Chapter Six

Charlotte

The alarm on my phone going off almost didn’t wake me up.

At first, it was just a pleasant, familiar sound in the midst of a hazy dream, one I’d had many times before and tried to erase immediately upon waking up. One where I was naked, curled in a bed with Jesse Galloway, my body exhausted from an intense night of incredible sex, knowing that all I had to do was slide my hand down his chest, and he would most assuredly be ready for more…

I opened my eyes.

Oh, shit.

The alarm was real, and it was going off on my phone, which was in my pants pocket somewhere on the floor. The floor outside of the bed that I was currently stark naked in and inexplicably curled up with a very real Jesse Galloway.

It took a few moments to process what was going on as I slipped out of the bed and tried to find my pants. By the time I got to them, it had all come back to me, and I was debating the merits of absolute shame or absolute victory over my behavior last night when I saw the time.

I had exactly thirty-two minutes to be in the lobby of the hotel, ready to meet the CEO.

Waking up Jesse was not an option, but being seen in my current state was also unfathomable. Thankfully, I parked my car on the backside of the building, and inside the car was a duffel bag with an overnight kit, just in case I got stuck at the hotel one night for work and crashed in a room rather than go home. It had proven invaluable on several occasions and was looking to do so now as well. I also had a dress hanging in my office, which to my knowledge, was still standing wide open at the moment.

Of course, I’d left my car keys in the office downstairs…

I really didn’t have many choices. I had to call in a favor. A huge one, and one that I was going to have to pay back soon.

Still naked and collecting my clothes, I opened a text message to Jessica, the night clerk who would just be getting off her shift in a few minutes.

The text I sent was short, to the point, and asked for extreme delicacy. It also involved an offer to provide her a massive favor at her request no questions asked. As I slipped into the shower and turned on the faucet, hoping both that Jesse would and would not join me there, I used the manager’s app on my phone to check the rooms that were booked. Finding one that was empty, I sent that information to Jessica and got clean as fast as possible, avoiding getting my hair wet.

When I got out of the shower, just a couple of minutes later, Jesse hadn’t moved, and I slipped back into my clothes and ran for the door. I contemplated writing him a note, but I simply didn’t have the time, and instead, quietly closed the door behind me, ran down the stairs to the floor below, found room 714, and went inside to wait for Jessica.

When she arrived a minute and a half later, carrying my bag, the dress, and her makeup kit, she had a smirk on her face I’d never seen before.

“I never thought I’d see the day,” she said as she handed me the bag and walked into the room. “April Garafalo, doing the walk of shame.”

I was already in the bathroom with the door open, stripping off the old clothes and putting on the unimpressive but effective dress. It was a simple black dress, but it looked professional, and I could affix my nametag to it and look like I wasn’t trying to impress and play it cool, a shift in my planned demeanor for the meeting.

“Yeah, well, now you have,” I said, slipping the dress over my head. “What time is it?”

“Eight-fifty,” she said. “You’ve got about ten minutes.”

“Then I need to do makeup like the wind,” I said. “Bring me that makeup case.”

Five minutes later, I turned away from the mirror and looked at Jessica, who stood with her forefinger and thumb on her chin and her elbow resting against her other arm.

“Well?”

“I mean, you don’t look bad ,” she said. “But this isn’t CEO worthy either. Especially him. Have you seen that guy?”

“I have. I know. He’s very handsome. He’s also my boss, and I need to look professional at the very least.”

“You look professional,” she said. “I just thought you’d go for your normal.”

“My normal?”

“Sexy professional,” she said without hesitation. “You know, the power boss look. The reason all the guys here follow you around like a puppy dog?”

“They do?”

Jessica rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, they do,” she said. “You look amazing, and it’s kind of frustrating since you looked amazing even without makeup on. But yeah, usually you look like you are about to walk onto a Marvel movie set as some spy or something.”

“Wow, okay,” I said. “But this works?”

“For literally anyone else, this would be the best look they’d have all month,” she said diplomatically.

“Good enough,” I said.

“Get out of here,” Jessica said. “I think I will cash in part of my favor by keeping this room for the night. I need a night away from everything.”

“Part of?”

She cocked an eyebrow and turned her head to the side.

“Right, fine,” I said. “Part of. Wish me luck!”

I took off down to the elevator, leaving my other things behind in the room, and arrived in the lobby just in time to see Tom Bethel arrive in his limousine. Tall, with dark hair streaked with gray, Tom Bethel was a very attractive older man, and his winning smile and fine Italian suit did a lot of work for him in that way. As he offered to shake my hand, even I felt impressed by him, and I’d met him dozens of times. Though, to be fair, never in a one-on-one situation like this.

We went into a conference room, one of the three our hotel had, and Tom looked around for a moment, as if he were evaluating the place.

“You know,” he said, “I think I want breakfast, but I’ve had the menu at our hotels all week. Would you like to go to Weaver’s Restaurant?”

