Chapter 6: Benjamin

Sarah woke up and it was still dark outside. She took a shower, got ready for the day and went downstairs to grab something to eat.

Pouring herself a very dark coffee, she sat by the kitchen table and prayed that her first day went fine.

"Buenos días, Sarah. How was your first night here? Did you sleep well?" Fabio, the cook, asked her. He was older than Sarah and had a very strong accent.

"I barely slept, to be honest. Guess I was too excited and nervous." She smiled.

"Oh, don't be. I'm sure you'll be fine. Benjamin is an easy kid."

"Yeah, I could tell. But I also heard that Mr. Reed is very protective over the boy, so I think I'm just afraid to do something wrong," she confessed.

Fabio left the pan on the stove and grabbed a cup of coffee as well, sitting in front of Sarah on the other side of the table.

"He really is. But he's also very reasonable. Mr. Reed never treated any of the servants badly. He might seem cold and all, but he's actually very nice to us."

Sarah raised her brows.

"Really? I kind of had the feeling that you were all afraid of him." She didn't know if she should be so honest, but Fabio made her feel comfortable, which was already a lot. Sarah had the virtue to sense when someone wasn't a good person. She liked to believe that it was her superpower.

"We do. I mean, he can fire any of us at any time, right? When he's in a bad mood, we all learned to stay away. This way he can't vent his anger on us. Just keep that in mind and you should be fine." Fabio ended the conversation with a big smile and got up from the chair, leaving Sarah alone.

She finished her breakfast and went back to brush her teeth, going straight to Benjamin's room right after. She had to wake him up and get the little boy ready for his classes. He normally had classes during the morning, so she thought it should be easy.

"Good morning, Ben," she said, squatted down beside his bed, waiting patiently for the little kid to open his eyes and make sense of what was happening. She still had to learn about his habits, so for now, she had to act cautiously.

"Hi, Sarah," he replied, opening a big smile to her, which warmed her heart in a way she didn't think that was going to happen.

It was true that she always liked kids, but she never had to live with one, so a lot of things were new to her as well.

"So, I was thinking…" she started, helping the boy to get up and change his clothes. "You have a few classes during the morning, right?"

The little kid nodded, leaning on her shoulders so she could help him put his pants on.

"Ok, so what do you say if you study really hard during the morning and after lunch, we can go outside and play something nice?" she suggested.

"I like that," Benjamin answered with a big smile. "What do you want to play?"

"Well, I'll let you decide, okay? We can talk and get to know each other. You can tell me the things you like to do, what you like to watch and I can tell you some things about me as well. But you need to study very hard first, okay?" He nodded resolutely as Sarah finished putting his shirt on him and took him to eat some breakfast.

Carter had given her, alongside his schedule, Benjamin's meal plan for the week. Apparently, he had everything decided for every single day, and she had studied that over and over again to make sure that she wouldn't give something the boy couldn't eat.

He wasn't allergic or intolerant to anything, but she wanted to show that she had done her homework in case Mr. Reed was observing her.

And that was a good choice, because as soon as she entered the dining room, her boss was already at the table, wearing a very expensive suit and talking on his phone, his big watch shining with the sun's reflex that was coming from the window.

As soon as his eyes fell upon Benjamin and Sarah, he said goodbye to whoever was on the other line and put down his phone.

"Good morning, Ben. Good morning, Miss Johnson. How did you all sleep?" he asked friendly, making Sarah a bit uncomfortable. She was getting used to the idea of him being rude to her, so it was hard to know how to react or even answer the man when he was polite and gentle.

"I had a very crazy dream, daddy." Benjamin started to tell his uncle about his dream with aliens and flying cows, which Sarah didn't follow since she was still thinking it was funny and curious to see the kid calling him 'daddy'.

It should be something ordinary, but still, she wasn't expecting to hear it. The dynamic of that family was so odd, but at the same time, so interesting, that she saw herself wanting to know everything about them.

She sat by Benjamin's side, serving him with cereals and some fruits, that she chopped it in tiny pieces and put on a plate in front of him.

She could also feel Mr. Reed's eyes on her, but she didn't dare to look at him. In fact, she kept her eyes on Benjamin the entire time, making sure he ate everything.

"Sarah is going to take me outside after lunch, daddy. We're going to play whatever I want." Benjamin finished the last piece of his apple and leaned against the chair.

Sarah's shoulder stiffened and her eyes crossed with Victor's immediately. Not that she felt that she was doing something wrong, but she didn't know how her boss would react to her taking the kid outside on her first day.

Maybe he could think she was being too soft on the boy; he could react in any way.

"Is she?" Victor asked the kid but with his eyes still on her.

"Yes, I'm really excited. I'm going to study very hard this morning so we can play the whole afternoon."

Victor smiled and turned his attention to the newspaper in front of him. The morning passed in a blink of an eye, and when Sarah realized, she was already outside playing with Benjamin.

They had a very good time together, played around, talked about all sorts of things and she could feel she was already in love with the little boy, even though it was still her first day.

The mansion had an enormous garden which was a very nice place for Benjamin to play. He asked her to read him a book, and as she was doing that, he fell asleep on her lap.

She continued reading the book for herself, and the feeling of being observed hit her once more. Lifting her head calmly, trying not to make any abrupt movement to wake the kid, she looked around, trying to see if there was anyone else there.

But there wasn't.

And when she was about to go back to the reading, she noticed someone in the window upstairs. It was far away, but she couldn't be mistaken about those honey-colored eyes.