From Cupid (Working Girl Book 1)

by CY Jones

  Once I’m done with the floor, I order the tiles for shower and then go check on the crew. Like Marco said, there was a whole five minutes of missing footage on the cameras. My foreman on this job site said they locked up as usual and came back the next morning to the mess upstairs. Besides the master bathroom, nothing else was amiss. I thank him and leave to check on my other three jobs I have running. Maybe with me present more, this person will think twice before messing up another job.

  10

  It's a Date

  Paige

  I cry like a baby when Jodie leaves. This isn’t our first rodeo, but it is the first time she has left with me being so fragile. Like a good friend, she indulges me and lets me ball it out before she said her goodbyes to her hubby. Her and the crew she was taking with her were leaving on a special flight and we were all standing in the hanger while they load the plane with their supplies. Brian took off work for the day and I met them at the airport.

  “Make sure my house is the bomb for my return,” she says sniffing. Her eyes were watery as well and I knew she was going to miss me just as much as I’m going to miss her.

  “I’ll make sure you’ll be the envy of the neighborhood,” I promise hugging her tightly.

  When I get back to my car, I see there's a text from Harrison asking me to meet him at one of his job sites. That’s weird. I hope he doesn’t want to talk about our almost kiss because I sure as hell don’t. Curious, I text him letting him know I’m on my way.

  As soon as I pull up, I see him leaning on his truck looking like a wet dream. He’s wearing a soft grey t-shirt and the way it’s molded over his muscles, I nearly have to check my chin for drool. Tight blue jeans, work boots, and a sturdy tool belt finished off his look and almost finished me off. He’s like the construction worker in one of those charity calendars and I was dying for a piece. Fuck, I need to get laid and quickly.

  Groaning, I looked down at my own outfit. I dressed to see Jodie off, so I had on a bulky sweatshirt and leggings. I just threw my pink hair on top of my head, twisting it in a messy bun and wore my chucks without socks. I can’t do anything about it now, so I get out and walk over to him as his eyes watch me the whole way, like a piercing hazel storm.

  “Good morning,” I greet.

  “Morning,” he replies, still giving me an intense look. I’m curious what he sees when he looks at me? Is it a train wreck trying to get over her ex or a woman ready to move on?

  “So why did you want me to meet you here?” I ask. My curiosity was starting to get the best of me and if he kept looking at me like that, I was afraid I’d jump his bones, or at least try to.

  “My designer quit this morning,” he answers and my eyes grow wide as my curiosity piques even more. “We’ve been having issues with someone vandalizing our jobs lately. It’s being investigated, but we still haven’t caught the culprit. There was another incident yesterday, so Darla called me this morning saying she doesn't think she can work for me until the person is caught.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense though. I get it, it’s a bummer when someone fucks with your work, but that’s not enough to make anyone quit,” I say.

  “It’s not just the vandalism. Whoever is behind this also left her a threatening note. She doesn’t think she’s safe on the job sites anymore.”

  “Oh.” I reply, well that does explain why she quit.

  “Look, I get it if you don’t want the job. I can’t guarantee your safety, just like I couldn’t hers. Just know the police are looking into the matter and I installed top of the line cameras on all my job sites. If you agree to work for me, I'll pay you the same rate as I was her and give you a five grand bonus once the job is finished.”

  I’m silent as I weigh over the pros and cons of his offer. On one hand, he’s paying me the going rate of a distinguished designer, as well as giving me a bonus. Doing this job will help establish myself and I can use the money towards my own business. The con, some crazy nut is stalking his jobs and could kill me. My silence must make him uncomfortable because he opens his mouth to say something else when I stop him.

  “You have a deal,” I say, holding my hand out for him to shake and he does so with a shocked look on his face. “So, let’s see this house shall we?” I reply, looking at the front door. Blowing out a relieved breath, he opens the door. Right off the bat, I know I want to have the door repainted.

