sister.

"Is it you, mother? didn't you go out last night? Maybe you just missed to read our regulation here at home?" he asked me.

"Oh no, I didn't go out. And then I read everything in the folder. That's why I can't forget the rules of the house.

"That's her, Aling Lita and Ate Ester. Alice read it yesterday and that one was the first question she asked me right away. So it is impossible that Sir Kinly saw Alice in the pool. Maybe what Sir saw was the child of the workers out there that Sir always fantasized about. And because they knew that sir was taking a bath at that time, they even managed to get a bososan. Oh my, those flirtatious caterpillars will do anything just to be noticed by sir. They didn't look like me. "Aiza said as if she was still thrilled to admit that she also has an admiration for our man.

"Oh, Aiza. You just leave and you still get to talk like that to our boss. Maybe that's why you're leaving because you can't accept that our sir doesn't notice you." Aling Lita joked with a laugh at the last word.

"No, I'm leaving because we really have a problem." He refused.

"Where are Karen and Jane? Won't they eat?" Aling Lita said differently.

"I ordered Jane to go shopping. Karen was in the garden, watering the plants. Just eat them when the work is done. You know those two who are used to only drinking coffee in the morning. Sister Ester said that she was referring to the other two helpers. I will tell Mang Roben to check the gates at night before resting. Maybe an outsider really got in last night. Last week I noticed that there was a peeping tom outside the gate and sometimes they even joined their fathers when they were working outside. There is no need to hang out here so I will tell them that it is not allowed to bring children or spouses. Sir almost ruined what happened last night so we should all be careful."

"Why have you been so quiet, Alice? A while ago I noticed that you were not silent. " Aiza asked suddenly.

"Huh? Ahh ehh... because what, I don't know what you're talking about yet so I don't know what to say.

"It's her, Aiza. Why would you imitate Alice? And sometimes you can hear your chatter. Ha-ha-ha." Aling Lita answered again.

"Oh he's fine, I'll leave first and pay our bills here at home. You will take care of this first. Aiza, you're leaving later, aren't you? Tell Alice first about going to Kenny's doctor. For the next one he already knows.

Aiza frowned at Ate Ester's order.

"Hey, I still thought that I won't do anything because I'm leaving. This is really Ate Ester o, she loves me so much that she is my favorite servant." Aiza grumbled.

"Not anymore, Aiza. It's up to me to go to Kenny's doctor. The driver probably knows where Kenny's doctor's clinic is." I shyly refused Aiza. He was right, he must be resting because his work was done for the day.

"It's just a joke Alice, Ate Ester and I really joked about that. We are like this in this house, we are like brothers, mother or grandmother." Aiza said laughing.

"Well, which grandmother are you talking about, Aiza?" Ate Ester's eyes widened.

"No... come on, Alice. We have to wake up Kenny and maybe have lunch." Aiza laughed and pulled me.

Just yesterday we were together and it was like we were very close right away.

"Why does Kenny check up with his doctor monthly?" I wondered as we walked.

"Because Sir thinks that the child might have a trauma due to the separation of their husband and wife. So monthly we take Kenny to his doctor for a check up.

I nodded at Aiza's explanation. He was right, Kenny really should be looked at. The rich are really different, because like us poor people, we are aware of our parents arguing in front of us, I remember when my father was very drunk and my mother lost in gambling. They argued because Mom was asking Dad for money, but he couldn't give any because he had already bought alcohol. My siblings used to cry a lot while we were throwing things around the house. We were all in the room and were very afraid that we might get involved in their fight.

.

"Or why are you silent there again, Alice? You know I'm really nervous about your silence. As if you are a very mysterious person." Aiza said to me.

"Huh? No, I just remembered my brothers and sisters. I miss them immediately."

"Just kidding, what are you doing? Get used to me, because I'm leaving too. I really speak like this, so don't be offended by what I say.

"It's a shame and you're leaving. I feel like you will be my friend in this house. But if it wasn't for your resignation, I wouldn't be here."

"That's ok, you know that in the future we will meet again. Not as working together, but one of being your boss." I was surprised at this.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Sir Kinly's wife in the future. Or am I your boss? Chariz!"

We both laughed happily. It hit our boss so hard that he was daydreaming.

"I thought you were serious about that." I said laughing. A talkative person is really easy to get along with than a quiet one. I feel happy with Aiza. Too bad it's gone.

When we entered Kenny's room, we tried to wake up the sleeping child.

"Kenny, wake up. We're going to your doctor, Doc Alfred.

"I don't want nanny, I don't want to go to the doctor." Kenny was about to cry. It seems like it doesn't want to do anything, except play with the tablet.

"We can't not go, Kenny. Because your Daddy might be angry with me. Doc Alfred is kind isn't he? He's still talking to you."

"I don't want, I don't want! I only drink medicine here at home. I like Daddy."

Aiza sighed. It's really hard to please children so magic words must be used.

"Ahmmmm... Kenny, I'm Alice your new nanny. We can be friends. Do you want to go for a walk outside? We will buy a wolf." I tried to tame Kenny. I just hope it affects him.

"Wolf? Balloons? I want balloons," he replied.

"In that case, there is one condition. Let's go to your doctor first so he can check you if you are not sick. Then we'll go to town, we'll buy a ballon, is that okay with you?"

"Yes! Yes! Let's go Nanny!" said the boy enthusiastically.

Aiza was impressed by what I did.

"How did you do that? You seem to have a lot of experience in taking care of children, Alice.