Chapter 8 The five-year-old
Lily
I hurry into the CEO’s office, trying to appear calm and collected. Renata is perched on her soft leather office chair, her fingers moving with impossible speed over her keyboard as she types. The moment I enter, her eyes snap up to me. It makes me jump a little, since I’m already on edge.
“Take a seat, please,” she says. I close the door behind me and take the chair opposite her’s.
I swallow. My throat is very dry. “What is it?”
“I have an important business matter to discuss with you.” Her dark, perfectly shaped eyebrows knit across her forehead. “Are you all right?”
“Yes! Yes, I’m all right,” I respond.
“Your heart is beating very fast.” As always, her tone is impossible to read. “And the blood is rushing to your cheeks.”
She can tell how fast my heart is beating?
Is that some sort of vampire ability? There’s a strangely pleasant squirming sensation in my stomach at the thought.
I feel flustered, and I can’t help being honest with her.
“I…I was nervous that you would be upset with me, since I came in late today. I was worried you might let me go.”
She frowns, and there’s a flash of anger across her face. It’s a familiar expression, although I’ve never seen it from her. Instinctively, I flinch.
Her face immediately softens again. “I’m not angry with you. I’m angry with myself, for making you feel that I would let you go for something so trivial. You do exemplary work, Lily. I’m not going to fire you. The hotel couldn’t function without you.”
Now my heart is beating fast for another reason. She has no idea how much such a compliment means to me, coming from her.
“I deeply appreciate your hard work, Lily,” she continues. “I should let you know that more often.”
“Oh, I’m happy to be helpful,” I tell her, embarrassed at the shyness in my voice. “Anything you need, just let me know.”
“Well,” she heaves a deep sigh. “Unfortunately, that’s what I asked you into my office to discuss.
My sister has just dropped another big project on my plate.
” She pulls a shiny black folder from her top drawer, where I know she keeps her active files.
“The Triple Council would like to host a conference for all of the witches in the northern region, and they want to hold it here. I don’t have any solid numbers yet, but… ”
I interrupt tentatively. “Excuse me, Ms. Espina, the…what council?”
“My apologies, Lily, the Triple Council. It’s an allied council of the witch covens in the northern region.”
“Witch covens,” I whisper, a little awe-struck. I know that Amara is a witch, and so is Xia, but I didn’t realize they had covens. I know it’ll be a lot of work to organize a conference, but it’s exciting to think that there will be real witch covens here at the hotel.
“Yes,” Renata sighs. “And they’ll all be difficult and fighting with each other the whole time.
They originally wanted July, but I convinced them to postpone to the week of August eighth…
” She sees the expression on my face. “I know, it’s soon, and we have the McMurphy wedding, but we’re just going to have to figure it out. ”
I nod, and take a pen and paper out of my cardigan pocket.
“As I mentioned, there are no set numbers, but we’re looking at between seventy-five to one hundred, so it’s not too large.
I think we can use the east hall for Amrita’s keynote, that will be the most well-attended.
The rest of the sessions will be break-outs, we can use the conference rooms in the north wing for those… ”
As she speaks, I take notes, wondering what sort of things witches will host sessions about. I imagine a room full of cauldrons and broomsticks whizzing around the north wing…
Renata’s watch vibrates, and Damien’s voice comes through. “Ren, we need you right away, in the casino. It’s the mayor.”
She sighs. “I’ll be right down.”
We both stand. She smooths the folds of her fitted blue dress. It has capped black sleeves that make it look both modern and elegant. She always manages to appear professional, but also breathtakingly beautiful.
I bite my lip. I’ve never called her beautiful before, even in my head. But she is.
She gives me a curious look, and I realize she can probably tell my heart is beating quickly again. “I…I’ll be sure to start working on the initial floor plan and budget for the conference.”
“Excellent, thank you, Lily.” She gives me a curt nod and opens the door. But instead of leaving the office, she holds it open for me, gesturing that I should walk through first.
