Malia tugged on the skirt of her uniform. She didn't know what the hell was up. Her usual uniform hadn't been there so she'd had to take one that was a size too small, and the damn waistline kept creeping up on her.

The maid gig was probably the least favorite of her jobs. But there was the added bonus that she got to have a look inside other people's apartments and see what building she might want to live inside.

Keep dreaming.

The one at the corner of Forbes was a new construction, loft-style building. Extra fancy. Living somewhere like this wouldn't be bad at all. Lots of space, plenty of light. Yeah, you'll just have to rob a bank to live here.

"Anyway, so I was saying, I know this guy; he's the bouncer at Club Pounce. We totally have to go. And we could drink for free."

"Adrian, I don't know. I have a lot of work to do." This was technically true. She did have a lot of work to do. She’d done all her reading for the week. But she wanted a jumpstart on her paper. And there were some research products she wanted to get a head start on for the group project for Tanashi. One in particular was a design for an athletic water bottle. She’d been doing market research for the last few days. Yeah, fun times.

Adrian led them into their next apartment to clean, and Malia dragged her supplies behind her. "Oh my God. Emily said you were really on an all-work-and-no-play kick. C'mon. What's the harm? Have fun for once. You and I both know that for once you have Saturday totally off. Just think about it. You're not driving Sober Car. You're not cleaning someone's apartment. You're not working the front desk to let people in. You're not at your nanny gig. You’re on rotating shifts at the bar, so you’re off tonight. Time to go out. And it's Friday night. You can spend the whole day tomorrow studying and working on whatever paper you're working on or whatever project you're working on before you do your shift tomorrow, so come on. And Emily said you can crash at her place."

She wasn’t that bad. You are. Okay fine. So she did a lot with the work she had to do, so what? "Can I think about it?"

"Oh my gosh. You've been talking about how you’ve been working toward a deposit for your own place for a while now. And you said last week you have it. That alone is reason to celebrate."

"I said I almost have it all." She was about $800 short. But another couple of weeks and she'd have it. "Operative word being almost. I don't have it yet."

"But you will. I don't know anyone who works as hard as you do.” Adrian stepped into the middle of the apartment and ducked her head forward to pull her long hair up into a sloppy bun. She’d gone with red this week. Malia wasn't sure what Adrian's natural hair color actually was but it was safe to say it was probably brown.

Adrian's mother was from Turkey, and her dad was American, but Adrian had the same coloring her mother did. But that girl loved hair dye more than she loved cake. It was always a surprise when she came to work to see what she would have done with her hair that day.

When her friend stood, Malia grinned. "Come on. This is our new guy. Mr. Sims was telling me that Tanashi Corp. contracted us to clean some of their new residences. This building is on the roster and this is our new dude. Let's look around, shall we?"

"Adrian. We are not here to snoop. Whoever this is deserves their privacy.”

Adrian waved her off. "You mean to tell me you're not the least bit curious about who we’re cleaning for?"

That wasn't entirely true. Sometimes, Malia would pretend that she lived in these places. But that was very different than snooping on people's lives. "No, not really. It's not my business. I clean. I might make mental judgments on whether or not they're slobs, but that's different." She could be judgy, but she wasn't a snoop.

"Look, he's cute."

"Come on, focus. You want to take the bathrooms or am I taking those?" Bathrooms were always hairy.

As a general rule, when they worked together whoever did the bathrooms did not have to do the kitchen. Having to do those two places was like torture, especially when they had to do one of the fraternity houses on campus. She shuddered. That just wasn't right. What was it about a group of guys living together that was so nasty?

"Come over here."

"Adrian. No. I am not going to snoop on this dude’s life. I'm just here to clean as quickly as possible and get to the library." The library was open late tonight. Pretty much all night till 5:00 a.m. And then it was closed for two hours and open again at seven. So that meant if she was quick about it, she should get one of the comfy leather chairs and could totally crash out there.

Her whole life was spent around places she could sleep for the night. So far she'd been lucky. And with a weekend coming, that meant she'd have at least a place to stay for two days.

"Look, just come over here, and I will clean the kitchen and the bathroom."

Say what? That was heaven. Then Malia could have the living area, the dining room and the bedroom all tidied in no time at all. "Fine.” She left the broom in the kitchen and the bucket near the entrance before sidling up to her friend. "What is so important that you'd take both nasty jobs?"

Adrian pointed at the picture, and Malia leaned forward. She immediately stumbled back as if she'd been burned. Shit. No. No, no, no, no, no.

But it was too late. She knew exactly whose apartment she was in. Why couldn't she escape the guy? The last person on earth she wanted to see, be around, have in her life, and he was everywhere.

