My attorney was slowly nodding by the time I was halfway through my speech, typing out a few notes on another screen. “Understood, Mr. Hawthorne. Now, I am...familiar with these kinds of divorces,” he went on carefully, guarding his words. “You’re not paying me to question your methods, but are you absolutely sure that your ‘wife’ will agree to these terms? There’s a lot of ground for her to make this ugly, if relations between the two of you turn ‘more’ sour.”
“George, one of the reasons I like you so much is that you have total faith in my decisions, or at least, you don’t speak up when you don’t. Let’s keep that trend up.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but just raised his eyebrows and held up a hand. “Say no more.”
“I don’t plan to. Have a nice day, George.” I turned off the call and leaned back, picking up my glass of scotch and taking a drink with a smile on my lips.
All that was left to do now was wait...and figure out how to survive my time away from the best sex I’d had in my life.
18
Haley
Now that I was back at the Peppertree, it almost felt as if nothing had changed. Upon walking into the resort with my suitcase, I went straight upstairs to my suite, got cleaned up, put on my usual casual-professional style of clothing, pulled my hair back into a short ponytail, and got ready to get to work. Before heading downstairs to check in with my employees and do a walk-through, as usual, I decided it was probably a good idea to see what all I had missed.
I sat down at my desk and opened my email. There were several emails from the bank, from my lawyers. A couple emails from the Vegas chapel, with photos of the wedding. I had to laugh at one of the photos. I had the most panic-stricken look on my face as I clutched the cheap, last-second bouquet handed to me approximately fifteen seconds before I walked down the aisle. It was a pretty fitting photograph for the moment, since I had been both excited and scared out of my mind.
Then I sat down to check my work voicemail messages, wincing as I pressed the play button. I had a pretty strong feeling there were going to be some lengthy ones. I kept my cell phone number pretty private, only sharing it with friends and family, of which I had very few. The first messages were from confused employees, who had all received emails from the lawyers, as well, informing them that the Peppertree was coming under new management, and that their positions may or not be terminated or altered in the upcoming weeks. I cradled my face in my hands, my head pounding already.
“Fantastic. That’s just what they need. A lawyer cryptically warning them that they might lose their jobs at any second,” I groaned. For people so caught up with the nitty-gritty details, these lawyers sure seemed to lack common sense.
“Ms. Simmons, this is Lauren. I-I’m a line cook in the lodge restaurant, if you don’t remember me. I received a very worrisome email from someone named Jim Foster who says he’s an attorney,” sobbed one of the female employees from the kitchen staff. “It says I might get fired. I’m really confused and scared. Did I do something wrong? Is this because I spilled that wine on a customer a week ago? I promise it was an accident. I can do better, I swear. What’s going on? I asked Marco from the cleaning staff where to find you and he said you were gone. What does that mean? Where did you go? Everyone’s calling you but you’re not answering--”
Beep. The rest of her message was cut off. The next message began.
“Hey, Ms. Simmons. This is Marco Ruiz, and I’m calling because my staff are all freaking out over these emails the lawyers sent us. I’m sure it was probably just some kind of bad mix-up, but I wanted to talk to you and get the story straight so my employees can relax. Some of them are threatening to quit before you can fire them, but I’m doing my best to keep everybody calm. Please call me back as soon as you can. Thanks.”
Beep.
“Is it true? Haley, this is Kat. Please pick up. I heard something from one of the maids about you running off to Las Vegas with some guy? The guy who was staying in that special Presidential suite? She’s just making that up, right? I told her to stop spreading stupid rumors but she swore on her grandmother’s life that it’s true. And then I got that email from Mr. Foster and I got worried. Can you just answer and tell me what’s happening? Did the bank finally screw us over like you thought they might? Please answer me.”
Beep. I listened to about fifteen or sixteen messages, all from my employees, begging to know if their jobs were in danger and if I had absconded out of state. Just when I had finished playing through every painful second of recordings, there was a sharp knock at the door. I hurried across the room and opened the door to see a couple of the maids standing there with dubious expressions on their faces.
“So it’s tru.! You’re back from Vegas!” exclaimed one of them. The other, who was a little older, nudged her in the ribs.
“Tanya, we weren’t supposed to mention that,” she said through gritted teeth. Then, looking at me, she added, “Did you sell the Peppertree? Are we all going to lose out jobs?”
“No, Kendra,” I sighed. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Nobody’s losing their job, okay? Everything is fine. There have been some… legal changes, but nothing you all should worry about. I promise. Just carry on like normal, please.”
“But what about that awful email we all got?” chirped Tanya.
“That was a mistake on Mr. Foster’s part. I will definitely talk to him about that. He should not have involved all of you,” I assured her.
“But the newspaper this morning said some guy bought the Peppertree,” Kendra protested. “And it wasn’t a tabloid. It was the real news.”
“It’s complicated,” I told her. “It’s not what you think. Either way, it won’t affect you at all, I swear.”
“So you didn’t just marry that hot guy who was staying next door?” Tanya piped up, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly. When had my own employees gotten so suspicious of me suddenly? My jaw dropped. How the hell did they know about that?
“Oh my God. That’s why you went to Vegas,” breathed Kendra. Her eyes went wide.
“How romantic,” gasped the younger girl. Kendra scoffed.
“Romantic? Vegas? Please,” she snorted, rolling her eyes. Then she looked right at me, realizing her mistake. Her face went pale. “Oh God. I’m sorry. That was such a bitchy thing to say. I didn’t mean that.”
“It’s okay,” I laughed. “A Vegas wedding isn’t particularly romantic to me, either, but between you and me… we just couldn’t wait much longer. You know?” I said, lowering my voice to a conspiratorial whisper. Both girls looked utterly enthralled, full to bursting with the fresh, hot gossip I had just granted them.
“Holy crap, you did marry the hot guy,” Tanya squealed. “Good job, Ms. Simmons!”