Chapter 40 – Remington
CHAPTER FORTY
Abso-fucking-lutely not
Remington
Mindy appears in the door to my office later that afternoon, and my eyes go directly to the gold-and-black scarf around her neck. The one covering the mark I left on her this morning. I try not to smile.
I saw her talking to Spectacles Magoo, a.k.a. Dave from accounting, in the lobby when I came back from lunch, and a very stupid part of me wanted to rip off that scarf and show him what I did. That would teach him to stay away from her.
“Did you need something, Ms. Espinoza?”
She enters and sits across from me, crossing her legs. I keep my eyes firmly on her face, but my peripheral vision allows me a view of her tanned skin and the way that skirt rides up her thighs just a bit.
“I’m booking everything for your trip in January, but when I called the pilot, she wanted to know how many would be on the flight.” She poises a pen over her notebook. “Will you be taking a guest?”
Without my permission, my mouth blurts out, “Yes, I’d like you to go with me.”
What. The actual. Fuck.
“You want me to go to Florida with you?” she asks, pointing at herself with the end of the pen.
“Yes, for work,” I quickly add. “We’ll be crazy busy that time of the year. We’ll have a slight lull between Christmas and New Year, but after that, things really pick up.”
“O-kay,” she replies apprehensively.
“You’ll be paid extra, of course, and you told me once you like watching golf. This will give you the opportunity to see a PGA-level course in person.”
A slight smile crosses her lips. “That would be amazing.”
“Great, it’s settled then. Did you already book my room at the Avancé Hotel?”
Running her pen over her notes, she says, “No, but it’s on my list to get you the penthouse suite.”
“Right. There’s an attached suite you can book for yourself.”
She seems taken aback. “Oh. I can just get myself a regular room. It’s no big deal.”
I shake my head sternly. “No, I need you close in case I need anything. Work-related,” I clarify.
Fucking hell, what am I doing? At least I didn’t insist she share my suite with me.
Mindy makes a few notes and nods. “Anything else?”
“No, I think that’s about it.” She stands and leaves, and as I watch her perfect rear end sway out the door, I inwardly groan, I’ll just be in here kicking my own ass.
Small flurries of snow amble from the sky and dust the shoulders of my black coat as I exit the Hale building at the end of the day.
I stick my hands in the pockets of my jacket and remind myself to pick up a new pair of gloves since one of mine went missing.
Antonio waits at the sidewalk with my car.
“I just checked the weather app, and the roads should be good for another few hours,” he reports. “The temperature will drop about ten tonight, and all this will start sticking.”
“Thanks, Antonio,” I tell him gratefully as he opens the back door for me. I have one foot inside when a flash of red hair catches my eyes. Looking down the street, I see Mindy about a block away. Walking.
“What the hell is she doing walking in this weather?” I ask no one in particular, straightening so I can watch her. She’s bundled in her coat, but she’s not even wearing a hat or warm boots.
My feet begin walking, and I hear Antonio mutter a “Feck’s sake” before locking the door and jogging to catch up to me. By the time we make it to the end of the block, a city bus pulls up to the curb ahead of us and Mindy climbs on.
I halt and turn to look at my driver. He looks as perplexed as I feel. “Where’s her car?”
“I haven’t seen the blue one in the lot in quite a while. I thought maybe she got a new one,” he replies. When I continue to stare, he finally blows out the most exasperated sigh I’ve ever heard and smacks me between the shoulder blades. “Get in the car, lad. We’ll follow the damn bus.”
Two minutes later, we’ve caught up with the lumbering vehicle, and almost thirty minutes after that, we see her emerge at a stop in a neighborhood that could only be described as shady.
The buildings are all shabby, and there are only two businesses that I can see on this street. Both of those have bars on the windows.
I’m in the front seat with Antonio, and I lean forward to see better through the windshield wipers brushing away the snow that’s begun coming down harder in the past half hour.
He drives at a distance behind Mindy, and we watch as she walks to the end of the block and turns left to walk up a short flight of steps.
This building is just as bad as the others in the area, with bricks falling off in some places and heavy iron bars over all the windows.
Antonio pulls up the car alongside the curb across the street. We both duck our heads, and a few minutes later, a light comes on in a window on the third floor.
My driver states the obvious. “She lives here.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely not,” I growl, pulling out my phone and dialing Mindy’s number.
