Connor gave his apartment a once-over before he opened the door. He knew that was strange, but everyone did it. When a maid was coming, you always had to make sure the place wasn’t too dirty.
One of his friends in high school hadn’t cleaned his room before the maids came, and one day, Connor had walked in while the cleaning crew was leaving. They were all talking trash about his friend. Connor knew he wasn’t the cleanest guy on earth, but he didn’t want to give Mary too bad of a first impression. He’d already been crazy enough with her. He didn’t want her to think he was a pig and trash-talk about him.
“It’s great to have you here,” he told her. “I hope you didn’t have too much trouble finding the place.”
He could have kicked himself over that terrible joke.
She laughed and shook her head. “No trouble at all. It’s almost like I’ve been here before. Crazy. Seriously, though, I’ll get out of your way and get started right away. Thank you again for the job. I don’t know how I can thank you enough for this great opportunity.”
“No need to mention it. You’re the one cleaning, after all. I should be thanking you.”
Mary had a supply caddy and was dressed in a pair of leggings and a loose-fitting brown top with her company’s logo on it. For a moment, Connor couldn’t help but picture her as a French maid in the ever-so-familiar get-up: skimpy black dress with a white apron and cap. He’d love it if she were cleaning his place dressed like that.
“This is for you.” He handed her a key from his pocket. “Sometimes I lock the door when I leave. In case I’m not here, you can let yourself in.”
“Keeping your mother out?” Mary took the key from him and slipped it into her cleaning caddy.
“How did you know?”
“My stepmother has a terrible habit of going through my things whenever she can. It only got better after I switched bedrooms. If I hadn’t gotten a new room, I was going to figure out how to install a lock on my door.”
“I’m glad to find a kindred spirit, then. It’s nice to have someone who understands.”
Connor stood around awkwardly while Mary started to clean. It was always hard getting used to a new cleaning crew. He should have gone in to work at the office today, but he wanted to make sure he was around if she had any questions.
They’d gone back and forth with emails for the past week. He was more than prepared for what she was going to do, but he still felt some hesitation. He didn’t know her. Who was to say she wasn’t going to do the opposite of what she’d said in her emails? Maybe she’d even try to slip things into her pockets when he wasn’t around. His lion liked her, but that didn’t mean she was perfect.
He kept one eye on her and one on the task at hand. He was going through the local papers and adding to what he thought was a pattern of robberies.
He didn’t tell his father what he was working on anymore, but he thought someone might be using their app to rob shifters. There had only been two reports of it happening so far, but he saw in the paper that there had been robberies at least once a week for the last three months. He was sure that if he put all these pieces together, he’d see that someone was using theirs and other dating apps to do this.
This wasn’t a project his father was going to appreciate, but Connor wanted to be sure the app was safe. They’d included a number of safety procedures and background checking, but something about it was still off.
His father would say he was just trying to find a way to sabotage the app, but that wasn’t true. Connor was happy when anyone found a mate. He wanted to find one too, but he wanted everyone to do it in a safe way. If his little project could help achieve that, he’d be over the moon.
“I’m done now. I’m going to move to the bedroom, if that’s all right,” Mary told him what seemed like a second later.
Connor checked his watch and saw that it had already been half an hour. “You’ve already done the kitchen and the living room?”
Mary tilted her head. “You’ve been here the whole time. Didn’t you hear me vacuuming?”
“I guess not.” He looked around the room and saw that it had been straightened. He was sitting in a cyclone of mess in the middle of a clean room. “Nice job. I thought this would take you at least two hours.”
“I thought it would, too.” She put her hands on her hips and looked around the room. “Don’t tell me you cleaned before I came.”
He chuckled. “Guilty as charged. But not much. I just made sure I didn’t have any incriminating evidence lying around.”
“Well, you did a good job. I have to assume that I’ll have more work next time.”
“I can’t promise anything. I’m not that messy.”
“Well, if I’m finishing too quickly, we can always adjust your services. I could do the monthly cleanings twice a month instead.”
“That’s a good idea.” Connor pointed to the bedroom. “But we’d better not make any promises before you see what I have in there.”
She gave him a slight smile. “I’m not sure you’re supposed to talk to your maid like that, Mr. Hansen.”
“That’s not how... I mean... I didn’t mean it like…” He hung his head. “You’re funny. I’m going to have to watch out for you.”
“Really? From those comments, I think I’m the one who needs to watch out for you.”
She left him with his jaw on the floor. Cute, and a good sense of humor. Maybe his mother wasn’t wrong about this one. He was starting to wish he hadn’t hired her on a whim.
He continued working on his project, and after he’d gotten through three more newspapers, Mary came back to him.
“All finished.” She looked at the clippings laid out in front of him. “This isn’t going to be a scenario where I find jars of pee sitting around, is it?”
“What?” Connor looked at the stacks around him and laughed. “Oh, I see. No, don’t worry, I’m not going crazy. This is for a special project I’m doing.”
“Is it okay if I ask what it is?”
“I think it is. I haven’t had anyone to talk about it with.” Connor had her sit on the couch, then put everything up in front of her. “This will be good for me, actually. This is a private project I’ve been working on. When I’m done with my presentation, if anything sounds crazy, please tell me.”
