the age of the Object, as well as the age of the woman who let her into the house. He wasn’t young, but that was all she could say about his age. Thick, black hair below the shoulders was carefully styled and made the white face even paler, but it strangely suited him. The high forehead was without a single wrinkle, the brown almond-shaped eyes, fringed with long eyelashes, looked attentively and friendly without a shadow of wariness under the well-defined beautiful sweep of black eyebrows. Mellie’s gaze slid over his face like a sunbeam on water, not really lingering anywhere, but at the same time not missing anything. The nose was straight, classic. The swollen upper lip made the curve of the lips more sensual. A dimple on his chin and high cheekbones, as if carved out of stone, completed the picture.
Mr. Mellone wore glasses with large smoky lenses in thin frames, he was clean-shaven and perfectly dressed. The shirt cut the eyes with its whiteness, a black velvet home jacket could decorate any fashion show. One could guess a lean, but strong and trained body under the shirt. He had thin white hands with long elegant fingers and… that was all. Then the table interfered. Mellie even took a few steps forward to see what was under the table, but stopped abruptly. Her gaze went to the panoramic window, or rather to the picture that opened behind it. She understood why the cautious Mr. Malone was sitting so calmly by that window. And she realized where the steady hum that she had heard there on the street was coming from. It was impossible to see anything from where she stopped, so she erroneously concluded (it was very and very badly, because a mistake was synonymous with death in her profession) that because of this window, Mr. Mellon became an ideal target. As if not so! Almost immediately, the abyss began outside the window, where a waterfall fell from a huge height on the other side of the cliff. Tons of water rushed down, breaking on the rocky shores, which is why a cloud of spray constantly hung in the air, enclosed in a rainbow frame! The sight was so amazing and overwhelming that Mellie took her breath away. She frankly admired the fantastic beauty, so it did not immediately dawn on her… Silence! But there must have been such a roar in the room that would have burst eardrums! And again, the enveloping, quiet voice took her by surprise: «Noise isolation! It was a qualitative work. I strongly do not recommend opening the windows here!», – and the girl saw Mr. Mellone smiling for the first time.
Chapter 6
Mellie learned later that Mr. Mellone had a whole arsenal of smiles. It can be said that he had smiles for all occasions. Mr. Mellone no doubt knew how to smile and did it with a mark of quality. However, in the near future, she was to find out that this strange man does everything with a mark of quality. And she considered him strange, because… Well, take at least how he looked! He was a middle-aged, lonely cripple in the company of an equally middle-aged and, apparently, also a lonely woman. He did not expect any guests, he was not going anywhere, but he was always dressed as for a social event with a huge number of people. He was always perfectly combed and perfumed. Mr. Mellone’s shoes looked like a mirror. «Maybe he dressed up like that in honor of me? Still, my arrival is an event in his gray monotonous life…», – Mellie smiled contentedly to herself. If that were the case, it would make her goal of making the Object fall in love with her a lot easier. Anyway that was the plan for the moment.
The owner of the chic cabinet continued to smile with his inviting smile and at the same time to demonstrate his perfect and white teeth. He inquired in French how she got there. «Wow, it looks like everything here is serious, and getting this job will not be so easy…», – Mellie thought with some surprise. She thought that her resume, good looks and gorgeous hair would be enough to win immediately the favor of a lonely, sick old man. «Well, it’s even more interesting!», – she thought and with pleasure shared her impressions of the road in the purest French, noting the satisfaction that flashed in the eyes of her interlocutor. This was followed by a strange dialogue in Spanish, Italian, German and Russian. She had no problems with these languages. Mellie was a polyglot, proud of it, and was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but the next question, asked in Arabic, quickly brought her down to earth. Having difficulty grasping the essence of the question, she gave the answer with the same difficulty, absolutely not sure if she was answering correctly.
She saw the satisfied nod of her future employer and nevertheless exhaled, even almost relaxed, but it wasn’t there, because Mr. Mellone spoke in Chinese! She did not know this language at all, and could only shake her head in response to a questioning look. The same thing happened when a question in Portuguese followed.
Confused, Mellie cursed everything in the world to herself, literally burning with shame and anger. She was angry at Mr. Devon for not warning her, and she was even angrier at Mr. Mellone for making such excessive demands! The words were spinning in her head: «There is nothing to do for you, an old stump in a wheelchair! Just sit and teach others! And, by the way, there are still a lot of interesting things in life, especially for a young and pretty girl!».
Mellie said: «I’m sorry!» and got even angrier, at herself. «Sorry for what? Sorry for who? What kind of nonsense am I talking about?», – her thoughts were confused for some reason, although she had never noticed such a thing before. Contrary to her expectations, Mr. Mellone’s smile became even more benevolent.
– When will you be able to get to work? – there was a smell of wildflowers heated by the afternoon sun, the murmur of a stream and the chirping of cicadas could be heard when he spoke.
She shook her head to get rid of the obsession. The intonation and the voice itself caused audible and almost tangible hallucinations, but the meaning reached her. She passed! He hired her! And making a note to be extremely careful in conversations with this man who became her boss, Mellie said: «Now! If it is necessary!». She promised to give later a scolding to her imagination.
Smiling another disarming smile, Mr. Mellone told Mellie to present herself to the cabinet the next day at ten in the morning, wished her a good rest and drove off somewhere in his wheelchair.
The girl had the opportunity to take a good look at him during the conversation. The boss turned out to be a tall man, rather broad-shouldered, but of a fragile build. Mellie managed to see a lot – long, beautiful legs and quite impressive dimensions of what very expensive trousers almost tight hid below an even more expensive belt made of fine leather.
She sighed with regret involuntarily, imagining these dimensions in working condition, so to speak. But, apparently, Mr. Mellone had not cared about women for a long time, and this made the task a little more complicated. But everyone knows, no matter what they say that physical contact plays a big role in a relationship, and, in Molly’s opinion, so in general the main one. But this made the game even more interesting.
The girl admitted to herself that she was quite satisfied with the acquaintance. Her employer had a pleasant voice, a disarming smile. He was polite and did not give the impression of a willful person. And the fact that he was not handsome and not young was not so important. She would not have to sleep with him, thank God. But there was something in his appearance that attracted the eye.
Chapter 7
The mood was wonderful. And the girl agreed with great pleasure to assist with lunch preparation to the friendly housekeeper, when she asked Mellie if she wanted to help her. The woman introduced herself as Mona, and they both laughed at the funny coincidence – their names began with the same letter. Mona suggested to start with lunch, and then to show Mellie the house. But before that, she took the girl to the room where she was to live, so that she would lay out her things and take a shower after a hard road.
Mellie liked the room very much. And the part of the estate that she had time to consider, too. It seemed that everything in the house was thought out to the smallest detail, there was nothing superfluous, but at the same time there was everything that was necessary. The stairs diverged from the hall of the first floor in both directions to the floor above. Lacquered, carved wooden