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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

"What am I gonna do now? No one has called, yet! I might not go to college!" I told my friend Nicky in panic as we both lounged on the couch in our shared apartment that late Friday afternoon.

"Why not just apologize to your stepdad? He'll support your college, I'm sure about it." She suggested though lamely.

"Are you fucking kidding me? We both know I'll never step foot in that shitty town of ours again nor will I ever return to Kevin's demented a$s! He'll support my college alright but he’s also going to make a nut job out of me!” I shivered at the thought of my stepfather and his odd behavior and all those sleepless nights I kept one eye close and the other open. “I’m so tired of his crazy bullshits!"

"Well, you should think of something to get yourself out of this dilemma. You know we're both broke and has no plans on going back to where we came from."

"Easy for you to say. You already landed a nice paying job in the restaurant." I couldn’t help the bite of bitterness in my voice.

"I was wondering why you haven't been called, yet. You applied to so many jobs more than I did. Hope they didn’t hear how terrible you are at everything." Nicky giggled.

I pouted at my friend’s bullying. Well, I also actually hoped the jobs I applied to didn’t call my high school to ask about myself. Not that I didn’t do good in class. I wasn’t the brightest though but I managed to be a little more than average, too.

What Nicky was referring to me being terrible was my ability to catch accidents so easily. It’s as if I was doomed to be always in harm’s way. And that’s the reason why I hadn’t tried living life the way I wanted to. I couldn’t go out of the house without getting up close and personal with death. Plus, the fact that I kept dozing off. It seemed that I couldn’t help myself and sleep would always call out to me.

And now it's Friday. If we weren’t so broke, both of us might be out for a drink in a bar and me dodging anything destructive that’d come my way. But we're totally and practically broke and there's just no money to spend. Good thing Nicky already had a job so even without discussing it, she'd be the one to cover the rent for this month for both of us. I promised to pay next time once I also landed a job myself.

As if in afterthought, I stood and marched to the basket resting on the tall table just beside our door. It’s where I and Nicky put our mails and keys. I just remembered I haven’t checked my mails this morning yet.

There were a lot of them I scanned, mostly envelope after envelope about notice of due payments. It made me more desperate with my situation as I shuffled the mails. Until I stopped and stared at one mailing card with my name emblazoned in red capitalized fonts. I quickly tore the envelope with my sudden trembling excited hands. A sudden squeal of delight came out of my mouth after I read the content.

Nicky jumped in startle before dashing towards where I stood and peered over my shoulder to read the mail, too. It was a job acceptance letter from a certain Mr. Ivano Lombardi to become a baby sitter.

“Wow, his name sounds so yummy. French?”

“Italian, silly!” I corrected.

Though I haven’t met the man in person, I did know he’s Italian. I saw his posting of babysitting ad on the internet before during those times I’ve been sending a massive application to any job ads I thought I somehow had a background or something I could do when trained. I barely even remembered making this application because I was a little less interested. One of the requirements posted was that the sitter should at least knew a little of the Italian language or interested to learn. I stated I didn’t know Italian but willing to learn, applied for it, and forgot about it right after I clicked send. And now the acceptance letter surprised me.

“You’ve got to go now,” Nicky spoke behind me while nodding towards the letter.

“What?” I asked in a frown of confusion.

“It said the application will only be open until five o’clock on the sixth of this month. Today is sixth so you only have, what…” Nicki took a glance at her watch before looking back at me. “…three more hours before the slot closes. You have to go now.”

“Shit!” I shuffled with my feet and hurriedly went into our shared bedroom to change.

I’ve had a shower this morning so all I have to do is change into presentable clothes and put on some light makeup. I didn’t think I need to primp up so much, it’s just babysitting job anyway. I went out of the bedroom fifteen minutes after, slinging my shoulder bag before grabbing my keys from the basket near the door.

“Wish me luck!” I said to Nicky in both excitement and nervousness.

“Good luck and be careful, ok?” My friend smiled at me, depicting the same anxiety I felt.

“I will. Thanks. Bye!”

“Bye!” Nicky waved and saw me outside the door before closing it back after I hailed a cab.

After I gave the driver the address printed on the mail sender, I pulled the paper from the envelope once again to read the letter thoroughly. The babysitting required me to stay in during weekdays and allowed me out on weekends starting Friday night and be in the estate Sunday afternoon. Ok, that’s reasonable enough. Amenities, food was free. When my eyes zeroed in on the salary I’d be receiving, my mouth almost reached the floor. Holy shit! It’s huge! Way too huge for this job.

With an extra jolt of excitement and interest, I started searching for the details of the kid I’m about to look over but couldn’t find any. Maybe the parents didn’t want to post anything about their child in the ad and would only be seen and introduced in person. I shrugged and continued reading.

Another of the requirements was also the sitter being legal, single, and not more than twenty-one. My brow arched up on its own volition. Weird. Well, I’m eighteen five months ago so I’m good. Though the sitter wasn’t prohibited to use gadgets around the house minimal usage was encouraged. Not using any at all within the working period would be highly recommended. Huh! I wondered what kind of kid I’d be sitting. He must be a handful if mere texting couldn’t be done around him.

