8. STEVIE #2
“That’s okay. I wanted to get out of there so badly that I don’t mind. I’ll figure it out,” Lo says. “All that matters is that hotels have free shampoo and toothbrushes. I’ll rewear clothes until tomorrow morning if I have to. The bigger issue, though, is that I don’t have my wallet.”
“Oh, shit,” I say. “I guess it’s a good thing that we offered to put your meal on our business card, then.”
“Ha-ha,” she says, rolling her eyes, as we start a slow walk up to the hotel entrance. “But no, genuinely. I am glad. This does, however, make things weird. I can sleep in the car if I need to. Or I guess Uber back to my house.”
“I’m not letting you go back there alone tonight, you’re not going to sleep,” I say. “We’ll just put this on the card, too. It’s fine. There’s always extra money in the budget for a reason.”
“I’ll Venmo you.”
“We can figure it out,” I say. I’m not going to say it out loud because I know Lo will protest, but I’m not interested in taking her money from her.
We go inside, and it takes me walking up to the desk for the receptionist to acknowledge that we’re there. “Checking in?” she asks. Her tone of voice suggested she’d rather be anywhere but here.
“Yes,” I say, unaffected. “I have three rooms, all under Anderson. And I’d like to add a fourth.”
“We’re all booked out for the night,” she says. Then, as if remembering she works a customer service role, she turns to me and shrugs. “Sorry.”
“I can just head out, it’s fine,” Lo says. “I don’t have anything with me, anyway.”
“No, no. It’s cool.” I turn back to the receptionist. “Can we get extra keys for the double room, please?”
She offers me the most exhausted, pained expression a person could possibly make. “Yeah, okay,” she says.
“Stevie, it’s really fine–”
“No, I insist. I’d rather you be here than back there tonight. You deserve a good night of sleep.”
“But it’s going to be putting one of you out. I don’t want to be an inconvenience.”
“It’s really fine. We’ve all been working in the industry to know that this is how it goes sometimes. And our show sends us all over the map—LA is one of our more populous destinations. The hotels are a lot nicer.”
“It’s true,” Andrew says from behind me, not looking up from his phone. I hadn’t even realized he’d been listening.
I look back at the receptionist who’s completely unmoved by the entire conversation unfolding in front of her. “Two keys?”
“Please,” I say. “And a toothbrush and toothpaste.”
The receptionist doesn’t even try to fight off her sigh. “Fine,” she says. She heads into the back office and drops a travel-sized toothpaste and a plastic toothbrush into my hand. “Okay, that’s everything.”
I fight off a smile. Speaking for myself as an asshole, I rarely mind when someone else. I don’t like dumb questions or dealing with morons, but I know how to handle someone everyone thinks is unnecessarily mean. Working in direct service at a hotel would definitely do that to a person.
“Thank you,” I say. I pick up the hotel keys and hand them off accordingly—the twins share a room, and then Andrew and I get our own because we’re usually up all night working anyway and like the quiet.
“What’s your plan?” Andrew asks, not-so-subtly looking between me and Lo.
“We’ll just take the room that has separate beds. It’ll be fine,” I say and then turn to Lo. “As long as you don’t mind, I’ll be looking over footage and wrapping up some stuff from the last episode.”
“I’ll take what I can get,” Lo says.
We head to the elevators to get to the third floor, where our rooms are all only a few doors away from each other. I peek into each one until I find the double-bed room that I booked for the twins. But after pushing open each door, I quickly realize that they didn’t give us one.
“I think they made a mistake with the booking,” I say.
“Or you made a mistake while booking.” Andrew takes the key from the closest room out of my hand. “Not my problem. Have fun, you crazy kids.”
My cheeks light up with heat, and I turn my face, hoping that Lo can’t see. Even though it’s obvious what Andrew is implying and I want Lo to know that’s absolutely not what’s going on here, it’ll make things weird if I bring it up first.
“See you tomorrow, boss,” the twins say. Tanner tosses one last glance in Lo’s direction, and I shoot a glare in his direction, reminding him to keep his eyes to himself.
Lo and I are then left alone in the completely silent hallway. Despite the receptionist telling us the hotel was completely booked out, the lack of seemingly anyone else in the building suggests a different story.
“I didn’t do this intentionally,” I blurt out. Any ounce of coolness Lo might’ve thought I had just disappeared completely with that one sentence, I’m sure of it. “I really did book a double room. I always do it for the twins.”
