“Yes, for work,” I quickly add. “We’ll be crazy busy that time of the year. We’ll have a slight lull between Christmas and New Year, but after that, things really pick up.”
“O-kay,” she replies apprehensively.
“You’ll be paid extra, of course, and you told me once you like watching golf. This will give you the opportunity to see a PGA-level course in person.”
A slight smile crosses her lips. “That would be amazing.”
“Great, it’s settled then. Did you already book my room at the Avancé Hotel?”
Running her pen over her notes, she says, “No, but it’s on my list to get you the penthouse suite.”
“Right. There’s an attached suite you can book for yourself.”
She seems taken aback. “Oh. I can just get myself a regular room. It’s no big deal.”
I shake my head sternly. “No, I need you close in case I need anything. Work-related,” I clarify.
Fucking hell, what am I doing?At least I didn’t insist she share my suite with me.
Mindy makes a few notes and nods. “Anything else?”
“No, I think that’s about it.” She stands and leaves, and as I watch her perfect rear end sway out the door, I inwardly groan,I’ll just be in here kicking my own ass.
Small flurries of snow amble from the sky and dust the shoulders of my black coat as I exit the Hale building at the end of the day. I stick my hands in the pockets of my jacket and remind myself to pick up a new pair of gloves since one of mine went missing. Antonio waits at the sidewalk with my car.
“I just checked the weather app, and the roads should be good for another few hours,” he reports. “The temperature will drop about ten tonight, and all this will start sticking.”
“Thanks, Antonio,” I tell him gratefully as he opens the back doorfor me. I have one foot inside when a flash of red hair catches my eyes. Looking down the street, I see Mindy about a block away. Walking.
“What the hell is she doing walking in this weather?” I ask no one in particular, straightening so I can watch her. She’s bundled in her coat, but she’s not even wearing a hat or warm boots.
My feet begin walking, and I hear Antonio mutter a “Feck’s sake” before locking the door and jogging to catch up to me. By the time we make it to the end of the block, a city bus pulls up to the curb ahead of us and Mindy climbs on.
I halt and turn to look at my driver. He looks as perplexed as I feel. “Where’s her car?”
“I haven’t seen the blue one in the lot in quite a while. I thought maybe she got a new one,” he replies. When I continue to stare, he finally blows out the most exasperated sigh I’ve ever heard and smacks me between the shoulder blades. “Get in the car, lad. We’ll follow the damn bus.”
Two minutes later, we’ve caught up with the lumbering vehicle, and almost thirty minutes after that, we see her emerge at a stop in a neighborhood that could only be described as shady. The buildings are all shabby, and there are only two businesses that I can see on this street. Both of those have bars on the windows.
I’m in the front seat with Antonio, and I lean forward to see better through the windshield wipers brushing away the snow that’s begun coming down harder in the past half hour. He drives at a distance behind Mindy, and we watch as she walks to the end of the block and turns left to walk up a short flight of steps.
This building is just as bad as the others in the area, with bricks falling off in some places and heavy iron bars over all the windows.
Antonio pulls up the car alongside the curb across the street. We both duck our heads, and a few minutes later, a light comes on in a window on the third floor.
My driver states the obvious. “She lives here.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely not,” I growl, pulling out my phone and dialing Mindy’s number.
“Hello?” she asks a little breathlessly.
“Ms. Espinoza, so sorry to bother you after work hours, but I was thinking about what you said earlier and wondering why you haven’t signed up for the Employee Housing Program.”
Antonio’s head turns slowly in my direction, his look a mixture of confusion and amusement. I ignore him.
“What is the Employee Housing Program?” she asks.
Yeah. That’s a good question. For the record, no program by that name exists at our company since I totally just pulled that idea out of my ass. However, I do own my entire apartment building, and I do have a couple tenants who are also employees since the proximity makes it a convenient place to live. So I roll with a version of that.
