She was granted access, and she drove through the grounds and up a hill toward the house. The main house itself was a massive mansion; much bigger than she had anticipated, and she wondered for a moment if Keisha had gotten the square footage right when she pulled her car up to the front of the structure.
The landscaping around her made it seem as if she was in a park. She smiled to herself in excitement and went to the door. It was answered by a housekeeper, who showed her through the elegant foyer into a sitting room. The housekeeper offered her a beverage, and she asked for water.
The housekeeper came back in with the water, and a couple of minutes after that, a tall beautiful blonde woman walked into the room with a big smile on her face, and came straight toward Naomi.
“Hi! I’m Jen.” She held her hand out.
Naomi almost dropped her glass of water. She stood up and everything inside her twisted in chaos. “Jennifer… Jennifer Jones,” she said quietly. She wished that she had gotten the full name of the client from Keisha. Vertigo hit her hard and she reached her hand out to the sofa to steady herself at the same time that Jen reached her hand out to hold Naomi’s shoulders.
“Are you all right? Do you want to sit back down? I’m like that too, when I stand up too fast I get a little light headed.” She smiled at Naomi, and Naomi felt certain that she was going to vomit. Not being able to do much else, she sat back down and Jen sat in a chair across from her, smiling widely and shining like the morning sun.
“Thank you for coming by so fast. I didn’t think I could get you here this quickly, but I’m really glad that you came so soon. I was at a friend’s house last night and he told me that you did his place. Scott Thompson. Oh! His place is gorgeous! I love it! I asked him who he had do the interior design and he told me it was you. I just loved every single room.
You do such good work. I just have to have you redesign this place. I haven’t had it done since I moved in. I’ve been far too busy. I went on a world tour doing concerts all over the place, and I’ll be honest: I haven’t even really spent much time here at all. So, now that I have some free time coming up, I’m really intent on changing everything here, and getting it all redone, and you are the perfect person to do that for me! We have such similar tastes in everything! Almost exactly the same taste!” Jen was as excited about the job as Keisha was.
Naomi stared at her. They did have exactly the same taste. Especially in men, she thought to herself. She wished with everything in her that Jen was somebody else. Anybody else. She wanted to scream and run out of the door; she wanted to tell Jen off, and then tell Scott off again. She wanted to never have to look at that beautiful blonde woman in front of her again for the rest of her whole life. She couldn’t do any of those things. She sat there, staring at Jennifer Jones, and she realized with a sickening twist of her stomach, that Jen had no idea that Scott was Naomi’s lover. What was more, neither she nor Scott knew that his baby was growing in her belly.
Naomi knew that there was no way that she could take the job. There was no way that she could be in Jennifer Jones’ house, redecorating it and being around her, knowing that she was Scott’s girlfriend. She just couldn’t do it, and even the thought of it made her shudder with nausea.
At the same time, she also knew that taking the job was probably the only way that she was going to save her business and have the opportunity to buy the building. There would be no other job, or even collection of jobs in the coming month, that would pay her even half of the money that Jennifer Jones’ job would pay her. There was no alternative; not if she wanted to save her business and keep the location that she had had for so long.
“Are you feeling any better?” Jen asked her with concern. “I thought we could walk through the house so that I can show you the rooms and we’ll talk about what I’d like to do with each one. What do you think? Would that work?” She stood up, and waited with a smile for Naomi.
Naomi didn’t want to stand up. She didn’t want to do anything but bolt from the house like lightning, and get away from Jennifer Jones as fast as she could, but her feet felt like they were held to the floor below her like they were sealed in cement.
She couldn’t go anywhere. She was going to have to make the sacrifice of her life and stay in Jennifer’s house and follow Jennifer around to all of the rooms, and talk about designing the entire place, so that she could make the money that she had to have to save her business.
She stood up slowly. “I’m fine,” she lied. She knew that she should try to smile and be polite and friendly with Jennifer, but she just couldn’t manage it. She felt as nauseated as she had when Jennifer walked into the room.
“Wonderful! Well, it’s a big house, so we have a lot to see. Do you want to make notes as we go, or something?” Jen asked, looking over her shoulder at Naomi.
Naomi nodded mechanically. She pulled her phone out and slid the electric pen from it, ready to take notes as they moved from one room to the next. Jen took her time talking about each room and what she wanted to do with it as far as a design update. She specified different colors and styles, and Naomi tried to offer suggestions, just to keep her mind on designs rather than on the fact that she was in her lover’s girlfriend’s house.
She offered suggestions as she went along, and they both discovered very soon that they did have very similar tastes. It made Naomi sick to her stomach, but Jen was delighted with the fact, and she began to act as if she trusted Naomi even more.
They went through all of the rooms on the first floor, and then made their way to the second floor, going over all of it before heading down to the basement. There was another full house in the basement, as well as a recreation area, and a movie theatre.
By the time they finished with the guest house, which was behind the main house and two swimming pools, a tennis court, a putting green, and a large stunning European garden, Naomi was nearly worn out. Jennifer asked her to stay for lunch to finish talking about the work that Naomi would be doing, and although she didn’t want to share a meal with Jen, she knew she did have an obligation to wrap up the details of the work she was doing on the properties.
They went to the kitchen and sat together in a breakfast alcove. Jen’s personal chef prepared salmon and salads for them, and Jen offered Naomi chilled white wine with lunch, but Naomi turned it down. She had a baby to think of, she reminded herself.
Jen poured herself a glass of wine, and smiled as she took a sip of it and set it down. “You know, you and I are so similar. It’s really uncanny. There’s so much about us that’s alike that it makes me feel like I’ve known you for much longer than just today. I feel like I can trust you. I feel like you’re a real genuine person, and I’ll be honest… for me, that’s hard to come by.”
“I’m sure it must be,” Naomi answered quietly. She was wishing that Scott was as genuine as she and Jen were.
“I’m really glad that you’re going to be working on the house for me. It’s my home… or it’s supposed to be, anyway. I’m gone a lot, but I do want to change that. I’d rather be around here more often. In fact, since I got back from the world tour I started working on a project that’s really close to my heart. I’m doing a special cha
rity project with a couple of other musicians for kids with cancer.
We’re compiling and album and releasing it, and all of the money that it earns will go to cancer research, education, and prevention, and also as financial aid for families with kids who have cancer, but who are economically disadvantaged. That should be out soon.
We all, that is, the other artists and I, decided to do free concerts at the children’s hospitals in their cancer wards, so that the kids can hear the music in person and see us. That’s really important to us, too.” She smiled and touched her hand to her heart.
“It means a lot to me to do this work. My little brother had cancer and this way I feel like I’m giving back to the whole cancer community for taking such good care of him.” She wiped a tear from her eye and gave Naomi a weak smile.
Naomi’s stomach felt as if it had turned to stone. “Did your brother heal from his cancer?” she asked, almost not wanting to know the answer.
Jen shook her head. “No, he didn’t,” she said quietly. “That’s why this work is so important to me.” She took a big gulp of her wine. “Anyway, it’ll keep me around Los Angeles a lot more often, which is something I really want, so that’s good too. And now, with the redesign project on the house, you and I will be busy working together all of the time. That’ll keep me busy, too, which is good. I’ve got to keep myself busy. I want to keep my mind on all of the good things that I can.”