13. Alexis
Of course the two hottest guys she’d met in the past decade would happen to walk past while she was dressed in a freaking chicken suit.
Alexis didn’t think she was the type of person to embarrass easily, but she would have welcomed a sinkhole opening beneath her just now.
The guys and that bratty teenager Chloe were well out of earshot now, but she hoped they weren’t making fun of her gig.
It paid pretty well considering all it involved was standing around in a costume. And she had been telling the truth when she’d said she was helping out a friend. Sarah had begged her to step in to help her Aunt Freya’s new business venture because she’d been unable to assist her herself. Sarah was a hair and makeup artist and had a wedding booked for today.
It was unusually warm. Early October in Brisbane could either be freezing cold or swelteringly hot. Today was the latter.
‘I think we should take a break soon,’ she told her companion, a sour-faced woman called Karen. They’d only met a couple of hours ago, and they’d argued over who would wear the suit. She should have argued harder.
Karen looked at her watch. ‘We still have an hour before lunch.’
‘I’ll at least need some water.’
Karen shrugged. ‘I’m sure you’ll be able to get some inside.’
‘Gee, thanks for offering to help,’ she said sarcastically. She waddled over to the entrance of the chicken shop and called out. ‘Could I please get some water?’
Freya hurried over to where Alexis was standing. At first, Alexis thought she was worried about Alexis fainting from dehydration, but she soon discovered that wasn’t the case.
‘What did you do to the suit?’ she cried, pointing to one of its arms.
Alexis looked down and saw it was covered in mud. Oops. She mustn’t have noticed when she fell before.
‘I… I tripped,’ she said lamely.
‘And you were just going to leave it like that?’
‘I didn’t realise it got dirty. Sorry.’
‘That suit cost me five hundred dollars!’
Alexis stared at her. ‘Seriously?’ She wanted to say that Freya should have saved her money. It would take weeks to pay off that amount with fried chicken.
‘I’m taking the dry-cleaning cost out of your pay,’ she said.
Alexis almost swore but bit her tongue just in time. ‘Fine. I’ll take it off.’
‘No, no. You still have to work the rest of the shift.’
‘You don’t want the stain to set,’ Alexis reasoned. Dry cleaning an item that size would probably cost more than she’d earn for the whole job.
‘We’ll just wipe it down for now, and then I’ll get it properly cleaned later.’
Alexis wasn’t in the mood for this.
‘No, I think you need to clean it now.’
She awkwardly stepped out of the suit and handed the bundle to Freya. ‘Just keep the money I would have earned from today.’
‘What am I supposed to do now? Sarah said you’d help me!’
Alexis silently cursed her friend. She didn’t want to leave on a bad note, but there was no way she was getting back in that costume.
Then she remembered what Theo had said just now. She pulled her phone from her pocket and found his profile on Instagram.
The photo was live, and it already had several hundred likes. She looked awful, but Theo looked as if he’d been purposely booked for a modelling gig. She held up the screen. ‘That should be enough publicity for one day.’
Freya peered at the screen. ‘What is that?’
‘Free advertising with a famous model.’
She wasn’t sure exactly how famous Theo was, but he definitely seemed popular on social media.
A couple of young women entered the shop and approached the counter. ‘Is Theo Park here? We just saw his post, and we happened to be nearby.’
Freya raised an eyebrow at Alexis before turning to the women. ‘I’m afraid he just left, but he bought our half-and-half special if you’d like to try it?’
‘Yes, please,’ they squealed.
Alexis started to back away. ‘I’m going to go.’
Freya was too busy serving to argue, so Alexis took the chance to sneak away. Once outside, she marched purposefully along the path beside the river. This concierge business was really starting to annoy her. How could a job that paid minimum wage give her more grief than working as a lawyer?
Admittedly, working with her dad had been stressful too, but what if she found a different firm and nice colleagues? Would it be different? Alexis wasn’t short on contacts in the legal world… and they weren’t all friends with her dad.
Wait. Was she really considering going back to the law? She must be so dehydrated her brain wasn’t working properly. She’d only been doing the concierge stuff for two months. Of course there were going to be teething problems at the beginning. Maybe she needed to be more discerning about the type of work she accepted and just stick to cleaning jobs and dog walking.
She stopped at a convenience store and bought a bottle of water. Freya really should have checked to make sure she was properly hydrated. There had to be a law about that, surely?
She stood inside the airconditioned store and drank her water as she watched the people walking by on the street.
