The ink painting the night black had deepened, only to be splashed a pale gold by the bright moon high up in the sky, a picturesque scene unfortunately tainted by the obstacle of the artificial lights of the metropolis. The traffic had turned sparse enough that the pollution, whether olfactory or auditory, seemed to have taken a back seat, more for the latter than for the pervasive, ever-present former.
In front of the high-end apartment building the woman in black had been observing, a sedan came to a slow, smooth stop that made the activity on its backseat undisturbed, its dark windows and the night making it impossible to see inside. That was until the backdoor opened, and a brown-haired man extricated himself from between the two eager female companions at the back with him.
He was handsome, with a dark charm attractive like an abyss. He was in a bit of a mess, with his hair disheveled, and his shirt unbuttoned at the top, displaying the traces of lipstick on his well-defined chest. He slicked his hair back with a laugh and turned to wave at the two sexily clad embodiments of temptation in the car:
"Sorry, girls, I love you, but unfortunately I can't keep you company tonight. See you later, Caitlin, Vinnie. Mwah."
The two women on the backseat pouted, but didn't show much disappointment, as it seemed that they had had enough fun to let him go. They responded to his flying kiss with kisses of their own:
*Mwah* × 2
"See you later, Alex. We love you too."
"Remember to rest well."
The voices of Caitlin, the blonde deeper in the car, and Vinnie, the black-haired, full of warm affection, carried bone-melting sweetness as they warmly waved back at Alex while in the arms of each other. Then, they stopped caring about him. With a wink full of coquettish invitation, Caitlin turned Vinnie's face toward herself, and claimed her companion's unoccupied lips with soft but untamed hunger, all the while keeping a smiling eye on Alex. The back of the car heated up, as despite the absence of the third pair of hands that had left, the two pairs still there did their utmost to climb over all the peaks and explore every turn, exposed or not, and every valley.
Alex laughed, and closed the door of the car. The dark window at the back went down to expose the two entangled bodies that had paused, then resumed intertwining themselves under his gaze, like an invitation. Alex didn't respond, but he didn't move his eyes away either. He watched the scene capable of making any heart race until the car took off, and turned into red dots in the distance.
He inhaled the sultry air of the night which was still less hot than the air had been inside the car, and exhaled as he passed his hand over his hair again. With a shake of his head, he buttoned his messy shirt, hiding the chest with obvious traces of lipstick, before he turned to walk into the apartment building with a smirk on his face.
"Welcome back, Mister Lenner." × 2
Alex nodded at the two receptionists with a wisp of an indifferent smile at the corner of his lips, unashamed of the obvious marks the night of partying had left on his face. He stepped into the lift, and pressed the button for the last floor.
When the door closed over his face, the woman and the man at the reception desk exhaled with relief washing over them. The man looked down at the screen with surveillance feeds and exclaimed:
"Fortunately, that woman has left already."
"Yes…"
Tension bled out of the female receptionist too, and the wave of relief she was feeling settled down, letting come up the surface a confusion that had been suppressed by the fear of having handled things the wrong way. And after looking at the monitors too, she asked:
"But actually, how did she leave? And when? I don't remember seeing her passing through the lobby again."
The male receptionist also paused, having almost forgotten about that. He hesitatingly advanced:
"She wouldn't have a key to Mister Lenner's apartment, would she?"
His female colleague thought for a moment, then shook her head:
"That shouldn't be the case. If she had it, she wouldn't have knocked on his door for a while and waited for a long time in the corridor before leaving."
The man frowned, finding the words logical, then he shook his head, a light, relieved smile climbing up his lips:
"You are right. Anyway, it doesn't matter. What matters is that she has left, and we won't have any trouble."
"Indeed."
With nothing to hold her back anymore, the female receptionist totally relaxed, and finally allowed herself to fall into a daze while looking at the closed elevator door, as if she could see the face that had been behind it just a moment ago. Her daze melted into a dreamy look, before the latter faded away into a disappointed breeze, punctuated with an exhale:
"Ahhh…"
Her colleague looked at her, and seemed to know what she was thinking, as he rolled his eyes, and pierced through her shriveled dreamy bubble with sarcasm:
"It is good that you have not started flying yet. He is way out of your league, he won't even look at you."
The female receptionist breathed in, then snapped:
"You are just jealous you will never touch the models and the stars Mister Lenner always party with. Instead of moping and showering me with your bitterness, man up and think about how to make something out of your life, will you?"
The male receptionist's face twisted like he had been made to swallow a fly, choking on the rest of the mockery that had risen to his throat. His colleague glared at him, snorted, then made to ignore him, with a slight smirk at the corner of her lips where he could not see it.
Meanwhile, while the alliance to face trouble together was breaking down, more than a thousand feet above them, on the rooftop, behind an air-conditioning unit, a phone vibrated in the gloved hand of the woman who was supposed to have left the apartment building.
She turned the screen up, and read the new message that had been sent in the chat with the unknown number:
"He is back. You know what to do."
A simple message, calm, but chilling.