Xander went to pick up his luggage and to cancel his hotel room during the next hour, while I cleaned my painting supply and canvas from the room. I put everything in the corner of my bedroom, trying to make sure nothing would fall on my bed, as the room was not really big.

I then opened the Murphy bed and put pillows and everything on there, and tried to make it as comfortable as possible.

As it was taking Xander a while and it was getting late, I gave Eloim one of my shirts and put him to bed. I didn’t have children’s books, but I found one ebook that looked nice and read him a story from my phone. Miki laid next to him and he fell asleep with his hand on his back. Lily was purring next to his head.

I got up slowly after I was sure he would not wake, and moved out of the room, closing the light and door.

Miki jumped off the bed as he never goes far from me, but Lilly stayed, purring loudly.

I was preparing for bed when I heard a knock on the door.

“Eloim is asleep,” I told him. “Here,” I gave him a key of the place. “Just make sure to remember to give it back before you leave.”

He nodded.

“I’ll have to leave early tomorrow and should be back for dinner,” I said.

He nodded. “I will leave only in the afternoon and should be back before you.”

“You will take Eloim with you?”

“I had chosen a hotel with a daycare service and arranged to continue to use their services. They aren’t too far, it should be fine.”

I nodded.

“Goodnight Mila, and thank you.”

“Goodnight Xander.”

When I got back from work, Xander was at his laptop, sitting at the kitchen table, typing rapidly in sharp staccatos. Eloim was sitting on the couch, watching some cartoon and petting Lily, and probably Miki too before I arrived and the dog rushed to meet me.

“Where is Miki’s leash?” I asked as it wasn’t where I’d left it.

“Eloim, where is Miki’s leash?” asked Xander.

Eloim got up, came up to me, and gave me a hug, then he rummaged around and gave me the leash.

Xander was looking at this scene curiously. “We walked him an hour ago,” he told me.

“Really?”

“Eloim has gotten it in his head to be the caretakers of both cat and dog when you’re away.”

“Wow, that’s really kind of you,” I told Eloim giving him a hug.

So I put the leash back in its spot, clearly not needing it, and went to the kitchen to prepare something.

“Thanks,” I told Xander.

He acknowledged me, but busied at his computer.

I let him work and prepared a sauté.

We ate together and got into a sort of routine for the next following days.

I would leave early most days and return around dinner nearly every day except on Fridays and Saturdays. When I’d be back, I’d ask Eloim what he did during the day. At first he said a few words at best, but after four days, I was getting complete sentences, and after seven, I was given the full recollection, step by step, of his day.

Every time something like this would occur, I would catch Xander look at us in fascination.

There were good roommates, and we got along. I didn’t paint for that whole week, but we watched a few movies together in the evening.

“You work seven days a week, or is this week an exception?” Xander asked me one evening.

Eloim was sitting between us and he had fallen asleep, his head against his father’s side.

“I generally work seven days,” I said.

“That’s a lot.”

“I don’t have a high paying job and rent is not cheap,” I admitted.

He nodded absentmindedly while looking at the TV.

“Have you thought of working with children?”

“No, I don’t think I have what it takes.”

He looked at me incredulously.

“I would have loved to be an artist, but alas, it’s more a viable hobby than a job.”

“Your painting is pretty decent.”

“It needs to be more than decent to pay the rent. And I’d need to do more of them more often to be able to build a sustainable career, and I can’t do this while working two jobs, but I can’t sustain my lifestyle without them either. It’s a Catch-22.”

“What if you could get a job with less hours and a better pay?”

“Sure, when I find it, I’ll take it,” I said.

He was moving his arms under Eloim to move him to bed, carefully not to wake him up. Lily followed them like she did nearly every night now, but Miki stayed by my side. That dog is very dependent.

Once he was tucked in and the door was nearly closed—Lily would go to bed with him and snuggle for a while, but if we closed the door, she’d start scratching on the door nearly right away.

“Have you ever considered being a nanny?” Xander asked me when he was back in the living-room.

I shook my head. “No, I always thought it was either for a glorified babysitter with a worst salary than I already have, or for someone highly educated for a rich family.”

He shrugged. “I don’t need either, but I need someone who can get through to him, and you can. Plus, you would work from home, it could be a lot easier to mix this with something like painting.”

“Are you offering me a job?”

“I actually am,” he admitted. “I’ve watched you for nearly two weeks with him, and you’re really great. You’d be a wonderful nanny.”

At that moment, Eloim came to the door and said, “No.”

We both looked at him.

“Mila is not my nanny.”

“Why is that Pumkin?” asked Xander.

“Nanny leaves. I don’t want Mila to leave. I want her to be my mommy.”

We both stared at him in shock.