2 Chapter 2

Regent Place 100 had been built in the seventies. It was a forty-floor building that had once been firstclass, ahead of the game and spectacular. Of late, it had begun to decline, and the veneer had lost its luster. Barb wanted to change that and bring back the sparkle to Regent. I hoped Titus wouldn’t throttle her before the end of the week.

After Barb had finally finished her introductions, she ended the meeting with a reminder about the Spring Picnic—an annual event held for the building’s occupants—this weekend. I’d forgotten about it, deliberately. Maybe I could find an excuse to be absent. Maybe one of my staff members would have a family emergency. A death in the family would be perfect!

Immediately after she left the room, all the other managers, sensing a kindred spirit in the new guy on the block, merged as one to introduce themselves and make them his buddy. They should just hump his leg.It’d be quicker.

I left them all to their sycophantic behavior and headed back to my “cave” to do some paperwork. I had to work late this evening because two members of the night housekeeping staff from the janitorial contractor I kept on retainer were out sick, and it was too late to get in someone else to replace them, so we would be shorthanded.

I tried to push thoughts of the hunky director to the back of my mind as I reviewed inventory. Shit, I was thirty-six and still heart-whole. I never expected to find a long-term partner and had been contentto have the occasional liaison. Plus, my life outside of my regular job was busy enough without the added stress of a boyfriend.

But Titus…I could make time for him. And I knew those thoughts were dangerous, yet they kept rolling around in my head. I guessed at Chinese ancestry, with that last name, and his facial features. I wondered how many generations? Were his hands calloused and warm? What would they feel like if he—

“Ed?”

I dragged my thoughts back to the present to see Liz standing in my doorway. “What’s up?”

Liz was my assistant manager and could run this place without me, no sweat. Taller than me, she could be intimidating and took no crap from anyone. She was also gorgeous, a complete knockout. I wasn’t interested, but I could appreciate beauty when I saw it.

“Carl just finished cleaning the men’s restrooms from the fifteenth to the twenty-fifth floor. He radioed in to say that two of the toilets were backed up on fifteen. One had Skittles, including the bag, as well as shit oozing out under the lid. The other was stuffed with cigarette butts likely stolen from the disposal receptacles outside the building—ew—and tons of candy wrappers. What is wrong with these people?” She threw her hands in the air.

“I’d win the lottery if I had an answer for that.” Pranks like this happened at least once a month. I shook my head. “Get maintenance on it, would you?”

“Will do, boss.” She left to take care of things and I made a note in my logs.

Just another fabulous day in housekeeping.

* * * *

At six o’clock that evening, the night crew came on shift, and I joined them, wearing one of the contractor’s T-shirts.

“You working late again, Mr. K?” Brian, a short, cute, African-American man who managed the crew at night, said after he doled out assignments to all of us. He grabbed the supplies he needed for his own floor.

“Oh yeah,” I replied. “You know inspections are on Wednesdays. We can’t afford to have any issues, if I can help it.”

“I get that,” Brian replied, “but you don’t have to be the one to fill in all the time. Don’t you have better things to do than spend it with these troublemakers?” He pointed a thumb backward at the ten people grinning behind him.

“It’s like he can’t get enough of us, or something,” Joel, one of the regulars, said with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes before grabbing a spray bottle, feather duster, some rags, a bucket, and mop, along with a backpack vacuum cleaner and a garbage can on wheels. “Right, because my life revolves around y’all.”

Snickers followed me as I led the way to the service elevators.

Truth was, I liked this contractor. The staff they provided was ethical and did good work. A bad inspection once too many times would mean that corporate might decide to fire them and I’d have to hirea new group and break them in. I’d rather not.

They were a great group, for the most part. The few rotten eggs didn’t last long as they weren’t worth Brian’s energy, or mine. It would be eleven or later before I finally made it home, but that was the wayit was, sometimes. I waved goodbye to the workers and got off on the twenty-fourth floor to get started.This was also where property management was housed.