Chapter 6

I was still thinking about my not-date with Zach when I walked into work on Tuesday morning. There'd been a moment in my apartment when it seemed like he wanted to kiss me. I kept telling myself I'd been imagining things, that it was wishful thinking brought on by one too many mules. Albert told me I was being obstinate and should go for it. No way was I doing that without a clear invitation. I did that once and nearly got the shit beat out of me for my troubles. Not that I thought Zach would hit me. He would just be really uncomfortable and probably end our budding friendship. I liked the guy too much to risk that.

Instead of going straight to my office, I was meeting Mr. O'Neil in his. He'd texted earlier, asking me to stop by before I started my day. I assumed he wanted to go over what happened on Saturday.

Mr. O'Neil's office door was open when I arrived, so I knocked on the doorframe. He looked up from his laptop and smiled. "Hey, Miguel. Come on in." He indicated one of the chairs in front of his desk. "Have a seat. I'm just waiting for Caitlin to get here."

I was puzzled by that. Caitlin hadn't been involved in the Saturday debacle. Before I could ask about it, Caitlin came in, closing the door behind her. She smiled at me and took her seat. Mr. O'Neil closed his laptop and looked over at me. "First, thank you for how well you handled that liquor shortage on Saturday. Carrie said everything went smoothly and no one noticed anything was wrong."

"Thank you, Mr. O'Neil," I said.

He cleared his throat and glanced over at Caitlin. "It's been brought to my attention that I'm not utilizing you to your fullest potential." He smiled sheepishly and said, "I tend not to delegate the way I should." Caitlin snorted softly. Mr. O'Neil raised an eyebrow at her.

My gaze bounced between Mr. O'Neil and Caitlin. "I'm not sure I understand what you're saying."

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "What he's saying is that he should have never been involved in what happened on Saturday. You should have the authority to make decisions about emergency purchases without running it through him first."

I blinked and stared at her. "Oh." I had no idea what to say to that. She was right, but I wasn't about to tell the owner how to run his hotel. I was surprised he took her jibe in stride, but I shouldn't have been. Mr. O'Neil had never struck me as someone with a giant ego that needed to be stroked.

"With that in mind," Mr. O'Neil continued, "I'm promoting you to front office manager." He slid a piece of paper across his desk to me. "This outlines your new duties and your new salary."

I took the page and read it through. The duties were pretty standard for a front office manager for a small hotel. I would be in charge of hiring and training new front desk staff. I would also have more latitude for purchases, such as what was needed on Saturday. I wouldn't need to ask permission to make necessary purchases as long as I justified them. My eyebrows rose when I saw the salary increase at the bottom of the page. My heart sped up, and I had to stop myself from doing a booty dance in my chair. Be professional, I told myself. I looked over at Mr. O'Neil. "This is very generous. Thank you."

"Totally worth it," he said. "You're good at what you do. Your ideas for new events and offerings have increased our visibility and brought new guests to the hotel and customers to the restaurant during a time of year when we're usually slow. With you in this position, it will free up Caitlin to focus on planning and implementing the overall vision for the hotel. I'm going to promote Carrie to food and beverage manager, and Annie will be head of housekeeping. You and Caitlin can work out a meeting schedule with all the managers. You will coordinate your own meetings with your staff."

I leaned back in my chair. This was everything I'd wanted at this point in my career. Glen used to mock me and tell me no one would ever give me that kind of responsibility with how I looked. I couldn't wait for word to get back to him about my promotion. I knew it would because boutique hotels were a small community on the shore. My eyes were burning, and I swallowed hard. "Thank you for giving me this opportunity, Mr. O'Neil. You won't be sorry."

"I know I won't," he said with a smile.

"If you don't mind me asking, what brought on this change?"

Mr. O'Neil rolled his eyes and shook his head. "After everything that went down over the weekend, Caitlin reminded me that I had staff who could do everything I did if I gave them the power to do it. She told me to use my fancy MBA from Columbia and delegate so I could focus on getting ready for my wedding."

I coughed to cover the laugh that threatened to burst out of me. Mr. O'Neil's lips twitched. "It's okay. You can laugh. She's right. I promised Jeremy I would stop working on the weekends so we could do things together."

I nodded. "When does this go into effect?"

"Next week," Mr. O'Neil said. "Caitlin, you wanted to work with him this week, right?"

Caitlin nodded, then turned to me. "Let's meet after the lunch service is over. That will give you time to get your work for the morning done."

"Okay."

