Just as Much

Erica's POV

I tighten up my coat before heading out of my complex door. Spring my ass. The season apparently had change from winter to spring last week but I don't think anyone got the memo. A cold north wind blasting my face, if I wasn't awake before I left my flat, I am now.

I click the button to unlock my Mini and throw my bag to the passenger side, cranking up the heat as soon as I start the car. I check the time, 7:15, means I should get there by at the latest 7:45. I merge onto traffic in my standard direction. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this is the direction I head.

I pull up to the house, applying a thin layer of chap stick, tightening my hair before I once again brave the blistering north wind. I lock my car over my shoulder and search in my extra key ring set to find his house key, it's the one with pink nail polish on it so I spot it quickly and quietly slip inside, wiping my feet on the rug before hanging my coat up and setting my bag in the closet. I know he's still sleeping.

Mondays.

I do a quick scan of the living room and see not too much is out of order, shouldn't take me long in here to tidy up at least, a few magazines out of place, game controllers need to be put back, pillows fluffed. I pull my phone out and ear buds out, quickly finding my favorite play list to clean to and get to work.

Walking into the kitchen is quite a nightmare. I refrain myself from actually screaming as I see a sink full of dishes, over flowing trashcan, left over food in the pots and pans left on the stove, I'm going to kill him. I let out a huff in frustration and push my selves back, digging under the cupboard for my rubber gloves to start the dishes. Dishes are probably my least favorite chore, but it's what I get paid for so they must be done.

I get lost in the music and in my cleaning zone, scrubbing the counters, organizing the fridge, taking out the trash, cleaning out the fridge, scrubbing the microwave out, I don't even notice him leaning against the wall, looking at me.

“Jesus Niall! Don't do that crap.” I rip my ear buds out and glare at him.

“Good Morning.” He smiles at me, I just roll my eyes. “Sorry about the kitchen, I meant to get up early and clean it, you didn't have to.” He opens the fridge and digs around for food.

“Well I did though, it's my job.” I pull the gloves off, sanitizing them before I hang them up to dry on the hook.

“Sorry Erica.” His lips form a tight smirk.

“It's fine Niall, you want anything for breakfast?” I ask, drying my hands on the towel and slightly pushing him away from the fridge door.

“I can make my own breakfast.” He shakes his head at me as I pull out the eggs and veggies.

“I know you can, but Mark told you that you have to start eating better, and I know your idea of a good breakfast is like four chocolate chip muffin.” I start chopping the red peppers and cooked ham to add to my egg mixture. Once I finish cutting all the peppers, I let some butter melt in the pan, seeing that Niall is still standing against the counter, feet and arms crossed, looking at me. “What?” I ask him, smiling.

“Nothing.” He smiles and shakes his head. “Did you have a good weekend?” He asks.

“It was okay. Worked on Saturday. Had some drinks with a few friends Saturday night, spent all day yesterday studying.” My life is terribly boring. I'm so obsessed with getting good marks in school that I spend quite a bit of time with my nose in the books. “How was yours?”

“It was good. We had that photo shoot on Saturday, it was colder then shit outside. And yesterday I just had a bunch of people over, hence why the kitchen looks like this.” I carefully let the omelet cook on one side until it had set up enough before I flipped it over as Niall got out a plate and orange juice from the fridge.

“Here you go.” I pass the plate to him and turn my back to him, already filling up the sink with hot water to wash the dishes.

“Thank you!” Niall tells me in a sing-song tone and kisses my cheek. Thankfully he walks away quickly so he doesn't see what I already know that I'm blushing.

I think I will always get slightly nervous around him. I've been working for Niall for about two years now. I've known him since I was 15. I'll be honest, I used to have this huge crush on him when I started out, it's easy to crush on him he's hilarious, good looking, and incredibly kind. But I quickly realized that guys as famous as Niall, don't fall for girls like me. Girls that study as much as they can, and usually spend weekend nights going to bed early and waking up early. And now, two years later, we're just friends.

