Chapter 12 #2
Harper walked down the hallway of the eighth floor, looking for room 816.
She finally found it and used her key card to let herself in.
She pushed the door open, noting how heavy and solid the door was, then paused inside the suite to lock the door behind herself.
Her mouth dropped when she got a good look at the room behind her.
She walked through a small foyer of sorts, then into a large, well lit living room with three floor-to-ceiling windows directly across from her.
The lights from the city, and the traffic moving on the interstate in the distance were beautiful — almost mesmerizing.
She stopped in the middle of the room and slowly turned in a circle taking in everything around her.
There was a wet bar on one side, with a huge TV on the opposite side.
There was a beautiful sofa, love seat, and two matching recliners arranged comfortably in the living room.
She looked to the left and saw a door, then to the right and saw another door.
She walked over to the left and opened it, finding a large bedroom done entirely in white with a connecting ensuite bathroom and a walk-in closet.
“This is gorgeous! And so much overkill.” She went back through the living room and opened the door on the other side.
There she found a duplicate bedroom and ensuite but in a soft sea foam green.
“Hmm. Let’s go sea foam tonight,” she said.
She went back into her living room and began rolling her luggage into the bedroom she’d chosen, but then remembered her phone and searched the outside pockets of her carry on bag until she found it.
“Ah hah!” she said, snatching it up and tossing it to the sofa.
She took hold of the handles again and began rolling them to the bedroom.
She took a few minutes to unpack her dress clothes and her new outfits so they wouldn’t be wrinkled in the morning, then went into the bathroom and immediately decided she’d chosen the right room.
This bathroom had a shower/sauna. “Oh, yes!” she groaned.
She spent a few minutes to read the directions and figure out how to work it, then did a little happy dance as the shower came on, shooting streams of hot water from all directions and above, while simultaneously steam began to fill the shower from strategically placed vents inside the glass enclosed space.
She didn’t wait, she stripped off her clothes and stepped inside.
“I might stay here forever,” she said as she moved under the overhead shower head and let it soak her hair and shoulders, while she turned in a circle and allowed all the side mounted nozzles to shoot steams of luxuriously hot water at the rest of her body.
When she was finally done with her shower, she turned off the water, but left the steam sauna engaged, taking a seat on the teak bench to drip dry as she enjoyed the sauna.
When she finally got out she looked around and found a fluffy, white robe supplied by the hotel.
She slipped into it, wrapped her hair in a towel to dry, brushed her teeth, and went back into the bedroom where she climbed into bed and promptly fell asleep.
She never once gave a second thought to the phone she’d planned to look at later while admiring the view, for messages from her family, friends, and Clay.
~~~
The sound of a ringing phone pierced the most peaceful sleep Harper had had in months.
She rolled over and patted the mattress beside her head for her phone.
But it wasn’t there. She lifted her head and looked at the space beside her, immediately realizing she wasn’t in her room.
She didn’t have sea foam green sheets. She sat up, looking around the room as she tried to determine where she was, before it all came rushing back.
Then the phone started again.
Her head turned quickly toward the bedside table where an old fashioned phone sat, ringing its ass off. She leaned over and picked the receiver up off the cradle. “Hello?” she asked.
“Good morning, Ms. Vitrano. I have a Mr. Beobaff at the front desk. He asked that we ring your room.”
“Oh! Yes! I’m so sorry. Please tell him I’ll be down shortly and to please start breakfast without me.”
“I’ll relay your message. Have a good day.”
“Thank you.” Harper quickly hung up the phone and jumped out of bed.
She dug her makeup out of her bags and yanked the towel off her head.
Of course, her hair dried in a cascade of loose ringlets.
She had two choices — wet it, and blow it dry, or leave it curly and pull it up into some form of bun or twist. Experimentally pulling it up with both hands, she decided it would lie just fine if she pulled it up, and did just that.
Employing scrunchies and hair pins, she had it up in no time.
She quickly did her makeup, luckily she was never one to wear a lot of it, and brushed her teeth before applying her lipstick.
She chose a sharp, fitted ladies suit in camel, with a sheer, white, lacy fitted blouse beneath it.
Her shoes and belt were the same camel and white.
