The next morning was just as hectic as the day before, if not more so. People were rushing around, others were shouting orders. To say the least it was chaotic.

"Ruben!" I yelled when I spotted him hurrying down the hall. "Ruben wait!" I ran after him, my longer than average legs getting me there quick. "What's wrong with you?" I asked once I caught up with him.

He just glared at me in response. I threw my hands up. He sighed and rolled his big brown eyes. "You were a jerk last night and I'm mad." I nodded.

"Ok yea I will admit I was not at my finest hour last night, and I am sorry I was rude to you." I apologized.

He nodded and smiled. He rested his empty arm around my shoulders. "Good. Now that that's taken care of, what are you going to wear to the party tomorrow night?" He asked excited.

I frowned. "What party?"

"What party! What do you mean what party? The party we've been preparing for the last couple of days. Duh! Where have you been." He explained looking at me like I was the biggest idiot around. Which could actually be debated.

"What? Why are we having a party? Why did no one tell me about it?" He shrugged.

"Boss is hosting the prime minister of England. Their making some sort of deal. But bigger than that I heard he's bringing his sons." He subconsciously licked his lips.

I looked at him with wide eyes and slid out from underneath his arms. I stopped in front of him. I stared at him with wide eyes until he understood what he just said.

"I-uh you know I-i meant for you of course." He was beat red, and the more he stumbled over his words the redder he got.

"Oh c'mon! Just admit it already. I pretty much already knew." I smirked and he sighed and shook his head and started walking past me pushing me out of the way.

I groaned. "Hey?! What's wrong." He shook again and pulled me into the nearest room that was usually unoccupied. "Why are you so worked up about this it's not that big of a deal."

"Yes it is!!" He said a bit louder than normal. I raised my eyebrows. "You don't understand. I'm gay Jessica. I'm ot. Allowed. To. Be. gay. Joseph dosent employ gay people he thinks that their week or whatever. His father was extremely homophobic, and he's just like him. I can't let anyone find out. I can't loose this job. It's all I got. These people here are all I got. They're my family." He said defeated.

I stayed silent for a moment. Not really understanding, or knowing how to sympathize with him. "You know that I won't ever tell anyone. Not if you don't want me to. I didn't realize it was such a big deal. If I had I wouldn't have kept bugging you about it."

He stared at me and then smiled slightly. "It does feel kind of good to talk to someone about it." He laughed a little. I smiled too and laughed with him.

"Let's go big guy. We have a party to help set up." I hooked my arm through his and pulled him along with me. I helped him carry some stuff down to a part of the mansion I had never been to.

"This is it." He said as we opened the doors to reveal a huge room that could easily fit hundreds of people. It was decorated beautifully. Tapestries hung from the walls and white curtains were hung along the windows. The ceiling had beautiful pictures hung and carved into it. The room over all took my breath away. It looked like something you would see in the Middle Ages.

Ruben chuckled beside me. "Beautiful ain't it. People love to come to Joseph's parties just because of this room. He takes a lot of pride in it and he takes the job of making sure everything looks prefect upon himself." I nodded in surprise and followed Ruben.

"Surprising. I didn't take Joseph for the interior designing type." I admitted chuckling at the thought of a big bad mafia boss picking out colors and flowers. I shook my head, it shouldn't be a huge deal that he liked to do that kind of thing.

Just as I got done with my laughing fit Ruben stopped and I smashed into his back. "Aww Ruben what the-" I stopped talking when I saw the reason he stopped.

"Boss, I brought the decorations you asked for." Ruben said and lifted the items in his hands. I nodded and did the same.

He nodded his head, expression completely neutral as always. His hands were clasped behind his back making his shoulders look huge and his arms look ripped. I gulped. I didn't know if I should've been scared or turned on.

"Good thank you Ruben." He continued on talking to him as if I wasn't even there. I huffed and walked off after a couple of minutes. I set the white flowers I was holding down, the moment I did they were snatched up by one of the maids.

I roamed around the room. I let my fingers touch whatever they wanted and the silky soft curtains had caught their attention. The room looked so bright and cheerful. I closed my eyes and let the warmth from the window rest on my face.

"The view is great isn't it." His voice startled me. My hand whipped out and smacked him hard in the chest on reflex. My eyes widened when I saw him cough slightly.

"Oh my.. I'm so sorry I didn't mean to. You scared me.." I apologized.

He shook his head. "It's quite alright. It's reflex. I shouldn't have scared you like that. That's good anyways. It means that you have the fight instinct, not the flight. I like that." He smirked.

"Oh. That's... good." Was all my brain could come up with. I nodded awkwardly.

"What do you think?"he asked motioning to the grand room behind him.

I smiled. "It looks flawless. Seriously I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life." I praised. "I didn't take you for the interior designing type." I teased slightly as I walked forward.

