by Ella Hart
“She asked me to switch rooms. I explained that we have a child on the way, and she refused to believe that we need a second room for our child.” He told the manager the truth. There was no reason for him to lie about what had been happening. He was beginning to wonder how in the world she did so well with her clients.
“Ma’am, I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave him alone.” He turned to talk to Ms. Erickson. As she screamed that she deserved that room, it came out that she was having an affair. To Cobalt’s amusement, her husband just walked into the room.
As he turned to look at the gentleman, their eyes met and their faces broke into a smile.
“Cobalt! I thought I’d never see you again.” It was one of his best friends from when he was younger.
“Terrance. It’s wonderful to see you again.” He smiled back, walking over to him. They embraced, and he got a good view of Mrs. Erickson’s surprised expression. She flushed in the face and hurried out in a huff before he could do anything.
“What brings you to these parts?”
“Leilani is my wife.” He sighed at this point. “I wish I hadn’t heard what I just did. Why was she screaming at that poor man, anyway?”
“She requested room 1449, and got room 2440 instead. She’s all huffy about the fact that 2440 has only one bed. One room. When Marius told her that my wife and I had been in the room for the past few years, she was upset that she didn’t get priority. She came to my room to demand the key, and I managed to get her down here.” He laughed a little.
“Ouch. I’m sorry about that, Cobalt. She’s used to getting her own way, especially in the courtroom. Wait, did you say your wife and you?” It took him a moment to put the two pieces together. Cobalt laughed a little, nodding. “Congratulations, dude!”
“Thanks, Terry.” He smiled. “We’re expecting our first child, and we need the extra room for a nursery.”
“That’s totally fine. I tried to make the reservations, but she insisted I’d get the wrong hotel.” He sighed. “I should go. She’s not going to be happy that I heard what she was yelling. Then again, I’m not too happy with her.”
“That’s rough. Is there a reason that she’s unhappy?” He furrowed his brows. Why was it so hard for his friend?
“I have no idea. I had suspected something was going on for a while, but didn’t want to do something wrong and ask of her. So I let it slide, and she had seemed happier. But this settles it; I’m asking for a divorce. Knowing her, it’s going to be very one-sided. I’m just glad we don’t have kids. She never wanted them.” Terrance pursed his lips.
“That makes sense, given how she treated the fact that my wife is pregnant. Anyway, go ahead. I understand.” With that, he let his friend go. When he was sure Terrance wasn’t coming back, he looked to Marius. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. She’s actually not the worst customer I’ve had to deal with. I promise. Go up to your wife. I’ll take care of the issues that are going on. She won’t bother you again.” The owner offered up a smile at him.
“I insist you let me do something for you. I feel really bad that you had to step in. That wasn’t my intention in coming down here.” He walked a little closer.
“It’s fine, really, Cobalt. I’ve had to deal with worse.” He walked behind the counter. “Besides, I have a feeling she won’t be staying here any longer. That’s one of the few ways we lose business – when someone wants a specific room but we have other guests who have been in the room. We can’t give priorities to a person who isn’t checked in.” He laughed a little. “I’m actually not sorry to see her go.”
“Does she stay here often?” He was now curious.
“She’s stayed in the past.” Marius danced around the question. He understood that there were privacy laws he couldn’t break. “We’ve always had a hard time living up to her expectations, and honestly, I don’t mind not having to live up to them any longer.”
“All right. I guess I’ll see you around, then.” He smiled at the man. “Have a good day, Marius.”
“You too, Cobalt.” The friendly owner smiled at him, and then went off to do something else.
Cobalt walked slowly back up the stairs, trying to understand what had just happened. He was surprised that she had followed him down the stairs at all – most people would have taken the elevator.. He was just grateful that he hadn’t been confined in one small space with her. He shuddered. Just another reason he hated those things.
As he walked back to the room, he suddenly remembered that he didn’t have a key card on him. He knocked on the door and was greeted by a somewhat surprised Paulina.