  Once we step inside, I look around at the monstrous space. This house was humongous. It’s already been demoed out and the walls rebuilt. It’s basically a blank canvas and I was getting more excited by the second.

  “Darla had some stuff ordered, but if you don’t like any of it I can cancel the orders,” he says pulling out his phone. He scrolls through it and shows me what Darla had planned. She’s good and I see why she’s paid the big bucks, but she tends to work on the safe side. As I go through her plans on this house, I make tiny notes on the things I will be changing, which is most of it. I wouldn’t feel right getting paid for someone else's design.

  Taking his phone, I go through the house as I pull up the inventory to his warehouse and start another order. Darla was going with white marble countertops with a gold and brown vein, but I decided to change it to quartz in a cool waterfall style I saw was trending. Seating to go around the huge island, a farmhouse sink, white cabinets, and cool hardware. I go with a lighter floor rather than the dark wood Darla chose, as well as changed out the lights in the kitchen. Working diligently, I go through the house, making changes to Darla’s design and not once does Harrison complain about me having his phone. Nearly an hour later, I’m finished and send the order off and cancel the previous one Darla made so he doesn’t have to.

  “Are the homeowners paying for the home to be furnished or are they using their own?” I ask as I hand him back his phone.

  “They want my company to furnish it,” he answers.

  “Okay, once I’m close to finishing, I’ll take a look at a couple furniture stores. Who’s house is this for anyways? It’ll be easier to pick things out if I had an idea about the person.” No doubt whoever it is has money. This is the Hollywood Hills area and only the famous and uber rich can afford real estate here.

  “It’s for the pop singer Starlight. Have you heard of her?” He replies and I almost bite my tongue. Oh shit, Chaz is going to go bonkers when he finds out I’m designing his favorite pop singer’s house.

  “Do I? Wow, Harrison, I had no idea you dealt with pop stars,” I say, impressed.

  “I lucked out,” he says humbly. “Oh by the way, I have to have you sign an NDA. For the time being her people are keeping her moving here on the DL. When we leave, a huge privacy fence is going to be built around the property.” Oh poor Chaz. I won't be able to tell him then.

  “Sure,” I agree. I wonder why Darla’s designs were heading towards traditional? Now more than ever, I’m glad of the changes I made. They were modern, but with an edgy flair. Perfect for a pop star. “I’ll go home and work on a 3D mockup and design plan and email it right over, just in case she has any questions,” I tell him as he walks me out to my car. Once I step inside, he holds my door open and gives me another intense look. Like before, I’m trapped in his gaze. I can’t move, nor do I look away, so when he leans over and gives me the briefest of peck on my lips, I almost pass out. He kissed me like he was a man about to die of hunger and I’m a steak dinner.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says in a hoarse voice as I try to reboot my system.

  “See you tomorrow,” I say robotically. I swear I’m in demo mode when I start my car and back down the long drive, onto the street. Holy fuck balls, Harrison kissed me. Sure it was a peck, but he kissed me. What are we going to do? When can we do it again? Hopefully naked. Wait, what about Cynical H?

  For the next couple of weeks, I do my best to avoid Harrison. Thanks to his handy schedule I had all access to, I knew which jobs had to be finished and which houses he was working on, so if I knew he was going to Jodie’s, I wou
ld purposefully work on Starlight’s home and vice versa. I wasn’t ready to admit I had feelings for him and seeing him made it just more real. On top of that, a small part of me felt like I cheated on Cynical H. True, we're not in a relationship or have any kind of a commitment, but I couldn’t shake the feeling I was deceiving him by not coming clean.

  Besides my guilt, everything with Cynical H has been going quite well. Every night I go to sleep with a smile on my face after reading one of his messages. We have moved past the twenty questions stage and have moved on to writing about our days. As an unvoiced rule, we never discuss our work, only our lives. What we enjoy, where we’re from, our family, and so on and so on. So far I’ve learned Cynical H is thirty-one. He runs a successful business which he built from the ground up and has one younger sister who’s around my age and lives in New York. He can’t cook to save his life and eats out a lot, he’s very good with his hands and can MacGyver anything.

