Taking out the Trash
Chapter eighteen
Alex
Jake holds me close all night. As much as I want to do more than kissing and cuddling with him, I don’t want to push him too far too fast. I know it’s hard for him to be so vulnerable with me, and he needs time to process all the complicated things he’s feeling.
He can take all the comfort he needs from me, and I will gladly give it.
Eventually we’ll need to get up. I have a hotel to run after all.
Jake likes to occasionally remind me that Kayla is the manager here, but we both know I’m the one that keeps operations running smoothly.
When I’m not terrorizing guests, that is. I shrug.
“What?” Jake asks.
“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking,” I say.
“Care to share?"
“Not really.” I wiggle out of his arms and stand. “Time to get up, we have work to do today. And I need to find Brandon and make sure he and Seth aren’t dead and decomposing in the attic.”
We head to the lobby and find Kayla at her normal place behind the reception desk. I gasp. “Is she playing solitaire?! See I told you, who really runs this place?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’d talk to my father about giving you a promotion, but I don’t think he’d go for a ghost running this place. And I don’t want you involved in his illegal bullshit. Once this place is ours, you can be the CEO. How does that sound?”
"Sounds fancy," he says with a smile.
Kayla looks up as a tall, leanly muscled guy rounds the corner, having come from her office, a large black bag in each hand. Every inch of skin on his arms is covered in the same prison tattoos that Andrei had.
In a thick Russian accent he tells her, “These are last bags. I will dispose of them now.”
Kayla nods in agreement. “Not too close to the hotel. If something digs those up, I don’t want guests to see it.”
“I will find secluded place, that no one will ever think to look.” With that, he walks out the door.
“Thanks, Sasha,” she says before muttering something that sounded like “fucking psycho” under her breath. Yeah, you’re one to talk.
I look over at Jake, who is a little pale. “Was that… was that Andrei? In those bags?” he asks.
“Don’t think about it. Come on.” I lead him out of the lobby. We’re going to take a day off and decompress. The last few days have been a roller coaster, and we both need a reset. “Let’s go up to the attic, see if Seth and Brandon want to have a double picnic by the lake.”
Just as I thought, we find Brandon and Seth in the attic. Brandon is sitting on the ground with a laptop, and Seth is next to him, leaning over to look at something on the screen. Their voices are raised, and it sounds like they’re arguing about something.
“Nah, bro. That doesn’t work, it would create a plot hole,” Brandon is saying.
“You just have to rework a few things at the beginning, no big deal, dude.” Seth retorts. “You could make it work, and it would be totally rad.”
I interrupt their squabble. “What are you guys talking about?”
Brandon sighs and shuts his computer. “Seth thinks he’s being ever so helpful by trying to rework some of the plot points in my book.” He gives Seth a glare.
“I just think that some of your rules about time travel are inconsistent, that’s all,” Seth says, holding his hands up. “If your time travelling dinosaurs go to the future and wipe out all the humans, then who created the time machine in the first place, you know? It doesn’t make logical sense.”
“It’s not a closed time loop, bro.”
I stare at Brandon. “What the fuck are you writing about?”
“It’s no big deal,” he says defensively.
“Um, okay. Jake and I wanted to know if you guys would like to go on a double picnic with us. That’s why we came up here.”
Seth nibbles on his lip ring for a second before looking at Brandon. “What do you think?”
He sighs. “Yeah, sounds chill. I need a break anyway. This writing retreat was going great until you showed up, Alex. No offense.”
“Hey! I was here first,” I start to argue but Jake cuts me off. He grabs me by the shoulders and turns me towards the attic door.
“We’ll meet you outside,” Jake says.
***
“They’re totally fucking—Oh, hi Brandon. Seth. Ready to go?” Jake gives me a look that tells me to shut up, so I put a pin in our conversation for now.
“Yep, all ready.” He lifts the picnic basket he has in his hand, showing it off to me. “Snagged this from the kitchen, so we’re good to go. I may have snuck a few brownies in there as well.” Seth chuckles at that.
“You’ve thought of everything,” I say, and they nod in agreement.
As we make the hike up to the lake, I thank my lucky stars we have Brandon to carry the picnic basket. The first time I dragged that thing out here myself, it drained my energy fast.
“So, Seth. How’d you become a psychic anyway?” I ask, wanting to know more about him.
“Oh, well, my grandma raised me and she was a psychic. She used to run a business out of her house reading people’s futures in tarot cards and shit.
Communicating with people’s dead loved ones.
I used to think it was all bullshit when I was growing up, until one night I saw my dead mother standing in the middle of my room.
