Chapter 10 #2
I mean I didn’t know him, but I definitely seen his ass before. My eyes narrowed while I tried to figure out where.
Then it hit me.
“The hospital.”
Ariel looked over at me.
“What?”
“That’s the man from the hospital.”
“What man from the hospital?”
I kept looking down the hallway. The fine ass man who’d been sitting with the woman I’d met in the cafeteria. I remembered thinking he was fine as hell then too. Actually, fine was putting it lightly. That man was fuckin’ beautiful.
Ariel nudged me.
“Nyrobi.”
“Huh?”
“What hospital?”
“I saw him a couple days ago when my mama was in the hospital.”
Her eyebrows went up.
“You met Mr. Stylez?”
“I aint say all that. I saw him.”
"Oh."
She looked down the hallway and then back at me.
"Small ass world."
"You telling me."
Then something else clicked.
Kaizleigh.
He'd called her Kaizleigh Stylez that day.
I remembered because I'd thought her name sounded pretty as hell.
"Damn."
"What now?"
"His wife."
"What about her?"
"I met her too."
Ariel's whole face changed.
"Now you met Mrs. Stylez?"
"I actually did meet her."
"Girl, what the hell you was doing at this hospital?"
I laughed.
"Mind your business."
"Apparently meeting everybody who sign my checks."
"They don't sign your checks."
"You know what the hell I mean."
I laughed again before looking back toward them.
Damn.
Out of all the hotels in Orlando, I had somehow ended up working inside the one owned by the same couple I'd crossed paths with at the hospital. And I ain't even know it.
"That's crazy," I mumbled.
Ariel looked at me.
"What's crazy?"
"Nothing."
Because really, what else was there to say?
Small fucking world.
They were only a few doors away from us now, so me and Ariel both shut up.
Tia stopped at the room across from us and used her key card to open the door.
"This one was completed about twenty minutes ago," she told him.
Mr. Stylez stepped inside with the other man while Tia followed behind them.
I looked over at Ariel.
"So what he be doing?"
"What you mean?"
"Walking through rooms and shit."
"Exactly that."
"For what?"
"To make sure his hotel looks the way he wants it to look."
I nodded.
"Makes sense."
A few minutes later they came back out. Mr. Stylez was saying something to Tia while pointing back toward the room. Whatever it was, she nodded before making a note on her clipboard. Then they headed our way.
"Good morning," Tia said once they reached us.
"Good morning," Ariel answered.
"Morning," I added.
Mr. Stylez looked at Ariel first.
"How you doing?"
"I'm good, Mr. Stylez. How are you?"
"Doing good."
Then his eyes moved over to me.
For half a second, I wondered if he was going to recognize me.
He didn't.
His eyes dropped to the temporary badge clipped to my shirt.
"Nyrobi?"
"Yes, sir."
"You new?"
"Second day."
He nodded.
"Welcome to Stylez Grand Stay. How's everything going so far?"
"Good."
I glanced over at Ariel.
"Besides her bullying me,” I added.
Ariel's mouth dropped open.
"I do not bully this girl."
Tia laughed.
Mr. Stylez smiled.
"You must be doing alright if you comfortable enough to give her trouble on day two."
"I'm trying."
"That's all anybody can ask."
He looked at Ariel.
"Take care of her."
"I got her."
"I can tell."
He gave us both a polite nod.
"Y'all have a good day."
"You too," we answered.
And just like that, he kept moving. I watched him walk away for a second. I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful…But damn.
Ariel waited until they were far enough down the hallway before turning toward me.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Now you done officially met him."
"I said good morning to the man."
"He asked your name."
"My name is literally on my chest."
"Still."
I laughed.
"You want me to be excited so bad."
"I don't want you to be nothing. I'm just saying."
"Mhmm."
I started pushing the cart toward the elevator.
Ariel followed me.
"Now you see why everybody was talking yesterday though."
"I already told you I saw that."
"Fine, ain't he?"
"Very."
"Very?"
I pressed the elevator button.
"Girl, I'm married to nobody. I can admit somebody husband look good without wanting him."
"Exactly."
The elevator opened.
We pushed the cart inside.
"And besides, I done see his wife" I said.
Ariel pressed the button for the next floor.
"And?"
"That woman fine too."
"Thank you!"
I laughed.
"If I looked like her, I wouldn't be worried about none of y'all bitches either."
Ariel damn near screamed.
"Chyyy, Mrs. Stylez probably sleep like a baby every night."
"As she should."
The elevator doors opened and we pushed the cart out.
"Still crazy you met them at the hospital though," Ariel said.
"Tell me about it."
"Did you know who they were?"
"Girl, hell no."
I shook my head.
"I thought Kaizleigh was just some nice lady with a pretty name."
Ariel stopped.
