A/N: I decided to start naming my chapters after seeing it somewhere and thinking it was totally cute and clever. Just letting you guys know in case you were curious about the names! Anways, hope you guys enjoy, and let me know what you think! Comments make my day! :)

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Idiot For Hire

Chapter 8: It's Not Your Job to Care 

I tried to play it cool, hoping my calm façade would rub off on my mother at least a little bit. It wasn’t a very good plan, but it was worth a shot. I had nothing else, and my mom looked like she was about to pee her pants. “Nothing,” I said, casually shrugging my shoulders. “You know, it’s actually time for me to go to bed since absolutely nothing is happening and I need my beauty sleep for tomorrow. Come on, Nathan.”

I grabbed Nathan by the hand and tugged him forward, but my mother’s angry tone made us both stop short. “Adriana, let go of that boy’s hand,” she demanded. “Now.”

I felt my hand twitch, almost giving into my mother’s request, but I stood strong and held onto Nathan. I felt a strange reassurance holding onto him, one I hadn’t felt in a long time. Actually, I couldn’t remember ever feeling it in the first place, which was kind of sad.

Her eyes narrowed at the sight of our hands. They weren’t intertwined like a couple’s would be, but just the fact that they were touching was disturbing enough for my mother to become furious. “What were you two doing in that cupboard?”

Don’t ask me how, but I could just sense some sort of inappropriate comment about to surface from Nathan’s mouth, and I subtly jabbed him in the side with my elbow, promptly shutting him up before he had the chance to speak. “We were, uh, checking the groceries,” I said, mentally slapping myself for the stupidity of my answer. So much for getting out of this alive. “To see what we need. For food.”

“Since when do you check the groceries?” she asked. “Since when do you check anything?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, praying this passive aggressive banter would continue, although I knew it wouldn’t. She’d get tired of it pretty quickly. “I’m always helpful around the house. Right, Trish?”

Trish snapped out of her awed trance and nodded emphatically; for once, she had nothing to say. I think she was more freaked out than I was.

My mother shook her head. “I don’t have time for this. I’ve had a long day, and I can’t believe this is what I get to come home to. This is insulting.”

“You look tired,” I went on, completely ignoring her. “You should go to bed and get your beauty sleep. In fact, that sounds like a grand, universal idea. I think—”

“Adriana,” my mother interrupted, her patience having worn thin. I knew it would happen eventually, so I wasn’t very surprised. “Quit playing games. This is so unlike you.”

“I’m not playing games. I’m trying to go to sleep.”

Nathan started shaking with silent laughter, a fact that I was immediately aware of since we were still holding hands. I probably wouldn’t have had the guts to stand up to my mother like that if I hadn’t had the reassurance of his hand. It was something so simple yet so influential. I didn’t really know how to describe it, but I did know I didn’t want to let go.  

My mother, however, was less than amused. “I’m not in the mood, Adriana. What is this boy doing in my house?” The way she looked at Nathan hadn’t changed from the first time she’d met him. She still looked at him like he was a squished bug on her severely overpriced (but totally cute) shoe, the same way she’d looked at my first boyfriend, the way I wished she’d look at Mitch.

The time had come to throw it all out there, and all of a sudden, I was thrilled. I didn’t want to get out of talking to her anymore. I wanted to see the look on her face when she realized I’d hired Nathan as my new assistant, and there was nothing she could do about it without going back on her word. Fighting a smug smirk and miserably failing, I said, “He’s my new assistant. Mother, meet Nathan. Nathan, meet my mother. You guys will be seeing a lot of each other from now on, so you should probably start getting used to each other.”

Seriously, it took every single ounce of restraint I had to refrain from laughing out loud at the look on her face. It was too perfect. Her face had twisted into this impeccably horrified, livid face, and her ears were starting to turn red from anger. “He’s your what?” she exclaimed, lowering her voice when she realized we had an audience. Everyone in the kitchen was staring at us like we were acting out one of Trish’s many soap operas. “We need to talk. Now.”

