The front door clicks shut before I can process what Luke har done, meaning I was in for a full day of confusion.

I finished my cereal and washed the bowl out in the sink. I stumbled around for the dishwasher and placed my things inside. When I stand up I can't help but say to no one “did he just kiss me on the cheek? I'm not crazy, right?”

The house responds with silence.

I head back to the counter and grab the sheet he’d left for me. It was less of a list and more of a letter.

"Charlie,

I'm sorry about last night. I really am excited to have you here and I hope we can become good friends. We'll get you set with a bank account soon so I can start paying you for helping me around the house. For today, do you mind doing these things for me? I have a bit more dirty laundry up in my closet in a hamper. If you could wash that and fold it, I'll put it away myself. It'd also be great if you could mop up the floor using the wet swiffer. I'll probably have to teach you how to do everything else though so that's all for today.

Thank you~

Luke

P.S. You look good in a tie"

I sigh, fold the sheet back up and toss it on the counter. “Surprised he didn't dot his I’s with hearts.” I limp my way back upstairs and choose to take a shower first.

I disrobe and carefully peel the bandages off. I turn the shower on and let the heat melt the stress away.

Once I feel awake and relaxed, I get out and dry off. I reapply everything, mimicking what Luke had done yesterday. I walk back to my room naked - who am I gonna bother  - and slide on my crisp new clothes. A white tee, blue jeans, and a black hoodie. No reasons to get fancy. “Time to get started, I guess.”

I leave my room and walk down the hall. I stand in front of Luke’s door and a wave of intimidation crashes over me. I'm unsure why but I suddenly find myself terrified.

I reach out slowly and turn the knob. As I push inside, my eyes balloon open. His room is massive. A king sized bed is surrounded by bookshelves mounted in the walls stretching from floor to ceiling. A massive fireplace rests in the wall with a grand painting above it. There's another door on the right wall that seems to lead to the bathroom. With nowhere else to go, I head in there.

The marble is immaculate and there's a large standing shower next to a jacuzzi tub. To the left is another door, as I pull it open I'm greeted by a walk-in closet full of suits, ties, shoes, shirts, and drawers. I've never seen more clothes… Well other than yesterday. There's a plastic basket by the door full of wadded up clothes. “I guess that's it.”

I grab the basket and carry it to the basement. I take both sides and flip it upside-down, letting everything pour out. I separate everything into piles like he showed me and throw in the first two sets of clothes in the two washers, following each of Luke’s steps that he'd drilled into me. With a half hour to waste, I head back up.

“Where does he keep the cleaning supplies?” I wander around opening closets until I find the one full of brooms, dusters, and the sort. Truth be told, I have no clue what a ‘swiffer’ is but when I find the long purple thing with the name written on it, I assume that's what he's referring to. In front of me is a purple box with the same name so I open it to see if this is what I'm supposed to use instead.

It's full of wet pads and I'm confused as to how that would be useful until I see the picture of the pad on the purple stick I'm holding. “Neat.” I take too long to figure out how to put the pad on and get to work. I wipe the floors of the first level carefully and uniform. I have to kill this time somehow. I stop every so often to go back to the basement to switch over the laundry and fold what's dry.

By 11, I've already cleaned all the hard floors and done all of his laundry. I shrug and look around for what to do next. Wandering into the dining room, I see a layer of dust on the cabinet. “I can do this.” I head back to the closet and grab one of the feathery sticks and start working on dusting the whole house. I dust the cabinets, the living room, my room, his bookshelves, everything.

When I finish, I'm exhausted yet… Somehow proud. I was happy with my work and kind of wanted Luke to be happy with how I'd done. I wonder if there's anything else I can clean.