“I thought you had a key card on you, honey?”
“So did I, but when I got back I realized that I’d left it behind.” Her eyes sparkled as she laughed with him, and he was struck by just how strongly he felt about her. He would do anything to protect his family.
“I don’t think we’ll have any more problems with her,” He said finally, and then explained what had happened a few moments earlier.
Paulina nodded slowly. “I hope so. We really do need the extra room. Speaking of, would you be willing to pick up and rearrange some furniture for us?” She pouted a little, and he couldn’t help but laugh.
“Of course I would be willing to do so. He smiled, kissing her cheek softly. “I will do anything to keep you and our baby safe. I promise.”
“Thanks, Cobalt. Oh, and pizza should be here in about ten minutes.” She changed topics.
“Great. It’s only now that we’re waiting for it that I realize how hungry I am.”
“Me too.”
They fell into a soft silence, reveling in the other’s company. They did this often, sometimes for hours on end.
As his mind wandered, he began to reflect on the changes that would soon take place in his life. Having a child meant that he wouldn’t be able to get a job for a while longer. He simply wouldn’t be able to, but maybe that was a good thing.
It meant that Paulina would be able to continue with her career. She was in a good position, and with a very understanding boss.
Cobalt paid for the pizza, and they enjoyed their meal together in silence. He did his best to ignore the gnawing in his gut that he had initially mistaken for hunger.
He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he knew the feeling well. There was something big coming, something bad. It was the cruel irony of his life, he thought bitterly. Whenever he was at the top the world, something always came to knock him down. It served once again to remind him that he was the last dragon-shifter he knew of. He wasn’t human, and in the eyes of everyone else, he didn’t belong on the planet.
Chapter Five: Going Downhill
The next morning, Cobalt walked downstairs to bring some breakfast up to his wife. She was craving something sweet but surprising, so he had decided to bring her waffles piled high with strawberries, syrup and whipped cream. Hopefully it would satisfy her sweet craving.
When he arrived at the breakfast bar, everything had changed. A large hastily-assembled sign announced that hotel ownership had changed and that the breakfast bar would no longer be short order. It was now a buffet of yogurt, cereal and breakfast bars. No waffles – or even pancakes – were in sight. The kitchen was evidently closed, with all the lights off and doors chained shut.
A man stood to the side, watching everyone. Curious, Cobalt walked over to him.
“Excuse me, but are waffles going to be part of the new breakfast bar?” He asked the man the single question on his mind.
“No. I’m the new owner. If you want waffles, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. What did you say your name was, sir?” The owner answered swiftly in the negative. Paulina would not like to hear that. Cereal and yogurt had been on her avoid list lately.
“Cobalt, and you?” He wanted to stay on a first name basis with the owner. At least with Marius, he had been able to learn about him and to get to know him.
“Mr. Jackson. Would you happen to be in room 1449?” He took him a
side. That sick feeling from the night before returned as he nodded. “You will have to vacate the room by next week. This hotel will no longer be taking permanent residents.”
“Mr. Jackson, my wife is seven months pregnant.” He felt as though his world had fallen from below his feet. How could they be evicted? For two years, they had been good customers of the hotel, and had practically lived out of the room in more ways than one.
“I’m well aware of that.” The new manager shut down his pleas coldly. “We are a business hotel, not a family affair. Children create a mess and an unwelcome racket. Get out of the room by next Friday, or I’ll be forced to call the police.” The harsh and abrupt way he had ended the conversation left a pit in Cobalt’s stomach. How was he going to tell Paulina what had happened? “Oh, and before you go, tell Paulina she’s fired. We no longer need her services here.”
Mr. Jackson had walked away before Cobalt had the chance to formulate a response. How? What? Why? His mind was spinning with questions, struggling to come to terms with what had just happened.
He soon realized that he only had one option for waffles for Paulina – to make them himself. Or at least, to make something that resembled waffles as closely as possible.
