16. Sebastian
When I get home in the evening, I feel exhausted from the day in a way that isn’t usual.
I sit on the sofa, a beer bottle in hand, trying to shake my unease.
Arya comes in with an armful of slippery plastic packages, leaving a trail of them behind her.
“You’re molting,” I tell her.
Alfalfa sniffs at the packets, then flops on his bed by the fireplace.
“I know. I have to prep the craft for tomorrow’s class.” She dumps the packages on the coffee table and retraces her steps, picking up the ones she dropped.
I lean forward and turn one around. Inside is a piece of thick paper covered in rainbows with dots of dry paint that the kids will spread with wet brushes. I remember doing similar art when we were young.
“Need help?” I ask her.
“No, I want to put a couple of stickers in each packet.” She adds to her stack. “Why the dark circles under your eyes? Trouble sleeping?”
“Long day.”
“How did it go with Walk of Shame Girl?” I told Arya about Mila at the restaurant last night.
“Rough. I think everybody knows something happened between us.”
Arya pries open a packet and drops two smiley cloud stickers into it before sealing it shut again. “It’s a big hotel. How did you even see her?”
“Raya assigned her to the front desk, and you know how Mondays are. A big exodus. We all ended up working closely for hours.”
“Yikes. Did you talk?”
“Not alone. I escaped as soon as I could.”
She opens another packet. “And that stressed you out?”
“That and Maverick.”
“Oh. Him.”
Arya is not a fan of Maverick. He was the bane of her existence growing up when Uncle Roger would bring his nephew to barbecues and birthday parties. She’s only a year older than him, and he gave her hell.
“He seems determined to get fired. Rude and late.” I run the back of my hand over my eyes. “Raya made him wash dishes today.”
This makes her smile. “How did he take that?”
“He charmed the pants off the ladies and made friends with all the men. He asked to go back tomorrow.”
Now she frowns. “He’s always been like that.”
“He’s something.”
“And you invited him into your livelihood. Doesn’t he reflect badly on you?”
I chug a long pull of beer. “Nobody’s saying it, at least not yet. Raya’s annoyed, and he’s already the talk of the other employees.”
“Everyone will love him by Friday, other than any rivals or authority figures. That’s how he operates.”
She’s right. “We’ll see how it goes. I only promised Uncle Roger to give him a shot, not to put up with any nonsense.”
“Sounds like he’s going to push boundaries with Raya. Not that it’s hard.” She works faster now, finding her rhythm in opening the packets and stuffing them with stickers.
I set down my bottle to help her. “Raya will take it to Havannah, no doubt. It’s only a matter of when.”
“Will Havannah call you in?”
“Probably, but not in a troubled way, more in a ‘what should we do about this?’”
“He’ll charm her. He’s strategic.”
“Probably so.”
We work in companionable silence until all the packets are filled. She peels the backing off an extra cloud and sticks it to my nose. “Put on a happy face.”
I laugh, taking the sticker off my nose and pushing it on her forehead. “You’re the happy one.”
“I’m loving that you have such good work gossip these days. Should I heat up our leftovers from the other night?”
“It’s my turn to cook.”
“I made too much King Ranch Casserole, though. Remember?”
“Right. Okay. That sounds good.”
She trots off for the kitchen, and I stare up at the ceiling, grateful not to have to cook while I’m so distracted. I can picture Mila in the bed, her dark hair spread all over the white pillow. That moment of surprise. The warm softness of her body when I fell asleep holding her in my arms.
Surely it was more than what she said, just one night.
I know it was.
I have to convince her.
The next morning, when Brooklyn and Mila arrive at the front desk, it’s quieter. Tuesday isn’t a popular check-out day, and Jessica and Aisha have it under control.
“I don’t think the two of you got to see much of the hotel yesterday,” I say. “How about I take you on my rounds?”
“That sounds fun,” Brooklyn says.
Mila watches me warily, as if she thinks I’m up to something.
I am undaunted. “Let’s head to the princess wing. There’s lots of empty rooms, and you should know about some of our spectacular offerings.” I hold out my arm to gesture to the wing, which has a castle facade over the entrance.
Brooklyn lets out a squeal. “I love a princess theme!”
We head past the luggage room to pass through the castle door. Bertie gives Mila a salute. She smiles back, and I wonder if they’ve become friends.
I want to know everything about her. What did she do last night after her shift? Did she hang out with the other interns?
Did Maverick put a move on her?
I can’t think about that.
Just inside the princess wing is the Pickle deli. We pause outside of it, but it hasn’t opened yet. “This is a great place to get food,” I tell them. “Staff gets forty percent off everything with their ID, so make use of it.”
