And that’s on me, not because they’ve acted like I’m a burden,” she assured him, as if he might believe Marguerite had made her feel unwelcome. “They’ve been really kind, but I’m not used to depending on others. Fortunately, now that I have not one, but two full-time jobs, I don’t have to. I can use the money I’ve saved up for first and last months’ rent and save the money for my tuition out of my wages.” She shrugged. “So I’ll take a nap and then get up and start searching the internet for apartments.”
“Or you could stay here.” The words were out of his mouth before his brain could filter them. But when she stood with her mouth open, her eyes blinking in surprise, he mentally reviewed what he’d said and quickly added, “I mean in the building. This is one of four apartments above the club. There are two on the third floor and two on this floor. Sofia—she works the bar,” he paused to explain before continuing, “She has one of the apartments on the third floor, and I’m the only one on this floor. There are still two apartments available, one on each floor. I expected one of them would go to the bookkeeper and the other to the dog sitter if they didn’t already have a place in the city. But—” He shrugged wryly and pointed out, “You’re both the dog sitter and the bookkeeper so get your choice of apartments.”
When she didn’t respond right away, he added, “H.D.’s last sitter was mortal. I couldn’t find an immortal to do it, and had to make do with a mortal. Fortunately, she already lived in the city because I wouldn’t have been comfortable with offering her an apartment here. It was risky even having her around the building, but I was desperate. I did make it clear she was never to step foot in the Night Club though.”
He paused briefly, but her continued silence made him add, “Living here would solve your apartment problem, and the rent is cheap. Also, you wouldn’t need to commute to work, just head downstairs, and if an emergency crops up you’ll be nearby, and . . .” He let his voice trail away, not for lack of excuses to move her into the building, but because he realized he was yapping. G.G. wasn’t a yapper. Usually. He was a listener. Women loved to talk and he was always happy to listen. They revealed so much about themselves when talking and he’d always found women fascinating.
“Si, it would be handy,” Ildaria agreed finally, a small smile playing on her lips, and he could feel the wide, probably goofy smile, stretching his own lips. Damn, this woman affected him oddly.
“Well, can I see them?” she asked finally when a full minute had passed in silence.
“Oh, yes, of course,” he muttered, realizing while he’d stood there gaping at her, she’d been waiting for him to make the offer. Turning, he hurried into the kitchen to grab the keys to the empty apartments.
Rejoining her in the hall, he shifted H.D. under one arm and unlocked his apartment door, then held it for her to precede him into the corridor.
“As you know the Night Club takes up the first two floors of the building, but there are also a storage room and laundry room for the club on the third floor. So the two apartments there are smaller with just one bedroom each. The apartments on this floor are much larger and nicer and have two bedrooms each. Sofia was already in one of the third floor apartments when I took over the place. I offered her the chance to move up to the other larger apartment on this floor, but she didn’t want the hassle of moving,” he explained and then added, “Sofia usually works behind the bar. I think you met her tonight. Well, last night now,” he corrected, remembering that it was now morning. Working the hours that he did, it was hard to keep the days straight at times. To him, this was still yesterday and would be until he went to bed. For the rest of the world, it was already a new day.
“Si,” Ildaria said, distracting him from his thoughts. He could hear the smile in her voice as she added, “Sofia introduced herself to me. So did the other servers in the club; Char, Ruby, Ryia, Rowan, and Elijah. They all seemed nice.”