17. Mila
Iswear I did not just think about having sex with my boss in a princess bed.
But it’s big and heart-shaped. I know it’s meant to be cute for the kids, but I can picture him on it. Me on it.
Is this what it’s like? After you’ve done it once, you want to do it over and over again?
Heat rises from my belly.
Sebastian’s phone buzzes. He frowns. “You’re in luck. We got a call from the party suite at the top of the tower. They need a manager.”
Brooklyn and I silently squee at each other. We get to do real hotel stuff!
We head to the elevator, and Sebastian calls it with his ID. “Yours won’t work on this elevator,” he tells us.
“Awwww,” Brooklyn whines.
“In due time.”
The doors slide open, and Brooklyn and I both gape at the interior. A thousand tiny mirrors are mounted to the walls, almost as if you’re stepping inside a disco ball.
A happy voice says, “Please scan your room card. The elevator will magically take you to the correct floor!” Then in a slightly more serious tone, “If anyone in your party is affected by blinking lights, press any button for a silent, easy ride.” And back to the bright tone. “Let’s party like a princess!”
“Yes, let’s!” Brooklyn begins dancing as the music fills the space and a cascade of stars flash from a projector near the ceiling.
The whole room becomes a disco in colored lights and mirrors.
Sebastian grins at Brooklyn and scans his card.
The lights shut off.
“Awwww,” Brooklyn says.
The voice says, “Welcome, staff member. Please choose a floor.”
Sebastian presses the 12.
“We can’t get the music back?” Brooklyn asks.
He laughs. “Only on a guest ID.”
“Bummer.”
We zip up three floors, where we’re stopped.
When the doors open, a little girl dressed like Jasmine holds the hand of an older, almost-teen brother. “This is it,” he tells her. “The last time I’m going to do this.”
The girl looks up at us. “I like the dance party.”
“We’re going up,” Sebastian says.
“We have a friend on the tenth floor,” the boy says. “We shared cards so Tiffany could go up and down all she wanted.”
Sebastian nods.
“Where’s the dance party?” Tiffany asks.
“Scan your card and it will start,” Sebastian says, his voice kind.
Something in me uncurls.
When the boy scans the key card, the voice says, “If anyone in your party is affected by blinking lights, press any button for a silent, easy ride.”
“Don’t press any buttons!” Tiffany yells. She turns to Sebastian. “He killed the party yesterday.”
“I wanted to test it!”
Then the lights and music begin. Tiffany starts to dance.
Brooklyn apparently can’t help herself, and starts swinging her arms with her.
“That’s right!” Tiffany yells. “I got a princess friend!”
“You bet you do!” Brooklyn shouts.
Sebastian’s gaze meets mine. He’s all smiles.
I wish I was self-confident enough to dance with them, but I’m not nearly so bold as Brooklyn.
The two of them bop all the way to the tenth floor.
“Let’s go down again!” Tiffany cries.
Her brother pulls her out of the elevator. “They have to keep going up.”
“Awwww.”
When the door closes, the party music starts back up. It doesn’t seem to know who got off, the guests or the staff.
“Yeah!” Brooklyn shouts, but she barely gets her dance on when we arrive at twelve.
But the doors won’t open.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“This is a secure suite,” Sebastians says. “You have to scan your way out of the elevator on the top floor since it opens straight into the party space. You both ready?”
We nod.
He scans his ID and new music penetrates the moment a gap appears, loud and bouncy. A woman dressed as Snow White is leading a clapping line of seven dwarves. They aren’t particularly short, probably other women, but they have masks on and their costumes are lumpy, so it’s hard to tell.
A dozen little girls, probably four or five, wave their arms on a small dance floor. Several mothers sit at circular tables scattered through the suite. There’s a sitting area with two sofas and a television, a bathroom, then a long hall that leads to bedrooms.
Brooklyn looks ready to party again, but Sebastian gives both of us a serious look, so she plays it straight.
As soon as we step out, a mother with a crying girl on her hip hurries our way.
“It’s about time you got here,” she says.
“How can I help?” Sebastian asks.
“Look at her.” She swivels to show the crying girl. “It’s her party and she’s miserable!”
Brooklyn and I exchange a glance. And how is this our problem?
But Sebastian is not fazed. He leans into the girl. “What’s your name?”
She sniffs. “Gina.”