  In turn, he learned I have no siblings except for my best friend who’s closer to me than any blood relative could ever be, I don’t have the greatest relationship with my only living parent, I’m divorced, I love to cook, and I’ve always wanted to go to the Wizarding World of Harry at Universal Orlando. With that little tidbit, he learned just how much of a nerd I am, but he found it sexy that I was Team Slytherin all the way. I felt like we were growing close, which was why the kiss I shared with Harrison bothered me so much. Sure, he was the one who initiated it, but it’s not like I disliked it. In fact, I wanted more. I can’t help that I’m attracted to the man, so imagine my inner freak out I had when I read Cynical H’s latest message.

  Dear Siren,

  I think it’s about time we meet, what about you?

  Cynical H

  It was short and sweet, completely unraveling and exposing me. What do I say? Do I want to meet him? Hell, of course I do. I want to see if he’s as hot as my imagination painted him out to be, then maybe I can forget about Harrison. Sure, Harrison is hot, but he’s an asshole. His strong personality is way different than Cynical H’s calming messages. I want to meet Cynical H, he intrigues me in a way no man ever has. With the time I put in to get to know him, I can at least see where this goes. I don’t want to risk losing him if I delay meeting any longer. It would be selfish of me to expect him to be satisfied with being some kind of virtual penpal. Decision made, I pull up my big girl panties and reply back.

  Cynical H,

  Yes, you’re right, it is about time we meet, but instead of me leading you out in the abyss, how about you pick when and where?

  Your Siren

  I’m surprised when, seconds later, the notifications chime on my computer sounds notifying me I have a response back. It was like he was waiting on my answer. I pull up what he wrote.

  Siren,

  How about Hyato Steakhouse in Soho, Saturday night at 7pm? I’ll make a reservation under Cynical H.

  Nice choice. I love that restaurant and I find myself smiling. Plus, that district is more of an artist district, which made it even better. If everything goes well after dinner, we could take a late night stroll and see the street performances.

  Cynical H,

  It’s a date. I’ll be the one in the sparkly silver dress.

  Sending the message off, I close my MacBook with the biggest smile on my face. Despite my earlier freak out, I was actually looking forward to this meetup. I’ll finally find out if this chemistry between us is the real deal or a science experiment gone wrong. Please don’t be the latter is the last thing I think before I close my eyes for the night.

  11

  Stupid Cupid

  Harrison

  I swear the rest of this week just crawled by. I almost gave up on Saturday night ever getting here. It doesn’t help the week was filled with a shitload of problems. The pipes busted in one of my jobs, which left a big mess to clean up, as well as a huge ass bill from the plumber. Flooring needed to complete a job was put on a delay, which pushed back the work in that room and, like a domino effect, fucked with the timeline on the whole house unless I forked over overtime. Then I had to deal with Amy acting all crazy because I didn’t call her to fill in for Darla. Apparently, she’s moving to expand her business in design and wanted to use me as a stepping stone since we already had a working relationship. What is it with women thinking men can read their minds? Even if I could, I still wouldn’t call Amy as a fill in. I already gave the job to the only person I had had in mind, which didn’t make her all too happy to hear when I told her who. In her words, Paige was nothing more than a nobody upstart. That’s another reason why I would never consider her, I don’t need the extra drama. I already had enough of my own as it is. Eric still has yet to find out who was out to get me and my business, so I was more on edge than usual, especially with Paige working as one of my full-time designers.

  Just the mention of her name makes me think about how she has been avoiding me these last couple weeks. Yes, I know what she’s been doing, but so far, I have yet to call her out on it. I’m the one who kissed her, so you would think I would be the one running avoidance, and even though it was just a small peck, it was enough to tie me up in knots, which is why I pushed to meet my siren. I needed to see if we can move on past emails and actually start something and if not, we can both move on and not waste anymore of each other’s time. Then I’d know if I’m able to act on this pull that was pushing me towards Paige. Usually, I would never think about mixing business with pleasure, it never ends up well, but with Paige, I find that she’s worth the risk, but first I have to know for sure my siren isn’t the one.