They were standing in Zephyr Donovan's apartment. "You've got to be kidding me."

"What? What's the problem? I mean he's cute, right?"

"No, he is not cute. He's an asshole. And he is also my mentor for entrepreneurship."

Adrian blinked. "Oh damn. I guess we better clean this place well."

"Yeah, lest he find some way to tell me that I'm not doing my job and kick me out of the program. Can you believe he told me that he didn't think I could handle the workload and I should quit?"

Adrian narrowed her gaze. "Are you serious right now?"

Uh oh. Malia knew that look. Adrian was extremely protective of her.

"No. We are not going to booby-trap his apartment."

"Why not? It'll teach him not to be an asshole."

"No. We’re going to clean to the best of our ability. I'm going to pretend we don't know whose place this is. We both need this job." Maybe she did a little bit more than Adrian did. "So we're going to do the job and get out."

"Spoilsport."

"I know. Come on. If you move your ass, I’ll come out tonight for one drink. "

“Now you’re talking.”

All she knew was the sooner she got out Zephyr's apartment, the happier she would be.

* * *

If Malia thought being forced to sit next to Zephyr during one of the classes was bad enough, then she had far underestimated what being locked in a car with him was like. They were on their way to Harrisburg for a day trip to look at some of their products. They were going to bring home demo sample items and get the costs down. She would rather not have to be the one that went along for this little jaunt, but she didn't really have much choice. Becky had a class. Jacob had a TA gig he couldn't get out of. So that left her, Tom and Zephyr, of course. 

Halfway from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg, Tom fell asleep in the back seat. "You know you can talk to me, right?" 

Malia slid a glance over to Zephyr. "Are you sure about that? Nothing I say will be used against me later? Nothing I do?" 

He rolled his eyes. "Wow, I thought I was stubborn." 

She slid her gaze to the back seat. Tom shifted his position slightly, but his mouth still hung open, and his snore tumbled out. "It's not cool being stubborn. If I were a guy, I wouldn't be stubborn. I wouldn’t be holding your feet to the fire for being a classist asshole. I'd merely be holding you accountable for your own dumbass actions. No one asked you to go to that bar. No one asked you to say what you said the next day. So you know what? I'm not being stubborn. I'm merely holding you accountable." 

A slight flush crept up his neck, and she turned her gaze away from him. She did not want to watch his Adam's apple bob up and down as he swallowed. She did not want to marvel at the color of his tan. She did not want to pay attention to the muscles on his shoulders as he drove and turned the wheel, as he maneuvered the car up and over the mountains. She was not going to pay attention to any of that.

Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that.

"Man, I guess you are right. Do you always have to be right? Is it something I should get used to?"  

She shook her head and continued to ignore him. 

"Okay, fine. You and I need to be stuck in this car together for at least another three hours. So why don't we determine what you like to listen to? Lady's choice." 

"Are you sure about that?" 

"Of course I am. Since you feel you are the wronged party, even though I feel like I didn't really have a fighting chance. How was I supposed to know your name was Malia and not Eva?" 

Malia winced. "Yeah, okay I gave you a fake name. So what? I'm sure that is not the first fake name you've ever been given in your life. This doesn't account for your shitty behavior."

"Whatever." He clinched his jaw and Malia could tell that he was done talking about it, which was fine by her because honestly, she was tired of fighting with him. It was bad enough that ocean breezes or whatever cologne it was that he was wearing filled the car, but she was jumpy, itchy, and uncomfortable just being around him. That's because you are totally hot for him. Yeah well, there was no accounting for taste. Get the task done in Harrisburg as quickly as possible and then head on back. She had to work tomorrow afternoon and she had a job to do. She'd brought her backpack in case she needed to work in the car on the way back, but she would really rather not. So right now, she was stuck with him. But she knew exactly how to make the time go by faster. She pulled out her phone and scrolled to her music app, then plugged in the auxiliary wire on her favorite song. When the sound of Britney Spears filled the car, Zephyr glared at her.

"No. We are not doing this."

"You said my choice, right? I happen to love Brit-Brit." 

He shook his head. "No, I will do anything—anything at all." 

"Anything? Can I reserve the right to call in this chip at any time?" 

He groaned. "Fine. Okay, whatever. Call it in anytime. Just not this. I beg you."

"Okay, fair enough.” She immediately flipped over to her random pop and rock station and turned it to an Imagine Dragons song. She could see him visibly relax by degrees: first his neck, then his shoulders, and then his hands.

"Thank you." 

She rolled her eyes. "I can't imagine what in the world you have against Britney Spears. She's a great artist, a real icon of the millennia." 

He chuckled. "Oh my God, you were almost funny there for a minute. Impressive."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Everyone thinks I'm funny."

