Everyone’s life seemed so much more exciting than hers. So much for visiting New York, catching a Broadway show, dining at Peter Luger’s, or sipping cocktails on a rooftop overlooking the Manhattan skyline. Her phone never rang.
She’d known, deep down, that those things were never going to happen. I love yous, marriage proposals, and travel invitations were all meaningless when spoken during or directly after sex.
“How about I pick you up at seven? Does that give you enough time to help your cousin?”
Mariella brushed the sticky, glaze crumbles off her fingertips, and stood. “Sure. And I’ll keep thinking of appetizers for the sweet sixteen.”
Mauricio chuckled. “Think of a good one. The meeting’s at four, and I’ve got nothing.”
“Today?” Her eyes widened.
He cringed. “Today. Who knew an entourage of teens in braces would be the root of my culinary downfall?” He flicked the box of donuts on his desk. “I’ve moved on to eating my feelings and found Boston creams are a great way to stuff down any sense of inadequacy.”
“Aw,” she laughed and tipped her head in sympathy. “Something clever will come to you.”
“Let’s hope so. Which reminds me, scratch the candy station. Mom doesn’t want her daughter picking taffy out of her braces all night.”
Mariella pulled out her phone and made a note. “So nix the vessel rentals?”
“For now. I’m sure they’ll go back and forth at least five more times.” Then he added in a dry tone, “I love my job.”
She was grateful she mostly dealt with the guestroom issues. Event planning was pure drama. “Well, we can have drinks tonight. Don’t fill up on too many donuts.”
“Too late.”
Walking back to her office, she mentally reviewed her tasks for the day. Now that she had settled in, Gage King was rarely around. He popped in for big picture decisions and used the hotel to sometimes host meetings with investors and shareholders of Kings Construction, but other than that Mariella mostly ran the show.
“Mariella!” Aaliyah jogged down the corridor and fell into step at her side.
“Good morning. How’s the puppy settling in?”
“Oh.” The tension in her face melted into a maternal glow. “I caved. She’s in the bed with us. I tried the crate training, but I can’t bear her little cries.”
“Do you have new pictures?”
She laughed and pulled out her phone. “Only one or two…hundred.”
Mariella glanced at the screen and her heart turned to mush. “Oh, my goodness, look at her!” She swiped through the photos, falling head over heels in love. “What name did you settle on?”
“Penny.”
She looked like a Penny, with her sweet copper face and dark brown eyes. Maybe she should think about getting a puppy. Then she wouldn’t have to sleep alone.
She handed Aaliyah back her phone. “What did you need?”
“I found a beehive near the west exit. I was going to take care of it, but there’s a lot of guest activity by that exit, and the hive’s bigger than I thought. I think we need to call a specialist.”
“Okay.” Mariella made another note in her phone where she kept an ongoing to do list. “I’ll see who I can find in Center County and set something up.”
“Thank you.”
By the time Mariella settled in at her desk, responded to her emails, checked her voice mail, and attacked the priority items on her to do list, the day was half over. She had a budget meeting after lunch and needed to review a few points before the call started. Then she planned to pop in on the sweet sixteen meeting at four, if only to offer Mauricio some support and help smooth any feathers of the highly idealistic and mildly spoiled birthday girl calling the shots.
Just another day in the life of a small-town hotel manager. All in all, she loved her job. The hotel was doing great with all the new local tourism in Jasper Falls, and they usually operated at eighty percent capacity on the weekends.
With seventy guest rooms and more than fifty newcomers visiting each week, she had first dibs on checking out the clientele, half of whom were men. Divide that number in half again, deducting wedding bands, other sexual preferences, and men outside of her age range, and that left at least ten possibly single, so-so attractive, feasibly datable heterosexual men. Yes, her social life had turned into a mathematical word problem. And if trains were traveling in and out of Jasper Falls at ninety miles an hour while she still had at least five to ten childbearing years left, she might just crash into one eligible bachelor before hurling herself onto the tracks.
Folding her arms, she dropped her head onto her desk and groaned. It had been months since Harrison left, and she’d met no one. She was lonely, horny, and starting to wonder if she might die a spinster.