“Oh! Thank you, Re- I mean, Ms. Espina.”
“It’s my pleasure, Lily,” she says smoothly.
Again, she betrays nothing, the picture of calm composure. Unlike me, a blushing, anxious mess.
Her heels click on the floor of the office hallway. I sit back down at my desk and watch her go.
What was it she said? That the hotel couldn’t function without me. I smile to myself. I guess that’s true. I’m good at what I do, and I work hard. It’s nice that she notices.
“Lily!” crackles an anxious voice on my headset.
“Oh, yes, Chelsie?” I respond, startled out of my daydreaming.
“It’s the rock star suite again. Could you come up?”
I inhale to center myself. This is good. I need something to keep me distracted from my thoughts.
“Yes, of course. I’ll be right there!”
One drunk rock star, a whining Mrs. Harrigan, a lost Argentinian family, and three hungry Dobermans later, I finally return to the office floor. There’s really never a dull moment working at a luxury hotel. I don’t mind. It’s a welcome distraction from my own thoughts and worries.
But I’m looking forward to sitting at my desk for a while. I promised Renata that I would work on the witch conference, and I’d like to make a head start on it tonight. There’s only an hour and a half left on my overnight shift.
I smile at the receptionist as I go by, heading toward the CEO’s office. But she grimaces at me and leans over the reception desk.
“What is it?” I ask, expecting it to be another issue with a guest, or perhaps a new project Renata’s taken on.
“It’s Amara,” she whispers urgently. “Ms. C?té needed her for something, and she had to leave her lounge shift early, so…”
Elijah. “Shit! Did she…”
“Yes!”
I don’t ask any more questions. I speed walk down the office hallway, as fast as my discount pink ballet flats will take me.
Please don’t have seen him, please don’t have…
My desk is empty. For a moment, I wonder if maybe I misunderstood the receptionist. Maybe Amara didn’t leave Elijah up here. Maybe she left him with Lexi, or…
The latch on the CEO office’s door opens with a neat click, and my heart leaps into my throat. Standing in the doorway is Renata, her thin lips in a tight line. She gives me a severe look, and adjusts her stance so that I can see behind her, into the office.
Sitting in her spotless chair, a pile of colourful plastic pony dolls laid out before him across her desk, sits my five-year-old son, Elijah.
“Does this child belong to you?” Renata asks.
Her tone isn’t perfectly poised between professional and personal, as it typically is. Right now, it’s definitely professional. And it’s laced with disapproval.
Eli looks up at me, a big, sleepy grin on his face.
“Hi mama!” he says. “We made a nap, then we played ponies!”
“He slept on my couch and then, upon awakening, insisted on putting all of his toys on my desk,” Renata translates. “Lily, I would expect you to understand that I am extremely busy…”
“I’m so sorry, Ms. Espina,” I tell her. She steps aside, and I move quickly into the room, gathering up Eli’s ponies into the backpack he’s thrown onto the rug beside the desk.
“Hey!” he protests, but I ignore him.
“Tell Ms. Espina thank you for letting you use her office,” I tell him, more severely than I usually speak to him.
He immediately frowns, and gets a little shy again. “Thank you, Ms. Spina…” he mutters, shrinking in her chair.
Lugging the backpack in one hand, I take my five-year-old in the other, hoisting him out of the chair. He definitely hasn’t gotten enough sleep tonight, and he clings onto me like a little koala.
“You’re very welcome,” Renata replies curtly with a nod of her head.
“I’m so sorry, Ms. Espina,” I say. “It will never happen again, I promise.”
Her nostrils flare slightly, noticeable in her otherwise still expression. “See that it doesn’t.”
I nod, and hurry out of her office.
“And Lily,” she calls as I leave. “Take him home, now. You can have the rest of the evening off.”
“O…ok,” I whisper, surprised. She’s never asked me to leave early before.
Without another word, she slams the door.