2. STERLING

I was on my feet constantly. My smart watch tracked my steps, and every single day, I was getting above twenty thousand steps. I didn't mind it though, I grew a little restless whenever I had to be in the office going through spreadsheets and putting in orders with vendors. I loved my job, keeping guests happy at the resort, talking, and telling them I can deliver anything they want.

But the pay was dire. It made up for it with some tips and the fact I lived at the resort with a view of the beach and the ocean, but I rarely had the time to actually appreciate the view or any of the perks that came with the work.

I had one day a week off, and most evenings, but even those evenings could quickly become an evening where I walked around in manager mode, still working. It was a salaried position, overtime didn't exist.

"Sterling," Armand, a bellhop at the resort came over to me at the front desk. "I have a request from the gentlemen in the hotel, they're at room four zero one. They want to know what supply you have."

However, side hustles did exist, and I knew there were a couple of markets that people loved to dabble in. It was a black market, but it was a market I knew well. Teddy bears. There was a manufacturing facilities a couple miles away inland and they made all these expensive teddies to be sold in stores Stateside. I was able to get the exact same teddies for cheap, it might not have been above board, but laws were lax and rarely regulated. They were Gersch teddies, expensive was all people needed to know about them. Gersch was a brand of plush toys that all the famous influencers gifted to their newborns on social media. It made it a prime resell market, especially when some of them could sell for upwards of four hundred US dollars.

"Are they in their room now?" I asked.

"Yeah, they just placed an order for breakfast," he said.

Everyone had a side hustle, whether that was a second job, or whether it was selling a service, or one of those subscription sites for explicit content. The hustle was real here, and considering we were a respected resort in the area, all of that had to be secret. Any wind of it getting to the bigger bosses would've had us all out of a job—well, at least once peak season was over.

In a camera album on my phone, I had pictures of all the teddies that were currently available for sale. They couldn't be placed online for sale because they didn't come with the paperwork as if they were some purebred animal, but it was common knowledge that these teddies came with a little slip of paper to say they were authentic, and these were authentic, but they didn't have that paper, so they weren't worth nearly as much, but they were the real deal.

The whole reason I knew about Gersch and their elite teddies was because of an ex-boyfriend. He had been obsessed with plush toys and all things role playing that younger age. It was where I'd grown to discover some things about myself, like how much I enjoyed certain aspects of the kink, especially in the Dom arena.

Delivering breakfast on a cart to the room in question, I came upon a couple. An older man and a younger guy, he was in a onesie, the air conditioning blasting the room into an arctic breeze. The hotel wasn't marketed as queer, it was mostly queer through reputation alone.

"Good morning, I heard you were interested in some of our specials," I said, totally ignoring the silver domes over the breakfast plates. "Are you looking for anything in particular?"

The one in the onesie was sat on his knees, bouncing on the bed, while the older man sat on a chair at the small table in the room. They looked to each other and then to me, treating this as some under the table dealing or drug deal almost, it brought a smile to my face, and nearly a chuckle. I tried not to, people spooked easily.

"Brown bear," the guy said. "I was told by a friend, that you're supply is limited, so honestly, any."

The man had his wallet out on the table. Already pulling notes out of it. "I have dollars. You take US dollars, right?"

"Yes, of course." I preferred it. "Supply is limited. I can show you a selection, but price varies."

"We can pay," the guy announced, nodding to the man. This was a typical relationship I saw here, little demanding a teddy, and his Daddy or Master, whichever they were using, they threw cash at the situation, it didn't matter what their dynamic was, the boys always got what they wanted. "I just need one. All my friends have them, and I'm like the only one who doesn't. And they're always sold out."

"Relax," I said. "I'll show you some pictures on my phone, but you'll have to be quick." Taking my phone from my pants pocket, I noticed the cart at my side. "You can eat your breakfast and come down to the front desk and find me." The folder of pictures only ever included teddies I had for sale, once they were sold, I deleted the picture.

It took him less than twenty seconds to decide. "Number five," he said. "The one with the green eyes and the red bowtie."

Each image had a number on it, alongside a price. "Ok," I said, taking my phone back. "One-thirty."

"Do we—pay you now—or—"

I nodded. "Yes," I said. "And you can come down to the reception desk in thirty minutes. Say you're picking up an item you lost, it'll have your room number attached to it." I liked to be there for every step of the transaction, but sometimes, there were people around that made it difficult, especially other employees that either didn't approve, or didn't know. The ones that didn't know, a lot of the secret code went over their head until they told another employee and that's when I heard about it.

On each teddy, I made around a hundred dollars, and depending on who came to me with the information, I would cut that employee in on a little commission. In a good month, I could make around two thousand dollars. It was nice to put away and save, but it was also supplementing my current income.

The resort was split into two major areas, there was the hotel and that was built up with rooms and floors, and then there was the villas that sprawled across the beach front. I lived in the hotel part, it was on a decent floor, facing the ocean with a balcony, but it was also where I stored all the teddies until it was time to say goodbye and sell them on.

