Page 8 of Playing With His Heart

“It hasn’t been condemned yet, but I really need to take action on the property before it starts having more problems. The air conditioning is only the first to rear its ugly head. And just so you know, I didn’t put a new unit in for your apartment, I only had them fix the Freon problem.”

Feels like there’s something he’s not telling me.

“So, what’s the bad news then? I feel like there’s more you haven’t said.”

“All the air conditioning units for the entire building need replacing.”

“Okay, so replace them.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“You don’t have the money?” Zayn Holden didn’t live like he didn’t have any money.

That’s a surprise.

“Jenna, it’s not about the money. The building is falling apart. I know you’ve noticed it. You had to have.”

“Well yeah, I did notice, but it’s still livable. I don’t spend my entire day there.”

“You might not, but a lot of others do. Many of them are elderly, and if their air went out, they wouldn’t be as resilient as you with the heat we’ve had lately. And what if the elevator broke and stranded someone inside for hours at a time? We both know Frank isn’t going to rescue anybody.”

“That’s definitely a true statement, and who would want him to rescue them? I don’t trust him at all. He’s not really useful for much, except stalking.”

“Oh, you mean you don’t like to be in Frank’s company?”

“He’s horrible!” Jenna laughed and walked away from the beautiful view to get comfy on the over-stuffed sofa.

Being around Zayn was more comfortable than she liked to admit. When she hadn’t found him at work earlier, her number one goal was to find him at home and bitch him out. But after meeting him, she no longer had any desire to. He was actually a nice guy.

“So, are you going to tell me what kind of help you need from me? I’m curious now. You said it was about the building I live in, but I think you’re avoiding telling me the rest.”

“Not avoiding—okay, well, maybe just a little. Oh, there’s the doorbell—that’s our dinner.”

She got up and followed behind him. He handed her the bags from the delivery guy and while he paid the man, she took the food to the dining room table and started going through it all.

“How did you know I loved Chinese?”

“Just a lucky guess, I guess.”

Zayn grabbed plates and silverware from the kitchen, and they took a few minutes to make their plates. She wasn’t sure if they would eat at the table, so she waited to see what he wanted to do. When he went to sit down in the chair next to the sofa, he put his plate on the coffee table and scooted the chair closer.

“Come on, pull up a couch.”

His laugh was infectious and every time he smiled she could see dimples appear on his tanned cheeks. She sat her plate down but couldn’t move the sofa closer to the coffee table, so she put the plate on her legs and started to eat.

“Oh, wait.”

He put his plate down and stood from the chair to move the table closer to her.

“How’s that? Close enough?”

“Yep, that’s perfect, but you didn’t have to do that.”

“It’s not like you can move the couch—or hey, maybe you can, but this was easier.”

He shrugged his shoulders and moved his chair up snug with the table and began eating again.

“Thanks for this.”

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