The Boy Who Has No Redemption (Soulless 8)

She watched him go before her eyes shifted to me. “Morning, Sicily.”

“Good morning, Cleo.” I forced a smile on my face as I walked up to her, not wanting to wear my problems on my sleeve. I didn’t want to advertise my heartbreak…and my lack of faith in humanity.

She continued to stare at me, her eyes dropping down to my left hand. “So?”

There was something about her that made me want to come clean, to talk to her like she was my mother or a therapist, but I was too ashamed to tell the truth. It wasn’t just embarrassing that it had occurred, that I’d slept with another woman’s husband, but that I’d had no idea this entire time. “Oh…it didn’t happen.” I never wanted to see that man again. I’d fallen for him hard, and just like that, those feelings were gone. It was hard to believe I’d ever pictured him giving me a ring at all.

Her smile faded, and she wrapped her arm around my shoulders to give me an affectionate squeeze. “It’ll happen when it’s meant to happen. Don’t worry about it.”

“Yeah…”

She patted my back before she stepped away, a tight pencil skirt on her lithe frame with heels on her feet. And they weren’t open-toed, low-height kind of heels. These were straight-up stilettos on tiny sticks. “Ready to learn the ropes?”

“Absolutely.”

She headed between the two elevators and approached the rear of the building, which had a coffee barista at a small café, along with a sea of tables and chairs where people could enjoy their coffee. There were a few people sitting there now, people in suits on their laptops. There were offices in the back where people worked on computers.

“Was that your husband?”

“No. I’m just really chummy with my clients.” She nudged me in the side playfully while she flashed me a smirk. “Yes, that’s my husband. We’ve been married for almost thirty years.”

“You live in the building?” I asked.

“Yep.”

“Then why do you work?” If he could afford a residence in this building, then money wasn’t an issue. “Sorry, that was a rude question. I didn’t mean to come off that way. I guess my curiosity got the best of me.”

“No, you’re fine,” she said with a laugh. “I work because I love it. I went part time when our kids were young, but once they didn’t need me as much anymore, I went back to full time. My husband is really dedicated to his job, so he’s busy during the day anyway.”

“What does he do?”

“He’s a doctor and medical researcher.”

“Wow.”

She walked me into the office and showed me around. “This is Matt, my right-hand man. We’re both directors here, so if I’m ever not around, you can always ask him for anything you need.”

He looked to be the same age, and he gave me a smile as he shook my hand. “Don’t listen to her. She’s the boss lady. I just step up when she’s unavailable.” He dropped his hand and slid his hand into his pocket. “Pleasure to meet you, Sicily. I hope you’re ready for the chaos of this place.”

“I thrive on chaos.” My life was fucking chaos right now.

He smiled again. “Great.”

Cleo introduced me to Carrie and Kayla, two younger girls about my age, and gave me the rundown for how things worked at the concierge desk. She took me into a separate room where there was a huge whiteboard, the biggest whiteboard I’d ever seen, and it contained details for every client who lived in the building.

Cleo pointed at the different boxes. “These are details about our clients, when their grocery day is, when we collect dirty linens, dry cleaning, when we change out their flowers, et cetera. And in this box is their unique necessity. Like, Mr. Harleton has to have one-hundred-percent-biodegradable toilet paper. Otherwise, he’ll lose his mind. It’s hard to get, so I order several cases at a time and change it out for him every week. And he expects us to put the toilet paper on the holder perfectly. One time, it was placed backward, and he lost his shit.”

I turned to her and gave her a blank stare. “Ugh. The guy is a billionaire, and he gets mad about that?”

She shrugged. “They’ve all got their quirks. There’re only a few assholes in the building, but most of them are wonderful people. Some of these clients have been here since I started, so we’re like family. But whenever new people move in, it’s always like pulling teeth, because they don’t trust you, and you have to prove yourself. That’s how they’ll treat you too. Just be patient and earn their confidence.”

“Got it,” I said with a nod. “Anything else important I should know? I feel like I’ve got a lot to learn, but it’s probably stuff I’ll just pick up as I go.”