Page 32 of Zimyra

“Good evening.”

My thoughts leave me when I hear a woman’s voice in my ear. I turn in her direction to see that she’s sitting at the table next to mine.

“Good evening,” I respond and have no intention of saying a word more. It’s been a while since I entertained a woman, but for some reason, nothing in me wants to. Perhaps it’s the mission. All my energy is going to my assignment.

I return to eating when I hear, “Are you from around here?”

I look at the woman again. She’s beautiful – has long, dark brown hair that matches the color of her eyes. Her makeup is not overly done. Her lips are a dangerous red that tells me she’s a little edgy. The dress she’s wearing grips her body like leather.

“No, I’m not from around here.”

“Where are you from?”

I glance at my vibrating phone to see Peter calling. He’s right on time to save me from a conversation I desperately do not want to have.

“Hey, what’s up?” I answer.

“Hey. How’s it going?”

“It’s going.” I summon the waitress, tell her to wrap up the rest of my food and when she brings it back, I quickly pay and head up to my apartment. I leave ol’ girl where she is.

“I hope you’re getting some good intel.”

“Yes, as much as I can, being that the manager hates my guts.”

Peter cackles in my ear. “What did you do?”

“She’s upset about me wasting her time when she gave me the tour. I tried apologizing. She accepted my apology, yet she’s still giving me the cold shoulder.”

“Oh, come on, son. I’ve seen the way you are with women. You’re a smooth operator. You mean to tell me you can’t charm an innocent, sweet-tea-drinking, country gal.”

I chuckle and say, “You should never try that accent again, Peter. And Zimyra isn’t your typicalcountry gal. This woman is all business. There is no charming her.”

“Then fall into business mode. That should be a piece of cake.”

“It’s not when I’m supposed to be posing as a maintenance man,” I say, opening the fridge to place my leftovers inside. “I do, however, have a plan.”

“Which is?”

“I’m going to stay out of her way until I figure her out, and then I’ll try tofeelher out. Right now, she’s making it impossible for me to do that.”

“I’m sure you’ll weasel your way in somehow.”

“Yeah…we’ll see. Hey, by the way, do you recall a requisition coming through from Atlantic Properties?”

“What was the requisition for?”

“It was a change to the maintenance reporting system. Zimyra said she put in a request and it was denied.”

“Oh, yeah. I do recall that.”

“You denied it?”

“Sure did.”

“I’m the operating officer. I believe requests as such fall under my umbrella.”

“They do, but when I saw it come through, I knew I wasn’t about to invest the thousands of dollars it would take to add that functionality to the website and the app—not to mention the regular updates. There was no way I was going to let that go through.”

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