“No, not really,” admitted Stan. “We travel in different circles, you might say. But we’ve worked together for some time. Let’s see, I know they’ve been friends many years. I remember one day we were telling stories at lunch. Trigg said that back in college, he and Davis had one of those near brushes in the death, getting lost in the wilderness for many days.”
That sounded intense. Damn, I was already impressed with these two. Stan continued.
“…Something to do with no water for 48 hours. He said Davis saved him. But right then, Davis interrupted. Said that it was Trigg who saved them. He said they were just roommates before, but surviving together really bonded them. Something like that.”
He pressed his lips together and shrugged. “I just know they’re good guys. Tight like brothers. I don’t know much of their families. And I don’t think either one of them has a girlfriend.”
“Oh, I… wasn’t… ,” I said blushing. “I wouldn’t ask anything inappropriate.”
“Oh, I know. Sorry Miss Hallie,” said Stan, shaking his palm out like refusing coffee refills at a diner. “That was my mistake. My wife always tells me I drone on and on, ha!” Stan’s head fell back as he slapped his knee. In a split second, he turned serious, leaning forward and pointing at me. “But I’ll tell you one thing, you have to eat the food here. It’s amazing. Our chef, Allison, she’s a bit of a loon, but she can cook, boy!”
I desperately wanted the information Stan had on the boys, I just didn’t want him to know that I wanted it. Of course I had to find such interesting prospects here in the workplace. Where any feelings about your coworkers are just a giant pain in the ass.
Feelings is probably the wrong word. I don’t really know the guys all that well. I would say “attraction.” Yes, attraction seems more accurate. I wish I knew what to do. I wish this could somehow be simpler. I’ve never gone for two guys at once before. And certainly not at work. Where they oversee me. On the one hand, I could see all the problems it might bring, but on the other hand, these restrictions just seem to be unnatural.
I mean, if Trigg and Davis weren’t such nice guys, the whole boss/subordinate thing would be a major problem. Generally, of course I could see a need for some distance in work relationships. That’d keep people professional and, ideally, safe. Still, is there a place for people who actually don’t mind dating in the workplace?
Finally, the baseball players had left the hotel. They lingered long after they had checked out just to use the pool and to wait for their bus. Half of them got hammered at the bar before boarding the bus to God-knows-where. Guess that’s the life of the professional athlete.
No sooner had the bus of baseball players left, that an entire casino bus full of seniors pulled up and stopped. This is the bus the hotel had been expecting. The group of elderly ladies suddenly filled the lobby and thanks to the baseball players, the housekeeping staff was frantically trying to clean all their rooms. Trigg sent me out into the lobby to stall them.
“Hey everyone,” I greeted. “Welcome to ME. We’re still getting your rooms ready, would you like to relax in our lounge? You can leave your luggage and we’ll gladly have it brought to your room.”
“Oh, my. That would be nice,” said one of the old women, eyebrow raised, head nodding.
The reaction seemed to cascade through the group. In no time, I was left with a lobby full of abandoned luggage with name-tags. The two valets on duty assisted me in organizing the luggage on racks so that when they took it upstairs, they knew exactly what hallway to go down with which luggage rack.
If it had been a younger crowd, I probably would’ve gotten a question every hour like are the rooms ready yet? or what time will the rooms be ready? and why isn’t the room ready?
Instead, the ladies were so caught up in their various conversations, we had all the rooms cleaned and the luggage delivered before I had to go into the lounge and announce that the rooms were ready.
At one point during the luggage move, Stacey walked through the lobby with our marketing person. Stacey was shadowing her like a good intern should. I couldn’t help but notice and stare in her direction. I couldn’t help it. It was almost like an animal’s predator awareness, I had to make sure she left the room before I could continue in peace. I felt I was one step away from her charging at me, pushing me down and calling me an “ugly fat bitch” like she used to do.
When I got back to the office, Trigg was looking over new designs for some of the rooms. He invited me to check out the patterns.
