Page 46 of Dirty Boss

There was a pause. “Appointment’s at eleven. I’ll send the address.”

“Great. Yep. Thanks! See you then.” Being careful not to let any part of myself come into view, I flipped the phone around and hung up. Then I slumped back against the cabinets and half laughed, half sobbed in relief. The puddle had grown. I stretched out my legs, not caring that I was sitting in it.

When I finally gathered myself and stood, I stared at the carnage on top of my scant few square feet of counter space, the water on the floor, the mess of pot lids and cleaning products strewn all the way under my bed, and stomped to the bathroom to take a shower.

Everything would be easier after a shower.

Except it wasn’t.

As I stepped out of the bathroom in a cloud of steam, curling the ends of my towel around each other to tie it around my chest, there was a knock on my door. I jumped, glancing across the carnage of the studio apartment to the front door on the opposite side of the room.

“Alba!” a familiar voice called out. “Are you okay? Answer me.”

My eyes went wide. Vaughn was outside my apartment door. I blinked, momentarily speechless, trying to understand how this could possibly have happened.

My phone rang. It still rested on the bedsheets where I’d placed it before heading for a shower, and I glanced over to see Vaughn’s name on the screen. My pulse jumped. I glanced from my phone to the door, feet glued in place.

What… was…happening?

Vaughn washere. Here, in my dumpy studio apartment, right outside the door. If I even cracked the door, he’d see the mess of laundry everywhere, the puddle of water that had soaked into everything. He’d see how tiny this room was, how filthy, and he’d finally realize just how far I’d fallen.

It was a messy, moldy, mustywreck. Kind of like me.

My heart hammered so hard my extremities tingled, and as Vaughn pounded on the door again, I was frozen with inaction. I could call out and tell him to go away, but I suspected that would only make him more insistent on coming in. I could stay exactly here, completely quiet, and hope he’d go away. I could?—

“Open it,” Vaughn’s voice barked, and a moment later, a set of keys jangled.

The door swung inward, and the building’s grumpy, ancient superintendent, Mr. White, stood in the opening, his eyes landing on my legs and climbing all the way up to the towel I held clenched at my breast. Behind him, Vaughn loomed, tall and broad, his brow wrinkled with worry, his blue eyes snapping to mine.

I made a noise, a pathetic littleeep, which seemed to make Vaughn spring into action. He glanced from me to the super. One hand came up to clamp on the super’s shoulder while his other slapped over the other man’s eyes.

“Hey!” the old man said, and Vaughn hip-checked him out of the doorway. The old man made another outraged noise, but I barely heard it, because I dove back into the bathroom and locked myself inside.

My front door closed, and for a second, I thought I was alone, and a sigh of relief slipped through my lips.

Then, footsteps.

Vaughn’s voice came rolling through the closed bathroom door. “I was worried,” he said by way of explanation. “You weren’t answering my calls.”

“How did you get my address?”

“Your employee file,” he said.

“That’s a breach of privacy.”

There was a pause, then Vaughn said, “I thought you were in trouble.”

Still clutching at my towel, I slumped against the vanity. I stared at the closed door, biting my lip, trying to pretend that my heart wasn’t melting. He’d come to my rescue because he thought I needed it. No one had ever come to my rescue before. “I’m going to come out,” I announced. “You have to close your eyes.”

Vaughn hummed like he was considering his options.

I glared at the door.

“Fine,” he said, and I cracked the door. Vaughn had his back to me, and I noted the presence of a big tool bag by the front door. I slithered out of the opening and grabbed my bathrobe from the corner of the bed, wrapping it quickly around myself. I tugged the towel out from under the robe and hung it up on the hook just inside the bathroom door.

Then I exhaled, crossed my arms, and said, “Okay. Now tell me what you’re doing here.”

Vaughn took one step and was across the room from me. He bent over and unzipped his tool bag. “I’m going to fix your leak.”