When the super opened his apartment door, a suspicious chemical smell assaulted his nostrils. Maybe it wafted in from outside? Jules followed the strange odor downstairs. It seemed a little stronger on the first floor. He sniffed outside apartments 1A and 1B. It didn’t seem to be coming from either of the men’s apartments—although it didn’t smell like dirty gym socks anyway.
He opened the front door and the odor vanished.Nope. It’s definitely coming from inside. Great. Just what I need—a unibomber in my building.
Maybe it was coming from the basement. As he neared the basement door at the back of the hall, the scent became stronger and a little more distinct.Alcohol?When he opened the door, the smell intensified.
Jules heard the sound of scurrying feet followed by girls giggling.Holy crap. What am I walking into?He thought about calling the police for a moment, but Jason Falco, the landlord and his boss, had made it clear he wanted to avoid drawing attention to the building at all costs. Well, it didn’t seem to be a unibomber, so that meant investigating giggling girls fell to Jules.
He switched on the light at the top of the stairs and tip toed past a few cobwebs. Yeah, he’d have to brush those away later.Nearing the bottom step, he glanced around. A light was on in the laundry room, so he checked there first. It was empty.
A few snickers led him to the storage side. He looked past stacked boxes and old furniture but couldn’t see anyone.
“Okay girls, I can hear you. Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
Peals of laughter gave them away, and the two women from the third floor came stumbling out into the open. They may have been giggling like little girls, but they swayed like a couple of old drunks.
“Isn’t this a strange place to have a party?” he asked.
The young redhead sidled up to him and grasped his arm. “We was just…My, what big muscles you have!”
Proud of his swimmer’s body, Jules flexed his bicep.
She gasped and stroked the sizable bulge under his shirt sleeve. “I do declare! You must be strong as a bull. Do y’all work out?”
“I’m a swimmer.”
“Well, I’ll be. Who knew swimmers could get so virile?” She leaned in closer to him. “I bet you could help me move my bed with one hand tied behind your back.” He smelled alcohol on her breath—not that he needed much confirmation of what she and her cousin had been up to.
“Gwyneth, isn’t it?”
“Uh huh, and you are Jules, right? Jules Vernon?”
“Yes, and I’m afraid as building super, I need to ask you and your cousin to move your party to your private residences.”
“Well now, we was just about to do that anyways. Y’all want to come with us? They say three’s a crowd, but I druther think of it as threes a party!”
Jules relaxed his guard. He knew she was flirting with him, but she was so darned cute. Who could get mad at her? The otherone watched silently, but he couldn’t complain about that either. He liked his women cute and quiet.
“Thanks for your kind offer, Gwyneth, but I was just investigating the smell of alcohol coming from down here. Do you girls know why it’s so strong?”
Gwyneth giggled and said, “Well, we may have had a tiny bit to drink.” She pinched her index finger and thumb almost together. She widened the gap, giggled harder and eventually managed to admit, “Okay. A littlemorethan a little.”
“So why are you down here?”
She shrugged. The other woman jumped in. “It’s neutral territory. My cousin and I had a spat recently, but we managed to talk it out down here and we were just shelebrating—I mean celebrating.”
“Well, I’m glad you worked things out.” He glanced down at the cute redhead, and she gazed up at him, batting her eyelashes.
“I’ll bet you have lots of swimmin’ metals, Jules, like those Olympic athletes.” Her eyes seemed to glow—or maybe that was just the low light hitting her glazed green irises. “Would you like to show them to me?” She wrapped her hands around either side of his arm.
“I don’t have any metals, but that’s because I never really competed.”
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that. Y’all woulda had a houseful of trophies by now, I bet.”
He simply smiled. Too bad having races with his fellow mermen didn’t count.
“Listen, I’m feelin’ a bit wobbly. Would you mind helpin’ me climb them stairs? You don’t mind if I monopolize him, do ya, Morgaine?”
“No, not at all. You go have fun. I’ll head up in a minute.”
