Page 12 of The Billionaire's Housekeeper

A grin curled her lips and warmth centered inside her as her mind ran on Chad. Abbi then glanced at her work schedule.

She looked at the sheet as she carried her housekeeping wares. She made sure her cart was fully stocked with the proper amount of towels and fresh linen to make up the number of rooms she’d be cleaning. She made sure to have extra garbage bags, soaps, toiletries and replacement water and coffee. She ran her fingers over the clean sheets and pillowcases, clean towels, several cleaning rags, bathroom and glass cleaner and air freshener, among other needed supplies. She always prided herself on making sure the rooms were left spotless and super clean to ensure her guests were completely satisfied with their accommodations. Abbi collected enough tips left by guests in the past to help her sister cover her costs of textbooks for an entire semester.

“Right, I’ve only got fourteen minutes to clean this room,” she reminded herself. It was fourteen minutes to clean a stay-over guest’s room or half an hour to clean a check out room. Shirley had warned the girls they’d be timed on how long it would take them to clean each compact guest log cabin. “Change sheets and towels, then do the bathroom, change garbage bins, then dust and vacuum…”

Abbi pulled out her notebook and jotted down notes. She was going to speak to Shirley later to offer her input—at the risk of being fired.

“Housekeeping staff should be given enough time to clean a room properly,” she said under her breath.

Though she made the note to herself on her journal pad, she wasn’t sure she would confront Shirley just yet. After all, she really wanted this job badly and as a full-time union  ized employee, she’d feel more secure to make such statements. Abbi had to remind herself she was only a temp at this time.

She hummed a tune that was in her head, and caught herself by surprise. Was she really that happy, or what? She couldn’t remember the last time she’d hummed a tune so gallantly as if she had no care in the world. As if she was on top of the world. She knew what it was. Chad Rivers.

Her mind was on the sexy-as-sin maintenance engineer, Chad. Oh, he was dreamy all right.

She sighed as she thought about him.

His name even sounded as dreamy as his beautiful steel blue eyes. She’d never had such an instant attraction to a stranger before. Not to mention that he was quick-thinking and quick in his actions. He’d saved her life. She practically owed him everything.

She just couldn’t wait to run into him again. Suddenly, her job was getting more appealing by the day.

A nice, honest, hardworking man. That’s all she’d ever asked for and wanted in life. Now, she might have finally found him.

Abbi knocked hard on the cabin door and announced herself. “Housekeeping,” she called in a firm voice.

She waited for a while and didn’t hear a sound, so she took out her keys and swiped the log cabin’s lock. The door mechanism clicked and she opened it.

She looked around. “Housekeeping,” she said again. No answer.

She just wanted to be sure before she walked in on anyone just in case they were in the shower or worse! Abbi left the cart outside and entered the room, grabbing several clean towels off the cart.

She carefully removed the dirty linens and placed them in the hamper she brought in with her off the cart. She set the comforter aside then put the clean sheets on the bed with the fitted sheet first and clean pillowcases. She took note of how organized the room looked. She also glanced around to see if there were any safety issues that might need to be addressed. Just as she’d been trained in the past. There was this one time at the last hotel where she worked when she noticed loose wires on a hot iron that the previous guest had left on when they’d left the suite. A no-no. Luckily, she had notified the engineering department at once, through her supervisor at the time, of course. Safety and cleanliness were top priorities. The place could have burned down if it hadn’t been for her keen eye on that matter.

Always be aware of your surroundings, her last supervisor had drummed into her brain. Notice everything.

And that Abbi did. Were there any strange smells? Strange articles of clothing in the room? Especially since 9-11. One of her former team members at another hotel noticed that a guest had some strange cleaning equipment in his room. Luckily, they’d investigated and found out that he was planning to do something terrible. The police were called immediately and the man was arrested on suspicion of another crime.

But it wasn’t always horrifying discoveries Abbi made during her many jobs in housekeeping.

