Luxe - Steve Rogers x OC (AU)

Chapter 2

The downstairs.

The place where the lowest of the low lurk when they are preparing or not working. Downstairs they launder, clean, and ensure everything is sanitary to take upstairs to the many rooms and suites that the hotel has.

The maids see all, hear all, but you don't see them.

No, you ignore them, just as they ensure that they make themselves all but invisible to you. After all, why would you wish to speak to them? They're too 'common' for your expensive tastes, however they make for great sport.

It is down here that our newest team player, Mercy, works her fingers to the bone. Washing, ironing, before heading upstairs and flittering from room to room, suite to suite to ensure that all beds are perfectly made, ready for your night of slumber. All bathrooms are sparkling. There's not a speck of dust to be found. Not a smudge on a mirror.

She has attentions right down to the last detail. She has to.

This is all she has.

Her only source of a substantial financial income if we're gonna get technical. The Infinity pays well if you work until you bleed. Mercy may appear a little clueless, but she knows just what is at stake if she or anyone else fucks up.

So let's turn our attentions to her shall we? She's certainly someone to watch, even if you don't see her...

She sees you and everything you do...

**

"Uniform check!" Wanda yelled as the maids lined up to be inspected. This was a regular occurrence so as to try and catch anyone out who wasn't up to the usual standards that the hotel expected from its staff.

And they were high ones to say the least.

Yes, this was the bane of Wanda's life, having to make sure that everyone dressed and appeared proper at the same time. Only once had she had to dismiss someone for not ensuring that they had sewn up the rip to their dress. The poor maid hadn't noticed, but Wanda's eagle eyes had from a mile off.

Mercy quickly rushed to get in line, smoothing out her dress and standing still as Wanda now walked down the line of young women. Looking them up and down with judgemental eyes. Her feet stopped in front of Mercy, looking her over for longer than the others.

Shit.

In her mind, Mercy now wondered just what was wrong. Everything was perfect in her book. Dress ironed, shoes polished, hair tied back in a perfected bun as expected. She didn't stand out, but then again she wasn't meant to. She had to remain unseen.

Her eyes kept themselves cast down to the ground.

"Hmmm" Wanda now thoughtfully hummed to herself and then moved further down the line, Mercy exhaling discreetly as she did.

The last thing that she wanted was to be out and searching for another job before she had only really just begun.

"What was that about?" Leah, another maid and one who had befriended Mercy from the moment she had arrived now whispered.

Mercy quickly glanced to her, "I don't know..." she replied quietly and then stared back down at the tiled floor.

"Back to work" Wanda announced to them all, coming back down the line and looking at Mercy once more as she went.

Leah watched her go. "She's got freaky witch eyes that one, did you see how she stared at you?"

"I know...have I done something wrong that I don't know about?"

With a shrug the pair grabbed a cleaning trolley and made for the elevator that would take them upstairs. "Not that I know of, she'd have dragged your ass outta line there and then, but she didn't? Just stared at you and then moved on - weird". Leah shivered at the thought, a slender finger hovering above the elevator buttons. "Where to first?"

"The Pym Suite". Mercy confirmed.

Pressing the button for the floor, Leah leant back against the side of the elevator. "There are rumours y'know..."

A rather unladylike snort escaped Mercy's lips, "There's always rumours".

"About Carolina, you know she was called to work upstairs at all hours and then just didn't come to work one day? Well I heard that they'd terminated her contract, so I called her, but shes not been answering me. Perhaps Mr Rogers has put some kind of non disclosure thing on her or something? Just weird because it came out of nowhere. I mean I know others have left for other jobs and stuff..."

"You overthink too much, anyway why would Mr Rogers put a non disclosure agreement on her?" It didn't make sense.

"He has a type".

Mercy frowned, "A type?"

"Yeah...us..." and then Leah saw her friends expression and laughed. "What? Everyone knows it, but then again you're still quite new. He likes a maid or two...or three...or a hell of a lot more if we're going to go into detail".

"I've never even seen him". Mercy admitted.

At the moment her boss was just a name without a face. "He's handsome, one of the most eligible bachelors around at the moment, but he's also a workaholic. He's in and out for meetings and stuff, but his apartments are on the east side of the hotel. It's quieter there".

"So who cleans his apartment?"

"Wanda - she's classed as an upstairs member of staff after all". Leah said, the ping of the elevator signalling that they were at their floor and pushed the cleaning trolley out into the hallway that led down to the Pym Suite. "Think of it like the West Wing in Beauty and the Beast. We're forbidden to go up those stairs, onto that floor  unless we're told otherwise. Even then it won't happen, apparently there's a key to that door, and only one person has it apart from Mr Rogers".

"Who?"

"Mr Barnes".

Mercy frowned. "Leah...do you think that Carolina went up those stairs? It could be the reason her contract was terminated?

Leah laughed. "Yeah right! Then again if you're caught up on that floor, let alone trying to get through that door then you're bound to be dead". Once again she saw Mercy's expression change, "Geez Merc not literally! If anything she may have been curious and they caught her, so they kicked her out. She's probably so embarrassed that she's not answering my calls, the nosey little bitch probably deserved it".

Opening the door they gathered what they needed from the trolley and went inside to tidy and clean the suite ready for the next guest who was due to check in that afternoon.

Still Mercy felt a sense of unease, not just because of what she and Leah had just spoken of, but because of how Wanda had paid her extra attention earlier and no one else.

It was a feeling that she just could not shake.