Everglow

I stumbled about the lobby of the hotel groggily. The late nights came back to bite in the morning. Especially when the manger was consistently rambling about “everything must be perfect.” Being that I was said manager’s assistant, getting everything to a state of perfection was my burden to carry out. Well, I usually enjoyed it, so I don’t think “burden” is the right word. Yet today, after last night, it was a burden.

I wasn’t uncommon for high profile people to stay at the Cape Town Radisson Blu on the V&A waterfront. Yet somehow the lovely manger, Lisa, found a way to get equally worked up about the arrival of the big spenders each time. Every. Single. Time.

I liked my job most of the time. I liked details. I liked making things look pretty and carefully arranging things. I gave a snort. How contrasting to my nighttime job. It’d be nice to have a skill set that fell less into “artsy hipster” category and more into “Jason Bourne combat skills” category. Regardless, it was a good watching job. Often the high profilers took advantage of the brothels. But anyone in this hotel went to places with maxed out security that were several levels above the places I went in. Still, it was nice to have the knowledge of how the upper levels worked.

“Gema!” By the tone of Lisa’s voice, this was probably not her first attempt to catch my attention. I needed coffee. “I need you to make sure the main suite on floor 3 is ready. Make sure the fridge is stocked well with a variety of drinks. Turn on the telly and ensure the dish is working. Everything.”

I nodded and headed my way to elevator. Room 301 was spotless upon my arrival, and the scent of fresh cotton filled the suite. I checked the kitchenette fridge and started checking the TV when the door clicked.

“I’m almost done, Lisa!” I hollered and made my way to the sitting area of the suite to meet her and her fussing. Except, when I turned the corner, there was a blond haired- blued eyed man whose eyebrows rose just the slightest when he saw me.

“You’re definitely not Lisa,” I blurted with a short chuckle. He looked familiar. Wait… was he…?

He laughed. “Sorry to disappoint ya,” he said with a heavy accent. Irish?

After a heartbeat, my professionalism returned and I smiled politely, “I’m Gema. Welcome to the Radisson.” I extended my hand to shake his, and he did the same. His handshake wasn’t exactly firm, but it was sure and warm, I mentally noted. It was hard for me to turn it off: my attentiveness to body language.

His eyes were still smiling. “I’m Niall. Definitely not Lisa. Good to meet you.” Yup: Irish.

“Please let me know if you need anything, and we will be happy to help.”

He nodded and thanked me. I turned and controlled the urge to run to the door. Brisk walking did the trick. Only when it clicked behind me did I let out the breath I didn’t realise I was holding and shook out my hand.

Coffee. I needed coffee.


Three cups and five hours later, my nerves were humming. The rest of the day was pretty calm for business. One of those slow afternoons you look at the clock every twenty minutes to see its actually only been five. Finally, ten o’clock came, and I gathered my things and made my way out to my car. Now, my lovely car was a secondhand Japanese vehicle. Don’t get me wrong, I was thankful for it and it ran surprisingly well, but it certainly wasn’t much to look at. To make it a bit worse, the bright colour of the chipping paint made it pretty distinguishable.

As I was about to turn to get out of the hotel parking lot, I heard my name being called. I looked back over my shoulder to find the source. A man over by the entrance of the hotel. On a second look, I recognized him. Chase. I turned the car and parked in the nearest open spot. I started toward Chase, only to observe a few other people getting out of the same car he did. First, his fiancé, Sharron. Second, a guy a hadn’t seen before. And last, one I had seen before. This morning. And I called him Lisa.

Before I could ask Chase anything, he pulled me into a tight bear hug. I tensed a bit, and then let myself hug him back slightly.

“I can’t believe you’re still alive,” he said, with a bit of hoarseness in his voice.

I laughed. “It’s good to see you too.”

He finally let go, and Sharron came up and hugged me with about the same clinginess her man had.

Chase didn’t wait for Sharron to drop the hug to start the bombardment of questions.

“Are you okay?”

I gave a tight smile. “I’m fine.”

Chase rolled his eyes. “Stupid question.” I smiled. I’d known Chase a long time. Sharron let go. I exhaled.

“Do you have… plans tonight?” he asked with a stain of caution. I knew what he was asking. He knew what I did at night.

“I’m..” I enjoyed the view of the concrete beneath me. “I’m not sure yet.”

“ Come out with us then? If you don’t have anything in pen? We were just about to have a bite.”

I looked behind him. At this point, Niall and the other guy were looking on with knitted brows.

I raised my eyebrow in question to Chase.

“Oh! Ed and Niall, this is Gema. Gema, Niall and Ed.”

I extended my hand to Ed, and he nodded. Then I turned to Niall and found his hand already extended. “Good to meet ya again.” He wasn’t smiling, but he seemed rather on the brink of it. I was rather shocked he remembered me. On my lunch break, I did a little googleing around. I was right about where I recognized him from.

“So, how did you come to know each other?” I asked gesturing to both Niall and Chase.

“We’ll tell ya. But only if you join us for drinks at least,” Niall responded.

“Whatever the story is, it seems you’ve already picked up far too much cheekiness from Chase,” I said.

Chase was fast in his comeback, “Oh, no. The little shit’s got plenty of his own long before I knew him.”

Niall laughed with his head thrown back.

“So what’s it to be, Gema?” Chase inquired with a quirked eyebrow.

I glared at him a little. “Fine. I’ll come.”

Notes

So, it's not quite the fast pace of the last chapter. Bear with me, it has to build :)