She grabbed me by the arm and whisked me away to reprimand me in private. I reluctantly let go of Nathan’s hand and let her drag me into the nearest room, too amused to worry about being left alone with her.

Once we were alone, my mother burst into an effusion of admonishments. “What were you thinking? Have you lost your mind? Honestly, Adriana, what are you doing, hiring a boy for this job? You know how important this job is. You know how crucial it is to your life and your career. Have you even met this boy? He’s crude, and he’s common, and I won’t have him tarnishing our reputation by associating himself with you. Honey, can’t you tell he’s just using you? Just using your name and reputation? Don’t you have any self-respect?”

Don’t say anything, don’t say anything, don’t say anything… breathe, Adriana, breathe… “Doesn’t this sound painfully familiar?” I asked, my jaw tightening as I spoke. I didn’t want to yell at her or anything, but her words were getting me so worked up, it was hard not to. If anyone was using me, it was Mitch, the guy she so feverishly advocated for all of the time just because he was of our “status.” No. He was a disgusting foot; I’d sooner eat my own foot than advocate for him the way my mother did.

Unsurprisingly, she ignored my question. I knew she was perfectly aware of who I was referring to, but she wouldn’t risk tarnishing his reputation by discussing his faults –which were plentiful—with me. Instead, she said, “Fire him. Today. Find someone else and fire him. I want him gone today. No, I want him gone right now.”

“No,” I said, my voice portraying the incredulity I felt at her proposition. Actually, it wasn’t even a proposition. It was an order, an order I wasn’t willing to follow.

“What is going on with you? This isn’t like you. I don’t like this attitude you’re developing.”

“I’m not developing an attitude. I’m just doing as you said.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked.  “Doing as I say would mean firing that boy, and I don’t see you doing that.”

For once, I was more than happy to clear things up. I knew what I said next would trap her. “You told me my next assistant had to last me, and now you want me to fire him? How am I supposed to know what I’m supposed to do if you’re constantly going back on your word?”

I knew I’d struck a nerve when her face turned beet red. “Are you twisting my words?”

“That’s the point. I’m not. I’m literally just following what you said.” Well, not literally. I was following her orders in a way I knew would make her mad, but I wasn’t going to say that out loud. “You told me not to fire my next assistant, and I’m not planning on firing Nathan. So what’s the problem?”

Nathan picked that moment to awkwardly pop into the room, interrupting our conversation, although my mother didn’t look like she was going to make any attempt to reply, anyway. “You left your phone in the cupboard,” he said, holding my bejeweled phone in his outstretched hand. “Your boyfriend is on the line. He sounds like a douche.”

My mother laughed at this, but she didn’t sound very amused. Her laughter was bitter, if anything. “This is what you hired? You’ve made this so easy for me, Adriana. He won’t last you a week. If you’re so determined to have him as your assistant, then fine. Keep him. But if he isn’t in this for the long haul, just remember that I get to hire your next assistant, and you won’t like her nearly as much as this boy.” With that, she walked away, practically stomping all the way upstairs like a rebellious teenager.

When I turned to look at Nathan, he raised his hands up defensively. “Hey, I’m not planning on leaving. As long as you don’t fire me, I think we’re good.”

I let out a tiny smile, but the prospect of messing this up with Nathan was too alarming to focus on anything else. I was sure my mother would hire someone utterly terrible to get back at me for hiring Nathan. I didn’t want to fire Nathan, but my impulses were stronger than my will sometimes, and I just didn’t know. Maybe his cuteness wouldn’t be enough.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Nathan asked, “Do you just want me to hang up on the guy? You don’t have to talk to him if you don’t want to.”

His offer was tempting, but Mitch would probably just call over and over again until I answered, and I really did want to go to sleep. “No, that’s alright,” I said, grabbing the phone from Nathan’s outstretched hand. “What do you want, Mitch?”

Mitch’s voice was already unnaturally loud, but it always sounded magnified over the phone, never failing to ensure that everyone within a fifty foot radius of me could hear every word he was saying. That phone call was no exception. “Is that any way to talk to your boyfriend?" 

I rolled my eyes. “Mitch, I’m tired. Cut the crap and tell me what you want.”

