Thank you for your responses and your continued support. I appreciate it.
I do not own Glee or the characters, neither do I own Chasing Christmas Eve.
The elevator doors opened onto the fifth floor...Sam's private floor.
He guided Mercedes off the elevator into a lobby with four doors. One of them led to the stairwell, which Kitty came out of with Daisy, who of course, was now behaving perfectly well.
Two more doors led to Sam's private penthouse apartment and office. And the last one opened directly into his gym.
They all went through that door, and while Kitty flicked on lights and hit the alarm pad to enter his code, Sam heard Mercedes gasp.
He turned back quickly, to find her staring in awe out the windows at the sun setting over the bay.
"Wow!" she breathed, still shaking, but taking the time to eye the 180-degree vista of the city, as she hugged herself in his jacket.
He knew that from where she stood, she could see the rest of Cow Hollow, and passed that, Fort Mason Park, the Marina Green, and the bay.
And he thought it was pretty wow too. He loved this view. It was one of the many reasons he'd bought the building in the first place.
"I wouldn't be able to work out seeing this view," Mercedes said.
"It never gets old for me either," Sam replied.
He pulled out his phone to crank up the heat from his app, before remembering, he hadn't dried the phone out yet.
So he had to actually use the control panel on the wall before going to her at the window.
When Sam was stuck in his own head and unable to get anywhere with his work, he liked to stare out at the city that was more home to him, than anywhere else had ever been.
"I love it," Mercedes breathed. "I feel like, from right here, I can see all the way to the ends of the Earth."
He knew exactly what she meant.
Beyond the bay, stretched the Pacific Ocean in all its deep-blue majestic beauty, all the way to the gently curved horizon.
"I could so write to this view," Mercedes went on, in a hushed, amazed voice.
She then turned to Kitty, who was working out her thumbs on her phone.
"This is such a great building. I saw the pub downstairs, and the coffee shop and that cute reclaimed-wood furniture place. What else is there?"
"More shops and businesses," Kitty said. "There's also an eclectic mix on the first and second floors. And there're residential apartments on three and four."
"I don't suppose you have any apartments available for a short-term rental?" Mercedes asked hopefully. "I'm only going to be here until Christmas Eve, but would happily pay for the whole month to stay here."
"Sorry," Kitty said. "But no."
Right at that moment, Sam met Kitty's gaze.
She was the mother figure he didn't need, the bossy-as-hell sister he'd never asked for, and his favorite and most important employee, but she was also a colossal pain in his ass.
"What Kitty means," he said, "Is that, she doesn't know of anything offhand, but I'm sure she could check it out for you."
"Hmm," Kitty said, nudging a trembling Mercedes towards the shower area. "The restroom is through that door and they are fresh towels under the sink. Go get warmed up."
Mercedes, apparently too cold to argue any further, nodded.
Then, she moved off and went through the indicated door and shut it behind herself and they heard the lock click into place.
'Cute, sexy, and smart,' Sam thought, staring at the door Mercedes went through.
"Are you kidding me?" Kitty asked him, keeping her voice low.
"What?"
"Don't 'what' me, Samuel Evans. You know what. You're in the middle of saving the world right now for Cindy, remember? So please tell me what the hell you think you're doing."
They heard the shower come on from inside the bathroom.
"Look," he said, trying not to picture Mercedes stripping out of her clothes. "I got her into this mess. This is the least I can do."
"No," Kitty said. "The least you could do, is give her a hundred bucks for her trouble and send her on her way."
"That's cold Kitty, even for you."
"Did you even get her last name? Or what she does for a living? Did you vet her in any way?"
"For what?" Sam asked. "I'm the one who ruined her day, not the other way around."
"And how about the way she reacted to you, even thinking about touching her phone? Did you notice that little red flag?"
"Of course. And I wouldn't have let a stranger touch my phone either," he said. "Hell, I barely let you touch it."
"You know what I'm getting at," Kitty said. "Maybe she has something to hide, Sam."
'Or maybe she is in trouble,' he thought.