"One more thing," Mr. O'Neil said. His expression was serious. "Carrie told me that a man accosted you in the lobby on Saturday and Zach intervened. What was that about?"

I squeezed my eyes shut. Damn Carlos and his macho-man bullshit. "The short version is my brother-in-law doesn't like the fact that I wear makeup on top of being gay. My nephew got into my sister's makeup, saying he wanted to be like Uncle Miguel. Carlos told my sister I could only babysit the kids if I stopped wearing makeup around them. Isabella gave me the ultimatum that morning. I not-so-politely declined. My sister got upset. Carlos decided to come here to force the issue."

Mr. O'Neil leaned back in his seat. "Well, shit. Are you okay?"

I had to smile, or I would cry. Mr. O'Neil was the best boss I'd ever had. "I'm okay. My family has always been uneasy about my gayness. My sister was my only ally, but…" I shrugged. "She married a macho manly man, so I'm pretty much on my own with the family." Even as I said it, I knew how true that was and how much it sucked. I willed myself not to cry in front of my bosses.

Mr. O'Neil's expression softened. "You're never alone at Moonlight. We're all about found family here. Besides, I'm pretty sure your cousin, Raphael, has your back. I'm guessing he'll be super pissed when he finds out what your brother-in-law did."

"You're right. Raphael has always been supportive of me," I acknowledged.

"I want to thank Zach for stepping in and protecting you after your brother-in-law put his hands on you," Mr. O'Neil said. "From what Carrie said, he handled it well without getting violent."

I was pretty sure I was blushing as I remembered how Zach stood up for me. "Yeah, he's a great guy," I said. "I'm sure he'll tell you it was no big deal."

"Knowing Zach, you're probably right," Mr. O'Neil replied. "Now, do you have any questions before we all get to work?"

After getting a few more questions answered, we wrapped up the meeting, and I hurried to my office. My head was buzzing with ideas on how to make things better and more cost-effective in the hotel while still offering great service. My first thought was to call Albert. Right on the heels of that came the desire to call Zach to tell him the good news. I shook my head and sighed at myself. The man was at work. He wouldn't want a call from his needy new friend who had a secret crush on him.

I called Albert as soon as I got into my office and shut the door. His voice sounded like gravel when he answered. "You better be dying calling me this early in the morning."

I looked at my cell phone, "It's after ten."

"Uh-huh. And when have you ever known me to get up before noon?"

"I know, Al, but I have something to tell you."

He huffed out a breath. "Please tell me you let tall, dark, and not-at-all-straight finally have his wicked way with you."

I groaned in frustration. "No. But I did get a promotion and a huge raise."

There was a beat of silence before Albert shouted, "Oh my god, that's amazing. Congratulations! Tell me all about it."

After I finished telling him, Al said, "I am so proud of you. I know how unhappy you were at that other place. I didn't get a chance to meet Sean O'Neil at the Christmas party, but I'm looking forward to meeting him when we put together my show."

"You'll love him. He's super nice." I paused and took a breath. "Al, I don't know what to do about Zach. Right after I thought about calling you, I thought about calling him. I'm afraid I'm either going to get my heart broken or my face smashed in."

Al made a sound of derision. "That man would never lay a hand on you, and you know it. He's not Derek the asshole."

I chuckled. "True. He's not an asshole at all. I thought I caught a hint of something when we went out on Saturday night, but nothing came of it."

"What do you mean? And why am I just hearing about this now?" he asked indignantly.

"Mostly because I didn't want to make a big deal out of nothing."

"It's not nothing if you're still thinking about it three days later."

I sighed. "Okay. When I walked into Watermark, he clocked me immediately and watched me the whole time. If I didn't know better, I would have thought he wanted to eat me alive. Then he told me I looked nice. What straight guy does that?"

"None that I know," Al commented. "What else? I know there's more."

"He came up to my apartment after we left the bar."

"What? Miguel, I'm super pissed you didn't tell me any of this before today."

"I know. I'm sorry. I think I didn't tell you because I didn't want to get my hopes up." I blew out a breath. "I invited Zach to come upstairs to see the apartment, and he ended up helping me because I had more to drink than I should have. We chatted for a couple of minutes and then he went to leave. But it was weird because he hesitated and got all awkward. It looked like he was going to step closer to me, then he just gave me this little wave and high-tailed it down the stairs."

"Oh, honey," Albert said. "He is definitely questioning his sexuality."

"Maybe," I replied. "But I don't want to be someone's experiment. Not again."