I learned really quick that it’s not bullshit.
Some people are just more sensitive to the paranormal and I guess it runs in my family. ”
“Huh, that’s cool. About the psychic thing, not the—never mind. I’m really glad you’re here, Seth,” I tell him, and I mean it.
He smiles at that. “Yeah, me too,” he says, giving Brandon a quick smile. Brandon returns the smile, their earlier squabble long forgotten.
“One of these days you’ll have to tell us how you two ended up in county lock up.”
Seth laughs, rubbing the back of his neck.
“It’s kind of a boring story, actually. We tried to buy weed from the same dealer, who turned out to be an undercover cop.
Got booked and ended up in the same cell for the night.
I guess it was meant to be, because we’re still friends all these years later. ”
“That’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard,” I deadpan, and Jake nudges me in the side.
“Yeah, totally,” Seth says, blushing.
At the lake, Seth lays down a blanket and Brandon sets the picnic basket on it. We all lounge on the blanket, enjoying the breeze coming in from the lake. Jake is sitting next to me on one side of the blanket, and Seth and Brandon are on the other, reclining back on their hands.
“So,” Seth says. “We had the window open in the attic earlier. Overheard this Russian guy talking outside about burying a body out by a shed at the edge of the property. What’s that about, anyway? I’m assuming it’s about the guy that blonde chick pulped, but don’t tell me if it’ll get me whacked.”
“That Russian guy is named Sasha. I can’t believe they buried Andrei on this property. We’ll have to talk to your father about that, Jake. It’s unacceptable.” He nods in agreement, still silent.
“Maybe we can help with that,” Brandon offers. “Dig him up and burn his body, or something.”
“Nice, I like it,” I say. We definitely need to get rid of his body.
I don’t want it to be here, a constant reminder to Jake of everything he went through.
I want to lighten the mood, so I ask Brandon about his book, although judging from what I heard in the attic, I’m not sure I actually want to know.
“Oh, the book is going so well, little dude. Seth here has been helping me work out some of the finer details, as you know. Thanks for that, bro.” He puts his fist out for Seth to bump, and Seth obliges.
Then Brandon pulls a half smoked blunt from behind his ear, lights up and takes a long drag before passing it to Seth.
“Is the weed to help you focus on your writing?” Jake asks. Brandon laughs.
“Nah, but the book wouldn’t exist without it. I got super high one night and it all just… came to me in a dream. I decided if Stephen King could do it, so could I. You know?”
Not really. “That’s nice, cool. What’s it about, other than… time travelling dinosaurs?” I ask. I’m still confused about that.
“Not for you to know yet, my friend! It’s top secret. Seth knows, but that’s only because he’s beta reading it for me. But I promise that once it’s finished, you’ll get to be the first to read it.”
I wince. “Can I have a pass?” I ask and reach my hand out for the blunt that Seth is still holding between his fingers, forgotten for the moment.
“Yeah man,” Seth says and passes it to me. I grab it and… yes! I have a hold on it. I bring it up to my lips and inhale a little before doubling over in a fit of coughs.
“Oh my god,” I say between coughs. “Take it back, take it back!” I hand the blunt back to Seth. Jake laughs at my misery.
“Your face is turning red,” he says and pokes my cheek.
“You should try it next, Jake,” I wheeze.
Seth extends the blunt to Jake, who declines. “I’m good, thanks. Maybe later.” Seth just shrugs.
***
“I’m so high right now. Am I floating?” I ask as I lay on the couch in the living room, Jake standing over me, watching me with his arms crossed. Seth and Brandon have disappeared back into the attic, and I’m feeling good.
“You’re not high, Alex. You had half a puff. It didn’t even count,” he tells me.
“Hmmmm. I think maybe you’re wrong about that,” I retort.
He sits down next to me with a serious expression on his face, and I try to focus.
“I wanted to talk to you about something. I’ve been thinking about what I want to do around here.
Right now, I feel like I don’t have much of a purpose, so I thought it might be good to find a job.
I want to take over gardening. I think working with my hands would be good for me, and I like the idea of being outside. What do you think?”
I sit up. “I think that’s a great idea. If you want to try your hand at gardening, I’ll make it happen. Once Kayla is out of the picture. She can’t know we’re here. But yeah, I love it. I think you’d do a great job.”
He nods, relieved. “Thanks,” he says and I take his hand in mine.
“I can think of a few ways you can show me how thankful you are for me,” I purr as I crawl into his lap.
He puts his arms under my ass and stands, carrying me to his bedroom.