“I’m not much of a designer, but I’ll look.”
“Yeah, I’m not a designer at all,” said Trigg. “I just don’t have the eye for it.”
“I think the direction you need to go is the same one as the fountain in the lobby,” I said. “When people see that fountain, that’s what they’re going to expect throughout the hotel.”
“So like, futuristic, you’re saying?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty futuristic.”
“Do people want to stay in the future though?” Trigg questioned. “I always thought hotels needed to be homey and clean.”
“Well, yeah, that too. The future is definitely clean, you have that.”
“What if we did both?” asked Trigg. “Homey, but homey in the future!”
“I guess you could achieve that,” I said. “Maybe a digital picture of a bowl of fruit. Or pies. Or maybe even a fireplace.”
“I got it!” concluded Trigg. “An electronic photo as a painting you can change, but they’re all nice, classic images. Old, but new.”
“That would work,” I concluded. “But aren’t those electronic picture frames a little pricey?”
“Nah, it’s not an issue. I got a guy. Gets me discounts on everything,” said Trigg. “If you need anything, I can call him. Anything at all. Whatever your need, I will fulfill it.”
There he was again. Trigg was maybe, kind of flirting with me. Was he serious? Was I completely off base? Maybe he was being super subtle and was testing the waters to see how I’d react. You know, just dipping his toes and then backing away before the waves broke on the beach. If that was the case, I needed to signal to him that I was okay with it, without overtly flirty myself.
It was getting late in the day and I was struggling with this very puzzle. Then Stacey walked in and all I could think about was standing up and shouting, “Ha-ha! I have a job and you’re still in college! Stupid intern!”
“Hey guys,” Stacey greeted the guys, totally ignoring me. “Since it’s my first day living near here, I don’t know any of the local bars. Do you guys wanna go get a drink?”
“Oh, sorry, Stacey,” Trigg said. “We have an early day tomorrow. Truckload of night stands is finally getting in.”
“Yeah and we’ve been waiting for these for a while. Going to replace them throughout the hotel,” explained Davis. “It’s going to take hours.”
“Oh,” said Stacey a little disappointed. “Well if you guys change your mind, you know how to reach me.”
Stacey exited for the day and I breathed a sign of relief. I could feel all the tension in my body just disappearing at once. This made it clear, however, that the boys were too busy for me. Oh, well.
“Hey Hallie,” said Davis, stepping to my side and lowering his voice. “Trig and I are going out for drinks later if you want to.”
“Oh, I thought I you told Stacey you had an early day,” I said over my shoulder to him.
“Yeah, because— Well, we can’t hang out with interns,” explained Davis. “Plus we kind of noticed your reaction to Stacey.”
“Is it that obvious?” I asked, trying to grin.
“Yeah, do you want to talk about it?” he asked. Did I just hear his voice soften?
“Let’s leave it for another time,” I said quickly.
“The other thing is, Stacey is only going to be here for six weeks, so I’m telling you, we won’t have to endure her long,” reminded Davis. “But we plan to have you here long term. I mean, I gue
ss we never asked you officially, but when someone applies for a full time job, you just assume...”
“Oh, sure,” I agreed. “Yeah, this job is great so far. I have no intention of going anywhere. I could definitely see myself in this long term.” I nodded as hard as I could without seeming insane.
“This isn’t just about the ME,” said Davis. “Trigg and I got plans beyond this. Hopefully we’ll be creating a franchise. We build this brand up right and who knows? You already know something about the hotel business and you seem to handle the guests well.”
“Thanks,” I said. Despite all the day’s up and down feelings, he’s totally making me smile. “That’s all there is to hospitality, really. You have to take care of your guests. Even the guests that give you a problem.”
“It’s all about customer service,” added Trigg. “It’s amazing to me how people get into this business and forget that. They complain about the customers or refuse to comp them anything when things go wrong.”
