dangle

chapter 3 - tour. here. you.

As he removed his sunglasses, I realized Leadfoot was Hunter from the bar last night. The least terrible of the group, but that bar wasn't exactly high.

What the hell was he doing here?

Then it hit me: he probably came to get the tip back. I knew leaving that much had to be a mistake.

Or worse yet—he thought that tip meant I owed him something.

Either way, he had another thing coming.

Using my free hand, I pulled my phone out of my pocket in case I needed it, clutching it tightly. Better to confront him here in public than to wait and let him come to my doorway. Especially since I used that money to buy groceries and pay for my utilities this morning.

"Excuse me? Do you need something?" I called out, trying to sound assertive. It wasn't easy, given that my pulse could have given his sports car a run for its money. "Is this about the tip from last night?"

He turned to face me and his expression shifted into a mixture of recognition and confusion. Almost as though he wasn't expecting to see me, either.

"Pardon?"

"The tip," I said. "Because I already spent it. It's too late."

He gave me a funny look. "Er, no. I was looking for the building manager, actually."

My heart rate hit a new high, vibrating like a hummingbird trapped in my ribcage. Building manager? Was he going to try to get me evicted in some sick twisted pursuit of revenge? I'd like to say it wouldn't work, but our building manager Jerry was the sort of person who definitely had a price. It probably wasn't even that high.

"Can I ask why?" I glared at him, squaring my shoulders as if it would somehow help. Laughable, considering he was twice my size. He could bench press me for breakfast.

He reached up, rubbing the back of his neck. "He was supposed to give me a tour of a vacant unit."

"Tour," I echoed. "Here. You." Suddenly, the ability to form complete sentences eluded me.

"Yup."

"Of an apartment."

"Yes..."

"To rent." I still couldn't quite reconcile this idea.

"That's the idea," he said. "I mean, potentially."

Jackson and I took a few steps closer. He darted behind me, clinging to my leg and burying his face in my thigh. I reached down, ruffling his silky chestnut hair, ignoring my bounding heart.

This had to be some kind of joke. Yep, a prank. Definitely a prank. His bratty friend must have wanted revenge after I shot him down. That type never took well to being told no.

Someone was probably probably waiting in the bushes, phone in hand, waiting to upload this to social media. Waiting to have a laugh over me falling for it. Except I wasn't.

"Okay... which unit?" I looked at him skeptically, narrowing my eyes.

Jerry left me the keys to the apartment next door, along with a copy of the lease agreement, so that I could give them to the potential tenant. I hadn't checked the name on the paperwork, but there's no way that was this guy. There were no men under the age of forty living here, and certainly none that looked like him.

Besides me and Crystal, the development was a mixture of low-income middle-aged and retired people, plus one woman in her thirties who never left her apartment but received frequent package deliveries. I still hadn't figured out what her deal was. But she paid her rent on time, and that's all that mattered to Jerry.