"I mean, you know a couple of Samuel L. Jackson quotes. That doesn't necessarily make you funny." 

"If I liked you, which I don't, I would be so happy to prove you wrong." 

He chuckled, the sound making her think of a warm, crackling fire. "Yeah, as if that’s possible."

* * *

Hours later the temporary peace was broken by a little change to the plan. The original plan was to come to Harrisburg, pick up some of the products, and head right back. Then somewhere along the line, something had gone wrong. They'd managed three of the five pickups, two of the demos were not ready and they were asked to come back, which of course, they couldn't because they needed to start making some decisions in the next week or so. So they'd have to wait for those products to be shipped to them. But it took so long waiting around for the last two that it was too late to start driving back. So that meant an overnight stay.

Neither Tom nor Malia seemed particularly excited about that option. Especially Malia. "I can't stay overnight. I have class and I have to work in the afternoon. I cannot stay."

"Well, we're not leaving tonight. If we leave here tomorrow at five, we'll be back in plenty of time for you to make your classes, okay?" She shifted on her feet in the hotel lobby and crossed her arms.

Tom just shook his head and leaned back against the wall. "Man, I had plans with my girlfriend tonight."

Zephyr shrugged. "I'm sorry. That's how it's going right now. Look, Tanashi Corp. will foot the bill for the hotel stay. You guys can get room service on the company." He had a company card, and this was for the mentorship program. Plus, he had a per diem for situations just like this. That news seemed to at least cheer up Malia a little bit. 

The news, however, would not cheer up Hokuto. The old man was tightfisted with company funds. But what the hell was he supposed to do?

"Room service? Seriously?" Malia asked.

He nodded. "What? You thought after this I'd insist that we all pay for our own rooms? This is a five-star hotel. I might be employed by the company, but even I don't make enough to pick a place like this for a random whim. We'd be at a motel."

It was the first genuine smile he'd seen from her since the day she walked into the classroom. He'd seen one of those smiles at the faculty event, but since then, not once, until now. Once again, he was completely struck dumb, unsure of what to say or what to do with his hands. So, like an idiot, he stared at her—for probably a moment too long because she started to shift on her feet and looked around.

"What?"

"Nothing. Come on. Let’s get you guys settled in your rooms, and get some rest. You guys feel like food?"

Tom shook his head. "I think I'm just going to order room service, and call my girlfriend so she can yell at me on FaceTime."

Zephyr nodded. "Fair enough. Apologize to her for me. How about dinner on me when we get back? It's my way of saying sorry for messing up your night." That cheered Tom right up. 

"For real?"

Zephyr nodded. "Yeah. Something reasonable though, not like top of the triangle or something."

Tom nodded. "You got it." After checking in, all three of them moved to the elevator. Tom had a room on the second floor; Zephyr and Malia were up on the fifth, down the hall from each other. Wasn't that just fantastic?

Malia paused at her door. "Thanks for the room for the night. I guess it wasn't really fair to think that you'd drive back so late."

He shrugged. "It's nothing. It's on the company, so enjoy it. Do whatever it is girls do. Bubble bath and whatnot."

She grinned. "Oh, you have no idea. I will enjoy the hell out of this room."

She looked genuinely excited about it and he nodded. "Good."

She stared at him. "What are you staring at?"

He shook his head. "Just—you haven't smiled like that since the first time I met you. You should probably smile more often." Fuck, he sounded like a douche. "Yes, I realize how ridiculous that sounds coming from me, a guy. I sound like one of those turds that runs around telling women, ‘Smile. What could possibly have you down?’ when I fully understand the socio-economic difficulties that surround women.” Oh yeah, you’re making this better. “Sorry, I sounded like a turd, again."

Her lips quirked again and he prayed to see that smile, but it didn't appear. "You know what? I'm feeling in a charitable mood. So anyway, good night."

Zephyr nodded. "Yeah, good night." She opened her door, and he looked after her, trying to make sure she got in properly. And he wasn't sure what made him do it, but he called out, "Do you want to grab food?" Why was he sweating? Not like he was asking her out on a date.

"Um, yeah, actually. That'd be cool." 

"We can grab some downstairs if you want," he said.

"I just really want a good shower, and I feel kind of grimy in these clothes so I don’t want to sit in the restaurant."

He nodded. "I’ll call room service. We could hang out. You can come to my room?"

She hesitated a moment before nodding. "Sure, just give me a chance to take a shower."

He nodded. "Of course. I'll try and get something up here for maybe an hour from now?"

"Sounds good."

"Any requests?" Malia shook her head, dislodging several curls around her shoulders. "No, I'm not picky. I am starving though."

"Okay, I'll keep it simple. See you soon.”