5. Santiago
SANTIAGO
“Ever thought about getting braids?” Imani asked while mixing up a cocktail in a shaker.
With my back against the wooden bar, I looked away from the ocean to glance at her. “What’s wrong with my hair now?”
“Nothing.” She shrugged, then poured the cocktail into a tiki-style glass that was used in the beach bar. “Just thought you’d look hot with them.”
“Hitting on me again, huh?” I teased with a half grin when she flipped me off.
“In your dreams, babe.”
“More like in yours.”
She already knows I like cocks.
She gave the cocktail to a waiter, then moved closer to me. “One, I’d make your gay ass straight.”
I snorted.
“Two, you’re hot but not my type.” She winked at me, and I shook my head before looking back at the ocean.
One of the perks of working here was the gorgeous view, and whenever I had a break like I did now, I came down to the beach.
“You’re hurting my feelings.” I pretended to pout, and she laughed.
“Cry me a river, Santi. I know you’ve only got eyes for Ariyan.”
Over the last two weeks since I’d started working here, Imani and I had become sort of friends.
That girl was perceptive as fuck because on my second day on the job, she’d already caught on to my little crush that had only deepened since.
The sad part was? Ariyan hardly even glanced my way, which made me want him so much more.
At this point, I felt like a dog dying to take a piss on the new carpet, knowing it would only get me into trouble.
“Did you try talking to him again?” she asked, a know-it-all smile on her face.
I grunted, thinking back to yesterday’s disaster when I tried talking to Ariyan and somehow managed to pour a mai tai all over his brand-new suit.
“Go ahead, rub salt in my fresh wounds.”
Grabbing a wet cloth, she began cleaning the bar. “If you only listened to me—”
“Yeah, yeah.” I cut her off. “I don’t stand a chance.”
She paused her wiping and frowned at me. “Not just you, Santi, but all of us.” She waved around, even though we were currently alone in the bar. “He’s unattainable. Just accept that he’ll never be yours and move on. Speaking of moving on, I heard Steven from the kitchen asked about you.”
Closing my eyes, I tilted my head back with a deep groan. “I don’t give a shit about Steven.”
“Why not? He’s hot.”
“Sure, but he’s not Ariyan hot. It’s like settling for meatloaf after seeing filet mignon on the menu.”
She snorted a laugh. “That, sweetheart, is your problem. You think he’s on the menu to begin with.”
I turned to frown at her when she shrugged.
“What? I’m being honest, and you, you’re being picky, babe. It’s unhealthy.”
Before I could tell her off, my phone rang, and I pulled it out of my pocket to check it.
“Hola, Nacio,” I said to my brother after picking up.
“When ya going shopping?”
My brows pulled close. “The fuck you mean?”
“The fridge is fuckin’ empty, bro.”
I tsked. “Did you think about going to the store yourself?”
“With what money?”
Gritting my teeth, I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “You have a job, don’t you? Or did ángel already fire your lazy ass?”
He clicked his tongue, and I knew the brat was rolling his eyes at me.
“Changing tires doesn’t pay much. Besides, it was mine and Tess’s anniversary last week, and I wanted to buy her a li’l something. You know, gotta keep my woman happy.”
Clenching my phone harder, I was seconds away from breaking it.
“Your woman?”
“Yeah, got issues with that?”
More than I can count.
I checked the time on my phone, then brought it back to my ear. “Gotta go, my break’s over. You find a way to take care of yourself.”
“But—”
Before he could continue complaining like a little bitch, I hung up. He immediately called me again, but I switched my phone to silent and pocketed it.
“See you later,” I told Imani before leaving the bar.
What a spoiled brat.
And to think my mood was good until now.
I tried taking some short breaths to calm down and stop thinking about smashing my little brother’s face against a wall, for no use.
No matter how much I worked my ass off here, taking double shifts and all, in the end, it changed nothing.
We were still low on money, and my stupid brother, instead of using his salary to help around the house, wasted it on a girl.
“Mr. Rivas,” someone called, and I looked up from the floor, ready to bite their head off for even speaking to me, when I saw who it was.
I immediately stopped in my tracks, nearly tripping forward.
“H-hey,” I blurted, eyes locked with Ariyan.
“I know you’re on parking lot duty today, but could you please help me move some luggage to a few rooms?”
He didn’t need to ask twice. First, working in the parking lot was shitty. Second, it was him asking me for help. He could ask me for just about anything, and I’d say yes.
“Sure.”
