Gracie's POV

I stand there. "But, if you don't feel ok with me, that's fine too. Contact me when you made your decision." I quickly say. I wanna get out of this awkward moment. I'm always so bad at these situations, so I try to make it clear that I am leaving.

Yixing and his mom stay frozen while looking at me. Tao justs sits there watching us like we're in a drama right now. It does feel like a drama right now.

I bow to everyone and start to walk out the door, but Miss Lisa calls my name and Tao grabs my wrist.

"No, please don't go yet!" Miss Lisa pleads. "I am sorry for the misunderstanding, but you are needed....and wanted...."

I don't turn around. "It should be Yixing's choice, this is his house, Tao too."

"But, Gracie, they need you to-"

"Mother..." I hear Yixing softly say.

I turn around and write my number on piece of paper I find on the table. I hand it to Tao. "Here, this is my number, maybe we can hang out again soon." I smile and leave.

Tao's POV

Gracie hands me her number and leaves.

I sit there dumbfounded. What...just....happened?

"Yixing! Why are you like this?" Lay's mom scolds. "You can't just let a perfect girl leave like that, she could've made such a big difference in your life!"

Lay stays quiet.

I stand up to try to calm her down. "It's ok, we got her number, she didn't say she didn't want the job. We can work this out and contact her when we decided, don't worry too much."

Lay grabs the paper with Gracie's number on it and goes upstairs.

We both stand here processing what just happened.

"Did I mess up everything? My selfish self always ruining everything!" Lisa covers her face and sits on the couch.

"No, no, no! It's not your fault at all. You're right, we do need some help around the house, but we can't rush into getting a maid. Lay is old enough to take care of himself and make his own decisions. If he says he doesn't need one, we probably don't." I try my best to comfort her, but also inform her about Lay.

"Yeah, you're right. Tell me how he is doing later, I'm going to leave before anything else gets ruined." She gets up and leaves.

I sit on the couch completely lost.

At night.....

Lay's POV

"Well, we don't have any food left, just leftover Butterfinger pie. That's night really something good for dinner." Tao rumages through the empty fridge.

I lean against the counter staring at the piece of paper with Gracie's number on it. Should I save her on my phone? Maybe that's too weird...

"Lay! Would you put that down and help me figure this out." Tao snatches the paper out of my hand and puts it down on the counter. "What should we have for dinner?"

"I don't know. Why don't we go out to eat or something!" I say the first thing that comes into my mind. "There's this new place nit too far from here..."

"Yeah! We could invite Gracie and Julie."

I suck in my breath. "No, defiantly not after today."

"Why? You really don't Gracie to be our maid?"

"No, it's not that!"

"Then what?" Tao slams the fridge door.

"I just...it's just seems wrong, we just met and she is going to be cooking and cleaning for us! That just seems rude."

"Look, if we don't get someone to help us, we are going to suffer take out food forever! She wants the job anyways. Your mom is right too, she is perfect for the job."

"You just want her to work so Julie will come over more often!"

"Can you blame me?"

I roll my eyes. "Fine, you call her." I point to the paper.

Tao shrugs and takes out his phone. "Fine by me. I'll save her contact too."

As Tao puts in her number, I start to think about having Gracie as a maid. Having her in a maid outfit, being able to see her everyday. This might not be too bad. She is a great cook and she can help me with my problem of losing my phone too often. My mom is right, she could make a big difference!