Manage Me: A Vagabond Romance

by J. D. Fox

  The shower was big enough for at least six people. There were two shower heads on each side and a large one directly overhead along with a long marble bench that looked like it had been designed specifically for fun lovemaking. It had rounded corners, making it seem softer than it was, and I couldn't think of a practical use for it.

  "I would love to bend you over that bench and hear you moan for hours, but I really do have a lot to do. Besides, there's a conversation we need to have before we do anything else."

  I felt a dropping in my gut, but took my cue from Lauren and brushed it off. I'd always known this was going to be the price I paid for coming down here.

  "You're right," I said, looking over at the large jet bathtub. "I'm going to take advantage of that tub and that bed. Maybe later, after our conversation, I can take advantage of you."

  He grinned, but there was an underlying understanding to his smile. "I think that's a fantastic idea. I have to work pretty late tonight, but tomorrow will be better. Will you come to dinner with me? Around seven o'clock?"

  "You won't be free at all until tomorrow night?" I asked, trying not to sound disappointed.

  "I'll have to sleep at least a little tonight, and as much as I'd love to have you in bed with me, it's been a very long couple of days, and I will need at least a few hours of sleep before I wake up early tomorrow. I'm really happy you're here, though."

  This was where the nervous, wounded girl in me had to put on the brave, tough face I'd spent years cultivating. I wrapped my arms around his waist and looked up at with a smile that didn't feel entirely fake.

  "I would love to have dinner and a conversation with you tomorrow," I said.

  His smile was enormous. "I'll have the concierge make up a list of activities in the area for you and Lauren to check out tomorrow. There's hiking and a waterfall and some caves, and a very cool lighthouse. Up the road are twenty-four-hour natural hot springs. You too will have a lot of fun."

  "That does sound pretty amazing," I said, and it did. I'd need something to do while preparing to bare my soul to Ryan. "Okay, now get back to work. I'm gross and need to get out of these clothes."

  "Thank you for coming," he said, giving me a quick kiss before heading back downstairs.

  The exploring did sound like fun, and at least I knew Lauren would want to stay busy with me as well with Jacob was going back to work.

  I took a minute to walk around the rest of the suite. It was extraordinary, with perfectly blended colors and fabrics, and a spectacular view out of the glass french doors of a rugged shoreline. I went out to the balcony, and as I stood looking out over the water, I couldn't help but feel a sense of calm settling over me. This felt like exactly where I needed to be.

  Only a few days ago I'd been anxiously trying to talk Lauren out of coming to the resort. I'd let my own insecurities take over, and I'd convinced myself that trying to fix things with Ryan was a waste of time. But as I stood and took in the amazing nature around me, I felt a serenity steal over me that I hadn't felt in years.

  My anxiety about Ryan began to melt away. Lauren was right; I wouldn't work anything out by not talking to him. And at the end of the day, no matter what happened between Ryan and me, I was lucky to have had this experience and was determined to enjoy every second of it.

  Life had been so stressful for me in the last months. Trying to find my way in the midst of two crazy life changes had been such a mind bender that I'd blocked out any thoughts of what I'd actually been through. Being here, though, allowed my mind the chance to reset that I'd sorely needed

  There was a sudden knock at the door that made me jump. I ran over and looked through the peephole to see who it was. There was a woman in a Redwoods uniform on the other side.

  "Miss Gleason?" she called.

  "Yes?" I said as I opened the door.

  "Mr. Baxter asked me to bring this to you." She held out a folded note. Ryan clearly had a thing for notes.

  "Thank you," I said, taking it.

  "Not a problem, ma'am. Please call downstairs if you need anything," the woman said with a smile before she turned around to go.

  I closed the door and unfolded the note.

  Don't forget to eat your sandwich; I put a lot of work into it. I'll see you for dinner tomorrow. And please don't hate me for imagining you in that bathtub. Ryan x

  I laughed, reading the note over again. Like the last note that he'd sent me, this message immediately started undoing the knots that had formed in my belly at the thought of opening up to him. I set it down and went to fill up the tub.

  Chapter 16

  Ryan

  Managing a resort like this one wasn't like working in the hostel at all. Of course, in the last few days I'd been there, I hadn't been managing the hostel very much at all. But I was still adjusting to the day-to-day needs of the resort and found myself actually enjoying it.

  My time off had served its purpose, and I felt invigorated and ready to take on this new adventure. In the last week, I'd gotten the chance to meet everyone on staff, and I had confidence in every one of them. My dad had ascribed to the idea that you were only as good as your team; and that the make or break of any hotel came down to the staff we worked with and making them happy enough that they could take care of our guests with joy and pride.

  The second I got there I saw that Jason must have been doing something right because I didn't have to deal with any problematic staff members when I arrived. Every employee knew what they needed to do and we're already doing it to the best of their abilities. It seemed like the only real problem was that there just weren't enough hands on deck.

