“Day after tomorrow then,” Aiden said.
Quinn nodded. “He’ll be there at eight o’clock.”
Quinn stood, too, and they shook hands. As their hands connected, Quinn had a strange feeling take him over. He looked down at their joined hands and then slowly pulled back.
“Thank you!” Aiden’s voice had Quinn looking up to meet the man’s gaze, and there was a look there he couldn’t quite place.
“Thank you for choosing Parker’s Cleaning.” His voice sounded high even to his own ears, but the alpha had him feeling off balance.
Aiden’s lips curved, and he couldn’t tear his eyes from the man’s mouth. There was something familiar about him, but he couldn’t quite place his finger on what that was. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Parker.” He then turned away and left the office.
Quinn stared after the man for a moment. Why did he seem so familiar? He certainly wasn’t someone they’d worked for in the past.
He shook his head and finally sat back down to return to the work he had left to do before he could head on home. Quinn wasn’t in the office every day, but he certainly was home in time to have dinner with his kids on the days he was.
He’d missed too many of those in the past and refused to do that anymore, if he didn’t have to. Still, he stopped typing as the memory came back to him, reminding him of the time and effort he had taken to start his own business as a single parent and the struggle he had... still had, over the loss of his husband. He reached out and grabbed Barry’s picture, then looked down at it. Something still felt off, and he couldn’t put his finger on it.
He put the picture back and shook his head, then he went back to his computer and typed in the name that Aiden gave him.Jemma White.His database didn’t pull up any clients by that name. He tried Jenna but got the same results. He then put in White, but even sifting through all of his clients both past and present, there were only a handful who had that surname, but none of them matched.
He bit his lips, sitting there for a moment...That’s the name he gave.Right?
Maybe the man got it wrong. What does it matter Quinn? You got a new client.
Quinn quickly sent the details off to a friend of Barry’s who was now a cop and did all his background checks on potential clients. If this Aiden was a crazy person, Chris would find out. Everything was perfectly fine.
4
Aiden
Aiden sat in his living room waiting for the new cleaner to show up. He’d spent the last day trying to figure out ways to make it so Quinn would be left no choice but be the one that was working here in his home.
He finally decided that if he could find any reason to express dissatisfaction for the job done by the workers Quinn sent, then the man himself would eventually have to come and see what was going on and take over. Yeah, it wasn’t exactly elegant, but in his mind, it should work.
As the time crept closer to eight o’clock, Aiden thought maybe he would have the perfect opportunity first thing by sending him back because he was late. Instead, he showed up with five minutes to spare. Aiden groaned as he walked to the door and opened it up, greeting the man with a smile.
“Hello, come in please.” Aiden stepped back gesturing.
“Good morning, sir. My name is Marvin.” The medium-height beta smiled pleasantly at him.
So far, there was nothing for him to complain about. The man was on time and polite. Fuck, this clearly wasn’t going to be as easy as Aiden’s thought.
He entered the house and Aiden shut the door, then stopped in the foyer. “You can leave your stuff over there, Marvin, and I will show you around.”
Marvin nodded and parked the large trolley full of cleaning supplies and grabbed his clipboard and pen from the top.
He walked the man to the back of the house, next to the room with the washing machine and dryer, where there was a closet that held a vacuum cleaner, brooms, dustpans, and a shelf of cleaning supplies. Marvin took it all in as he filled out the required forms.
“If we don’t have anything here, please let me know, and I’ll be sure to make arrangements—”
“Oh… I have everything I need in my van.” Marvin pointed in the direction they’d come. “I also have all the cleaning agents that will get out absolutely any stains you might have.” Marvin smiled, and Aiden nodded. Quinn was certainly thorough when it came to releasing his employees to the workforce. No wonder his business had such a stellar reputation.
“Sounds good,” Aiden said. He closed the closet and motioned for him to follow him up the steps. “Four of the rooms are en-suite, one has the bathroom opposite, so there’s five guest rooms and a master. The back room on the left is the weight room, and you are not expected to clean up in there, just as you are not expected to do anything with the basement. However, I’ll show you the basement just in case you need anything.”
Marvin nodded. “Sounds good, sir.”
“Another thing, Marvin,” Aiden started. “Please don’t hesitate to call me Aiden. I have a feeling ‘sir’ will get old fast.”
Marvin nodded, but didn’t say anything in response as Aiden led him back down the stairs and to the door that led to the basement. Aiden flipped on the lights, and they walked down the steps. The wooden steps creaked and some were uneven, but he’d never had any cause for concern that they would break. They reached the bottom and he turned to Marvin.