He let out a loud breath and did as I said. “Well, first off, I wanna know who the hell is answering your phone nowadays. Why the hell did a guy pick up?”

If this was his attempt at exuding jealousy like a normal boyfriend would, it was pathetic and completely unconvincing. It was so unlike him I actually wanted to laugh. Why was he even bothering? No one was watching. Well, not that he knew of. He didn’t know Nathan was standing right there.

“Because we just finished having hot, nasty sex, and I told him to answer my phone for me,” I replied sarcastically, annoyed at his antics.

Nathan raised his eyebrows at this, seemingly entertained by my answer.

Mitch had never been good at detecting sarcasm, though, and his reaction to my reply wasn’t pretty. “You constantly get pissed at me for having some fun on the side, acting like you’re the next goddamn Virgin Mary, yet you’re doing the exact same thing. What the hell, Adriana? You know what you are? You’re a closet slut.”

“Oh, my God, I wasn’t being serious,” I snapped, almost slapping my forehead in exasperation. “He’s my new assistant. It’s his job to answer my phone. Now, seriously, what do you want?”

“What are you doing, hiring a guy?” he asked, echoing my mother’s words.

“That’s none of your business. Just tell me what you want. I’m exhausted and need to go to bed.” It wasn’t even eleven yet, but I didn’t want to talk to Mitch anymore, especially not in front of Nathan. He could hear every word we were saying, and it was starting to make me feel irritatingly self-conscious.

“Fine. I just called to remind you that my movie premiere is this Friday.”

“I know. I’ll be there,” I said. My mother had been reminding me about that for, like, two months. I didn’t need another reminder. “Anything else?”

“No. Just that you better look perfect, and I mean perfect. If my girlfriend doesn’t look hotter than my douche of a costar’s girlfriend, I'll be pissed." 

“Don’t worry about it. You’ll start going gray, or better yet, you’ll go bald. How many girls do you think you’ll lose if you lose the hair?”

"You're such a bitch," he said, aggravation interlaced in his tone. 

I chuckled and, without bothering to say goodbye or goodnight to him, I hung up the phone, throwing it back to Nathan. His quick reflexes allowed him to grab it before it fell to the ground.

Neither of us said anything for a while, but finally, Nathan spoke. “I know it’s none of my business, but… these relationships you have are messed up. Like horrifyingly messed up. Nothing about any of this seems right.”

Of course it wouldn’t seem right to him. He looked like your average All-American guy. He’d probably grown up in a stable, loving home, and his relationships had probably all been a product of his own choices. My guess was that the only girls he’d dated were girls he’d actually wanted to date. He’d never really understand my situation, and I didn’t want him to, anyway. It wasn’t even a big deal. I was used to it.

“You’re right. It’s none of your business. It’s not your job to care, Nathan,” I said.

“Dree—”

“It’s not your job to care about how messed up my life is. Your job is to keep my life a little less messy and do whatever I say.” Noticing he still didn’t look convinced, I sighed and softened my voice a little. “Don’t worry about it. Seriously. It’s no big deal. Let’s just go upstairs.”

He simply nodded this time and walked alongside me as we slowly made our way upstairs. Halfway up the stairs, he slung an arm around me and said, “He’s wrong, by the way. I don’t think you’re a closet slut. I’ve seen your closet, and there’s not a single pair of fluffy handcuffs or kinky roleplaying costumes.”

“Why were you in my closet?” I asked, half-smiling, half-frowning. It probably looked kind of scary, now that I thought about it.

He ignored me and went on as if I’d never opened my mouth. “Actually, I did find an elfin costume that I found pretty alarming. Do you LARP, by any chance? I don’t, but I wouldn’t judge you if you did.”

My half-smile turned into a full-fledged grin, and I even let out a laugh, forgetting how mad I was about Mitch and my mom for a moment. “Shut up,” I said, elbowing him in the ribs. I would never admit it out loud, especially not to Nathan, but I was starting to think he was one of the best things that had ever happened to me. 

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I. Love. Nathan. So. Much. *violent sobbing*