"Wait."
"What?"
"You called her Kaizleigh?"
"That's her name, ain't it?"
"Yeah, but you really did talk to her."
"I told you that."
"I thought you meant y'all said hey or something."
"Nah. We sat together for a little while."
Ariel looked at me like I'd just told her I had dinner with Beyoncé.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Then stop looking at me like that."
She started pushing the cart again.
"I'm just saying, that's crazy."
"It is."
We made it to our next room and got back to work.
For the next couple hours, I didn't think much more about it. I had rooms to clean.
Ariel had already stopped walking behind me checking every little thing, which I took as a good sign. She'd still catch something here and there, but I was getting better.
By the time our break came around, my stomach was growling and my feet were ready for me to sit my ass down somewhere. We made our way downstairs to the employee break room. I grabbed my lunch bag and followed Ariel to an empty table.
She had barely sat down before she looked at me.
"What?"
She pulled her phone out.
"Google them."
I laughed.
"You still on that?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because you walking around here thinking these people just own a hotel."
"They don't?"
Ariel stared at me.
"Google. Them."
"Damn."
I pulled my phone out.
"What I type?"
"Stylez."
"That's it?"
"That'll be enough."
I opened Google and typed it in.
Billion Stylez Orlando.
I hit search. And damn. A whole page of shit popped up.
Articles. Pictures. Business pages. Interviews.
I clicked the first article that caught my attention.
A picture of Billion and Kaizleigh filled the top of the screen.
They were standing in front of some big ass building dressed like they were headed to somebody's red carpet instead of a ribbon cutting.
I zoomed in on the picture.
"Yep."
"What?"
"That's definitely them."
"No shit, Nyrobi."
"Shut up."
One would have thought that me and Ariel had known each other for years.
I started reading.
Stylez Holdings. Hospitality. Commercial real estate. Residential developments.
I scrolled farther.
"Hold on."
Ariel smiled and opened her bag of chips.
"Told you."
"They own apartment buildings too?"
"Keep reading."
I did.
Another article mentioned properties outside Florida.
Then another talked about a development project that had cost more money than I could even imagine having.
"Damn."
I sat back.
"These people rich rich."
Ariel laughed.
"What you thought?"
"I knew they had money. I ain't know they had MONEY."
"There's a difference."
"A big ass difference."
I clicked another article. This one had an older picture of Billion standing beside a building with a hard hat underneath his arm. The headline talked about how he'd grown Stylez Holdings over the years. I started reading without even realizing how quiet I'd gotten.
It wasn't just the money that had my attention anymore. It was the fact that all this belonged to them. People who looked like me. I looked around the break room. Then toward the ceiling like I could somehow see the rest of the hotel above us.
"Damn."
Ariel looked over.
"What?"
"This really theirs."
"Yes, Nyrobi."
"No, I know that."
I shook my head.
"I'm just saying...all this shit."
I looked back at my phone.
"I ain't never met nobody that owned nothing like this."
Ariel shrugged.
"Now you have."
I kept scrolling.
There were pictures of Billion at different properties, Kaizleigh standing beside him at events, charity shit they'd done around Orlando, groundbreakings, interviews.
I clicked on a picture of the two of them together.
Kaizleigh was smiling up at her husband while he had one arm wrapped around her waist.
Crazy.
A few days ago, I was sitting beside this woman in a hospital cafeteria with no idea who the hell she was. Now I was cleaning rooms inside one of her hotels.
"Small fucking world," I mumbled.
"What?"
"Nothing."
I locked my phone and put it down.
Ariel looked at me.
"That's it?"
"What else I'm supposed to do?"
"I don't know. You got quiet."
"I was reading."
"Mhmm."
I opened my lunch.
"Girl, eat your chips."
She laughed.
"Alright."
But even while I ate, my mind kept going back to everything I'd just read.
I mean I didn’t I want what they had…Okay, that was a lie.
I definitely wouldn't mind having some of that shit.
But it made me think. I'd spent so much time lately worrying about making rent, keeping my mama healthy, finding a job and keeping my Buick from blowing the fuck up that I hadn't thought much further than surviving the next problem.
Meanwhile, there were people out here building shit that would probably still have their name on it after they were dead. I didn't know what my life was supposed to look like five or ten years from now. But I knew one thing. I wanted more than just getting by.
By the time my shift ended, I was tired, but it wasn't anything like yesterday.
Yesterday my whole body had felt like somebody beat my ass.
Today?
Just my feet.
Progress.
I clocked out, said bye to Ariel and headed toward the parking lot.
The Buick started on the first try.
I sat there staring at the dashboard.
"Look at you."
I patted the steering wheel.
"Two good days in a row."
I wasn't about to celebrate too hard though. This bitch had embarrassed me enough times for me to know better.