BELLA
Victor and Lucas were having a conversation at the bar while Bella sat on the sofa with Rosemary and Taylor. Vera, the housekeeper, walked in with an ice bucket containing a bottle of champagne. She placed it on the bar in front of Victor.
“You know he’s crazy about you?” Rosemary whispered.
Bella assumed that the question was rhetorical, so she didn’t answer. She was too busy watching Vera flirt shamelessly with Lucas. Bella had never seen anyone take so long to open a bottle of champagne. Thankfully, Lucas’ behavior was nothing more than polite. Unfortunately, his indifference only served as fuel for the woman’s advances. She started to find reasons to touch his arm, place her hand on his back, or place her hand over his. Lucas finally figured out the woman’s play and retreated to the other end of the bar. When it looked like Vera was trying to inch her way closer to him, Bella hopped up from the sofa, walked over to Vera, and grabbed the bottle of champagne.
“Don’t get fucked up,” Bella warned the flirtatious domestic.
Bella popped the cork, poured champagne into a glass, and handed it to Lucas. She poured her own glass, narrowed her eyes at the housekeeper, and walked back over to the sofa. She left the woman with a terrified look on her face.
“That’ll be all, Vera. Thank you,” Taylor told the housekeeper.
“Yes, ma’am,” she replied before scurrying out of the recreation room.
Bella looked up and Lucas. He was donning the silliest grin. Surely, his head was swollen from watching Bella mark her territory. Or he could have very well been thinking,‘How the hell did she go from I don’t want you, Lucas, to I’ll beat a bitch’s ass?’
Bella rolled her eyes at Lucas and looked over at Taylor. “You need to get rid of that trick,” Bella warned. “She’s gonna be walking around naked in front of your man soon.”
“I concur,” Rosemary mumbled. “She won’t letmestay, but she’d allow that tart in her house?”
Taylor rolled her eyes and got up to pour her own champagne. But, when she looked back, Bella could see that she and Rosemary had put something on her mind. It was almost a guarantee that Miss Vera was as good as gone.
