Chapter 165 - University Preparations

After taking the social media world by storm, Scarlet was finally home. It had taken her a while to get used to the Wilde mansion but things were finally progressing. Her early graduation from college made her the youngest student to study for a Philosophy degree at the University of New York East. The school was an hour's drive from the Wilde mansion and it wasn't very convenient to travel to and fro daily even if there was a driver. Hence, the girls were now apartment hunting in Brooklyn.

As expected, Claire was living in the apartment as the girls' guardian. Tina had to return to Singapore to attend her daughter's wedding. The goodbye was tearful and Scarlet promised to see the bubbly caretaker after she graduated. Tina told the writer to take her time and enjoy campus life.

"Make more friends and enjoy your youth. You are still young, there is no rush to grow up," Tina said and gave Scarlet a tight hug at the airport.

The loyal caretaker then turned to Alex. Even though she hadn't been by Alex's side for a few years, Alex was still dear to her. Instead of hugging the model like a child, Tina decided to go for a pat.

"It's been a while since I last had the chance to see you and my goodness how you've grown!" the lady laughed and patted the model's head.

Alex blushed a little when Tina complimented her. Still, all good things had to come to an end and Tina had to leave. The driver helped to load Tina's luggage into the boot and the household became quieter after Tina left.

Now that the caretaker had left, the girls went back inside to look over the materials Jenna helped to gather about apartments in New York. Alex poured through the bigger apartments with more than five rooms but didn't like the design of it. The interior designs reminded her of the Victorian era and not even the Wilde mansion which was an actual castle had any of those bulky and tasteless antiques.

"Don't they have anything that's spacious and more modern with a good view?" the model couldn't help but ask after rejecting six of the proposed locations.

Mrs Wilde said that the girls will have to find one within Brooklyn Heights because that was where the heiress had the most contacts. Not to mention, it was one of the safer places in New York City even if Brooklyn was also known for having one of the highest crime rates. Claire went to scout the area and claimed that only some parts of Brooklyn were dangerous to visit because of the poverty in those areas. However, as Claire will be escorting both ladies to their schools by car, it would only take ten minutes per trip. Talk about a real tale of two boroughs!

Scarlet didn't like the idea of living in an apartment similar to the size of the penthouse that they had back in Singapore. She felt that Claire would never be able to finish cleaning something so huge but a studio apartment couldn't host three ladies who needed their space. At the same time, Scarlet thought about Claire and wanted to find an apartment with gym facilities for Claire. Not to mention, Scarlet thought that she needed the gym badly if she wanted to retain all her tone muscles that she worked hard to get for her last film.

"Are there any three-bedroom apartments with gym facilities in Brooklyn Heights?" she asked and Claire helped to select a few suitable apartments that matched Scarlet's criteria.

After looking through the pictures, Scarlet found that she liked a particular one although it was rather low on the priority list in Orita's opinion.

"Alex, what do you think about this?" Scarlet asked her sister who glanced at it.

The building was newly completed and had a hundred apartments in it with ten floors with the top floor being a pool, barbecue terrace and sky garden. The floor below it was a gym, some children's playroom and other facilities like function rooms and meeting rooms that residents of the building can book. The first floor was the reception and car parks so effectively speaking, the building had only seven levels worth of apartments ranging from studio to four bedrooms.

The one thing that Alex did like was the view from the window of the higher floors. The building was built near the waterfront and had a beautiful city park five minutes on foot away from it. The bay view of Hudson river was breath-taking. The model only regretted that they couldn't see Brooklyn bridge from it because there was another tall apartment building blocking it but on the whole, the apartment that Scarlet liked had all the requirements the artist wanted.

"I think it's great! The rooms are spacious enough for desks and a bed. There's also a huge built-in wardrobe and I really like the modern design. The sitting room is large and comes with an open concept kitchenette with a washing machine. I guess they took the idea from the UK?"

Scarlet laughed. It was accurate. Only in England did the dishwasher and washing machine go side by side in the kitchen. She was initially surprised to find that out from Alex when her sister told her about it on one of her work trips however it soon became a norm for them.

"You can put your easels in the sitting room and work on your art projects too, I think there's more than enough space," Scarlet said and Alex agreed.

Claire took a look at what looked like the girls' selection and frowned. "Will you girls be alright? There's only one bathroom in this apartment. Also, there isn't a balcony."

Scarlet looked at the head maid. "Is that going to be a problem?"

Claire looked over to Alex with a disapproving look. "Unlike you, Alex takes an hour when she showers."

Orita only laughed at the side when Alex started bickering with Claire again. It wasn't the first time Alex and the head maid argued about what a reasonable shower time was. Scarlet usually only took fifteen to twenty minutes to shower but her sister took after Orita and took an hour to complete the beauty routine. Claire, on the other hand, took less than ten minutes to get cleaned and not even Jenna could understand how the head maid did it so quickly.

Scarlet couldn't help but laugh when Alex started to point out Claire's shower habits. The decade-long mystery was finally solved when Alex spilt the beans.

"Head and body 2-in-1 shampoo and bath gels don't count as proper care! Also, one doesn't brush their teeth and floss while in the shower. Don't you feel sorry for lacking proper routine and care? I don't even see you using a cleanser!"

Claire rolled her eyes. "I don't understand how you need to use at least twenty products in one shower. What do you actually do? Drink them?"

Alex felt her eyebrow twitch. As a model, taking care of her looks was very important. From a young age, Mrs Wilde had taught her a lot about how to take care of herself. However, Claire mocked her daily beauty routine and it was starting to get on Alex's nerves.

"Listen, unlike you, I need to be very careful about what I do. Since you don't understand why I need at least an hour, let me explain. First, you need to remove make-up with the make-up remover. Then you need to start cleansing your skin. Then you take a shower. After shampooing and rinsing, there's something you use to keep your hair soft called the conditioner. After you condition the hair you wash your body and at this point, you need to also exfoliate the dead skin cells. Once that's done, you've taken up at least twenty minutes."

Claire wasn't amused and Scarlet wasn't surprised. This was her daily shower routine too. Then Alex continued. "If you think that's finished, you're wrong. Once you finish you need to apply hair serum and oils. Once the hair is done, you need to move on to the face. You need to use a toner to close up all the pores and then use treatment serum to tighten it or repair the damaged skin during the day. Once you're done you apply moisturiser. After that's done you apply body butter then brush and floss your teeth before blowing your hair dry. That's the actual bath routine and that's the remaining forty minutes that you don't seem to understand."

Hearing it, Scarlet felt slightly inferior as a woman. She was also in the entertainment industry so why wasn't she aware of it? Claire only rolled her eyes at the model while Orita enjoyed the good show. Not even Jenna knew what to say after hearing what Alex explained. She knew that a lady's bathroom routine was usually a secret but to think that both mother and daughter shared a similar routine… it must be difficult to be a true lady. For the first time, the lady butler was happy that there was something she didn't have to assist her lady with. She didn't think she would get anything past the twenty-minute routine right and she wasn't the only one.