I continued to read but the paper suddenly flew out of my hands when the cab wobbled, the driver cursed before I shrieked mighty loud when my eyes snapped towards the windshield. We’re going to collide with a ten-wheeler truck! Our cab swerved to the left and the truck hit the side of the car at the passenger seat before it bulldozed us towards the gutter. I continued screaming even when I kept hitting my head with the metal interior of the cab. I was dizzy and so damn scared when the cab finally stopped spinning. The heavy labored breathing of the driver made me finally hush down.

“W-what happened?” I stammered through the haze but the driver wasn’t responding. “Hey! Are you alright?”

When he still didn’t answer, I unbuckled my seatbelt and peered over to the driver. He was still conscious with eyes tightly shut while breathing heavily. His forehead was bleeding and he was clutching his chest. Shit! Was he having a heart attack?

I quickly sat back to my seat and rummaged my bag for my phone. I couldn’t find it inside whether of panic or I just really forgot it at the apartment, I wasn’t sure. Shit! Shit! Shit!

“Mister, I need to borrow your phone. I can’t find mine. We need to call an ambulance!”

He raised his free bruised hand that’s not clutching his chest, point finger was trembling and slowly rising towards his compartment. Without wasting any time, I pulled the compartment open and grabbed for his phone and dialed 911.

After I reported the incident, I crammed myself into the passenger seat, careful with the shards of glass that scattered on the seat. I then unbuckled the driver’s seatbelt, unbuttoned his shirt, and even snapping his pants open.

“Don’t worry, mister, help will be coming over soon. Right now, you should calm down, ok?” I reached down to adjust his car seat to give him more space so his legs would somehow stretch a little. “Do you have medicine with your condition? Do you take a prescription? Or are you just having chest pain now because of what happened?”

He didn’t answer and just continued heaving. Damn it! I looked over my shoulder behind the car. The truck that hit us had long been gone. It didn’t even come down to help us. I wasn’t sure which of us was in the wrong. I wasn’t paying attention to driving when we had the accident.

I watched the elder man while I waited for the ambulance. Relief made me groan before I broke into tears when the medic finally arrived. They administered first aid to the driver while they checked for any injury on me. I had cuts and bruises from here and there and a slight lump on my head but I told them I was feeling rather fine despite.

A cruiser also pulled up and took my side of the story. I begged them not to take me to the precinct for a further interview anymore because I’m late for my appointment with Mr. Lombardi. They let me and told me that they’d keep in touch and that to keep my phone close all the time. I nodded to all that, forgetting that I didn’t bring my phone with me.

One of the officers called for another cab so I’d be sent to my destination. It took another thirty minutes before I arrived at Mr. Ivano Lombardi’s residence. The cab pulled up in front of a massive three-story stone house, sitting in the middle of a spacious lawn behind a tall iron gate. Jesus! It’s like looking through the pages of the magazine of luxurious Italian houses. My employer was one hell of a seriously rich person! Unease suddenly crept to my body making my hairs stood up.

Shaking myself out of that unreasonable sensation, I paid the driver, went out of the cab, and stood with a craning neck in front of the house. When I looked around the place, I couldn’t see neighboring houses close by. It seemed that this side of the city was privately owned. By Mr. Ivano Lombardi himself. With trembling hands, I reached for the doorbell and pressed. A static sound made me look up overhead before I heard scratching noise.

“Who’s there?” A male voice resounded from the speaker just above the camera that’s now aimed directly at my face.

“I-it’s me.” I cleared my suddenly dried throat and tried again. “It’s Stella Morris. I received your letter of acceptance on my application for a babysitting job.”

“Oh, Stella.” The voice repeated but it sounded like a moan to me that made me tingle and goosebumps prickled my skin. “Come in. I’ve opened the gate for you.”

I heard a click from the iron gate and concluded that he had a superb security system in his home. “Thank you.”

I stepped into the lawn and closed the heavy iron gate behind me before it clicked locked once again. Curious, I pulled it open again but it didn’t budge anymore. It really was automatic. Cool! I started to walk deeper into the property, my eyes couldn’t seem to take in all the picturesque of the place without having my mouth hanging open. Huge old trees scattered and surrounding the house, covering it with beautiful canopy with their wide strong branches.

The door cracked open once I’m already near the patio. A tall, about six feet-five-foot man was waiting for me by the entrance of the house, chest so massive and muscled. My eyes didn’t go anywhere else but to his face. My hand flew to catch my heart when I felt it beat so damn erratic all of a sudden. He’s so young, I doubt if he’d reached thirty by the way he looked. And damn! He looked mighty delicious. This man was no way the Mr. Ivano Lombardi!

“Hi.” He gave me a wary look before stepping close and offered me his hand. “I’m Ivano Lombardi. Just call me Ino.”

“H-hi.” I winced at how pathetic I sounded but I quickly hid my embarrassment with a beaming smile. “Hi, sir. Nice to meet you. I’m Stella Morris.”

We clutched each other’s hands while holding each other’s gaze. His touch was warm, his hold was firm and a little bit tight than the ordinary handshake. He wasn’t trying to break my bone but he sure felt like wanting to possess my arm because he didn’t want to release it even after I tried pulling back. The wide lawn and massive house suddenly felt small and tight at our proximity that my breathing became pants.

His eyes were flickering to my eyes and my mouth back and forth. He seemed tense and a little bit odd. But oh, God. No matter what, he’s just so yummy. I couldn’t wait to tell Nicky about this. I’m sure she’d go crazy to meet my new boss.