Chapter 22 Karma
The person at the front desk was a young man, probably an Aegis student, who hit him with another rush of bitter fury. The man looked up with a polite smile that dropped along with all the color in his face. His gaze darted quickly over the exposed parts of Dorian’s chest, along with the three women in the area, and a few other guests.
Dorian dumped the jug, the towel, and the bottles on the desk and counted to three before speaking.
“H-How can I help you, Mr. Knox?”
His eye twitched. “You can pull up my profile of preferences and tell me why the fuck not a single fucking thing was followed and fire the idiot they hired to replace the other one to start.”
He swallowed and picked up the phone. “I’ll call my manager. I-I don’t have access to resident profiles.”
“You do that.”
Within a few minutes, a familiar, pinch-faced woman came out. Her eyes swelled to twice their size before she tried for a polite smile.
“Mr. Knox—“
“No. I’m not stepping into the back, so you can handle this quietly. I’m bruised, itchy as fuck, and I’m pretty sure your last maid has ruined the flooring in my fucking house.”
“We—Well, I assure you that we’ll take care of it—“
“You will. First, you’re going to fire whoever you sent after the first one.”
“But she—“
“Then, you’re going to call whoever you need to get clearance to replace the clothes the bleach-soaked floor ruined and pay for my off-season trips to the fucking doctors.” He dropped the bag at her feet and shoved the jug toward her. “Then, you will call my usual maid and find out when she can come and fix all of the other one’s fuck ups, no matter how long it takes her to detail it. Today.”
She blinked. Her eyes bounced left and right, and she cleared her throat.
“That’s… not possible, but I can send another—”
“No. You can send my original maid, or terminate the fucking contract plus damages.”
Her eyes bulged. “But, Mr. Knox, please be reasonable—“
“Does it look like I’m in a reasonable fucking mood? You sent me two fucking idiots as replacements.”
She pursed her lips and cleared her throat. “Regretfully, your original maid was terminated due to a complaint.”
He narrowed his eyes, something prodding the back of his mind. “What fucking complaint? She’s been cleaning my villa for four years without problem. She can’t be that bad of a maid to get fired for one review.”
She turned pink. “Your maid was exclusive to your villa, thus your complaint was grounds for termination.”
He blinked. “What the fuck are you talking…” He drifted off when his stomach jolted with realization. “Show me this complaint.”
She hesitated, but turned, picking up a tablet and navigating to the screen. He scrolled through the survey he’d filled out until he reached the last page and saw the “Not Satisfied” selected with no reason, no explanation, and no tip.
Lydia’s voice drifted through his mind, a little more mocking than before.
For fuck’s sake…
He scrolled on, noting the notes Lydia had entered along with the scheduling note that was waiting for administrative approval by a K. Whittaker.
“Are you K. Whittaker?”
“Y-Yes.”
From what he could see, she had either removed it from his profile and sent Lydia out anyway, or simply hadn’t applied it. He glared at the woman. She paled as he shoved the tablet back into her hands.
“It seems I was wrong. You didn’t send me two idiots. You sent me one, and you’re the other one.”
“Mr. Knox—“
“Does the Resort know you’re playing games with villa owners? The staff? Why was my scheduling request not applied?”
Her cheek filled with color.
“Aside from your mishandling, in your infinite wisdom, you didn’t question what ‘Not Satisfied’ looked like when she didn’t even get to start the job because I sent her away because she wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place?”
He hadn’t meant to choose it, but the question stood.
She stammered. “I assure you that she had other issues—“
“You just said she only ever cleaned my place. What problems if I’ve never had a problem with her work?”
“Well—“
“Do you know the definition of wrongful termination?”
She shut her mouth and dropped her gaze to the floor.
“Your manager is going to hear about this, and you have until I get someone to look at my floors to get her back on payroll and scheduled, or not only will you be fired, you’ll never work at anything affiliated with Fortuna again.”
She clutched the tablet to her chest, and he swept out of the foyer, past the gawking crowd. His new administrator was a few steps away, staring at him with an inquisitive glint in his eyes.
Dorian smiled coldly at him. “Think I’ll be quite late thanks to the Resort’s fuck up.”
He set his jaw, but said nothing as Dorian stomped back to his villa, feeling like he was the third, itchy idiot in all of this.
Fucking karma was a bitch.
The sleepover had been more sleeping than revelry, but it had given Lydia a night of clarity. Sharing Riley’s bed in her little apartment had been more peaceful and restful than all the nights in Megumi’s apartment.
Riley didn’t have guests, no signs of a boyfriend, no lingering male presence that could pop up at any time. Despite her deep interest in hot men, Riley wasn’t the type to sleep around.
Lydia had put the locks on her bedroom door after the first time one of Megumi and Cami’s ‘guests’ had wandered into her room, thinking it was a three-for-one deal.
She hadn’t slept for weeks, despite him leaving relatively quickly, and neither of them had apologized for it. The revolving door of men Megumi and Cami brought back made a night job infinitely appealing, even one with a sleazy manager.
Lydia got back to the building and took the stairs two at a time to their floor.
When the lock whirred open to absolute quiet, she sagged with relief.
No one was there. Perfect.
She locked the door behind her, gathered her other two pairs of shoes from the little shoe rack by the door, slipped out of her shoes, and headed to her bedroom. The door was still locked, and other than the notice posted on her bedroom door, nothing seemed to have changed.
The notice looked official, acknowledging her plan to move out and detailing a list of things she needed to do before she left, including cleaning her space and patching anything broken.
Interesting that she never said she was planning to move out, but she guessed Megumi’s family wasn’t interested in letting the drama fester for too much longer, or Megumi already had her new roommate picked out.
She turned the notice over and scoffed at Megumi’s handwritten note.
Good luck finding housing, you ungrateful bitch. And no, you’re not getting your deposit back.