As he began to walk back to the stairs, an employee stopped him.
“The stairs are for employees only now, sir. Please, take the elevator.” The employee was new. He hadn’t seen this particular woman before; maybe she’d just gotten this shift. He sighed, and managed to survive the elevator ride up to the next floor. He was still incredibly thankful that the ride wasn’t too long.
His wife greeted him at the door with a large smile, and his heart sank. He didn’t expect telling her would be easy, but this was going to be harder than he thought.
“I’m starving, Cob- where’s the food?” Her smile dropped when she realized he had returned empty-handed. “I thought you were getting me some waffles.”
“I’ll make them, I promise. But first, you should sit down.” He prepared her for the news he was about to deliver, and tried to break it to her as gently as he could.. The hardest part was having to tell her that she had been fired and that they had to move out in a week. Within the week, actually. He didn’t want to over stay his welcome.
Paulina was quiet for a moment. She seemed to be processing what he had told her as quickly as possible. At this point, he was still trying to figure out what they were going to do. They’d been expecting to move out once the baby was a little bigger – maybe a few months out of the egg. But now, they’d have to move before the egg was lain.
“But... why are they doing this?” She paused as it began to gradually sink in. “How did this happen?” Paulina didn’t fully seem to understand what was going on. He couldn’t make sense of the reasons behind it either.
“I’m not sure, honey. What I do know is that we need to leave the hotel as soon as possible, or we’ll be in serious trouble. For now, do you have a friend we could stay with, love?” The only thing he could think of that could be even remotely safe was staying with a friend. Maybe that Rani woman he’d met briefly a couple of years ago.
“I could call Rani. But we might have to tell her your secret, especially since I think I’m going to lay this egg soon.” She sighed. “It’s been getting bigger and harder, Cobalt. Do eggs typically develop this fast?” He shook his head.
“Maybe this egg is an anomaly.” He shrugged, and went into the kitchenette. “I’ve only heard of offspring between dragon-shifters and humans before. I know that it’s possible, but we really can’t be sure what to expect.”
“Do you think Mrs. Erickson had something to do with this?” Paulina’s next question startled him. The thought hadn’t crossed his mind. While she had been irate about not getting her favorite room, he didn’t think her capable of buying the hotel, replacing the manager, and then kicking them out. She might have been prissy, but not that prissy.
“I don’t think so. She looked like a woman who had too much on her plate to be able to worry about it for longer than a day.” He shrugged. “But then again, she was overly upset when she found out that she didn’t get the room she wanted. I don’t know. Let’s not delve into why we’re losing the room. Let’s just move out before they can make it worse for us, and make the best of our new situation” He forced a smile and bent down to get the mixing bowl they owned. They didn’t have much, so it would be easy to pack everything up into the car again. Just one suitcase each, a duffel bag for the baby’s clothes, and some kitchen items.
“All right. I’ll call Rani and see if we can stay with her again.” With that, his wife left the room to have a private conversation with her friend. He heard the bedroom door shut. That was pretty typical; he’d cook, and she would talk on the phone in the bedroom where it was quieter.
As he cooked, he let the silence wash over him. The conversation he’d had with Mr. Jackson – albeit a one-sided conversation– had made him wish he’d never gone downstairs in the first place. If he was honest with himself, he would rather that they had found out together. He cringed at the thought of his wife’s distraught face and couldn’t bear the thought of making her so unhappy.
He sighed softly to himself. How could two years in this hotel prove to be as fruitless as thousands of years in one town? It just didn’t make sense, but he’d seen a lot of things that didn’t make much sense in the last two thousand years. The entire existence of the human species had caused him often to wonder how they had come so far. He couldn’t quite fathom how a species that had started so primitive had become so smart, or this vengeful. That being said, he had found someone he loved dearly in one of them, so he supposed it wouldn’t be fair to generalize. Not all dragons were pleasant either.