“I understand.”
“This is part of the NDA too. Don’t go telling this to anyone,” Connor told her firmly. He realized that if she went around spreading rumors about his findings, it might be bad for the company, but he really did want to talk about it with someone, anyone. He didn’t know if he was going crazy or if there really was something here.
“Scout’s honor.” She held up three fingers. “Get on with it. I’m very curious about what you’re working on here.”
“You know I work with the MateMe app. I’ve always had a feeling that the app could be used for something nefarious.”
She sat forward on the couch. “I’ve always thought the same thing. All these dating apps—it seems like there’s a huge chance for them to be used for the wrong reasons. Or at least to do something that isn’t above-board. It’s like putting on your status that your family is going on vacation for three weeks. That’s like announcing to all your shady friends that your house is a prime target for a robbery.”
“Exactly,” Connor said with a smile. “So, I’ve been looking at police reports and internal reports to the app. Have I mentioned the NDA?”
She laughed. “Seriously, if I couldn’t keep a secret, I wouldn’t have a job anymore. I worked with sensitive information at my last job, too. Not to mention all the stuff I learn about here. If you don’t trust me, why did you hire me? I’ve already seen some very personal things of yours.”
She held her hands together at the wrist and winked at him.
His eyebrows hit his hairline. The handcuffs! He’d thought he’d gotten everything cleaned up.
“Those aren’t mine,” he stammered.
“Sure, they aren’t. Not that it matters, because I’m not judging you. You’re a grown man. You can do whatever you want. I’m just pointing out that I’ve already seen things. You have to trust me a little to even let me in here.”
“That’s true.” He turned back to his stack of papers. “Those really aren’t mine, either. I know it sounds lame, but they were a gag gift from an ex.”
Mary smirked. “How do you know they were a gag and not a hint?”
He looked at her sharply, heat spreading through his chest. She was flirting with him. He couldn’t encourage it, but damn, his lion wanted to see where this would go.
“Anyway, I collected these reports, and I’m starting to think that someone or a group of someones may be using the app to rob people.”
“That’s pretty serious. I haven’t heard anything about people getting robbed like that before.”
“Because it isn’t obvious. It was just a hunch I was going on, before. But then we had two emails from people who had stopped using the service. They agreed to do a follow-up call, and they both complained that they thought they were being robbed while they were out on dates.”
“Wow, that’s disturbing. My little sisters use that app.”
“I’m not saying the app is dangerous,” Connor backtracked. “I’m just trying to get some measures put in place to stop this kind of thing from happening.”
“But, how would you do that?”
“That’s the hard part,” he admitted. “First, I have to prove that it is happening. No other app has had this problem before.”
“Or they haven’t admitted that it was a problem,” Mary pointed out. “Are you sure there isn’t anyone else in the company working on this?”
He shook his head. “No one else is doing this. That’s why it’s a pet project. My dad thinks it’s a waste of time.”
“If you’re right, it won’t be.” She rested her chin on her hand and rifled through his papers. “I’m still not convinced this is a good idea, though. If there was a problem, the police would find the person, and it won’t matter. The way I see it, you’re going to make a problem for the company if you go through with this.”
“How?”
She sounded just like his dad, but he wanted to hear her out. She was a neutral party, after all. It didn’t matter to her what happened with the app. In fact, since her sisters used the app, she’d want it to be as safe as possible.
“You could open yourself up to lawsuits. It’s better to not know about a problem than know and do nothing. And I don’t see what you can do about this practically. You shouldn’t show your findings to your dad or anyone else in the company.”
He looked at all the newspaper clippings he’d found and the file on his tablet. “You’ve got to be kidding me. That can’t be what you take away from this. This is a serious problem! People could get hurt. I can’t say nothing.”
“You sure can. You aren’t a law enforcement officer. This isn’t your job. Your job is to make the best app you can, not try to catch criminals. Do you have something against the app?”
Connor scooped the papers up from the table and snapped the tablet closed. “I do not. Thanks for your input.”
She sighed. “You asked for my opinion. Don’t get mad because I said something you didn’t want to hear.”
“That’s not it. I have somewhere to be.”
“Not true. You have a problem with the app, and you want to tank it.”
“That isn’t it,” he snapped. “I wanted feedback, and you gave it to me. Thank you for your honest opinion. But I do have somewhere to be.”
“Okay. I’ll see myself out.”
He remained on the couch while she gathered her things and left the apartment. He kept his eyes trained on his phone the whole time. He didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of seeing him ruffled.
He didn’t have a problem with the app. He had a problem with how unsafe it was. People were putting their trust in the thing, and he wanted to be sure they weren’t opening themselves up to danger.
He wasn’t being unreasonable. Everyone else wasn’t being cautious enough.
Mary was no different than any of the others. She couldn’t see what was at stake, which wasn’t surprising. It also wasn’t surprising that she’d tried to flirt with him. All the maids tried it. Hell, most of the employees tried it. He understood. He was a very good-looking man, after all.
The next time she came by, he wouldn’t be so friendly. It always took him too long to learn his lesson, but he’d learned it this time. He wouldn’t encourage her again.