renee couldn’t believe how messy Miss Megan’s house was. This woman, who gave people life advice as a profession, never even ran the dishwasher!

All her life, renee had lived with neat freaks. Her father worked on a nuclear submarine before becoming a teacher, so he kept every part of his life absolutely perfectly ordered. And so, therefore, had renee, even long after moving out.

The file system on her computer was intricate.

her penmanship was immaculate.

she had perfect pitch and a perfect sense of time, which might’ve been a coincidence, but she wanted an excuse to brag.

And living in Miss Megan’s harem was twenty-four/seven chaos. One mistress, seven other love slaves, and not one of them seemed to have heard of closing the door when they’re using the bathroom. Half-consumed green tea bottles on every flat surface, underwear hung on any and every piece of furniture, and worst of all, a completely unsorted bookshelf. It was a wonder that bills got paid.

she asked tanya about it one night; “i guess i got used to it,” she said. Absolute nonsense, of course.

she spoke to Miss Megan the next day; “if you want to clean up, go for it,” she replied. “Do you feel affinity for the maid archetype?” She didn’t, for the record; she was going for the “sexy secretary” archetype, which is a related but distinct role. And besides, this story already has seven maids with their own thing going on, which renee didn’t want to step on.

“Miss Megan,” she replied hotly. “Can’t you just hire a maid? This is an eight-income household. Surely we can afford it?”

Miss Megan smiled that rare smile, which admittedly caused renee’s stomach to flutter for a moment before her frustration came back. “Why, renee,” she said, “that’s a wonderful idea. Find someone beautiful for us.”

“No, i mean…” renee stumbled. “I meant, like, just hiring them and not adding them to the harem.”

The smile disappeared, and immediately, renee’s spine became ice.

“renee,” Miss Megan said, looking her directly in the eyes. “Please hire us a beautiful maid.”

renee held Miss Megan’s gaze for only a moment, before looking immediately down at her shoes. she felt her face become hot and her eyes prick with tears. “Y-yes, Miss Megan. i’ll get started immediately.”

she scurried away. A fine mess she’d gotten herself into.