Blame It on Paris

Michael, Craig, and Ken were sitting by the gate, laughing, as Ollie entertained them by trying to dance to the music that Craig was playing on his phone.

“Your kid’s a riot!” Ken snickered as he watched Ollie shake his diaper-covered bottom.

“He totally gets it from me!” Craig guffawed. “As his godfather, I am responsible for more than anyone had realized!”

Michael rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say, Craig!”

“When is the nanny supposed to get here?” Ken asked.

Michael glanced at his watch. “She should have landed about 10 minutes ago. She is supposed to meet us here.”

“And what does she look like?” Ken inquired.

“From what I could tell from her video, the pictures from her parents’ house, and the way they described her, she has dark red hair, gray eyes, and glasses. A typical bookworm.” Michael ticked off from memory.

The three men talked and played with Ollie for a few more minutes before they were interrupted.

“Mr. Whitlock?”

They all looked up and were stunned speechless at the woman before them. Craig was the first to snap out, elbowing his best friend, “Um yeah, sorry! I’m Michael Whitlock; you must be Anelise.” He stood up and extended his hand.

“Yes, I’m Anelise. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said, smiling and shaking his hand. They both felt a spark run through their skin when their hands touched. Craig and Ken were still staring at her with their mouths open.

“Meet my best friend Craig Johnson, an attorney with the company, and Ken Banks who handles HR and labor laws,” Michael said.

He then reached for Ollie and picked him up. “And this is Ollie. Ollie, buddy, this is Anelise. She’s going to play with you while Daddy is at work.”

Ollie was adorable, and Anelise was instantly in love with him. He had big brown eyes that sparkled, short, light brown hair, and a mischievous smile that made her heart melt.

“Hi, Ollie. My name is Ani,” she said softly, and Michael felt Ollie lean toward her. “Hi, Ani!”

Michael set Ollie down and kneeled next to him. “Why don’t you show Ani what toys you have in your backpack?”

Anelise kneeled next to Ollie and began talking to him softly, so Michael stood back up and looked at the men next to him in shock. After Anelise and Ollie got to know each other a bit, she stood up and looked at them.

“Mr. W-, I mean, Michael, they told me to check in with the gate attendant once I got here to make sure my luggage made it to this flight. I will be right back,” she said sweetly, and they watched her walk to the ticket counter.

They just stood there, watching her talk to the flight attendant. She was wearing black jeans, artfully torn, a white t-shirt with a bright-blue cardigan over it, and matching Converse shoes. Her hair was pulled back into a long, thick braid.

“Dude!” Craig hissed, elbowing his best friend. “She is no fucking bookworm! She is like a playboy bunny!”

“She is not what I was expecting at all!” Michael responded, his heart beating erratically in his chest.

“I don’t usually say crap like this, but she is hot, and I am actually a little jealous that you get to stay in the same room with her!” Ken whispered. “You are gonna be a horny mess!”

“Mickey, you are royally fucked with this girl! You’ll have to just keep reminding yourself that she is your nanny!” Craig said, causing a pained expression to wash over Michael’s face.

“I feel horrible saying this since I am old enough to be her father, but if that’s what master’s level students look like, I’m going back to school!” Ken declared.

Anelise, while in line to speak with the gate agent, sent a text to Megan: “At the gate, found the Whitlocks”

She instantly received a reply, “Where is Dad on the ‘Matt Douglas Scale’?”

Ani took a deep breath and typed, “Blows the scale out of the water!”

“Are you serious?!”

“Totally serious!”

“Never thought I would see the day any man could reset our scale of hotness and sex-god abilities! Need pics!”

“Can’t promise anything!!”

Anelise finished her enquiry and made her return. The men pretended to be cool when she came back. “All set. At least I won’t be naked when we get to the hotel!” she innocently commented.

All three men chuckled as she went back to Ollie for a little chat.

“Yep, you are fucked, Mickey!” Craig whispered.

“Daddy!” Ollie squealed, and Michael turned to his son, ignoring his friends. “Look book!”

He was holding a new Paw Patrol coloring book. “Wow buddy! That is so cool! Did Anelise get that for you?” Michael asked. His son jumped up and down yelling yes and then showed Craig and Ken his newest treasure.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Michael said with a smile.

“I know, but from one of the videos you sent me, I found that Ollie is pretty obsessed with them, so I had to make sure we got off on the right foot,” she explained.

“You are right. I will give you that!” Michael smiled. “I just want to say thanks again for doing this. I can’t tell you what this means.”

“No, really the pleasure is all mine! This is like a dream come true, Mr. Whitlock.” She smiled, and he felt a tightening in his pants.

“Please call me Michael. Now, if we survive the flight, we are doing okay, Anelise,” he chuckled.

“And please call me Ani. No one calls me Anelise except for my parents,” she noted, wrinkling her nose.

Noticing this, Michael realized he was going to have to find out what that was about. He then nodded. “Ani it is.”

Ollie quickly climbed up in her lap when she sat down, and they looked through the coloring book and talked about what was on each page.

“Looks like your son is completely taken with her,” Craig whispered. “Just like his father!”

Ken snickered but then tried to disguise it with a cough. Michael hissed at him, “Shut the fuck up!”

Four hours later, Ollie was fast asleep on Anelise’s lap. Michael put away the folder he was reading and looked at Anelise, who was reading a battered copy of some book and had a pen and a small pack of sticky notes.

“What are you reading?”

Anelise looked up and smiled. “One of my favorites, Wuthering Heights. It’s part of my paper.”

“What are you working on for your paper?”

“Well, I completely changed my topic after you called. This was my chance to really dig deeper into the Brontë sisters and their influence on the classic romance novel.”

“How many Brontë sisters are there?”

“Three. They had a really fascinating story and wrote some of my all-time favorite novels... I am a hopeless romantic.”

Michael noticed she was blushing and loved the rosy tint on her skin. “Is that a bad thing?”

“Well, it depends on who you ask…”

“I’m asking you,” he clarified.

Anelise shook her head. “I don’t think so. It’s working for me right now, and hopefully, it will translate to my paper!”

Michael chuckled. “Well, good luck!”

“Can I ask a question?” Anelise asked timidly.

“We are going to be around each other for a while, so I think that makes you entitled to a few questions.” He smiled. He loved her facial expressions and noticed that she would bite and chew her lip when nervous.

And every time she did that, for some damn reason, it hit him straight in the dick and made him hard. He immediately thought of accounting terms to calm himself down.

“Where is Ollie’s mom?” she asked cautiously.

Michael sighed. “Well, that’s a long story, which would probably take longer than this flight would. But the Cliffs Notes version is, she will not be a problem. I don’t know where she is, and she doesn’t know that we are here.”

Ani nodded. “Ok…”

“Ani, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you, it’s just that...shit…that I…” She saved him by interrupting, “Tell me when you are ready. I was just making sure that an angry woman wasn’t going to be busting down the door to get to him.”

Michael smiled. “Thanks for understanding. No crazy woman coming here, I promise!”

They smiled and continued to talk as Ollie slept, both of their work long forgotten as they got to know each other.

Craig watched from across the aisle, next to a napping Ken, and thought that in the next few months, things were certainly going to get interesting between his best friend and the playboy bombshell.