“Hello?” she asks a little breathlessly.
“Ms. Espinoza, so sorry to bother you after work hours, but I was thinking about what you said earlier and wondering why you haven’t signed up for the Employee Housing Program.”
Antonio’s head turns slowly in my direction, his look a mixture of confusion and amusement. I ignore him.
“What is the Employee Housing Program?” she asks.
Yeah. That’s a good question. For the record, no program by that name exists at our company since I totally just pulled that idea out of my ass.
However, I do own my entire apartment building, and I do have a couple tenants who are also employees since the proximity makes it a convenient place to live. So I roll with a version of that.
“It’s where employees can live in the apartment building behind the office. It’s a pretty new program.”
Antonio mumbles, “Yeah, it’s been around a whole thirty seconds.”
I elbow him in the ribs.
Mindy hums. “That’s a really cool concept, but I’m sure that building is out of my budget.”
I continue with my little white lie. “That’s the thing… executive-level employees get a steep discount. Kind of a perk. You know, like having Ambrosia’s coffee shop on our level at the office.”
“Oh, okay then.” She still doesn’t sound convinced. “What’s the price for a one-bedroom?”
Scrambling for an answer, I say, “Five hundred a month.”
“Are you freaking serious?” she screeches so loudly I have to pull the phone away from my ear. “That’s less than what I’m paying for a studio apartment, which, by the way, still doesn’t have hot water.” I can hear the exasperation in her voice.
Her fucking landlord needs to be shot.
“Okay, well, there’s a unit available now. We have great security and plenty of hot water in the building. If you’d like, I’ll send Antonio to pick you up and you can come look at it this evening.”
She pauses for a moment. “The weather is supposed to get bad soon.”
Looking up at the shitty apartment, I cringe at the thought of her staying in this place for another night, so I reply with, “Just pack a bag, and you can stay in the apartment tonight. Kind of like a trial run. It’s fully furnished. If you don’t like it, no big deal.”
“You’re sure it’s only five hundred a month?” she asks skeptically.
“Ms. Espinoza,” I say in a scolding tone. “I’m the head of the Employee Housing Program. Of course I’m sure.”
“And you’re positive Antonio doesn’t mind coming to get me? I don’t want to be a bother,” she asks, though I can hear a hint of excitement in her voice now.
“He doesn’t mind. I’ll tell him to head over now.”
My driver mimes writing and mouths, “Address.”
I give him a grateful nod because I’d overlooked the fact that I’m not supposed to know that info off the top of my head. “If you’ll give me your address, I’ll pass it on.”
After she relays the address we’re currently sitting in front of, she thanks me and hangs up. Antonio immediately pushes me until I’m tilted with my face against the side window.
“What the hell are you doing?” I snap as he peers down toward my ass.
“Just looking to see if your pants are on fire.”
“Shut up,” I grump, swatting his hand away and straightening. “She’s an employee who needs a little bit of help. That’s all.”
“So what’s the plan here? You going to tell her you went all stalkery on her?”
I give him a deadpan look and ignore the stalker comment. “I can catch a cab back to the other side of town and make sure the apartment is ready. You wait around here a little bit and then pick her up. I think I’ll put her in the apartment beside yours.”
“Ah, just below yours.” He lifts a dark brow. “Don’t those units start at two grand?”
A muscle tics in my jaw as I wave a hand at Mindy’s shabby building where two long-haired sketchy looking dudes are now lingering out front. “Do you see this, Antonio? What the fuck else was I supposed to do?”
His mouth twitches into a smile behind his beard. “Not saying you didn’t do the right thing. I’m just interested in knowing where this savior complex part of you came from.”
I open the car door and a gust of frigid wind swoops into the car. Glaring at Antonio, I inform him, “I don’t have a savior complex,” before getting out and closing the door.
I repeat that mantra to myself over and over during the next few days when Mindy giddily accepts the apartment terms and moves in at a pro-rated amount for the rest of the month.
Antonio offered to help her move, and he said everything she owned fit in the back of my SUV.
He also fixed her car, which she revealed was her mother’s.
Luckily, it only needed a new battery, which he changed out for her.
So see? He’s the one with the savior complex—not me.
As for Mindy, she’s more relaxed and happy at work, and a happy employee is a good employee, right? That’s what I’m telling myself. Even when I fuck my fist every night knowing she’s directly below me.