Page 11 of The Cocky Neighbor

I snorted, not surprised by the latest complaint of the Wright Group’s rep. There had been at least a dozen similar ones where that came from, not as crude, of course. We were all pretty easy-going and professional at the hotel, but it was a testimony of how much Liam had grated on all of us for the complaints to be worded like that.

"I do agree our new boss is veryfuckable,and I have a feeling you agree with that statement more than you want to admit," Alfred said, giving me a knowing look.

"Don't give me that look, Alfred Sebastian Anderson," I said, which only earned me an eye roll.

The only reason I knew his middle name was because he was drunk and loose-lipped when we were out at the bar one night. He was not happy the next day when he'd realized what he had disclosed. Alfred hated when anyone called him his full name almost as much as being called Al. He said Al sounded more like a balding old man's name than Alfred did.

"Ugh, don't middle name me. Sebastian is even worse than Alfred. It's like my parents wanted me to be a ’70s butler or something. I guess their prediction wasn't completely off since I'm working in a hotel and butler to hundreds of people every day. Never a day of rest for dear ’ol Alfred," he said with a dramatic sigh.

I chuckled and finished off the rest of the coffee before chucking it into the trash can.

"He's not that bad, you know?" Alfred said, and I had to question if he was referring to himself in third person. It was a tad weird, but whatever floated his boat.

"Who?"

"Pay attention, Eric. We're talking about Liam here," he said with a trace of irritation as if it was naturally my fault I wasn't connecting the dots.

"All right, my little swan. Whatever you say," I replied. Unless the definition of "not bad" had changed without me knowing, I knew he couldn't have been talking about Liam. The man was bad news, in more ways than one.

"He really isn't," he insisted.

"Are we talking about the same man who's holding our phones hostage because he thinks they make us less productive?"

"About that, I think there's a reason he added that rule. Do you remember Kyle?"

I rolled my eyes. Of course I remembered all the employees' names, even if they no longer worked here. "Yes, the college boy who was fired yesterday. I'm notthatforgetful that I'd forgot a person's name in a day."

"Do you know why he was fired?" Alfred ignored my jab and continued his questioning.

I tried to recall the details of the matter. I hadn't questioned why he was let go. Alfred was the one who had processed the paperwork on Kyle's dismissal, and I trusted my friend's judgment.

"It was something about lack of professionalism toward a guest if I remember correctly," I said with a shrug. "Why are you bringing him up anyway? Weren't you the one who fired him?"

"I mean, I was the one who did the firing, but under Liam's orders."

That made me frown even more. The man was already acting like a tyrant, and now he was going around firing people? Not that Kyle didn't deserve it. The boy was constantly late for his shifts and tended to shove his responsibilities onto others, but I was totally for more reasons to hate the new boss right now.

"Firing someone the first week he's here? That just makes him an even bigger jackass. Who knows if he'll become fire-happy and do a massive overhaul on our staff."

"I doubt that. I heard the contract the Wright Group signed stated they couldn't fire any old employees without due reason, but we're getting off track. My point is that Liam caught Kyle playing on his phone the other day when a guest was waiting to be helped. Apparently the little granny waited like five minutes before Kyle finally helped her, with an attitude, I might add. I walked by and heard Kyle bitching that his job wasn't to be an errand boy."

I sucked in a breath to calm my anger. It was one thing to be rude to a guest, but another entirely to act that way to an elder. I was always taught to respect my elders, but I guessed not everyone had a proper upbringing.

"Liam was basically making the same face when I saw him," Alfred said with a grin, and I schooled my expression so that he wouldn't use that to make a point of how similar Liam and I were or some other kind of bullshit. "I'm guessing the 'no phone' rule has something to do with that. It was bad luck that Liam caught one of our staff at that moment, but I'd probably be pissed too if I saw the same thing happen. And if I didn't know how the other employees were, I might have also assumed that they all acted that way."

I thought back to the day Liam had arrived at the hotel and had complained about the receptionists playing on their phones instead of helping the people in the lobby. He already had a bad impression of us and witnessing Kyle act so rudely to a guest only made it a shit ton worse. It made sense now why he was so adamant about the phones.

I hated when Alfred sounded so logical, especially when all I wanted was to hate on the man that was currently being discussed. I crossed my arms and refused to answer him.

"In any case, he's been nothing but a gentleman to me," Alfred said with a smile. I would never admit the flare of jealousy that bubbled in the pit of my stomach. It shouldn't matter that Liam was being all nice with Alfred while acting like I didn't exist.

Alfred must have sensed a shift in my mood, as he leaned over the table to flick my forehead. "None of that frowning now. If you want the man, you should just go for him."

I gave him another snort. "You know that's never going to happen."

"And why not?"

"Well, he's our boss, for one." And that was only the start of a very long list of reasons why I shouldn't mess around with Liam. I didn't do relationships, not that Liam wanted one either, and with me for that matter. But if anything were to happen, it would be a quick fuck before we went our separate ways, and there was no point in making our work environment awkward for gratification I could obtain from the clubs.

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