“I know, right?” I agreed. “When I worked for my uncle, he was so cheap sometimes. He used to complain that the guests used too many towels! He actually wanted to charge them for extra towels! And he had the tiniest ones. Some of our larger guests had to get like three or four towels just to dry off in the shower.”
“Crazy,” laughed Davis. “You get one bad online review because of that and that costs you way more than the ten cents it takes you to rewash a few extra towels.”
We laughed about my uncle and they told some crazy guest stories too. We needed to make sure Stacey had pulled out of the parking lot so she didn’t see us leaving together. I was excited about tonight, but a little nervous. Were these guys trying to make a move on me? I kept seeing the hints, but it was hard to be sure.
Chapter 5
Hallie
Chumley’s was a neat little Martini bar. Personally, I can’t stand Martinis, so I ordered a Long Island Iced Tea. It was delicious and a rare surprise. So many places screw them up.
We sat in a corner booth, squeezing in together. It felt a little too intimate for a business meeting. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had to keep my wits about me. A couple of drinks and I might let slip how attractive I thought my bosses were. It would be beyond embarrassing if I was misreading these signals.
“So tell us about yourself, Hallie,” asked Trigg once we settled in with our drinks. “Give us the run down. What’s Hallie all about?” Again he flashed that wide confident smile.
I looked down and played with my drink coaster. “Well, I was a bit shy growing up. I was really into sci-fi and geeky stuff. I watched a lot of Dr. Who.”
“Oh, I love Dr. Who,” admitted Davis, making my eyes shoot up in amazement. “I still watch it once in a while when I have time. Who’s your favorite doctor?”
“I’m old school,” I started, almost unable to contain my excitement. “Tom Baker is still the best for me.”
“Me too!” yelped Davis, excited. “I made his scarf when I was a kid!”
“Oh, my God,” kidded Trigg, rolling his eyes. “I’m surrounded by nerds!”
“You watched it,” insisted Davis. “I made you watch it.”
“Yeah, the later stuff,” said Trigg, nodding. “When it had cool effects and lots of action. Those old shows—I don’t know how you watch them.”
“They were classics.” I insisted playfully. “The BBC didn’t have any money for effects.”
“Yeah, every scene took place inside an old warehouse back then!” insisted Trigg. “What the hell is that?”
“It was very creative,” countered Davis with fake defensiveness. “They had to use their resources to the best of their ability.”
“What amazes me,” said Trigg. “Is that you were a star quarterback at the very same time that you were so into that geek stuff!”
“A star quarterback, huh?” I said, my ears perking up yet again. “How did you like it?”
“Fine. Until the bad knee,” said Davis. “Had a bad tackle and that was that. Probably for the best. You know I look at those guys that go pro— some of them get so messed up.”
“Not the quarterbacks usually,” said Trigg. “Those guys don’t bulk up as much.”
“They still get tackled,” I said. “Your brain rattling around in that helmet— That can do some damage. There was a kid in my college, broke his spine in a game. He was never the same.”
“Personally, I like watching sports, not playing,” said Trigg.
“Pretty boy here didn’t want to mess up his hair,” kidded Davis with a sing-song voice.
“Ah, so you were like Face from the A-Team?” I asked.
“That’s an old show!” protested Trigg.
“I used to love to watch the old reruns of those shows,” I said. “Any action shows from that era. The Fall Guy was one of the best.”
“Oh, my God! I was going to say The Fall Guy!” laughed Trigg. “I loved that show!”
“Well, I don’t like to kiss and tell, but I’ve been seen with Farrah!” sang Davis in a deep voice.
We all started to sing the theme song from the Fall Guy and couldn’t stop laughing. It was a good time. I was amazed at how fun and personable my bosses were. We just seemed to flow right into a good groove, talking about any and everything. Since I felt pretty comfortable and the Long Island Iced Teas were good, I signaled to our waiter for another.
“It seemed like no matter what the mystery was on the Fall Guy,” said Trigg trying to analyze it. “There was always some kind of stunt they could pull to save the day! It was like, one minute Mafia guys were coming to take the guy’s deli and the next minute somehow the Fall Guy is lighting himself on fire to save the day!”