She'd denied that, but he couldn't help but think of her sweet eyes and the haunted depths he'd seen in them.
"Listen Kitty, she needs a place to stay. So give her the empty furnished apartment I'm holding on the third floor."
"We don't do short-term rentals here. By your own decree," Kitty stated.
"We do today."
There was a beat of silence, and since Kitty was never silent, Sam was in temporary shock.
"You hold that open for a reason," she finally said.
"Yeah, and so far, Steven has refused to come in off the streets, hasn't he."
It was yet another problem he hadn't been able to solve, which tightened the ever-present knot in his chest.
"Make the rent cheap, because she's a struggling writer...she probably doesn't have much money," Sam added.
Kitty's mouth fell open.
"She's a writer? Are you kidding me?"
"Not a reporter," he said. "A fiction writer."
Kitty just continued to stare at him.
"Are you even listening to yourself?" she asked.
"Look, I got her knocked into the fountain and it's butt-ass cold out there, and she rolled with it," Sam said, remembering Mercedes' throaty laugh and it made him smile, even now. "She's been a really good sport about it."
"Maybe she had a good reason," Kitty said. "Maybe she was trying to get close to you. Hell, maybe she is a reporter and the whole thing's a setup."
"Come on," Sam said. "She couldn't have known Daisy would send her flying into the fountain. This happened on my property and I'm making it right. End of story."
"Fine."
Kitty looked at her phone, which had gone off four thousand times in the past four minutes.
"But I'd like to remind your stubborn ass, that you've not been yourself since this whole media thing. You need to be more cautious about connecting with a stranger, who appeared basically out of nowhere."
"She's not running a con on me."
"I'm not saying she is, but we both know you've been screwed over...twice.. if we're counting, and you haven't come to terms with the betrayal yet. So just be careful, okay? That's all I'm saying." She pointed at him. "And remember, you're the smartest person in this building and probably the smartest person I'll ever meet. Use your powers for good."
Sam had to laugh.
"Ditto."
Kitty blew out a sigh, gave him a quick hug, and then she and Daisy were gone.
Sam let his smile slip, as he walked across the room to check the thermostat again.
He'd heard what Kitty had to say...loud and clear...and he got it. He was still stinging, and he wasn't himself. Added to that, was the project for Cindy.
The unfinished project.
It was critical work, more important than anything he'd ever done, and it was kicking his ass.
He was on a deadline and could feel it breathing down his neck every single day that passed. So he couldn't afford any break in his concentration and his efforts.
Which was a problem now, because, ninety-nine percent of his brain had short-circuited, over the thought of Mercedes naked in his shower.
He heard the water go off and he pictured her dripping wet and wrapping herself in his towel.
Shoving his hands in his pockets, he moved to the window and looked out at the view that had totally impressed her.
Once upon a time, he couldn't have imagined living in a place like this, much less owning it. But he'd conquered the shitty hand that life had dealt him.
And he'd do it again if he had to.
The bathroom door opened, and even better than his fantasy, Mercedes emerged from a cloud of steam, her delectable curvy body wrapped in one of his towels, her exposed skin gleaming and damp.
Her hair had been piled on top of her head, but some of the strands had escaped, clinging to her neck and shoulders.
And he couldn't tear his eyes off of her.
There was just something so, un-calculated about her, so...natural and easy. She was like a beacon to him, which was both crazy and more than a little terrifying.
Clearly not seeing him against the wall, she moved with an effortless grace to the suitcase she'd left at the door.
Bending low enough to give him a heart attack, she rifled through her things, mumbling to herself, that she should've researched more about how to be a normal person, instead of how to kill someone with an everyday object.
"Do you kill a lot of people, then?" Sam asked, startling her.
"Motherforker!" she said with a squeak of surprise, whirling to face him, almost losing her grip on the towel.
Five days a week, Sam worked out hard in this gym. Mostly to outrun his demons, but the upside was...he could run miles without losing his breath.
But it took all of five seconds, and he completely lost it.
And that wasn't his body's only reaction.
Stay safe!