“Sounds good. Don’t be late for our team meeting.” He turns to me. “It was very nice to meet you, Daisy.” And he waits until Mark is reaching for my coat before he winks at me behind his back.
My skin is still crawling from the interaction as Mark leads me outside to catch a cab.
And I barely suppress a shiver when I hear, “So…any chance you’re free for an extension? I’ve got an hour to kill…”
It takes more than my usual willpower to squeeze his hand and lean forward to press a kiss to his cheek. “I would if I could, baby. Maybe another time?”
His face falls, but I must have been gentle enough because he nods and says, “Worth a shot. Thanks for today. You were a huge help with my boss.”
Your boss who would clearly stab you in the back any chance he gets—girlfriend or otherwise.
“Of course,” I say in a far-too-bubbly voice. “It was my pleasure.”
Once I’m in the cab, I have a choice. I can either go home and scrub the touch of Mark and the gaze of his boss off my body, or I can go to the gym to work off my frustration.
Today, I decide on a bubble bath.
But as soon as I get home, I realize I should’ve chosen the gym.
Because there’s an issue with my plumbing. Something must be going wrong in the building because my bathtub is backing up with brown water and throwing all dreams of a bath out the window.
I call the building’s maintenance man, trying not to tense at the fact that a strange man is about to be in my apartment. Which might be bizarre, considering what I do for a living, but it’s harder for me to justify being in close quarters with a man I haven’t heavily vetted.
When the maintenance man shows up an hour later, I try to adopt my work persona to cover my nerves. I open the door with a smile and welcome him in, immediately asking if he’d like a water.
“No, thank you, miss,” he says with a smile. I try to read what kind of smile it is. “I’ll just take a look at the bathroom. Is the bedroom suite this way?”
If he notices my hesitation, he doesn’t let on. But it takes me a second to gesture down the hallway to the bedroom.
He disappears into my bedroom without another word. Ihatethat he has to walk through my bedroom to get to the bathroom. But since I’m not willing to leave him alone, I follow him in, one hesitant step at a time.
He’s digging around in the tub when I finally walk in.He hears me come in and smiles, then jerks his chin at the too-big bubble bath collection I’ve started.
“I never could get into baths,” he says casually. “I always get bored in two minutes. But I do wish I could like them. They seem…relaxing.”
Is he flirting? What man talks to a woman about baths?
“They’re pretty nice,” I say absentmindedly. “Can—can you fix the plumbing?”
He sends me a curious glance but answers, “Yeah, I should be able to fix the issue. I should have the…” He digs around in his toolkit and pulls something out. “We had this happen a few weeks ago, unfortunately. Should only take me a few minutes.”
I give him a stiff nod and decide to give him some space. I only go so far as my bedroom, though, and even then, I end up pacing the entire time.
Fifteen minutes later, he comes out. “Well, it’s all fixed. No more faulty bathtubs for you. I’ll let the building owner know what happened and to keep an eye on it. But you should be good now.”
Twisting my hands in front of me, I send him a shaky smile.
“Great, thank you so much for coming out so quickly.” I glance around the room and toward the bathroom. And then, because one of the weird stipulations in my lease is having to front the cost for my own repairs, I ask, “How much do I owe you?”
He waves me off. “This one is on the house.”
I freeze.Please don’t say that. When men say that, they always expect something in return.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” I rush to say. “Really, how much do I owe you?”
He frowns. “No, really. No charge. This was nothing.”
And maybe it’s because my nerves are already raw from my date earlier, but panic starts to swell. I’m suddenly very aware of the fact that a strange man is standing in my bedroom, pressing to do me a favor.
