The glittery unicorn horn wobbled when Ellie looked up at me, and my jaw clenched.
All four of them waited for my answer.
For the first time in a long time, I didn’t have a good way to spin this. Not a single believable excuse crossed my mind, and getting Ellie out of here without her visit spreading like wildfire to the other residents and staff was now impossible.
But I also didn’t need her riding down an elevator with these people and opening her big mouth even more.
Ignoring all of them, I maintained my firm grip on Ellie’s arm to keep her beside me while reaching inside the elevator. I hit the button for the lobby without looking.
The doors glided closed painfully slowly in the silence.
“I love your outfits!” Ellie called to the two workers right before the doors finished shutting.
Then I was left standing in my foyer with a trespassing unicorn who was under the delusion I’d hired her to…come over and cuddle?
Motherfu—
sunshine cuddle services
. . .
Cade
I’d thought the unicorn might’ve been sent here to kill me, but it seemed she’d come to deal irreparable damage to my reputation instead.
That might be worse.
I dragged my eyes off the elevator to look down at the unicorn.
Ellie’s lips parted as she stared at the closed doors, and a lightbulb went on behind her eyes. “Hold on. Does that mean Steve’s is a real company? I thought it was a cover you created for our appointment.”
Taking a deep breath for patience, I let go of her arm. “Why would I make up a cover? I didn’t know you were coming.”
Her brow pinched, and she absently rubbed her arm. “But if you didn’t hire me, then who did?”
“I wouldn’t know,” I said through a clenched jaw. “You said you were booked through an app?”
“Sunshine Cuddle Services,” she rattled off with a nod. “It’s the highest-rated professional cuddling app on the market.”
With a name like that, it was a surprise they were taken seriously at all.
I held out my hand, palm up. “Show me the booking.”
She carefully fished a phone out of her duffle bag, and my eye twitched at the glittery light blue case with cat paw charms hanging from it. The lock screen featured a close-up of a cat wearing a yellow hat and the grumpiest face I’d ever seen. Ellie opened an app before handing over the phone. “See? Cade Westbrook. There’s your address, as well as the date and time for us to meet.”
I scrolled through the appointment, spotting my name and building next to the time. No phone number was listed, but there was an area to send direct messages. Ellie had sent a couple dozen asking to be let into the building, with the amount of exclamation marks used growing with each message. They’d all gone unanswered.
There was also a short paragraph with my supposed preferences—including the nicknameCuddle Muffinand that I was “obsessed with all thingsunicorn.”
Kill me now.
Who could I possibly have pissed off enough to warrant this?
“Is there a problem?” Ellie asked, leaning closer to see the screen.
“Yes, there is.” I handed her phone back so I wouldn’t do something stupid like throw it at the wall. “That’s my information, but I didn’t hire you. Can you track the IP address of whoever created this profile?”
She blinked twice. “The what?”