I swear he grimaced slightly. "I'm not." He defended. "But I have an important guest coming over and I need to impress him. I can't have some measly maid doing such an important job." He said seriously without looking at me. He avoided my eyes like the plague.

I didn't like defensive Joseph I decided. "Relax, I was kidding. I think it's cute." I smiled at him and he didn't return it.

"I'm not cute." I heard him mumble under his breath as he walked away from me. I sighed and shook my head. He sure didn't like to be embarrassed.

After awhile I decided that I was doing no good here and left. I walked to the kitchen to see what they were doing there. In the short time I had been staying here they were some of the few people that had been kind to me. They were all old and wrinkly. But that also meant they had a lot of experience, and just generally they were nicer.

"Jessica!" One of the oldest ladies Marylyn came up to me and enveloped me in a light hug, avoiding touching me with her hands which were covered in flour. "What are you doing here child." She asked getting back to her work. She was on a timeline.

" I was wondering if you needed help with anything."

"Oh honey we could always use an extra hand." She pointed toward the cutting board next to her. "All that bread needs to be cut into slices." I obediently grabbed the knife and started cutting into the fresh bread.

Hours later the meal was finally ready. I looked around at the ladies. They really did have the hardest job in this place.

It was lunch so not many as many people would be eating as there would be at breakfast and dinner. It wasn't required to attend lunch because Joseph being the all caring and understanding person that he is.. knows that people have other things that they either can't finish or have to be to in the middle of the day.

I helped the women serve the plates of sandwiches and soup and a small side salads to all the people that showed up. Every plate looked like they were put together by a gourmet chef. I was in the group that was in charge of serving the salads. I set one down in front of every plate that I saw didn't already have one. I was so engrossed in my job that I didn't realize that I was standing right beside Joseph.

He grabbed my arm." What are you doing?" He asked politely looking up at me.

"Oh I was just helping the cooks they looked like they-"

"Your not a cook, so I don't want you in the kitchen. He hand slid down from my wrist to my hand. "Please sit." He said gentler. He motioned to an empty seat beside him that for the first time since I'd been here was empty.

I nodded and gulped sending apologetic looks to the women I had abandoned. They nodded their heads and smiled giving me thumbs up and suggestive looks. I scoffed lightly and looked down at my lap blushing slightly.

"Do you know where Cameron went? I haven't seen him for a few days and I was wondering if you knew where he was." I asked breaking the awkward silence between us. He clenched his jaw and gripped his fork harder in his hand.

"Cameron is gone." Was all he said. I got the distinct feeling that when he said gone he didn't mean dead gone, he meant left gone.

"So you don't know where he is." I asked again since he didn't really answer my question.

"Listen he's not here anymore. Don't ask." He finished and shoved a mouth full of Lettuce into his mouth. I nodded accepting that answer for now.

"You will be attending the party tomorrow night right." He asked seriously, looking me dead in the eyes like the subject really concerned him.

"Yes I'll be there." I shrugged. "It's not like I have anything else to do." I mumbled under my breath. I heard him cough and then chuckle slightly. I smiled secretly over joyed that I had been able to make the most sober man I had ever met smile.

"Touché." He said and smiled slightly. I blushed red at that. His smile was a rare sight to see, and one that I never wanted to forget.

His phone rang making him break the eye contact that we were holding. The loose smile on his face melted off instantly and the stern cold one that was almost always plastered there returned. I sighed and rested my head on my hand.

"Hello?" He talked for a couple for seconds before hanging up and leaving without another word. This seemed to be a daily occurrence lately.

His seat sat empty for the rest of the meal. No one in their right mind would sit in the bosses seat. Even if he wasn't around he would find out whether it be from Matthias, or one of the other die hard Joseph Copland fans. So I basically spent the rest of the meal alone and silent, because Ruben and Joseph weren't here, and they're the only people that had ever bothered to speak to me.

I left lunch early due to the snacking I had been doing constantly over the last few hours in the kitchen. My plate was still full.

*****

I wasn't kidding when I said earlier that there was nothing better that I would be doing tomorrow night. There really was no responsibility that I had. Technically my title was a whore so I guess that meant I was supposed to be having sex with people, but I was exempt from that responsibility too so.. Pretty much that meant I was bored out of my mind every day.

I walked aimlessly throughout the halls and wondered to myself why Ruben wasn't here if he was assigned to be my personal body guard. Maybe they were understaffed. I nodded there was a lot of people killed in the last attack on the mansion. That was probably why I was seeing less and less of him.

I wandered out onto the back patio and sat on one of the benches sitting there. I picked up a magazine sitting in a basket next to the bench and started reading about the worlds most recent gossip. Soon enough the words started to blur together and my eye lids got heavier and harder to pry open.