She grabbed her wallet, a few incidentals — lip gloss, cough drops, Tylenol, — she always carried, and after a quick search of the sofa in the living room, her phone, and shoved them into the matching purse, double checked to make sure she had both key cards in her purse as well, and ran out of the door.
When the doors of the elevator opened, Joel was standing there waiting for her, the lapels of his suit jacket pushed back out of the way by his hands which were in his pockets, clearly showing his trim waist and the subtle widening of his chest and shoulders beneath his shirt.
She only had a moment to catch sight of it before he spoke.
“Wow. Harper, you are stunning.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
He grinned at her, then stepped forward, curling his hand around one of her forearms. “Come on, let’s grab something to eat.”
“But I’m late,” she finally managed.
“If anybody has a problem with it, we’ll tell them I hit traffic on the way to pick you up. But nobody’s going to have a problem, and I’ll never get anything done this morning if I’m worried about you not eating.”
“You sure?”
“Very.”
“I’m sorry. I overslept, and I left my phone in the living room because I planned to go back in there and get on it later, but I fell asleep. No alarm.”
“It’s okay. Not a big deal.”
“I hate not being on time.”
He completely ignored her as he escorted her across the wide expanse of the marble lobby. “Guess what they have for breakfast on the buffet?”
“What?”
“Bavarian cream stuffed croissants, chocolate croissants, Belgian waffles and every topping imaginable. Blueberry and cream cheese stuffed French toast. And of course all the eggs, bacon and such you could ever want.”
“I’m going to weigh five hundred pounds by the time I leave here.”
“Won’t make a bit of difference at all.”
“Why not?”
“Nobody would ever notice.”
“Why?”
“The curve of your neck, the graceful tilt of your head. The escaped curl or two that dangles just almost against your nape. Your…”
“Okay, I get it,” she said, her voice a little less than patient.
He looked back over his shoulder at her and burst out laughing.
“Are you teasing me? You were teasing me! That is not nice this early in the morning, Joel!”
“Not a morning person are you?”
“No. And I’m barely an afternoon person.”
Joel kept laughing as they came to a stop at the hostess’s station. “Two please,” Joel said.
As soon as they were seated, Harper sat up a little straighter as she looked around the restaurant. “I’m going upstairs to change my hair.”
Joel looked over at Harper and smiled at her. “Please don’t. You are beautiful. And accept my apology. You look fantastic. I shouldn’t have teased you. I just felt like we’d become friends and it would be okay. My family and I tease.”
“Some of mine do, too. But I want to be taken seriously, not a pretty face that everyone looks past.”
“Won’t happen. You are too sharp and too put together not to be noticed. Your hair is perfect, you look great. I’m sorry.”
“You’re sure?”
“I am. What are we having?” he asked.
Harper asked for iced water and coffee as soon as the waitress approached, and asked if it was better to order or take advantage of the bar.
Joel watched her as she interacted with the waitress, almost stupefied as he looked at her.
She was everything he’d originally thought and more.
But one thing was for sure, she didn’t like him heaping on the compliments.
He’d have to be careful to avoid going overboard in the future or his manipulations to gain her confidence would be all for naught.
“I’m going to have the bar, then. What about you?” Harper asked, turning her attention to Joel.
“Bar! So many choices in one place. Don’t need anything but the breakfast bar. And you. I find I was looking forward to your company this morning.”
She looked at him, her expression unreadable.
Joel realized he’d flattered her too much again. “I’ll race you,” he said, getting up and hurrying to the bar.
Harper smiled at the waitress as she went to retrieve their drinks, then turned and looked at Joel, making a point of trying to build a structure of croissants on his plate topped with bacon.
Harper’s Tiger snarled softly in the back of her mind. No trust.
Nope. He’s pushy. But maybe that’s just how he is. Salesmen can be like that, Harper thought back at her.
Not mate!
I know that! But, hey, thanks for showing up to say so.
Her Tiger snarled softly before retreating to the back of her mind again.
“Are you coming?” Joel called out from where he stood holding two plates. “We’re going to have to hit the ground running at the show and might not have time for lunch. Load up now!”
“I’m coming!” she said, as she got up and started working her way around the breakfast bar.
~~~