Chapter 4 Married to work
Renata
“Silence! I call this meeting to order,” I declare.
The boardroom, which only a moment ago was filled with the din of workplace chatter, immediately quiets. We’ve added a row of chairs to the side and back of the room to accommodate all of the staff who need to be present at our biweekly manager’s meeting.
I take my usual spot at the head of the table, naturally. Every other chair is full, except…
“Where’s Celine?” I turn to my assistant, Lily.
She looks up at me with her soft green eyes, her pale face flushing slightly pink.
Before she can answer, Xia Chan, the head of our Day Guard, leans forward across the table.
Her straight black hair is streaked through with silver and her hazel eyes are bright and expressive.
She’s a witch, not a vampire, which is why she leads the Day Guard that protects the hotel during the daylight hours.
“Celine is meeting with the good witches,” she reports. “She said she would try to make it to the meeting, but it’s a long journey back, so they might be late.”
I purse my lips, unable to hide my annoyance.
Ever since the imprisonment of our Creator, my sister has been showing up less and less often for her business-related commitments, shouldering me with more of the burden.
We used to commiserate about how much Tudor over-invested in his alliances with the other magical groups in our region, like the good witches, and how little he was around for the day-to-day operations of the hotel.
But now it seems that she’s following in his footsteps.
“Make a note on the minutes,” I tell Lily. “No Celine.”
“I’m here!” says my other sister proudly, raising her hand high in the air.
I do my best to suppress an eye roll. My second-youngest sister, Lexi, sits cross-legged in her chair, her bright yellow pumps discarded on the ground in front of her.
She holds her enormous iPhone in her other hand, probably updating her instagram feed as we speak.
Her pale skin is completely devoid of colour, and her platinum blond hair is tied high on her head in a tight ponytail.
She wears a yellow crocheted top and, inexplicably, a see-through rain jacket, even though there’s a clear sky outside and it’s the beginning of June.
And she’s a vampire. By definition, we can’t feel cold or be affected by the elements.
Still, I acknowledge Lexi with as much patience as I can muster. “Noted.”
Lily senses my frustration and clears her throat softly. “Ms. Espina, the first item on the agenda is the discussion of vacation time and summer workload.”
“Thank you, Lily.” I press my clicker and the slideshow on the mounted TV behind me moves forward, to a bar chart demonstrating how much vacation time is dispensed throughout the year.
“As you can all see from this data, summer is our busiest time of year, and yet it is also when staff are most likely to request vacation. Of course, it’s imperative that we treat our staff well, and approve as many vacation requests as we can reasonably accommodate.
But I want you all to be aware that we’re going into our most understaffed months of the year.
To compensate, we have to ensure that we’re running an extremely tight ship… ”
Xia interrupts. “Why don’t we just hire more staff?”
“Impossible,” I respond immediately. “If we hire in the summer, we have to let go of staff when the season slows down again in fall.”
“Couldn’t we hire contract employees?” Lexi asks, without taking her eyes off of her phone screen.
“We’re not hiring contract employees,” I reply. “The training that’s required is…”
“Yes, exactly,” a lilting voice interjects.
It’s Mel, the head of our Human Resources department.
She sits at the very back of the boardroom, in a chair by the window.
She runs her fingers absentmindedly through her long, lime green hair.
Her skin has a faint undertone of purple, and her eyes seem to constantly be changing colour. “That sounds like way too much work.”
“It’s not because it’s too much work,” I correct with a sigh.
It’s a concern that our Human Resources manager considers training staff to be ‘too much work,’ but I don’t have time to address that right now.
“We don’t hire contract employees because our services require a high degree of training, and it’s not feasible to train someone and then employ them for such a short period of time.
The Respite hotel’s workplace culture and values are an essential part of our customer service, and it takes time to distill that in new employees. Any more questions?”
Everyone stares back at me with vague expressions of boredom, so I click to the next slide in my presentation.
“Excellent. As I was saying, since we know we’re going to be understaffed, it’s imperative that we maintain a high level of efficiency. Luckily, even though our staff tend to take vacations around this time of year, since it’s the summer, I expect that no one will be teaching.”
