at their jobs too,” G.G. said as he led her across the hall to the second apartment. As he unlocked that door, he added, “Lucern was good at choosing employees. Sofia is the only one who lives in the building though. She’s basically the manager. Runs the place when I’m not here and so on. The rest of the servers all share a house nearby. And, here we are,” he said as the door swung open.
Stepping aside, he let her enter and then followed, absently rubbing H.D. under the chin as he glanced around the large open space, trying to see what she was seeing and hoping she liked it.
“It’s huge. As big as your place,” Ildaria said with amazement as she looked around the living room area and the kitchen.
“Yeah. It’s the same size, the mirror image of my apartment,” he murmured, absently setting H.D. down when the dog kicked his feet, making it known he wanted to explore.
“Oh, G.G., it’s beautiful,” she breathed, staring at the wall of windows, before turning to move up the short hall to inspect the bedrooms.
He smiled wryly at the claim. It was a huge empty room really. Although there were appliances in the kitchen, a long island separating it from the living room, a fireplace in the living room, and a stacked washer and drier in a closet in the hall to the bedrooms. But other than that, it was an empty space waiting to be filled. Not what he would call beautiful.
“I couldn’t possibly afford this,” Ildaria said a moment later as she came back into the living room. She was shaking her head, her expression full of regret. “I mean, this place must cost an arm and a leg, and while you’re going to be paying me well . . .” She sighed unhappily. “If I didn’t need to finish my degree, I could afford it. But I have to—”
“I give employees a cut rate,” he said quickly, and it wasn’t a lie. He’d left Sofia’s rent at the same low rate it had been before he’d taken over the Night Club. And the house the others lived in was part of the Night Club sale. He’d left that rent alone too even though the rental rates for both the apartments and the house were probably a quarter of what he could get if he rented to mortals. But having mortals coming and going from the building that housed the Night Club was not a smart idea. Besides, happy employees were good employees to his mind, and giving them a safe, low priced place to live went a long way toward making them happy. So, G.G. told her the amount Sofia paid, added fifty bucks to it for the extra bedroom, and then held his breath, waiting for her decision. For some reason, he really, really wanted her to live in this apartment.
“You’re kidding?” she asked with disbelief. “That’s all?”
“That’s it,” he assured her.
Ildaria bit her lip and peered around the apartment silently, but then murmured, “I suppose I should at least look at the one-bedroom too.”
“Of course,” he said at once, and then on inspiration added, “I just thought this way you’d have a spare room for Vasco, or Jess and Raffaele to stay in if you wanted them to visit.”
That made her pause and her eyes widen, as she no doubt considered being able to invite people to visit. He was pretty sure she was struggling between fiscal responsibility—i.e. taking the less expensive one-bedroom apartment—and the freedom to have people over which was only fifty dollars more a month. Feeling oddly desperate to have her on this floor with him, he reminded her, “And I of course, will pay your university tuition now that you’re working for me.”
Ildaria had started to turn to survey the apartment again, but swung back at that, eyes wide and mouth agape. “What?”
“I pay half the tuition for the courses any of my employees want whether at college or university or just Dale Carnegie or something,” he informed her. “Both here and in the UK. In fact, Elijah’s taking courses at the university right now and I paid half his tuition.”
Ildaria frowned. “So you’d pay half mine too?”
“All of it,” he corrected. “I’d pay your full tuition.”
Ildaria had started to shake her head before he finished speaking. “Half is one thing if you do that with all your employees, but why would you offer to pay the full ride for me?”