He picked up the spatula and flipped the pancake that was frying in front of him. His mind had wondered again, and he wasn’t quite sure how long ago he had put it on. Apparently, it was too long ago, as the other side was almost completely black. There was no way Paulina would eat this one.
A sigh escaped his lips. There was no getting around the way he was feeling at the moment. There was simply no avoiding it. Everything was going downhill so fast. All he could hope to do now was get back up when they stopped rolling, and move on. He’d done it before.
But never with a child on the way and a wife by his side.
Chapter Six: Extra Trying
Eventually, Cobalt finished the pancakes. It was the closest he could get to waffles without a waffle iron, but he was sure his wife would understand.
He knocked on the bedroom door, and was greeted by shuffling sounds from the other side as Paulina walked towards the door. He turned softly away from the door to go clean the pan. The last pancake he’d made had burnt rather badly. He had submerged it in water to keep it from filling the room with smoke and setting off the smoke detectors.
When Paulina came out, she grimaced and put a hand to her mouth.
“Are you okay, love?” He raised an eyebrow. Was the smell making her nauseous?
“Are you actually enjoying the smell of that burning food? Wait, don’t answer that.” She frowned. “Of course you’re liking this smell.”
“Well, I can’t help it, honey. I miss smelling things I burn. That’s usually what my cave smells like.” He forced a small chuckle. Her frown deepened, and he stopped cold. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s making me nauseous. Don’t we have a window we can open? Or a fan we can blow?” She managed to take a deep breath and opened the window behind him. “I’m sorry. I need to get some fresh air in here.”
“It’s all right. I understand that not everyone enjoys it. Thank you for indulging me for a couple of moments though.” He smiled at her softly, and followed it up with a kiss to her cheek. A blush spread across her cheeks as she finished opening the window.
“You’re welcome.” She smiled softly at him and turned to grab a plate of pancakes. They sat down together at the dining room table. “Well, these smell good. I’m glad to see t
hat you only burnt one.”
“Actually, I burnt two pancakes, but the last one was the worse of the two.” He smiled and studied her face carefully. “Are you okay with what’s going on?”
“Not particularly, but what can we do? Rani said she’s out of town next week, but she’ll leave us a spare key in the usual place and we can stay with her as long as we need to. I told her I’m pregnant, but not with an egg. Just that I’m getting ready to go into labor.”
“All right. I’m assuming that labor is like laying an egg?” He put a pancake on his plate and doused it in a bit of melted butter and syrup.
“In a way. It ends the pregnancy. They’re alike in that way, at least. Labor is actually more painful, I think, because it’s a live birth.” She sighed. “I’m almost glad that I’m having an egg. Can you imagine going to the hospital when in labor and giving birth to a dragon?” She laughed a little. “It’d freak the doctors out, that’s for sure.” He was relieved to see her joking around despite the situation.
“Yeah. It would, I guess.” He wondered how that would work. Every dragon he’d ever known had been hatched from an egg. “But with an egg, it means you can go back to work soon.”
“When I get a new job, anyway.” She sighed again. “Maybe Rani can put in a good word for me at her agency.” She had a thoughtful look on her face. Maybe she was thinking of what to ask Rani. Or maybe she was thinking about how their life would change once she laid this egg.
“That’s a good point. I guess I’m still getting used to the kind of life a human couple leads. It’s not the kind of life I thought I’d have as a husband, but it is a good one.” He smiled at her. “It’s good because you’re here.”
He watched as she blushed deeply. Each time she blushed, it reminded him that she was an amazing woman. That he had someone who cared about him. That he had someone who would weather the storms of life with him.
They left one another to their thoughts as they ate their breakfast.. He hated to think that they’d have to start packing up soon. Probably the same day, if they could. It’d help streamline the process of moving out. Without being able to walk up and down the stairs, he worried that he wouldn’t be of much help getting the luggage out of the hotel.