My mom owns the cleaning company, RC Clean. RC, obviously for her name, Rachel Crowe. Mom and I moved to London when I was five, well in her case back to London. This is her home city. Mom was studying business at University of London and decided she wanted to study abroad, traveling to Miami, but it didn't take long before she met my dad, fell in love and all but abandoned her studies to marry and then more than 10 years later, have me. The rest would be history but my father was killed, wrong place at the wrong time. Drive-by's were rampant in the late 90's in Miami, huge drug scene. I was only five, I don't remember much, dad was just there one day, the next day he was gone. I know we stayed as long as mom could but in the end, she just needed more support so we sold almost all of our things and moved “home.”

Home to my grandparents house at least. I remember mom hating it. My grandparents are quite a bit older, but my mom had me late, blaming fertility problems. Looking back, I can understand why she would hate it, she had a life on her own for so long, then in an instant everything changed and she wasn't ready for it. To be honest, I can't imagine living with my mom again, she's great but since I've started school she's ventured into other things with her business and she's extremely focused. I guess that's where I get my drive from.

When we moved to London, mom struggled to find a job. She never finished her degree and always felt like since I was born, she couldn't go back to school, so she took odd jobs here and there, making ends meet. Then, as my mom tells it, one day she ran into her old high school friend Simon, Simon Cowell. He offered to have her come clean his house for money, after a little bit, he offered her services to the artists under his record label and soon my mom was stretched too thin. So she hired her friend to help, then they needed more help, more employees got hired, more houses to clean. She created a cleaning empire in five years. Insane.

When I was 16, I started helping here and there, when mom had people on holiday, or if people were sick, I would help out after school and on the weekends, in the summer, during school breaks, and when I was 18 my mom passed me on to Niall's house, they had an opening and usually spots like these went to the older employees but my mom has trained me since I was little so it went to me. The rest, as they say, is history.

“Perfect, Erica, as always.” Niall pulls me out of my thoughts as I yawn and rub my tired eyes and hold my hands out to take his dishes. “I can get them Erica.” He dodges me and I shake my head and return to the fridge.

“Anything special you want for the week Ni?” Scanning the list he's already started and seeing what he's low on. I grocery shop on Monday's and Friday's. That way he has enough for the week and enough for the weekend, it's all part of the job. I'm a housekeeper, but also like a personal assistant. It's hard for Niall to get everyday tasks accomplished quickly and efficiently so I do them. Grocery shop, stop at the post office, drop off and pick up his dry cleaning, people don't really recognize me, except the creepy die hard fans so it's easy for me to get things accomplished for him.

“Hey, can I come with you?” I freeze in my spot and slowly look at him. Niall has never asked to come with me to do any sort of errands.

“You sure you want to?” I raise my eyebrows in question and start thinking of plans to avoid a mass chaos at the market.

“Yeah. We could work as a team!” His laughter making me smile.

“That's fine, but it's quite chilly outside, you might want to put a shirt on Niall.” I remind him, looking down at his bare chest.

“Right.” He winks and points at me while rushing off to his room to find something. I make sure the kitchen is tidy before I walk back to the closet to retrieve my shoes and coat, checking my phone and noticing it's only 10, so most of his fans are at least in school, that will help.

“I'm ready!” Niall pops up from around the corner, all bundled up as if it's a tundra outside and I can't help but laugh as he follows right behind me, I turn around abruptly, forgetting the card in my bag and slamming directly into Niall.

“Sorry.” I shake it off and rummage in the closet for what I need.

“You driving?” He ask.

“Of course. You'll be noticed in a heartbeat with the Rover.” I roll my eyes, I feel bad for him sometimes, he hasn't had a normal life for ages.

Notes

Ahhh here we go again! Round 4, new story! Always a little nerve wrecking to see how my story will be received. But this is just the first chapter, you all should know by now I start slow. :)

Hope you all haven't missed me too much!! I'll probably post another chapter here shortly. But a fair warning....I won't be able to post regularly until like the second week of January. Going on vacation with the family for the first full week in January, I'll have my phone so I can still read all your wonderful stories, reply to comments, and messages but I won't bring my laptop. Just a heads up!!

Happy Sunday!

xoxo