I give Xia and Damien a pointed look. They both teach at Elmwood Academy, which is the magical university located a few hours out of the city. Both of them teach there regularly, and their schedules often conflict with their guard rotations.
Damien tilts his head in an expression that I know means he’s going to tell me something I don’t want to hear.
He’s the most professional out of the bunch, wearing a crisp white button-up shirt and fitted slacks, a crimson handkerchief in one pocket.
His long locs fall elegantly over his shoulders, each one tipped with gold.
He has thoughtful brown eyes and there’s a cool tone to his copper skin.
“Well…” he says hesitantly.
I glare sharply at him. “What?”
“I was going to mention this after the meeting, but…Amrita asked me to teach a few summer classes, so I’m going to need Wednesdays and Thursdays off again.”
“Damien!”
“Oh yeah,” Xia adds casually. “She told me to ask you, Renata, are you free to take over Tudor’s Introduction to Vampiric Arts class and Advanced Glamours starting next Septem-”
“No, I am not!” I respond, putting my hands on my hips. “Do I look like I need a side hustle right now? We’ve got ten weddings and seven conferences this Fall!”
“Ok, ok, I was just asking!” Xia says innocently, putting her hands up in the air.
I huff angrily. “I can’t run this place on my own, you know!”
The door to the boardroom opens and my older sister, Celine, enters. She wears a dark, fitted suit jacket with dress pants, and there’s a distracted expression across her pale face.
“Talk of the devil,” I mutter, crossing my arms.
“Apologies for my lateness,” she responds, taking her seat at the other end of the oval boardroom table, between Xia and Damien. “What did I miss?”
“Renata’s freaking out about how we’re understaffed again,” Lexi says with a sigh, her fingertips clacking against the screen of her phone.
“I am not freaking out, I am singlehandedly holding together the operations of our family business!” I give Celine a sharp look. “And meeting with vampire business owners from the east coast who are trying to encroach on our hotel monopoly.”
She frowns, her dark brows knitting. “How was the meeting with Xavian?”
It’s not on the agenda, but I can see Xia and the other managers lean forward with curiosity. “It was as we’d all expected. He’s interested in a hostile takeover of the entire hotel chain, including the casino and club.”
Celine hisses, her violet eyes flashing. “What did you say to him?”
“I told him he would acquire the Respite hotel over my deanimated body. But I don’t know if that will hold him off for long.
He’s not very happy with us. He said that the other vampire clans are circling, but I think he was exaggerating, trying to make us scared so we would allow him to buy us out. ”
“I don’t know how much of an exaggeration it is,” Damien says. “The fact that both Tudor and Lazarus Gray are out of the picture makes Silverlake City vulnerable. None of the older vampires would dare come here before, but now they think they may be able to move in.”
“We should take his threats seriously,” Celine says, stroking her chin thoughtfully.
“Perhaps you should attend the meeting next time, then,” I say, unable to keep the passive-aggressive note out of my voice.
My sister glares at me. “I’ve got a lot on my plate, managing our magical alliances. That reminds me, I have something to ask you after the meeting.”
“Which is…now!” Lexi says, taking her eyes off her phone to look at the clock beside the door. She moves to rise from her seat, but Celine interrupts her.
“Wait, Lexi, I need to talk to you too,” she says, as the other managers file out of the boardroom. Lexi sighs, but stays in her seat. “And Damien and Xia.”
“Do you need me to stay, Ms. Espina?” Lily asks, looking up from her laptop.
“Yes, but you can stop taking minutes. Just add any action items we discuss to my calendar,” I respond.
“Of course. And should I alert your next meeting that you may be running late?” she reminds me.
“That would be perfect. Thank you, Lily.”
She settles back in, her fingers clicking away at her keyboard dutifully. She tilts her head slightly, her ash blond hair falling into her eyes. Thank god for Lily. I don’t know how I would get anything done without her.
Celine’s voice brings me back to the conversation at hand. Her tone tells me that she’s going to give me yet another thing to add to my to do list.
“I met with Lavinia Nox earlier this evening,” she says.