  I'd been unsure of how Wendy, the front desk manager, would receive me. She'd held the place together after Jason took off, and I thought she might have resented my presence, but she greeted me with a smile and full reports. She knew what she was doing, going about her work with a great attitude that trickled around to the rest of the staff even when hiccups threatened to ruin the day. Just being around her made me a better manager, given that I had to up my game and meet her level of positivity.

  "Good morning, Mr. Baxter," Wendy greeted me as I showed up with coffee in hand.

  "Good morning Wendy. I thought I told you not to come in until eight o'clock today. You've worked hard this last week."

  "I know. I was awake and just had a few things to take care of. I'm honestly not trying to undermine you."

  "Oh man. Wendy, let's not talk like that. We're a team. You know more about running this particular hotel than I do and I'm not planning on being able to learn it all in one week. I think you can call me Ryan and think of me as a colleague rather than a boss. Would that be alright?"

  She looked at me with a mixture of relief and excitement. "I think I can manage that. Thank you for the coffee. I was just about to gather the staff for the morning meeting. You missed that the last couple of days because of all the proverbial fires you were putting out, but would you like to come today?"

  "Sure, I'd love to see how you lead it."

  In the past hotels I'd managed, I tried the morning meeting thing as a way to boost morale. Sometimes I'd even made free breakfast available and talked about each of the staff and how much I appreciated them, but they'd always felt fake, and the staff seemed to resent the incursion on the work they had to do.

  The last thing I wanted to do was force staff into a ten-minute meeting and throw their schedule off if it wasn't necessary, so I was eager to see how the staff here acted in the meeting that Wendy was about to lead.

  We made our way to the big conference room, and the first thing I noticed was that every single person that was scheduled to work was present. There was one young man that had stayed out in the lobby to assist if anyone needed anything from the front desk, but other than that, everyone made a point to attend this meeting.

  Wendy plugged her phone into the jack and started playing a calm, enjoyable piece of music that radiated throughout the room. Everyone was sipping their morning coffee or eatin
g their breakfast around the table as Wendy made her way around and said good morning to each of them. She motioned for me to join her after realizing I was just standing in the doorway, observing.

  "Ryan, have you met Juan? He works in our maintenance department. His wife Olivia just had a baby." I shook hands with Juan and congratulated him as Wendy continued on to the next person. "This is Becca; she's on the wait staff. Becca, this is our new general manager, Ryan; he's Jason's brother."

  "Oh, so you're going to be just as good as he was?" Becca asked teasingly.

  "I'll try."

  "You'd better. Because he was one of the best managers, I've ever worked for. I've been in hospitality for a long time, and he made this a great environment. And so has Wendy, of course. We love Wendy," Becca gave Wendy a big smile, and the two of us moved onto the next person in the room.

  Each visit was short and yet I felt like I got to know the staff better in those interactions than I had my former hotel staff after two months. This morning meeting wasn't spent talking about business or what had to happen at work but was rather used to relate to and connect with each other. It was an approach that I'd never considered.

  "Thank you all for being here, and I hope you have a great day at work. Remember to use the back office if you really need to swear," Wendy announced as she turned the music off and put her phone back into her pocket.

  A few people lingered in the room as they finished their breakfast before they made their ways off to work. Wendy and I went back to the office, and I had to find out more about how Jason had been running things. Something he'd been doing at this resort was working; I felt it in the air and wanted to make sure I continued it.

  "So was that morning meeting your idea?"

  "No, Jason always did the meeting. I used just to be one of the people sitting around sipping my coffee. But he made me promise to continue it and to teach you how to be less..."

  She stopped talking, seeming to search for the right word to say.

  "Uptight?" I suggested with a raised eyebrow.

  There was no denying that at some of my previous hotels I'd been uptight. I'd felt like I was continually trying to catch up and couldn't get a break no matter what I tried. The more I worked, the more work there was. When I'd gotten the chance, I'd trained a new manager and taken the hostel gig just so I could decompress. But my whole family had known I'd been at the end of my rope with the big management jobs.

  "No, I wasn't going to say that," she said, smiling sheepishly at me. "I don't know you. I think you've done a great job since you've been here, and I'll do my best to keep an open mind about you and try not to let what your brother said influence how I think of you."

  "Thank you," I laughed. "Wait, what did my brother say about me?"

  "I'm not telling, but just know that he loves you very much. I have siblings, and I know that you don't talk about them the way he talked about you unless you value them."

  Wendy continuously refused to tell me what Jason had said. She kept that little secret to herself as we continued on with our day and taking care of all the guests. And for now, I had another problem to address.

  Although the staff that worked here were great and on top of their game, we were still running on a very low number. Recently people had left and moved onto other jobs, and Jason hadn't been able to get new people hired and trained fast enough.

  The downside of being the general manager was that you ended up doing nearly every job imaginable, especially if you were in the middle of a hiring lull. If it was something that I could physically do, I did it. If it was a skilled job that we had only one staff member to do, I prioritized the hiring for those positions. And I knew that today needed to be focused on staffing; I knew that people would get burnt out quickly if we didn't get others onboard soon.

  No matter how busy the day was, I couldn't stop thinking about how Dakota was just upstairs. She was here, in the resort and it was killing me not to just show up at her room and knock. The night before, going to my room instead of hers when I went up at midnight had been physically painful.