“Happy birthday, Gina,” he says. “How old are you?”
She holds up five fingers.
“Five. That’s a good age.”
Gina watches him with set, solemn eyes.
“It’s those dwarves,” the mother says. “Referred to us by your hotel, I might add.”
“What’s the problem?” Sebastian asks.
“He’s too grumpy!” Gina wails. “He’s scary!”
I work hard to bite back a smile, and I see Brooklyn is, too.
“He’s what?” Sebastian says, with outrage. “Nobody should be grumpy at a party!”
Snow White dances close, her teeth gritted in a forced smile. “The face is permanent!” Then she dances by.
I look beyond them at the dwarves. It’s true. The dwarves all wear full-face masks with hats and hair attached. There’s no way to change an expression. Dopey dances up to Gina, swinging his head back and forth, but she buries her face in her mother’s shoulder.
The mother swings her away from us. “I want them out of here. I want a full refund. I want my daughter to stop crying!”
Dang. It’s not the hotel’s fault her kid hates the costumes.
But Sebastian nods. “Absolutely.” He taps Gina on the arm. “Gina? Come down and pick who gets to stay.”
Interesting.
Gina wiggles away from her mother, who sets her on the floor.
She walks up to the dancing dwarves.
“Stop the bloody music!” the mother calls.
The man behind a DJ setup in the far corner lowers the volume until it is barely audible.
Sebastian turns around, his arms upraised. “The birthday girl is going to pick which characters get to stay extra-long!”
Huh. That’s a nice spin on it.
Snow White looks doubtful, but she holds her practiced smile.
“Line up the dwarves!” Sebastian calls.
The seven of them stand across the dance floor. Doc is first. He clasps his hands like he’s begging. “Can I stay, please, birthday princess? Your Highness?” He gets down on his knees in a silly bow and falls over on his back like he lost his balance.
Gina giggles. “You stay.”
Then Dopey comes up, clumsy and tripping over his feet. “What about me, Princess Gina?” He takes her hand and kisses it, or at least lifts it to his painted lips.
“Yes!”
Each of the dwarves ask to stay until we get to Grumpy. He crosses his arms and huffs, turning away. Then he slowly turns around, does a silly tap dance with his feet, then huffs and turns away again.
Gina laughs and claps her hands. “Again!”
He does another dance, this one even sillier, and Gina collapses on the floor in giggles. “More, more, more!”
The mother bends next to her. “I thought you wanted him gone?”
“No, Mama! Grumpy is silly!”
Grumpy lies on the floor next to Gina, kicking his legs in the air. She mimics him.
The mother stands. “Well, all right. I guess she is five, after all.”
“Can we help with anything else?” Sebastian asks.
“We could use another server,” the mother says, even though the two that are already here are simply standing behind the counter of a kitchenette on the back wall.
“Done,” Sebastian says. He passes her a card. “Call me directly if you think of anything you need.”
She holds the card. “Thank you.” She seems mollified.
“Happy birthday, Princess Gina!” he calls as he herds us back to the elevator.
When the doors close, Brooklyn says. “She’s a piece of work.”
Sebastian shrugs. “Most people are.”
I think about him all the way back to the ground floor and to the front desk, where he calls the kitchen to send someone up to assist the party.
He loves what he does. That’s plain.
And he’s good at it.
He’s good at everything.
I’m still thinking about him when I try to fall asleep that night.
Sebastian smiling. Him with the little girl.
Standing in front of a heart bed.
Any bed.
The thing about only ever having had sex one time is that you have had it.
And you want to have it again.
I regret pushing Sebastian’s hand away when he was over me that one night we had. I want to see what he would have done.
Can you really have two orgasms in one encounter?
I bet you can with Sebastian.
Yeah, I’m feeling it.
He doesn’t live on site at the castle like we do, and he went off shift at five.
It’s a good thing. I’d be sneaking down corridors, trying to find him.
Because as I get to know him better, as I see him interact with the employees, fun and easygoing but competent and self-assured, I like him more and more.
And he hasn’t stopped looking at me
I think that maybe, possibly, he feels exactly the same.
I turn on my belly, holding onto every detail from that one night. If I could go back, I would do things differently. I’d tell him. I’d let him take care of me. I’d savor it.
