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Daniel drove Ali to her apartment complex so she could pick up her vehicle. It was a cold morning and all the cars that had been sitting outside had frost covering their windshields. There was a spot open next to her car, so he pulled up beside it. He put his SUV in park and held out his hand. “Give me your keys.”
She blinked at him. “I can...” The words died in her throat.
A long moment passed, then she placed her keys in his palm.
He disengaged his seat belt and reach for his door handle. “Do you have a scraper in the car?”
“Yes. It’s on the floor behind my seat.”
Daniel slid behind the wheel of her car long enough to get it started and to turn the heat on full blast. The cold air hit him square in the face, sending a shiver rippling through his body. He had no idea how people lived in colder climates.
Once the car was running, he retrieved the scraper from the back floorboard and began working on her windows. It came off without too much trouble, and he returned the scraper to where she had it stored.
He could feel Ali’s gaze on him as he made his way back to his car. The warm air surrounded him as he lowered himself into the driver’s seat. “We’ll give it a few more minutes for the heater to do its thing, and then you can be on your way to work.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“In case you get home before I do.” He paused. “The gate code is 3030. The code also works on the garage as well.”
She didn’t know what to say, so she remained quiet.
Ten minutes later, Ali got out of his car and into her own. She gave him a little wave as she drove off to work and he backed out of the space to do the same.
He drove to his office in downtown. It was early and the office was empty, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t work he could be doing. There were properties to review, research to do, and most importantly, he needed to find Ali somewhere to stay.
At eight o’clock, he placed a call to Rebecca, his property manager. She knew every one of his properties inside and out. If there was an opening at one of his rentals, she would know about it. “Good morning, Rebecca.”
“Daniel. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you this morning.” Her tone was pleasant, but he could hear her curiosity coming through. They met once a month to discuss his properties, but outside of that he only called her if there was an issue, or if he was turning another property over to her.
“I have a situation I’m hoping you can assist me with.”
“You know I will if I can.”
He tapped his pen on the notepad in front of him. “A friend of mine needs a place to stay for a while. Are any of the rentals available?”
“Let me double-check, but I don’t think so.” He could hear her typing in the background. “No. Sorry. All your rentals are full.”
Not exactly the news he wanted to hear. “Anything available in the next month?”
Again, he heard typing. “There’s a four-bedroom house outside of the city that might be available at the end of next month. We haven’t reached the thirty-day mark yet, so I haven’t spoken to the tenants to see if they were wanting to renew or not.”
Daniel’s shoulders slumped. “That’s all right. I don’t want to kick anyone out of their house. I’ll...figure something else out. Thank you for checking.”
“Of course. That’s what I’m here for.” She paused. “Did you want me to check on other rentals in the area?”
“No, but thank you.” He asked Rebecca a few more questions about the state of his rental properties before disconnecting the call, then turned his attention to other possible options. One of his flip houses was almost complete, but it wasn’t ideal. Her commute would be close to an hour.
“Good morning.” Kevin, his assistant, knocked on his open door before coming inside. He gave his boss a once-over and frowned. “Did something happen at one of the properties?”
“Just a personal matter. I’ll figure it out.” He hoped.
Kevin took the information in stride and handed Daniel a stack of papers. “I put the most promising one on top. We can get in this morning if you want to take a look.”
The papers were sale listings in the surrounding area. Daniel glanced at each one and returned to the property Kevin had mentioned. He was right. It did look the most promising.
Daniel checked the clock. It was almost nine. The morning was flying by, and he hadn’t gotten anything accomplished yet.