At any given time at the resort, there were a million things happening. And that required me to have my most trusted and loyal employee as my second-in-command. Carla was the second highest position at the resort, she was in charge when I was sleeping.

Carla was in the office, yawning. She'd just turned thirty last week, and we'd been talking about doing something for it when we both had an evening off. "I don't think I'm human right now," she said. "I've had to deal with crazy bitches all night." She rolled her eyes at me before throwing in some fast Spanish I didn't completely grasp.

I sat opposite her as she was tucked into the desk, her eyes glued to the computer monitor. "I don't know how many more months I've got in me," I told her.

"Yes, yes," she said, nodding. "You always say this. But I don't believe you, Sterling. You are a liar."

"I don't lie."

She popped her tongue, looking at me and squinting. "Now that is a lie," she snickered. "I had a thought, maybe we can take one of the villas for a night, you and me, and some people from here, and we can have a small party."

I held my finger with a gap up to her. "Un poco party," I joked. "I'd love that. Cost effective too."

"It's what I also thought, we would save money."

"We could source alcohol from the bar too," I suggested.

"No, maybe. You know, Hector was put on probation for take a small cup of vodka," she said, shaking her head and sighing.

"That's because Hector was drinking on the job. But we're not going to be throwing a huge rager, we'll just be a couple people. Anyway, all the villas are booked throughout the rest of the month, in fact, I don't think a single villa is free until the second week in September. I know, because I was hoping to stay in one for a little bit."

"Why?" she asked, her brows creased with concern. "Is there a problem with your room? Did you—you know, purchase too much stock again. I told you to store them somewhere else. That place is where you should sleep, not do—what do you call it, when you write stock?"

"Stock take."

She snapped her fingers and laughed. "That's it. Stop doing stock take in your room."

"It's not like anything else is happening up there," I said, reaching over for her cup of coffee.

"No." She yanked the coffee away. "Get your own. Some of us have only had six hours sleep. And you should be getting yourself out there, you know, flirting and fucking. Please, ever since that boy you dated, you've been annoying."

"Carla," I said, tapping a hand on the table. "I'm not annoying."

"Just a little."

"Un poco," I chuckled. "Are you serious though?"

"Yes," she said. I could trust Carla to say it how it is. "You're working too much, and this place doesn't need you to break your back for it. Have some fun, please. You're only thirty five, and I can see a gray hair on your head."

"What?" I brushed a hand through my hair. "Really? No. Please. My dad went gray early."

She shrugged. "It's true. You've got a couple gray hairs. Maybe the guys will like that." She wiggled her brows. "Or maybe they'll think you're too old."

"Shut up, I could go out there any night and get laid," I told her before she could bruise my ego any further.

Carla tapped her fingers on the desk, chuckling away to herself. "Because you're the manager, I bet they think you'd get special treatment." She winked, like she already knew something I didn't. Although I knew I could use my position as manager to become friendly with guys who were my type, especially the ones who were already shuffling in their seats inching towards me when I greeted them at their table. "Anyway, you should go see if the spa has any openings," she said.

"Why? I'm not that tense."

"Their booking system on our end showing as down," she said.

I stood up and straightened myself out. "Since I'm in charge, I could just tell you."

"Yeah, but then you wouldn't be able to get a quick back massage and unclench your shoulders," she said, looking me up and down. "Come on, Sterling, you're so tense, I feel like you might have a break down before the end of the season."

I pointed at her, a gesture I knew she hated. She whacked my finger away. "You've got a point," I said. "I'm tense, but it's only because I have so many things I need to decide, and I really don't want to make that decision."

Carla had told me before how I dramatized everything, calling my life a telenovela. She had a couple of solid points to that respect though, because my life never had a lull in it, there was always something crazy happening.

In the main building of the resort, there was a spa and a salon. I regularly visited the salon to keep my hair short, and not once had they mentioned I was going gray. The spa on the other hand was usually booked solid, so seeing the booking system down was quite a big deal.

The spa was on the ground floor toward the back of the hotel with a view to the beach and ocean. There weren't any rooms on the ground floor, unless you were counting villas. And in the small reception area, Leoni, an older lady sat working. She looked up from her computer.

"Se?or Sterling," she said, whacking the side of her computer, and then quickly ranting in Spanish, wildly gesturing to the computer before throwing her hands up. "Es un problema."

In Spanish, I quickly gleaned that this was an IT problem, and that involved calling someone up and getting them to come in, or maybe it was much simpler than that. I sat where Leoni had been and the error she'd explained to me with much complication was a simple matter of opening the booking application. I didn't tell her that, she must've closed it accidentally since it was never closed. It was pretty much a case of have you turned it off and on again .

"Muchas gracias, Se?or Sterling."

"I told you, just Sterling."

She looked blankly at me taking both my hands and shaking them. "Gracias." She didn't take in a single lick of English.

And now, since the spa was empty, I could get a quick massage and haircut. Possibly a little coverup for the grays too.