When I finally fall asleep, my dreams are torrid. Sebastian in the princess room, ripping off the ballgown. Me, holding the metal rails overlooking the flower garden, naked, him behind me.
I wake up sweaty and desperate for him.
What have I done?
I wash my hair in cooler water than usual, for the first time understanding why people take cold showers. To calm their thoughts. Bring themselves down.
I pick up a cup of coffee at the cart near the lobby and head to the front desk, bracing myself for seeing him after the night of sexy thoughts and dreams.
He’s there, perfect in his suit jacket and vest, smiling for an elderly couple who are checking out.
Now I get why people bite their fists. I fight the urge to do it myself.
The couple steps away, and he catches my gaze. I don’t know what he sees there, but his eyebrows lift. I think he got some subliminal message. Is that what happens between partners? They can convey a need with a look, a tilt of their head, a lift of their eyebrow?
I force my gaze away. It’s Jessica’s day off, and a young man works beside Aisha. He smiles at me, then his gaze is clearly drawn to something behind me.
I turn. It’s Brooklyn, her hair down for the first time since I’ve known her, the cascade of blonde curling in beachy waves over the shoulders of her black vest. She’s ungodly beautiful, and every man in the lobby is staring at her.
I cut my eyes to Sebastian. Okay, every man but him. He’s busily tapping on his computer. He looks up, spots Brooklyn, and says, “There’s our other intern. You two come back here and meet Ricky. He’s another front desk employee.” Then he’s back to the screen.
Is he immune?
I’m not sure even I am.
Brooklyn doesn’t seem to notice or care about the fuss she’s causing in the room. She hooks her arm through mine so that we walk behind the desk together.
“Interns Mila and Brook, reporting for duty,” she says cheerily.
Aisha turns to her. “Did you get laid or something?”
“Hey now,” Brooklyn says, but she blushes.
That gets Aisha’s attention. “Who’s the lucky guy? You haven’t left this place. Maverick? Owen?” She leans in close to us. “A guest?”
The way she says it makes me think that it’s not okay to have one-offs with visitors. I should have read the employee policies more closely.
Not that it matters. I won’t be seducing random men who check in.
“No,” Brooklyn says. “A lady doesn’t tell.”
The other front desk worker is clearly wildly interested in our conversation. He keeps turning his head to listen.
Aisha notices. “That’s Ricky. He doesn’t kiss and tell either, because he has nothing to tell!”
Ricky’s cheeks get two bright spots of pink. He can’t be much older than us, boyish and probably shy. His shock of thick, black hair tries to fall in his eyes, and he nervously pushes it aside.
“Ricky speaks Spanish, so he’s helpful if you get a family who needs him,” Sebastian says. “He can also do sign language in English and Spanish.”
“Impressive!” Brooklyn says, and Ricky’s face goes pink again.
Aisha rolls her eyes. “He’s too easy to tease. You won’t be able to help yourself.”
Another woman arrives from the back hall. She’s mid-forties, with straight hair that hugs her face. Her dark eyes take in the group. “To your stations!” she cries, clapping her hands together. “Go through the morning checks.” She notices me and Brooklyn. “These must be the interns.”
Sebastian logs out of his station. “Brooklyn, Mila, this is Sasha, the front office manager. She works Wednesday to Sunday. Raya or I help out on her days off.”
“This is a lot of people back here,” Sasha says. “Sebastian, take one of your interns on your rounds or find something for one of them to do.”
She’s bossy. She might be more hardcore than Raya.
Brooklyn and I turn to Sebastian to see who he’ll pick.
I’m reminded of that scene in Grey’s Anatomy when Meredith tells Derek to “Pick me.”
Didn’t that show also start with Meredith accidentally sleeping with her attending physician?
I groan inwardly. I’m a story cliché.
“Mila, come on,” Sebastian says. “We’ll take a tour of security.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Aisha says.
Brooklyn elbows her.
Sebastian ignores the dig. “Brooklyn, I’ll be back for you shortly. Aisha, make sure she reviews how to log in and do check-in and check-out. We’re going to have the interns try it alone today.”
“They better know what they’re doing,” Sasha says. “Show me.”
Sebastian tilts his head toward the back. “Let’s go meet Hank. He’ll be going on shift soon.”
And as we head into the hall behind the front desk, I have to seriously work to suppress my smile.
He picked me.