When I left the room, I walked toward my office. I had not dealt with the company things for a while, and Annie had been making most of the decisions on my behalf. She had become less of a maid and more of a CEO of my company. She was genuinely good at it. It was as if it was a natural born talent.
When I walked into the office, Annie was sitting at my desk looking over the papers. When she heard me, she looked up and smiled. "Young Miss."
"Annie. You have been working way too hard. Your eyes have bags." I said as I walked over. She had been doing both maid duties and company duties, and it was my fault that she was being overworked. "Go rest. From now on, you will only do company things. I do not want you to be overworked. This way, you can enjoy some free time to yourself."
"This… Young Miss, if I did that, then who would be the head maid? There are many new maids we just took in to take care of the increase of people living here. They still need to be trained. If I don't train the…."
"Stop!" I yelled out. "Annie." I walked over to stand behind her and covered her eyes with my hand. "You do not need to worry about such things anymore. From this moment on, you only need to worry about the company. Rina and Brooke both know how to do the same things as you. I will also be lightening your load a bit as well. So for today, give me a rundown on what is going on so I can get caught up. I apologize for slacking on this."
"But…" Annie tried to speak, but I cut her off again.
"No buts! I forgot to tell you, but you are no longer contracted with the royal family but under me now. What I say goes. Give me a run down, and then go get some much needed rest. You are no longer a servant. You are my employee now. You are no longer bound by contracts." I replied. Although working for a company is really no different from a maid job. She was just switching carriers with more time off and higher pay.
"Young miss…" Annie started at me in confusion. I can understand why. She had been raised to be a servant, so to have suddenly freedom to do as she pleased must be a strange concept for her.
"No more young miss, I am your boss now. Of course, if you wish to quit and do something else, you can, but I do hope you don't. I need you!" My last words were said in a more begging manner because I really did need Annie.
"I would never quit! Young-Boss, you have treated me and the others as family since we arrived. You gave us higher wages. Forced us to take time off. And never once treated us like actual servants outside our working hours. We are truly grateful." Annie replied.
I smiled and slipped my arms around her, and hugged her from behind. "As long as those around me live fulfilling lives, then I am happy. Of course, I will also try to be happy as well. But having friends and family with me is also something that makes me happy."
"Although, Boss…. I will say this. I still plan to manage the house. I can not leave it to others." Annie replied with a voice of determination.
I was caught by surprise at her insistence. "Huh? But I can just…."
"No! Do you even know how long it took me to rearrange everything in this house to meet my standards!? I will not allow those without enough attention to detail to take over. Rina and Brooke are good girls, but they are nowhere near ready for such things!" I stared at Annie's wrinkled brow and sighed. "Fine, I give up! I will just pay you extra. But you are not a servant. Remember this. You are now my aid. I will be relying on you to handle things when I am not around."
"Mmm! Leave it to me. And Boss." Annie called out and placed her hand on mine. "Thank you. Thank you for treating me and the others as people and not animals."
Hearing her sincere thanks, I hugged her tighter and nodded my head. "Of course, I would. After all, we are all one and the same. Just different body parts here and there."
"Mmm…. But I do wonder one thing…" Annie said as she held onto my arm tighter and stared off towards the door. "If I were to give you a peck on the cheek right now, would the one standing on the other side of the door lose it completely?"
"Huh?" I was confused when I suddenly heard a loud yell from the other side of the office door.
"You dare!?" Only then did I understand what Annie meant. She was teasing Adel.
"Adel, you know, eavesdropping and stalking is unbefitting a princess," I said with a chuckle.
"Then I will give up my title as pr…."
"You sure as hell will not! That would mean my position in line for the throne would be moved up! If you do that, I will stop talking to you!" I said in a huff, but my words seemed to prickle at Adel. She pursed her lips and stopped talking.
"Anyway. Why are you acting like someone who just had their wife stolen? I keep telling you to reel it in. You can't act like a jealous girlfriend when we are friends." I scolded.
"I am just…. That is not it!" Adel stammered.
"Then what is it?" I asked. I know I was being kind of mean right now but I was only doing this so that Adel would not end up doing something else out of jealous rage that she would regret. She needed to realize her own actions were wrong even if she had those sorts of feelings for me.
"I don't know! I just get aggravated when any man or girl is near you! I feel like I might lose you." Adel replied, her voice going softer. But she raised her head and continued: "I had a dream where you went far away!"
