Sam could hardly contain his excitement as he carried his duffel bag full of clothes inside the foyer of the pristine mansion of Victoria Walters, a neighbor and close friend to his mother, Linda. Victoria was an incredibly successful businesswoman, a career-oriented woman who had created a real estate empire from the ground up, designing state of the art homes and office buildings for high-profile celebrities and businesses with cutting-edge technology. Now in the summer of his final year of college, Sam was presented with the opportunity of a lifetime; to take care of Victoria’s house for several weeks while she and Linda enjoyed a vacation in Europe, and he would get paid while doing so.
How could he pass this up? A summer all to himself while living in the lap of luxury, and no one to stop him from playing video games in Victoria’s massive home theater. He was only really given one restriction: Under any circumstances, no parties whatsoever. That wasn’t a hard ask for Sam, while he wasn’t necessarily a social outcast at school or anything like that, he didn’t exactly possess an all-encompassing social network either. To him, a night of high-definition graphics and surround sound audio to immerse himself in endless rounds of Sniper Strike was much more appealing than a bunch of dumb college kids getting drunk, throwing up, and passing out.
“I can’t thank you enough, Sammy,” a voice called out to him as he was smothered in a warm hug and the smell of perfume overwhelmed his nostrils. Victoria was only a few years younger than Linda, though the difference in her lavish rich and single lifestyle contrasted with the rigors of motherhood on a smaller income set them visually further apart, but Sam would obviously never admit that to his mother. Nevertheless, he was always stricken by Victoria’s beauty as she was always on top of the latest health, beauty, and fashion trends.
As he was freed from the embrace, Sam found himself standing before the two women, Victoria with a cheerful smile on her face while Linda faced him with a stricter look of apprehension. “You better not spend all summer playing video games… You’ll be graduating in a year, so you should really take this time to work on your resume. And if I hear that you throw any parties here, there’s going to be hell to pay, mister!”
“Yeah mom, I know,” Sam automatically answered in monotone, having heard this lecture a hundred times before. Even still, while he intended to honor the one rule, internally he was only thinking about how Victoria never said that he couldn’t play games in her theater. “I’ll be fine here; you two have a great time in Europe!”
“Oh, we will!” Victoria beamed, as the two women began to roll their suitcases toward the front door. “I’ve set the home AI to guest-mode, so it should be able to handle all your basic requests. Also, here…” Victoria reached into her purse and pulled out a debit card, handing it to Sam. “Since you’ll have to do grocery shopping on your own, I’ve added a little extra in addition to your budget. I’m giving you your pay for this summer upfront, since I trust that you’ll spend it responsibly, right?”
Sam reached out to take the card, and Victoria didn’t let go until he gave her a meek nod of acknowledgement first. “I know I can count on you, Sammy,” Victoria smiled once again, reaching out to rustle his hair a little. Linda then pulled her son in for an embarrassing hug and a kiss before they both headed out the door, leaving Sam to himself.
“Now then, where to start?” Sam smiled, looking around.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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