Page 31 of Omega's Tempting Fate
Chapter 11 - Cody
It still felt like electric sparks were dancing through my entire body as I led Wes down the street to my favorite sandwich shop, and I was glad for the scent-absorbing patch in my underwear as it also had moisture control to collect slick.
Everything in me needed him.
Everything except my head.
I hated it. I hated feeling like I was depriving myself every day. But I couldn’t give in. It was better for both of us if he moved on.
A bell tinkled over the door as we walked in and the aroma of freshly-baked bread wafted from the kitchen. A few minutes later we’d put in our orders—an avocado turkey sandwich for me, a Rueben for him—and found a table along one wall.
It was the first time I’d been with him outside of work, and for once I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t even know why I’d agreed to lunch, not when I was trying to discourage him from pursuing me.
We studied each other for a few seconds as I felt my cheeks heat, then he cleared his throat.
“So… um… why don’t you tell me about yourself?” he asked. “Are you from Harris Cove?”
I blinked several times. It wasn’t the sort of question I’d expected: about why I didn’t want to mate him. Instead he was trying to learn about me.
I felt… seen. It didn’t make sense, but it was the kind of get-to-know-you question that would be asked on a first date; the kind of question that rarely came up before a mating bite in fated mate relationships.
I licked my lips and moved a curl from where it had fallen behind my glasses. “No,” I replied, shaking my head. “I was born and raised in Seattle. I moved down here after college.”
“Really?”
I nodded.
“What made you decide to move to Harris Cove?”
I smiled. “Theo. He was my roommate in college, we hit it off, and we came here for spring break one year after he badgered me about wanting to visit the rich people city. We fell in love with it, and both decided to move here after that.”
“He’s the one who owns his own lifeguard and swimming instruction company, right?”
“That’s right. He saw a niche and went for it. All these private pools around, plus beach parties, and permits were starting to require lifeguards for parties on public beaches. It’s an easy sell for liability reasons. It’s far cheaper to pay a few lifeguards to supervise than deal with the potential fallout if somebody was injured or drowned during a party.”
“I don’t think our team ever even thought about the need for lifeguards, or swim instructors.”
I shrugged. “I think it comes with the territory. We’re a beachside city, and kids who learned how to swim in pools aren’t always prepared for ocean currents. However, even then I’ve heard Donna have to almost strong-arm people into getting the services before. Usually it’s the almost-rich who raise a fuss though… the ones who want to impress, but have to watch every penny because they don’t have as much money as they want to project. They don’t realize that tipsy adults at a party can quickly become a problem around a pool, and they need somebody who’s trained to respond to water emergencies.”
“It makes sense. So what else do you think we failed to account for?”
I sat back and rubbed my chin. “I… I don’t think there’s a way to answer that. It’s such a moving target most days. When we’re dealing with clients who are accustomed to a certain lifestyle, we have to find ways to make things happen. Sometimes it’s a personal shopper, sometimes it’s a specialty shipping company for preparing art or antiques to be sent to their homes. That’s why community connections are so important to Donna. If a client asks for something, she can’t be running to the yellow pages… well, internet nowadays… to find a service. Clients want recommendations, and they want services immediately.”
I remembered one of the first times the calendar bug had shown itself, though I hadn’t known it at the time. “If anything, I think your team failed to account for scope. I was just remembering one day when the calendar bug showed itself. We had so much scheduled for a single property. They’d thrown a party over the weekend, and we expected there to be more work than a maid could do in one day, but they didn’t want to pay a weekend rate for two. So we had a maid come for the major stuff on Sunday, but for that Monday it was a packed schedule. They already had a chef and a butler slash chauffeur, then the maid. The wife had a day planned with a personal shopper, while we’d secured a tee time for the husband. My friend Corey was scheduled to walk their dogs, and Theo was supposed to spend the afternoon teaching the kids how to swim.”
I paused. “Then the wife called that morning, screaming that the pool had to be cleaned immediately because it was too dirty after the party for her kids to swim in. Cue a mad scramble to reschedule Theo since the pool cleaners wouldn’t be there in time, schedule them instead, and get a nanny to supervise the kids.”
Wes was silent for a moment. “That sounds like a lot.”
I nodded. “It is. That’s why I said your team just didn’t account for scope. People with one or two vacation rentals in a middle-class market are going to be fine, but…” I spread my hands to emphasize my point.
“Scope…” he mused, seemingly to himself.
I wondered what he was thinking when his eyes widened.
“Scope!” he exclaimed.
“Huh?”
