Best of 2017

“She moved my laptop and she didn’t even look at the screen. Not even a glance. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find someone who cares so little for corporate snooping?”

It’s a rhetorical question, but she goes to answer it anyway.

“We value discretion, in our induction we vet our candidates for–”

I wave her quiet. “My old cleaner is leaving us, yes? I got a memo, did I not?”

“Your assistant… I sent it to…”

“I see all my assistant’s correspondence, Janet.”

“At the end of the month… Cindy’s moving away…”

Like I give two fucks who Cindy is or what she’s doing.

“That girl will be my new cleaner,” I tell her. “Make it so.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

MELISSA

WHEN WE’RE SUMMONED into Janet’s office at the end of our next shift I hope it’s only me who’s going down for my fuck-up, and not poor Sonnie too.

The apology is already on my tongue since I’ve been rehearsing it all afternoon. I wonder if she’ll let me off with just a slap on the wrist. Show mercy over one stupid moment of carelessness.

I don’t get the impression they give many second chances in this place, and I’m petrified, now more than ever, because I was so close to him, just him and me, and he spoke to me, smiled at me… just for one moment… but it’s a start… it’s–

“Sit,” Janet snaps, and I sit. So does Sonnie. “You girls know why you’re in here, I’m sure.”

Sonnie looks blank, shaking her head a little, and I feel so guilty. I should’ve said something earlier, at least she could’ve prepared for the shit storm.

I blurt it out, just to get it over with. “I’m really, really sorry. It was a mistake. It was dark, the roster said the room was empty…”

Sonnie’s eyes are so wide. I wish the ground would swallow me up.

“I’m sorry,” I say again. “I should’ve looked, should’ve checked, I was carrying things and I didn’t think…”

Janet looks seriously unimpressed, her mouth so tight and mean. “I’d dismiss you for this,” she tells me. “Discretion is one of our highest priorities, Miss Martin, especially where Mr Henley is concerned.”

I’m nodding, and Sonnie is staring right at me as the realisation dawns. “You walked in on Mr Henley?! This ain’t got nothing to do with me, Janet. Uh uh. No.”

“It’s got nothing to do with Sonnie,” I reiterate. “She doesn’t even know about it.”

Janet nods. “As I said, I’d dismiss you for this. Luckily for you, Mr Henley has other plans.”

She shuffles a load of papers and taps them on the desk as I gawp. She pulls out what looks like a pass on a lanyard from her top drawer, and a set of keys from a box she has to unlock with a special code.

“Other plans?” Sonnie prompts, and my heart is pounding.

Janet shrugs at Sonnie. “I was going to promote you, Miss Webber, but the decision was made for me. Miss Martin is going to be taking over from Cindy Harris as Mr Henley’s personal cleaner.”

“Me?!” I gasp. “But I–”

“You,” Janet says. “Just as well you’re an exceptionally thorough polisher, Miss Martin, otherwise you’d be out on your ear.”

“I don’t understand…” I start, and Janet rolls her eyes at me.

“You impressed him. Lord knows why after you bulldozed in on him like an incompetent ass.”

Sonnie hides her disappointment well. “Congratulations, honey,” she says.

I hate myself for Sonnie, but I adore Alexander Henley right now, even more than I did before.

“Thanks,” I say. “You should really have the position, you’re miles better than me,” I offer, and Sonnie nods. So does Janet.

“Guess it was your lucky day.” Sonnie smiles and shrugs, and I feel even worse, because she’s so nice, and competent, unlike me.

“You’ll be taking floor eighteen, Miss Webber,” Janet says.

Thank God for small mercies. At least she’ll still get to sniff his seat. But I don’t think I’ll win any favours by pointing that out to her.

Janet hands over the paperwork, the lanyard and the keys. I take them so gently. The Holy Grail. His actual house keys, the real thing.

“Cindy will need to show you the ropes,” she says. “You’ll be shadowing her for the next few days, and then she’ll be moving on.”

I thought we had weeks before Cindy left, but apparently Janet has other plans. Or maybe Mr Henley does.