There was this other time when she’d walked into a room where the couple who were staying in it had all sorts of steel clamps, gold-plated hand-cuffs and oh, my goodness, whips! She didn’t know what to think at first. Turned out the couple was celebrating their tenth anniversary with a little bit of adventure. She grinned thinking of that memory.

Abbi witnessed a lot in her days cleaning hotel rooms.

But oh, one day, she’d like to be the owner of a lover’s resort or B&B for deserving couples who wanted to rekindle their romance, just like the Belmont Ranch Resort & Spa. She just couldn’t get over how much she’d lucked out to be working a contract there, and she hoped she’d be taken on full-time permanent in the near future. She could work her way up and save money for opening her own hospitality business, much like this one.

A strange feeling befell Abbi as she began cleaning the countertop in the cabin. She froze for a moment.

For one thing, this guest knew how housekeeping worked and placed all his or her belongings in one area of the room so it was easy for her to clean. Typically guests weren’t aware of that and left their belongings strewn all over the room so it would be difficult for housekeeping staff to thoroughly clean all areas since they weren’t allowed to touch guests’ belongings. She also saw a five-dollar tip on the tray with cups and the ice bucket. Not all guests knew that was the best place to leave a tip for the housekeeping so it wouldn’t be misconstrued for something else. If she saw a twenty on the night table, she understood that could very well be for a prostitute. Her former co-worker and friend Teresa learned that the hard way at a motel she’d been working at back east.

Abbi also made sure to always be spotless and clean the right way, regardless of being watched or not. She was ever so conscious of cleaning out the tub herself whenever she went into a hotel to use the bathtub. Just in case—since she’d heard so many horror stories. She would never work in a hotel that didn’t have high standards in regards to sanitation practices and luckily this one did.

But right now there was a distinctive smell in that log cabin. The awful scent of a particular overly-spicy cologne.

In horror, she went over to the bedside table and looked at the cologne bottle. It was specially made. “No way,” she gasped, picking it up.

“Ah, ah, ah,” a man’s voice chastised from behind her. “You know you’re not supposed to touch the belongings of any guest.”

She turned around, her eyes narrowed. “Eduardo!”

“Yes, darling.” His voice was laced with sarcasm. “You didn’t think I’d let you go that easily, did you?” He moved closer to her and pulled her into his arms.

“Let me go, Eduardo.”

“Let you go?” he mimicked, a frown clouded his face. His breath smelled of alcohol and it didn’t surprise Abbi at that time of the morning for him. “Now you know I can’t do that. You owe me big time. You know that.”

“I’ll pay you back every cent.”

“Oh, I know you will. And for now, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

“What are you doing here?” Abbi pulled away from his strong grip.

“Watching over you.”

“Listen, if you don’t get out of my sight, I’ll…”

“What?” he sneered, with a twisted smirk. “You’ll what, Abbi? Call the cops?” He laughed, humorlessly. “I’d love to see you do that. Go ahead. Call them…” He picked up the phone by his bedside.

Abbi wanted more than anything for him to leave her alone. Her heart beat fiercely in her chest. Why couldn’t that lying creep leave her be? Hadn’t he done enough damage to her heart—and her life? She was breathing hard. She glanced at the display clock on the bedside table. “I…I don’t have much time, I need to clean…”

“Don’t worry about finishing this room. Just make sure you don’t slip up. I need the money by the end of the month.”

“And what if I don’t have it all?” Abbi scowled.

“You will.”

“Why are you doing this to me? You said I didn’t have to pay you back.”

“That’s before you jilted me.”

“You lied to me, Eduardo. You lied to me about everything. How could you have expected me to marry you after what I found out about you?”

Just then Eduardo grabbed her again. “Listen to me, you bitch. You should know me by now. I’m not someone you want to double-cross.” His eyes looked wild. Terror gripped her.

“Leave me alone!” Abbi screamed out. “You’re crazy.”

“Oh, I’m crazy, am I?”

“Eduardo, please leave me alone. Or I’ll-”

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