The Billionaire and His PA novel Chapter 4

Cassie stared at herself in the smudged mirror. Tired blue eyes stared back at her. The eyeliner and mascara that she had failed to wipe off from the previous night had smeared into a messy blob, making her eye bags appear more gruesome than they actually were. The appearance of her collarbones and cheekbones was heightened by the lack of a proper diet. That and her dainty wrists served as stark evidence of how little and infrequently she ate. Her brown hair hung limply over her shoulder, the tips riddled with split ends. She was in desperate need of a proper salon treatment but that was something she couldn’t afford. The only form of hair treatment she could afford were dollar store hair dye and two-in-one shampoo and conditioner. She was still dressed in yesterday’s clothes – a white sleeveless button-down shirt with sparkly skin-tight pants. Considering the weather, it wasn’t exactly her first choice in fashion but it was the waitress uniform at one of her three jobs - Club Indigo, the nightclub she worked in.

She stole a glance at the heirloom grandfather clock – unarguably one of the most expensive items in the entire house - in the corner. Soon, its piercing ring would announce that it was seven o’clock. Then she would have to trudge across the badly carpeted hallway to the room her siblings shared to wake them up. That was almost a whole day’s effort.-

She padded along the floor in her mismatched socks towards the kitchen. The small space couldn’t really be regarded as a kitchen. It had always been more of a kitchenette. What was left of the doors of the termite-ridden cupboards hung on only by duct tape and the sheer hope from the house’s inhabitants? Yellowing wallpaper had already begun to peel off at the edges. Another thing that was due for a replacement she couldn’t afford to pay for. The appliances present were limited to a gas cooker with two burners, a microwave, and a mini fridge. Back when they were alive and she was still the only child, her parents had bought the mini-fridge themselves with promises of how they would soon get a bigger and better one. They had never gotten around to fulfilling their promise. Still, it was a miracle how the fridge had survived so many years. She had bought the gas cooker by herself after the old one finally gave up the ghost. The second-hand microwave had been her reward for being the employee of the month back when The Bean House was still a more popular coffee shop.

She fluttered around the kitchenette, opening and closing doors as she gathered all that she needed to make breakfast for herself and her siblings. She was just about to crack another egg into a bowl when the grandfather clock chimed, startling her half to death and causing her to drop the egg into the skin. Woefully, she watched as the egg broke on impact and its contents slink into the drain. She gripped the corners of the counter firmly to prevent herself from screaming out in frustration. After she had sufficiently calmed herself down, she padded over to her siblings’ room.

Aaron and Lily were still curled up in their shared beds. She started the process of shaking them awake, remembering to calm herself when they didn’t wake up even after being shaken for ten minutes. Being more than a decade younger than her, they needed sleep way more than she did.

Finally, they woke up, both of them grumbling at having their sleep disturbed on the weekend.

“It’s probably five in the morning.” Aaron groaned as he attempted to cover his eyes with his arm. “Why are you waking us up this early?”

Cassie made a disapproving sound at the back of her throat. “You’re the wrong buddy. It’s already seven. And you better get up or I’m going to eat all of the pancakes.”

At the mention of pancakes, the twins shot up and rubbed the sleep out of their eyes.

“We’re awake!” Lily declared. “Don’t eat all the pancakes. We need them more than you do. We’re still growing.”

Cassie chuckled and drew herself up to her full height. “Well,” She began. “If you do all of your chores super-fast, I will make one, no two, extra pancakes for both of you.”

The two of them needed no further persuasion, zipping around their room to put away clothes and toys. Cassie snuck back into the kitchen and continued the process of making breakfast. Just as she was laying the freshly prepared pancakes out, the twins took their seats at the table.

Lily sighed contentedly as she bit into her pancake. “Do we have whipped cream?’ She asked, her eyes shining in anticipation.