“Got it. I’ll just be in the wet bar cleaning like a good little maid and stealing vodka, if there is any left.”
“You can’t steal vodka. This suite has full-size bottles. That will not go unnoticed.”
She pouted. “Fine. I’ll just daydream about being rich. Maybe if I rub their suitcases, luck will wear off on me.”
“You can’t fondle guests’ luggage either. Actually, you can probably do that if you stick to the outside.” I toed my sneakers off. “I wish I could take my uniform off but that might be pushing my luck.”
“I would totally do it.”
She would. But I wasn’t that much of a risk taker. “I don’t want to be caught in my underwear by a stranger.”
“I’m your lookout. That’s not going to happen. Honestly, you should, or it’s going to be super wrinkled. And you know how that gets Cindy’s panties in a wad.”
She had a point. Our head of housekeeping was a stickler for a pressed uniform. Which was grossly impractical, by the way. Who can clean at their best efficiency in a dress? It was a change that was about three decades past due.
Maybe I was delirious from lack of sleep, but I unzipped my dress. “I’m only doing this to make the most of this power nap. I would never do this if I wasn’t so damn tired.”
“Totally. Keep your phone right by you. I’ll text if someone comes in, which they won’t.” She gave me a grin and pulled the door partially shut. She stuck her head through the gap. “Sweet dreams, Mia. Roll all over that guy’s sheets for me.”
“Don’t ruin this for me.” I peeled my uniform dress off and draped it over the bench at the foot of the bed as Christina pulled the door completely closed. Then I slid between the duvet and the top sheet, the cool linens caressing my bare skin. “Oh my God,” I murmured out loud. “This is heaven.”
For a brief second when I laid my head on the pillow, I had a scent memory, but it disappeared so quickly I thought I imagined it.
After setting my alarm and putting my phone right next to me, I barely had time to appreciate being horizontal before I was asleep.
* * *
JJ
* * *
I shouldn’t have told the guys about Mia. In a moment of impulse at the driving range, I confessed everything about my false identity as a boat salesman and the results. Well, not all the results. Some of the results. They didn’t even know the worst of it and they’d still been confused as to why I hadn’t called the cops on her, and hell, I couldn’t blame them. I should have. She’d stolen a few grand in cash and a ring worth twenty-five times that.
But I couldn’t explain it. I didn’t want to see her thrown in jail. I just wanted my ring back. I wanted her back. So I could confront her, get the truth. Even if the truth was that she had just straight-up played me, I wanted to hear it from her own sexy lips.
After sitting on the stupid story for five whole months, I had confessed to my friends I tried to pull off a fake identity, and now I regretted it. My buddies were all in town for Train’s bachelor party and part of me was jealous that he and Dak had both found women they wanted to marry. I’d never even come close to that kind of commitment.
For a minute, at two in the morning, warm in my bed with Mia, I’d thought maybe I’d found something with her. Instead, she’d robbed me, and I had become obsessed with her in the last five months. Completely and totally obsessed.
It felt like all my friends were all looking at me like I was an idiot, which I was. At least Miles and Cash were still single and would party with me later, because I needed to party. It was the best distraction for my constantly churning thoughts. I took a swing and the ball went wide. It was when my arm was still in the air that I noticed how bare it was.
“Hey, did I leave my watch upstairs?” I felt my empty wrist, then my pocket. “Shit. Shit. I have to go get it.”
“Why? It’s not like you don’t know what time it is,” Train said.
“It’s a Richard Mille watch and it cost almost two hundred grand. I can’t just leave it lying around.”
“Why the fuck do you have a watch that costs that much?” he asked me.
“Because he’s a tool,” Cash said.
“Bingo.”
“Suck my dick. I’ll be back. I think I left it on the nightstand and I haven’t gotten insurance on it yet.” I wasn’t even sure why I hadn’t done it. But lately, I’d been having trouble doing much more than drinking too heavily and hooking up with random and willing women. I’d been on kind of a spiral since fucking a con woman.
“Well, that’s just dumb,” Dak said.
Seriously? I wasn’t having fun. At all. They all acted like they had all their shit figured out and I was the only fuckup. I threw my club down in irritation. It bounced up and hit me in the leg.
My buddies started laughing, which really pissed me off.
“I bet a boat salesman would have insurance,” Miles said.
That comment didn’t help either. “Fuck all of you.”
They just laughed harder.
Without another word, I left the range and made my way out of there. I was fuming. And I was actually worried about the watch. It would be just my recent luck to lose that too or have it stolen.
I called my assistant, Ji-Ho, who kept my life organized, and who loved a good suit as much as I did. “Hey, I need you to get insurance on the Richard Mille watch I bought.”
“Of course. I’ll take care of that right away. Greg said he’s been trying to get in touch with you and you haven’t responded. He has concerns you might be gambling too much.”
“What are you talking about? I barely gamble at all.” Greg was my financial advisor. I smiled back at an attractive woman who was eyeing me as I walked toward the hotel.
The hotel that Mia the thief worked at and that I had suggested to Train was a great spot for his bachelor party in the hopes of catching a glimpse of her working.
“You’ve spent five nights at Caesars in the last five months.”
I had. It had become a once-a-month habit to just check in to the hotel, order a bunch of supplies from housekeeping multiple times during the stay there, and wait for Mia to show up. She hadn’t yet. It had been a revolving door of different housekeeping staff, but never her.
Sure, I could have contacted her on social media, found out a phone number for her. But she would never respond, given she had stolen from me. I wanted to catch her completely off guard.
It was a little obsessive, I could admit it. But I had the money, it was off-season, and I wanted to find her. “So? I think I spent a few hundred bucks each time. That’s not exactly a gambling problem.” Nor the purpose of my visits.
“He wants to know why you were there.”
“It’s none of his business.”
“You pay him to make it his business.”
Ji-Ho didn’t necessarily sound like he cared one way or the other, but was just doing his job. He was right. I did pay Greg to keep vigil over my spending. “That’s when the exterminator comes to my apartment every month. I don’t like the smell.”
There was the slightest hesitation, then Ji-Ho just said, “I’ll let him know. But you might consider returning his call on Monday.”