Hang on. Was that Levi, Theo, and Chloe again?
She squinted, seeing them walking in the direction of the Queen Street Mall. If she hadn’t just humiliated herself in front of them, she might contemplate going over, but she couldn’t quite convince her feet to move.
Wait. What was that?
They were about to walk under a couple of guys washing windows from a suspended platform, but it looked like one side of the platform was lower than the other, and a large metal bucket was perched precariously at the edge.
Alexis watched, wondering why it wasn’t secured on the platform. And why hadn’t the window washers noticed?
The platform tilted a little further, and Alexis took off running across the street. Levi was most at risk of being hit, so she surged forward and grabbed him from behind, pulling him backwards just as the bucket fell.
She landed hard, and Levi fell backward on top of her. If it wasn’t such a dire situation, she would have almost laughed at the absurdity of ending up in a similar position twice in one day.
Theo and Chloe, startled by her sudden appearance, jumped out of the way as the bucket crashed loudly to the ground and splashed water everywhere.
Pain shot through Alexis’ elbow, and when she looked down, blood was dribbling down her arm. Awesome.
Levi rolled off her and pulled her into a sitting position, his eyes checking her all over for injury. ‘Are you okay?’
‘I don’t know. My elbow hurts a bit.’
‘What the hell just happened?’ Theo looked from Alexis to the bucket to Chloe.
‘That could have done some serious damage,’ Chloe observed.
‘But it didn’t. No one else is hurt, are they?’ Levi asked.
‘No, we’re okay,’ Theo replied. ‘Just a little shaken up. Are you okay, Chlo?’
Chloe nodded but gripped Theo’s arm tightly. ‘I think so.’
‘Come on, let’s go home so I can check Alexis’ elbow,’ Levi said.
‘Maybe I should go to a doctor,’ Alexis said.
‘Are you forgetting I am a doctor?’ he teased lightly.
‘Oh, right. Yeah.’
Levi turned to Theo. ‘Do you mind taking Chloe home? I’ll sort out Alexis.’
Chloe looked delighted by this suggestion. Theo, not so much. ‘Fine.’ He made eye contact with Alexis. ‘I’ll call later to see how you are.’
Alexis nodded. She was in too much pain to speak.
One of the window washers belatedly called down. ‘Is anyone hurt?’
‘No,’ Levi said. ‘But they easily could have been.’
The guy shook his head and turned to his colleague. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t secure the bucket.’
‘Why was it my responsibility?’
Levi snorted and muttered. ‘Idiots.’ He then helped Alexis to her feet. ‘Can you walk okay?’
She took a few tentative steps. ‘I think so.’
He nodded his head across the street. ‘My car is parked over there. You won’t have to go far.’
Theo shot Alexis one last sympathetic look before gently pushing Chloe down the path. ‘Come on, Squirt.’
‘Don’t call me squirt,’ she whined.
‘But you are a squirt,’ he replied, poking her in the ribs.
Alexis watched them for a moment before suddenly becoming aware of Levi’s arm around her shoulder.
Through the haze of pain, she wondered if she preferred this scenario to the one where her face was practically touching his during the photo before. And the other times they’d somehow ended up with their mouths only inches away from each other.
That required processing power she didn’t currently possess.
Levi’s car was a Jaguar, but Alexis was surprised to see it was an electric model. She didn’t think he’d be the type of guy to care about the environment—although she wasn’t completely sure how she’d come to that conclusion.
He opened the passenger door for her and waited while she slid into the seat. He then gently closed the door behind her and made his way to the driver’s side.
Even with the car on, it was weirdly quiet. They drove out to the main road, and Levi headed toward Newstead.
If Alexis wasn’t so worried about her elbow, she might have tried to turn the radio on or make small talk, but all she could do was stare out the window and clench her teeth so she wouldn’t cry. Crying in front of Levi would be even more embarrassing than when he saw her in the chicken suit.
It was a short drive back to their building, but it felt like an eternity to Alexis.
They parked in the basement, and Levi again gently helped her out of the car and over to the elevator.
He hadn’t said much on the way back, and Alexis wondered what he was thinking. Was he annoyed he had to help the woman who had cluttered up his lobby and held up the elevator when she moved in?
But as she snuck a glance at him while they stood in the aforementioned elevator, her heart fluttered.
He had been watching her, and the expression in his eyes was not one of annoyance.
Was it… interest?