“Perfect.” He pressed his hands together, flashing me a big smile that made my heart race faster. “Come with me.”
Doing as he said, I followed along, walking with him to the luggage room.
“Didn’t know you did stuff like that yourself,” I said as Ariyan checked out the small note attached to a suitcase.
Not looking up, he hummed, “What do you mean?”
“You know, getting your hands dirty with common-people work, like us.”
He held still for a moment.
“I do whatever needs to be done,” he said as he continued picking out the right suitcases. “There.” He tapped a big leather suitcase, and as he did, the sleeve of his jacket rose enough to show me his wrist, and I noticed some scratch marks around it.
I tensed on the spot, eyebrows furrowing as my alarms went up. My first instinct was to reach for him when he spoke.
“This needs to go to the Executive Suite. I’d typically ask the service team, but we’re flooded with new guests, and this can’t be postponed until one of them’s free.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll finish up in no time.” Still wondering about how he’d gotten those marks, I reached to grab the suitcase before he let it go. As a result, my hand brushed against his, and surprisingly, he didn’t pull away. At least, not immediately.
“Sorry,” I muttered, feeling hot in this small space we shared.
He let out a soft chuckle. “As long as you don’t plan on spilling another mai tai on me, you have nothing to apologize for.”
I’d rather spill other things on you. On your face, specifically.
Shrugging the thought away, I huffed a laugh, remembering yesterday’s disaster.
“Again, so sorry about that.”
“It’s all good.”
My eyes dipped to his lips, my attention focused on the scar slicing the upper one.
I’m so lost for him.
On top of it, he smelled so damn good. I’d thought about it before, but now, standing so close, it was even more vivid. I sucked at telling smells apart, and all I could think of was how his sweet smell made me hungry.
“Mr. Rivas?”
“Yeah?” I said, still staring at his pink lips.
“The suitcases?”
“Shit.” I gasped, snapping out of my daze. “Suitcase. Yes. Royal Suite—”
“Executive Suite,” he corrected me as I was already one leg out of the luggage room.
I was acting like such a loser next to him, but wanting to prove it wrong for a change, I took the suitcases up to their room at the speed of light.
I was so fast that Ariyan seemed surprised to see me back so quickly.
“Done already?” His brows curved close while I nodded like some eager pup.
“Yeah. Anything else?”
His smile said it all, and for the next hour or so, I spent my time going up and down the elevator, carrying as much luggage as I could.
And even though it was a shit of a task, the smile on Ariyan’s face each time I picked a new suitcase made it all worth it.
Down to my last round, I went back to the luggage room, expecting Ariyan, only to find he wasn’t there.
Disappointed, I wiped the bead of sweat from my brow and looked around the now empty room.
Maybe he went back to his office? Thinking I should go over there and let him know I was done, I suddenly noticed one suitcase was left behind.
It was small and shoved all the way back, so I assumed Ariyan must have missed it.
Walking over to it, I read the note attached to it.
Unlike the other luggage, which had a note with the room number and guest name on it, this note only had one line written on it.
14th Floor.
That’s odd. Anyway, I’d better hurry up and put the suitcase in its room.
Grabbing the handle, I automatically moved to lift it when I was shocked by its weight.
Fuck. What was it filled with, stones? Whatever they stuffed this trolley with, it sure weighed a ton.
But what the hell, it wasn’t like I actually gave a shit.
All I wanted was to be done with this and see Ariyan.
I waited for the elevator to arrive when my phone buzzed again. Nacio. He’d been nagging me the whole day, but choosing to ignore him, I walked inside the elevator that had just arrived.
I went to push the floor button when—
“The fuck?” I muttered, seeing there was no fourteenth floor. I reread the suitcase note to check I didn’t make any mistakes, and I hadn’t. It had fourteen written on it.
Fucking morons. I mentally swore at whoever had filled out this note before stepping out of the elevator with that damn suitcase.
My first thought was to go to the front desk and solve the problem, but seeing that it was still busy as fuck, I skipped it and went straight to Ariyan’s office.
Reaching it, I knocked on the door, then stepped back to wait. When no answer came, I knocked again.
Still nothing.
I reached for the handle and tried opening the door, but it was locked.
Damn—
“Mr. Rivas?”
I turned my head to the right to see Ariyan walking down the hall.
“Oh, sorry… I wasn’t trying to break in, I swear.”
He chuckled, pulling out his set of keys.
“I have no doubt that you weren’t.”
I moved aside just a bit, giving him enough room to get to the door.