Page 16 of Playing With His Heart

“Listen, boss. I get that you don’t know him. However, if you spent the night with him, you aren’t strangers anymore. He’s tearing down your building, so what could it hurt? Do you get to sleep in his bed with him?”

“Why am I not surprised you asked that?”

“That’s where I’d push to sleep.”

“You would, and I’m not surprised at all you’d think that. No, I wouldn’t be sleeping in his bed. He offered me his second bedroom.”

“How big is his place?”

“Big, I guess. So sorry I didn’t give it a thorough inspection while I was there.”

“Maybe you should call and talk to him about it.”

“No. Absolutely not. I’ll think of another way.”

“When is he tearing down the building?”

“No idea.”

“Well, Jenna. I don’t mean to be a noodge, but I think you already know what you need to do.”

“Yes, I do—damn it. I just don’t want to.”

Why did her assistant always have to be right? She needed to at least call Zayn because she literally had no clue what was going on. She pulled out the embossed business card he’d handed her that morning—the one with his cell number scrawled across the back. She brushed her finger over the seven digits before flipping it over. Plain Roman letters in black on a field of white. No fancy font. No images. No logo. Just the facts. Jenna could deal with just the facts—she could deal with having her things moved from place-to-place, but she wanted to pack herself. Yeah. She could do facts.

* * *

Zayn satin his overstuffed desk chair looking out the window, not able to focus on work in the slightest. Jerry had been in and out of his office several times with typical business questions and papers to sign, but he’d not really offered to talk about what was obviously bothering Zayn.

Asking Jenna to live with him—even on a landlord to tenant level—was not a typical arrangement. But, if he were to offer his second bedroom to anyone from the building, Jenna was the likely candidate. His place wasn’t exactly kid-friendly, and it would be a little weird to have a couple living with him, doing...couple things. Heck, it was hard for him to admit it, but he was just comfortable around her. He’d never officially lived with anyone before, other than his foster family—but he hadn’t thought twice about extending the offer to her.

He was biding his time until the delivery of the bouquet he’d sent. The assumption was that she’d call if it arrived, but he wasn’t so sure—he could only hope. She was a pretty independent woman, and he probably shouldn’t assume anything. He wouldn’t let it go on much longer before he’d try calling her because the anticipation was killing him. He had a feeling she was going to avoid him, but if she said yes, he would like to get the movers started. He’d have to rent out the whole company because he had so many people to get packed and moved.

Once he had Jenna’s answer, he needed to approach the other tenants. He thought about having a meeting in the common room of Terrace Gardens to make it convenient. He halfway expected them to be uncooperative, but it was the only solution where everyone would benefit. With Jenna on board, he hoped she would help smooth over any concerns with the others because she knew them better than he did.

“Hey boss, what’s going on with you?”

He’d known it was only a matter of time before the inquisition, but he was so engrossed in his thoughts he hadn’t heard Jerry open his door.

“Just stressing over the apartment move.”

“Did you get everything organized?”

“Yes, we matched everyone up with an apartment except for one.”

“What do you mean we?”

“You know the tenant that lost her air? She came looking for me here yesterday, but we were already gone, so she hunted me down at my apartment and ended up sticking around to help me go through the files and match tenants. When I finished up, she was the only one left and nowhere to put her, so I kind of made her an offer.”

“And? No, wait. Don’t tell me, I already know.”

“How could you?”

“Because I know you. You offered to let her stay in your spare room.”

How does he do that every flipping time? I seriously don’t get it. Am I really that transparent?

“Do you think it was a dumb idea?”

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