Miss Me; When I'm Gone (editing)

CHAPTER 2 (Blair)

Blair

"Ohgod, ohgod, ohgod, ohgod," I chanted as I sank down onto the nearest sofa and covered my face with my hands. I hadn't realised someone was staying here. I'd woken him up. He seemed annoyed, I thought. Oh, God, I couldn't tell. I'd been so nervous that he was going to fire me. This was my best-paying job, but I'd never met the owner. I worked for a cleaning service, and they got me the jobs.

This was the biggest house I had, and the once-a-week cleaning paid the monthly rent on my apartment and all my utilities and food. The other houses I cleaned were smaller, so if I lost this house, it would take all those other jobs combined to pay my bills. I wouldn't have anything left over to save. No safety net.

The image of his bare chest taunted me, and I closed my eyes tightly, pushing it out of my head. I didn't trust men. Well, except for my neighbour Owen. He was the one who had hooked me up with the cleaning service. He liked men, not women, so I felt safe with him.

I also didn't normally enjoy the view of a guys chest. But that chest... well, it was really nice. His arms were so thick and corded with muscles. What was I thinking? Yes, his body was beautiful, but men like him who lived in houses like this didn't want someone like me for more than a booty call.

That man was rich and gorgeous and possibly had a woman in bed with him who was just as rich and gorgeous. In fact, I was sure he did. The largest bedroom upstairs had a walk-in closet full of the most beautiful clothing I had ever seen. I figured a woman lived here, and this guy could be her boyfriend. I just wasn't sure why he'd be staying in a different room. But it wasn't my business. So no matter how nice those arms were, or how chiselled his face was, even with several days' worth of stubble, he was not safe to think about.

I had to make sure I didn't lose this job. This place was usually pretty clean, because no one had lived here in months since I had been working, but I cleaned it weekly like it was filthy. No dust could be found anywhere, and I even went as far as organising the pantry and the cleaning closet, scrubbing the cabinets and throwing out any expired food.

Standing up, I shook off my humiliation at having woken up the client by singing God knows how loudly and vacuuming right outside his door. When he saw how clean everything was, maybe he'd over look my mistake.

Three hours later, the downstairs was immaculate. I had even wiped out the fridge and freezer completely again, given the client plenty of time to sleep. I went to the second floor and cleaned every room thoroughly until I couldn't find anything else to clean, before I finally stood at the foot of the stairs and looked up to the third floor.

It was one in the afternoon, and he was still in bed. I had three bedrooms and three full bathrooms to get to, plus a theatre and a games room with a full bar. The games room was far enough away from his room that, if I was quiet, I could probably clean it without waking him.

I tiptoed up the stairs and eased past his room. When I was safely in the games room, I let out a sigh of relief. I closed the door behind me and turned to face the large, untouched room. The bar was stocked with every alcohol imaginable and so many different glasses I couldn't begin to figure out what went with what.

I walked across the room and set my basket of cleaning supplies down on the floor. I decided today I would spend some extra time cleaning the windows. I grabbed a chair and covered it with a clean cloth before standing on it. The ceiling was at least twelve feet high, which made the windows hard to reach. Sometimes I brought a ladder in here, but it would make too much of a racket if I had tried to bring it up today.

I had reached up with a cloth to begin scrubbing the windows from top to bottom when my cell phone rang. Crap! I always put the ringer on high when I was working so I could hear it around the house. I scrambled to get down, but my foot slipped. I winced in pain just before the chair turned over, and my arms shot out to grab for the closest thing next to me. Which happened to be a massive, ornate mirror.