  I'd managed five hours of sleep though, and I couldn't have functioned on any less. I was already running on more caffeine than I thought was healthy, so I had to squeeze in my sleep the best I could.

  It was going to be difficult to manage to break away and spend time with her. Difficult, but not impossible. I was so glad she was there, and I knew she and Lauren would really enjoy the area. Amazingly, I was able to stay focused on my top priorities for the day and knock them out one by one, so I could finish working by six. I needed to be presentable for our date, after all.

  There was still plenty of work to do when I left the office, though, and part of me was tempted to call Dakota and tell her that I needed to work; but the new, more relaxed me knew that not only would I not survive another night without seeing her, but that I needed more balance in my life if I didn't want to burn out.

  At the last hotel I'd managed, I got to the point where I was working about twenty hours a day. I'd barely slept or exercised, and I never fit in any time for decompression. I'd been hell to be around: there was no way to be positive or upbeat for your staff when you were too sleep deprived to regulate your own moods. It had also been hell on my body, and the stress I put myself through started showing by making me sick numerous times.

  This time I was going to do it differently. I'd experienced a little taste of balance and relaxation while running the hostel, and I was planning to incorporate that knowledge into how I managed this resort. My mood was already so much improved from my time at the hostel that I was able to push away the work that hadn't been finished and managed to get to my room by six thirty to shower and get ready.

  At seven on the dot, I knocked on Dakota's door.

  "Hey," Lauren said, opening the door.

  "Hi ma'am, I'm here for Dakota," I smiled shyly at her.

  "Yeah, she changed her mind. She says to have a nice life, though," Lauren deadpanned and began to shut the door in my face. I felt an irrational wave of panic wash over me.

  "What?" I asked, confused by what was happening and genuinely worried I'd done something wrong, pushed Dakota too far and too fast.

  "Shut up, Lauren!" I heard Dakota yell from the back bedroom. "Ryan, don't listen to her. Come in, I'm almost ready."

  "You scared the crap out of me," I grumbled as Lauren smiled and held the door open for me. "Have you ever thought of acting?"

  "I am an actress," she replied.

  "Really? I had no idea. I thought you worked in fashion," I said recalling what Dakota had said about Lauren getting her the discount on her bag from the store she worked at.

  "Yeah, I've worked in retail since I got out of college. It's pretty good money when you work on commission, especially in a place like Beverly Hills."

  "I can only imagine. Well, I wouldn't worry about your future. If you can mess with me like that, I bet you can land any part you want to. You just need to set your mind to it, and it'll happen when it's meant to."

  "Stop it, I don't need your hippy NorCal good vibes," she scoffed lightheartedly at me.

  "Are you ready?" Dakota asked as she came out of her bedroom. I looked at her, and my heart stopped.

  Chapter 17

  Ryan

  I wasn't prepared for her to look how the way she did. The deep burgundy of her dress set off her dark hair and eyes so that I was reminded of a bottle of wine and a bar of chocolate all at once, but a thousand times sexier and more elegant. All of our time in San Francisco had been spent with us running around the city all day in practical pants and shoes, and her smile had always been so beautiful that I hadn't even noticed her clothes (with the exception of a t-shirt she'd worn one day that said 'I'm an Epic Storyline'). For some reason, it hadn't sunk in until that very moment that this was going to be a real date, with us dressed up and sitting down and then hopefully getting down.

  I swallowed down the lump in my throat that had formed when I saw her. "You
look incredible."

  She blushed. "Thank you. Lauren spotted it on our last day in San Francisco, and she convinced me to get it. I'm glad she did, though."

  "Me too."

  The two of them hugged, and Lauren whispered something in Dakota's ear that made her laugh. I held the door open for Dakota, who walked steadily before me in her four-inch black heels. Beyond the fact that she was able to walk in those shoes was that she could walk in them steadily. I loved that though she didn't seem like that type of woman, Dakota had a great deal of experience walking and looking dangerous in a pair of heels.

  I stayed back a little bit to watch her hips move as she walked ahead of me. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. It was as if I hadn't just spent three straight days examining every inch of her naked body. This Dakota was different than the girl I'd met in San Francisco, who, once she'd warmed up to a person, laughed easily and contagiously, and sometimes she let you see her fragility. This Dakota, though... well she made me a little nervous. In her presence, I was patently aware of how formidable she must have been to make it as a financial advisor in LA.

  "That dress really is... incredible," I said as I continued to follow her to the elevator.

  "You're checking my ass out right now, aren't you?" She asked without turning around, consciously flexing her legs for my benefit.

  "Well, I won't deny that it's holding most of my attention, but I'm actually checking out every inch of you. You are stunning."

  "Thank you," she said, turning to smile back at me.

  In that brief moment, it felt like she really heard me and knew this went beyond the things I'd said to her in bed, which I always meant but were colored by their circumstances. It felt like the compliment actually reached through her painful armor and landed near her heart, and if she was ready to hear me, then maybe she was ready to talk to me.