“Sure,” I said excitedly. “They have amazing breakfasts there.”

“I remember,” he said. “Your old boss took me there when we opened this place. I believe you were working here then at the front desk?”

I blushed as my jaw fell. “You remember that?”

“Of course,” he said. “I don’t forget a face. Or a story. And your story is of particular interest to me, April. Come on. Let’s go get breakfast.”

Ushering me out with him, we walked past the front desk, waving at Stan and heading to his limo.

“You know,” Tom said as the waiter walked away after dropping our breakfast orders off, “your name has come up a lot in conversations at corporate.”

“It has?”

Up to now, we’d been idly chatting about the city, about the oppressive heat wave we’d been in, even about our favorite coffee. Nothing about work, though, and I felt like I was being set up for something. Be it good or bad, I wasn’t sure, but it certainly felt like I was being set up. Now hearing my name was a frequent piece of conversation in corporate seemed to indicate I was about to find out.

“Indeed,” he said, spreading butter on his pancakes with a concentrated exactness, “we absolutely love what you’ve done with Bethel Tulsa. I’m sure I don’t need to repeat your numbers back to you, but suffice it to say, it has been very eye-opening.”

“Thank you,” I said, taking a sip of my coffee to try and hide my wide grin. Everything was coming up roses today.

“Customer satisfaction is at an all-time high, your rate manipulation methods are truly intricate and something we want to teach to other managers, and the place looks immaculate all the time. We have secret shoppers, you know. They come in and take pictures and stay a night in the rooms to test you out.”

“I remember,” I said, sighing. “It was how my old boss got fired.”

“Yes, it was,” he said, shaking his head as if discarding a particularly unpleasant memory.

The thing was it was more than just a dirty hotel or slow room service that had gotten my old boss, Eric Watts, fired. It was the tryst he was having with his night manager that got him in trouble. The fact that the secret shopper happened to catch them in the act in the elevator was purely coincidental. But it opened up a spot for me, and I went from being the head of the front desk to overnight manager, and eventually to restaurant manager after the temporary managers didn’t work out.

“At any rate, your reviews have been spectacular, and we want to see if you can translate that success into another position.”

“Another position?” I asked. “Like what?”

“We were thinking of creating a new region,” he said. “Expanding a bit, into Texas. We already broke ground on a hotel in Dallas and are looking at expanding through Arlington, Houston, Austin, and perhaps El Paso. We eventually want to sweep west and go through New Mexico, Arizona, and eventually southern California. But it all starts with Dallas and getting a foothold there. And I can’t think of a better person suited for such a unique challenge than you.”

“What can I say except I am extremely flattered,” I said, trying to find better words and failing miserably. As much as I did not want to move back to Texas, this was a huge opportunity, and it wasn’t like I was going to go live in Foley. I’d be in Dallas. Running an entire region.

“So does that mean you accept the position?” he asked, stuffing a forkful of pancake into his mouth.

“Of course, yes,” I said. “Thank you!”

“Fantastic,” he said, smiling. “This means you will be working directly under the COO and myself. Welcome to the corporate world, April. From the bottom to the top.”

Beaming and high on my promotion, I got back to the hotel ready to spread the good news. Jessica was one of the first people I wanted to tell, but there was someone else I wanted to let know first.

It was crazy, but a part of my overly excited mind was creating a fantasy scenario where Jesse and I could get back together. Where I could work and live in Dallas, and he could continue his career. I would even be willing to meet his child and find a way to make that work in our life. Maybe I was drunk with happiness, but it all seemed possible in that moment.

But when I got to Jesse’s room, it was empty. He’d already checked out, and nothing remained of his stay. The housekeeping crew was the best in the state, and they had already swooped in and returned the room to its glory before I could get back to it.

I flagged down the head of the crew for the floor on my way to the stairs to go see Jessica. But when I asked if he left anything for me, a note or a phone number or anything, they said no. The room was spotless aside from messed up sheets on the bed and a few dirty towels in the bathroom.

Gutted, I called down to the front desk and got ahold of Stan.

“Hey, did anyone leave a note for me while I was gone?” I asked. “One of our guests? I was expecting someone to drop by and say goodbye before they left.”

“Nope,” he said. “No notes. Though one guy did call and ask about you. From the top floor suites.”

“Oh?”

“He asked if you were around, but I told him you left with that tall guy in the suit. Who was that, by the way? I never pegged you as going for the early-bird silver foxes.”

I sighed. “That’s the CEO, Stan. His picture is on the wall on the outside of the desk.”

“Ahh, that’s where I’d seen him before. I figured he was a movie star or something.”

“You told the person who called that I left with a man? Not the CEO. Just that I left with a man?”

“I mean, yeah,” Stan said. “I didn’t know who he was. Why? Who was it that called for you?”

I closed my eyes and pressed my hand to my head. The headache that I thought left last night was coming back. All the good feelings were being deflated in an instant.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Not anymore.”