“I believe you, it’s okay,” Lo says in the same kind, even tone she’s been using the entire day. She’s impossibly gentle and warm, like the human embodiment of sunshine. I’m left with no other option but to want to bask in it for as long as she’ll let me.
“She even acted like she knew what I was talking about when I asked for keys to the double room.” I shake my head and readjust my backpack—I’ve learned the value of packing light over the years—on my shoulders. “I’m sorry. I can sleep on the floor or something.”
“It’s fine, they usually have king beds in single rooms like that. We’ll be so far apart that I’ll barely even know you’re there.”
It takes everything in me not to say Speak for yourself .
The entire time we’re walking back to our hotel room, I have to concentrate on my breathing.
I press the card against the reader and wait for the light to turn green, my hands sweating unnecessarily the entire time.
I’ve never felt more like a bumbling idiot in my life.
It’s like I’m in high school, taking the prom queen home after the dance to have sex for the first time, except I was never on any prom queen’s radar when I was in school.
The high school film bro thing didn’t exactly play out well in my suburb growing up.
The room is about as straight-forward as any chain hotel room—a bathroom, a TV, a small closet. The giant bed. As soon as I see it, I’m certain I’ve made a huge mistake.
“I can just sleep in the car, honestly. It’s not a big deal,” I offer.
“It’s fine, I promise,” Lo says, but I can see her eyes also fixed on the bed. Sleeping in the same room—in the same bed— is one thing in theory, but a totally different thing in practice.
Both of us hover by the door. I’m not sure I’m brave enough to make the first move and pretend this is normal and like we didn’t just meet each other for the first time less than twelve hours ago.
“I’m serious about sleeping on the floor.
There’s a blanket in the closet. Or the chair seems comfortable,” I offer, fighting off the swirling, out-of-body feeling sitting in my chest. It turns out the only thing that can get my heart rate to skyrocket more than a potential ghost encounter is being left alone in a hotel room with a hot woman.
Or I shouldn’t even say any hot woman—Lo, in particular. Being here alone with her is doing something weird to my confidence. The practiced LA-cool persona I’ve perfected over the years completely crumbles, and all I’m left with are memories of all of the times I’ve been uncool.
This is a nightmare.
“You should get a good night of sleep,” Lo says. “Or even just a nap, if you’re planning on working most of the night anyway. I’m exhausted because we’re already, like, two hours past my usual bedtime so I’ll knock out and you won’t hear from me again until checkout tomorrow.”
“It’s fitting you’re not a night owl,” I say.
Lo laughs, and the tension in the room finally eases. I slowly inch my way into the room, dropping my bag down on the desk and then going over to the bed. “What do you mean it’s fitting?”
“You read and listen to Fleetwood Mac on vinyl. I’m sure you also mostly drink tea and like to take regular walks to make sure you get enough sun in for the day.”
Lo’s jaw goes slack, and I can see her trying to think up a response. She then folds her arms across her chest. “Okay, weirdly perceptive. I don’t think I like that, actually.”
“It’s part of reality TV. You have to be able to figure people out.” I lift the edge of the mattress as I’m talking and look underneath, inspecting the sheets carefully.
“Is that most of your background? Even before you started Paranormal America?” Lo asks and then pauses. “What are you doing?”
“Bedbugs,” I explain and then put the mattress down when I don’t see anything. “We travel too much to take risks like that. I heard you can check for them this way at hotels.”
“Is that actually effective?”
I shrug. “Honestly, I have no idea. But it makes me feel better.” I kick off my shoes and push them up against a wall near the front door so they’re out of the way.
“And yeah, pretty much all unscripted stuff. It’s not exactly what I had in mind for myself, but it’s… fun, I guess. There’s always work.”
“What did you want to do instead?” Lo asks. Her cheeks flush. “Sorry, I didn’t mean for this to turn into twenty questions again. I don’t know why I keep grilling you.”
“No, it’s okay. I guess I wouldn’t expect you to look into my background beyond the ghost stuff,” I say. “If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t know who you were at first. Andrew had to fill me in.”
“Andrew’s a fan?”
“Of course, he’s seen all one million seasons.”
“He’s being pretty cool about it,” Lo says.
She wanders around the room, brushing her hand over the comforter in thought.
“Not to sound like a cliche, but it has been nice to feel normal around you guys. So many years of my life were tangled up in one show and one character. It’s nice to be something else, even if it’s that I’m the girl who lives in a haunted house. ”
“Allegedly,” I say with a half-smile, teasing her.