“I got a burger from the bistro last night,” Brooklyn says. “It was so good.”
“I went to the sandwich cart,” Mila says. “I can’t wait until we have time to shop for groceries.”
“We should do that tonight,” Brooklyn says. “We can get the gang together.”
I feel jealous of their easy plans. It’s not my place to join staff members for casual things. It’s not that I can’t, but I’d put a pall over any lightheartedness. Nobody wants to get drunk with the boss.
“Let’s head into the wing. There are two floors of princess rooms. The suites are at the far end, as part of the tower. There are twelve additional floors in the tower.”
“Are the rooms circular?” Brooklyn asks.
“Some are,” I say “Let’s go look at them.”
Brooklyn lets out a squeal. “I want to see every room.” She lowers her voice. “I heard there is a sex dungeon in the haunted wing.”
I laugh, taking great care not to look at Mila. “There are two.”
Brooklyn lets out another squeal. “Can we see them?”
“Both are currently occupied,” I say. “They usually are. But we can sneak in one day when housekeeping is clearing them between occupants.”
“Do people stay there long?” Brooklyn asks, running her fingers along the sparkling pink wainscoting on the lower third of the walls. The kids do that, too.
“We have people who reserve them for an entire month at a time.” I don’t mention that sometimes there are group gatherings. They sometimes hire a bartender from the haunted bar, and they’ve gotten an eyeful more than once. We’re careful who we allow to work those events. They have to be discreet.
I hear all about it, of course.
I once got called to the dungeon by the night manager with an SOS on our headsets. I almost sent security, but then decided it might be better to go myself.
I had stayed on site later than I planned, feeling some concern about the tourists who had disclosed they were having a sex party in the dungeon. It’s allowed, but to pass the security of the suite area, every member has to show ID at the front desk. You can’t simply walk into that wing. It’s restricted. It also helps us keep tabs on how many people are attending to avoid breaking fire codes.
When I arrived, two naked women were tied to the wall. All manner of things were being done to them. At least four couples were making use of the various apparatuses. Nobody seemed deterred by my arrival.
Jeff, the night manager, was handcuffed to a T-bar over the oversized round bed. His shirt was unbuttoned. Apparently he’d said something that made them think he wanted to join, and he hadn’t figured out how to get out of it.
I told the others, with some difficulty due to a language barrier, that he had to get back to work.
They were disappointed but let him go.
That was definitely a night.
We arrive at the tower. I flash my ID at the security door.
“Do ours work here?” Brooklyn asks.
“Not as interns. Depending on where you end up assigned, it might get added. The towers and secure areas have designated staff, from managers all the way down to housekeeping and room service.”
“Wow,” Brooklyn says.
“It’s not unusual,” I tell her. “People who pay for secure floors don’t want just anyone to access their rooms, even among the employees.”
The next space is circular with four doors, three for the rooms and one for the stairwell, plus a narrow elevator taking up a big chunk of space. It has silk on the walls, and a huge crystal chandelier hangs above us.
I pull up my phone to hook into the application that runs housekeeping to ensure that the room we enter is empty. Only one of them has a family inside.
I pop open the door to the room next to the elevator.
About seventy-five percent of the princess rooms are pink, but this particular one is pale blue. It’s set up as a Cinderella room, and a huge mural with the pumpkin chariot is painted on the back wall. The space that is the door on the pumpkin is actually a short door to a tiny balcony overlooking the side garden. All the rooms with this view have this feature, since they aren’t on the mountain side.
“It’s beautiful,” Brooklyn says, her voice breathy. She turns in circles in the open space.
“All the princess rooms in the tower have themes. Havannah did her research. There are lots of Belles, several Cinderellas, and Moana is also quite popular.”
“What does she do when a new princess comes along?” Brooklyn asks.
“We will devote a couple of the rooms of the regular wing to that. I expect, as the hotel ages, some of the tower rooms will get redecorated to newer princesses. The big suites have multiple themes.”
“Can we see one?” Brooklyn asks. “How many princess suites are there?”
Mila speaks up. “Most of the floors have a suite and one or two regular rooms, but the top floor is completely open with a large suite and a party room.”
She’s done her homework. “That’s right.”
“Is the top floor occupied?” Brooklyn asks.
“It is. In the other tower, of course, is the private restaurant.”
“Do we get to see that?” Brooklyn asks.
“That’s a tour Raya has planned,” I tell her.
I watch Mila take in the space, hoping she’s impressed. I’m not sure why it matters to me. I’m only the manager, and I had nothing to do with the hotel’s design or interior decorating.
But I want her to like it. To be proud to be here.
I want everything about her time at the Castle Hotel to be perfect.
And hopefully soon that will include me.