I stop right there. Mr Henley liked my polishing. That’s all. A lucky day, just like Sonnie said.

We’re dismissed before I can say anything else, and I’m burning up, feeling quite sick as Sonnie and I make our way downstairs.

“I’m sorry,” I tell her. “I thought she’d fire me. I had no idea.”

“Ah well.” She shrugs. “Guess the best scrubber won in the end.”

But they didn’t. She smiles anyway.

“I expect a full report, by the way. I want to know everything, like what his sheets smell like, if his toilet has skids in it, if he uses a sock to jerk off. Everything.”

I laugh. “Everything,” I repeat. “You know it.”

She slaps my arm as we reach the exit. “I’m actually glad you won,” she tells me. “I’m pretty hot on the guy, but you… well… you’re a whole load more batshit than I am.”

I laugh again. “You got that right.”

“We did it together,” she says. “Remember that. We put our minds to it and we did it. You just keep on doing it.”

In my mind’s eye, I see myself scrubbing his toilet. See myself sorting his dirty laundry. See myself using his toothbrush. See myself rolling naked on his bed. See myself…

Sonnie grabs hold of my hands. “Girl, I have something for you.”

She leans in really close, her mouth right to my ear. “Ask Cindy about Harley’s Tavern. You want your man, you gotta get in there. Whatever it takes. You got it? You ask Cindy, she’ll tell you, but don’t say it came from me, alright? Janet told her I was likely getting the job, she filled me in on a few things…” She winks. “Private things. Private Henley-related things.”

She’s already on her way before I can ask any questions, so I blurt out the obvious one. “What’s Harley’s Tavern?!”

She freezes, spins back to face me and flaps her arms around like I’m being a clumsy idiot all over again.

“Jeez, girl, you gonna have to learn to button it if you want to keep this gig!”

“Okay,” I say quietly, “tell me more. What private things?”

She taps her nose, gives me a wink, “You’ll see.”

HARLEY’S TAVERN is an old style pub north of the city. Dean looks it up on his phone for me while I make us a hot drink.

“What’s so special about the place?” he asks. “Looks pretty regular to me.”

“I have literally no idea, Sonnie said to ask Cindy.”

“Henley’s old cleaner?”

I nod.

“Maybe he takes his chicks there before he offs them.” He laughs, but I don’t. He holds my new keys up to the light. “Looks like he’s got some helluva lot of security going on.”

I stir my coffee, bouncing Joe on my hip as he sings wheels on the bus. “You’d hope so. I’m sure he’s got plenty worth stealing.”

“And plenty of secrets worth hiding.” He smiles. “Well done, Lissa. You did it. I knew you would.”

“I got lucky.”

He shrugs. “Wasn’t luck that polished that table up. Wasn’t luck that got you promoted up there in the first place.”

“Was luck that he cared enough not to fire my idiot ass.”

The paperwork is still sitting on the worktop, detailing both my pay rise and the insanely intimidating non-disclosure agreement.

Dean sifts through it. “This is pretty hardcore.”

“He’s pretty hardcore.”

“Dangerous, like I said. This stuff is like a milita

ry secrets act.”

“He’s a lawyer.”

“With a lot to hide from the sounds of it, I’m not talking client confidentiality either.”

I pull a funny face at Joe and he laughs, and then he wants down to watch some clowns singing songs on the TV in the living room.

“Maybe it’s all the dead bodies.” I smile. “Bodies, or snuff porn, or maybe a black magic temple in the cellar.”

“I’m being serious.”

So am I. I hope I’m going to find kinky sex toys and cock selfies rather than a couple of corpses, but Dean’s got me pretty psyched up about those online stories. Maybe I’m his next victim… hopefully not to bury me under his patio, but maybe he wants me in his house to humiliate me and turn me into his dirty little sex slave. The thought makes me grin and prickle at the same time, and Dean scowls at me.

“You’re gonna get yourself into a whole world of trouble with him, Lissa, you know that, right?”

I’m counting on it.