  I can’t deny how much I look forward to coming home and reading her messages as I learn more about her and her life. From her messages, I learn she’s some kind of artist, which is why I chose the Soho area to have dinner. I swear in these last couple of weeks I’ve told her more about myself than I have anyone in my life. Besides Brian, I’ve never had such a deep connection with anyone. I may be curious about Paige, but I really, really wanted this to work out with my siren.

  Paige

  Saturday night was finally here and I was a nervous wreck. A million questions were running through my head. What if I’m not into him like the movie? What if he doesn’t like what he sees? What if he says, who are you and where is my siren? Am I on Punk’d? Okay maybe the last part is an exaggeration, that show was canceled a long time ago, but something else along those lines.

  Closing my eyes, I tell myself breathe, Paige, just breathe, this is just a simple dinner date nothing more. A knock at the door interrupts my inner pep talk and I tighten my silk robe around myself and answer it.

  “Hey honey bunny, you miss me?” Chaz’s energetic voice greets me.

  “Hey Chaz, what are you doing here?” I ask, confused.

  “I knew you had a big date to get ready for so I’m here to help.”

  Not being able to help myself, I channel my inner Jodie and pull him into a huge Care Bear hug. Tears glisten in my eyes as I inhale his fresh scent and whisper, “thanks Chaz.’

  “Hey, what’s with all this? We’re friends. Of course I’d be here for you.”

  Pulling back, I smile and he closes the door after he’s inside. Walking through my small condo like he owns the place, he goes straight to my bedroom and my walk-in closet.

  “Now, let’s see what you have in here,” he murmurs mostly to himself as he checks out my dinner wear choices.

  “I did hint in my message I’d be wearing a silver sparkly dress,” I tell him as I move right next to him. Reaching to my left, I pull out the silver Gucci dress I had in mind and he eyes it critically.

  “That could work, but also this could too,” he says pulling out a short V cut emerald green dress. I remember that dress. Justin bought it for me for our anniversary last year, so that choice definitely was a hard no.

  “Nope that’s a gift from the ex. In fact, can we burn it?” I suggest.

  “Silver it is and no, I rather not go to jail for arson when
you burn this whole building to the ground. Just look at me, this face won’t survive prison and orange is not my color.”

  I laugh at his teasing and the smile stays on my face. A good laugh was just what the doctor ordered to help drive away these nerves. “What would I do without you?” I ask, giving him a light kiss on the cheek.

  “Probably be bored out of your mind since I’m so much fun. Now chop, chop, you have a hot date to get ready for,” he replies, clapping his hands together.

  I change in the bathroom, feeling a whole lot better than I did when I first came in here to take a shower. Chaz is a great friend and I meant it when I said I don’t know what I’d do without him. Jodie isn’t here to calm me through my freak out, and, well, she has a life and a new husband. If they haven’t already, they will soon be working on their own family, not to mention she’s a successful marine biologist and her job keeps her away a lot. She can’t always be there for me. I know Chaz has a hot boyfriend, but he’s currently in New York in medical school, so they’re doing the long distance thing right now. I know, at times, he gets lonely, so our friendship came at the right time for both of us. We are both needy bitches right now.

  “Well, well, well, with one of my sexy hairstyles, you may give the man a heart attack,” Chaz comments when I step out.

  “I’m not trying to kill him,” I smirk.

  “Maybe a small one,” he says squinting and nearly touching his thumb and pointer finger together.

  “Boy, you’re a mess,” I laugh.

  “A hot mess and I mean the good kind,” he poses. Smiling, he pats the bed as he says, “come sit your cute butt down so I can do your hair.”