“Who was that hot chick on the show? Heather Locklear?” guessed Davis.
“No, Heather Thomas,” I corrected. “She was a hot blonde. I’ll bet that’s why you guys like that show.”
“I mean, let’s be honest, all those shows had a hot girl at some point,” admitted Trigg.
“Then there’s Charlie’s Angels,” added Davis. “The entire cast was chicks and you didn’t even see Charlie!”
“I didn’t catch much of that one,” I admitted. “What show did you like from the 90’s?”
“Well, Seinfeld, of course,” said Davis immediately. “No soup for you!”
“You know, I couldn’t get into Seinfeld,” I admitted. “It was like, I couldn’t relate to the characters all that much. Guess I’m not an East Coast person.”
“Wait a minute,” said Trigg. “Did you not see the Contest episode?”
“What was that?” I asked.
“The four characters try to see how long each one of them can go without masturbating, but they never say it,” explained Trigg, laughing. “But at the same time, Kramer is out immediately because there’s a naked girl in the building across the way.”
“Okay, now that’s funny,” I admitted. “Maybe I have to give that show another chance when it comes back on.”
“I like the one where Jerry is dating the naked girl,” said Davis. “Remember that? He ends up breaking up with her?”
“But why? That sounds perfect for a guy!” I laughed.
“I know, right?” said Davis. “It’s because she’s naked too often. She ends up doing unsexy things while she’s naked and Jerry realizes he’d rather picture girls naked then actually constantly see them naked.”
“Okay, you guys have convinced me,” I laughed. “I am giving Seinfeld another chance!”
“What about Curb Your Enthusiasm?” asked Trigg.
“That show, I love,” I admitted.
“Oh, my God! That’s Larry David!” said Trigg.
“So?” I asked. “He wasn’t on Seinfeld, was he?”
“Well, no, not really,” said Trigg. “But he created the show with Jerry Seinfeld. George is based on him.”
This was news to me.
“Really? You guys are blowing my mind right now,” I said. “All this time, I’m watching Larry
David on Curb and he was basically already on Seinfeld.”
“Exactly,” said Davis. “You’re a Seinfeld fan, don’t even know it.”
“It’s true,” I admitted. “You guys got me all turned around on this.”
“Wait a sec,” said Davis looking at his phone. “Heather Locklear was on the Fall Guy! I knew it!”
“But she wasn’t a regular, right?” I asked.
“No, but she was a guest star, twice,” said Davis, still reading the tiny glowing screen. “God, the internet knows everything.”
The next thing you know, I had another Long Island Iced Tea in front of me. Was this three or four? I couldn’t remember. The guys didn’t seem even buzzed, but I was starting to get giggly. That was a sure sign I had too much to drink.
“Dammit, I think I’m drunk,” I said.
I started laughing uncontrollably. It’s a good thing Davis and Trigg were laughing with me. They kept asking me why I was laughing, but that just made me laugh harder. I didn’t really have a reason, I was just drunk. I finally planted my face in the side of the booth to try and compose myself, but that just made me laugh harder.
Just when it seemed I got the giggles under control, the waiter came back to ask if we needed anything else. I tried to suppress my laugh, but when you have the giggles and you try to stop, that just makes it a thousand times worse. So I tried to hold it, but then it came bursting out and I found myself laughing at the waiter and putting my face back into the back of the booth to try to stifle my own laughter.
“I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry,” I laughed. “I got the giggles so bad, I can’t stop! Do you guys ever get that way?”
“I once saw Davis get so drunk, he tried to answer a lamp when the phone rang,” laughed Trigg. “The best part about it is, he couldn’t figure out why the lights were going off and on.”
“Oh, I have a better one,” said Davis. “Since we’re trading stories.”
“Please don’t,” said Trigg.
“You opened the door, my friend!” said Davis.
“Aw, this sounds good!” I added.
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