Page 24 of The Jerk in Apartment 1B

“Then let me introduce myself.” He extends his hand. “I’m Cole Parsons, the property manager, here to help with whatever you need.”

I shake his hand, thinking this must be a joke, but that means Jenna would have to be in on it. She’s the one who gave me his number, but I can’t see her playing a joke on me, which means Cole really is the property manager.

“Cole!” I hear the Jerk yell. “Where’d you go?”

“Next door,” he yells back.

“You weren’t supposed to tell him!” I whisper.

The Jerk appears beside Cole, that sexy smile on his face. He took his hoodie off and is wearing a fitted t-shirt that stretches over his muscular chest.

“What are you doing over here?” the Jerk asks Cole.

“Official property manager business,” Cole says.

The Jerk looks at me. “Is there a problem with the apartment?”

“Cole is dealing with it,” I say. “You can go back to—”

“Is it the toilet?” The Jerk goes past me into my apartment. “The thing used to run all the time. I thought I fixed it but—”

“Hey!” I follow him to the bathroom. “Get out of here!”

He’s already lifted up the lid of the toilet tank. “Everything looks good.” He puts the lid back. “And I don’t hear it running.”

“Because it’s not. This isn’t about the toilet.”

He turns to me. “Then what’s it about?”

I leave the bathroom and run into Cole, who has apparently invited himself into my apartment.

“As long as we’re all here,” he says, “we should talk this out.”

“Talk what out?” the Jerk says.

“Trina’s made a complaint against you.”

I throw my hands up. “What happened to being anonymous?”

“I never agreed to that. And really, you think Scott wouldn’t figure out who made the complaint? I know he looks dumb, but he’s actually really smart.” Cole smiles at his friend.

The Jerk ignores him and says to me, “So what’s this about? What’s the complaint?”

I sigh, irritated with him and his stupid friend. “The party last night. The music was so loud I couldn’t sleep.”

“You should’ve come over. It was a great party. One of our best.”

“It really was,” Cole says, smiling. “It was epic.”

I look between the two of them. “Are you really not going to take this seriously? I have to work today, and I’ve had almost no sleep.”

“So take a nap,” the Jerk says. “What time do you have to work?”

I glare at him. “It doesn’t matter what time I work. The point is that your music was way too loud and didn’t shut off until three in the morning. That’s completely unacceptable.”

“Nobody else complained,” the Jerk says, folding his arms over his chest.

“Then maybe they’re deaf, because there’s no way anyone could sleep through that noise.”

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