“I aim to please. Now fuck me like I’ve been wanting you to do since about three minutes after you left this morning,” she whispers against my lips.
With an invitation like that, it would be rude to do anything else.
My phone vibrating against the wood of the bedside table has me reaching to quiet it before it wakes up Olivia. I see it’s a little after two thirty in the morning. I whisper, “Just a minute,” not wanting to disturb Olivia. Once I’m in the hallway I answer. “Okay, what’s up?”
“It’s Damon.” My South Austin hotel night manager. “I just wanted to let you know there was a fatal overdose of a seventeen-year-old girl, in the room of an actor in for a movie premiere. He’s a nobody though, B list barely, this will kill his career before it even gets started. APD is here. I’m planning on not saying anything until tomorrow morning to miss the paper, but it will go out online.”
“Have Glenda write something up, it’s sad a person died so young, and our thoughts are with her family. We leave any further questions to the APD to answer. I trust you and Janet will handle this right. The last time you guys did a great job.” This is the fourth time it’s happened in the hotel in the last seven years, which is one of the many reasons the place is reported to be haunted. I’ve never seen anything, but some of the maids have. I don’t disbelieve them, but I have enough problems with the living. I figure don’t fuck with it and let it be.
“Thanks, Rourke. Sorry to wake you up.”
“It’s all good. I’m not happy about being woken up, but you did the right thing to call me. We’ll talk soon.”
Back in my room I see Olivia hasn’t moved, she’s still deep in sleep. There’s a nightlight on the floor, at the foot of the bed, tucked underneath and letting out just the faintest glow of light. I bend down and chuckle to see a glowing white kitten. The light doesn’t bother me; I pull it out a little further so she has enough light to move around her new space without hurting herself in the dark. When I pull her back into my arms she sighs my name; the sound goes right to my chest, grasping it tight and twisting something I thought long gone. I sigh, but I’m not sure if it’s in relief or acceptance. Maybe both.
14
Olivia
I awake disgruntled, knowing I slept through Rourke’s alarm and him leaving. Even though I flinch when I see the alarm was set for five in the morning. He said last night now that he didn’t have to worry about avoiding his mom he was going to leave it until the last minute, maybe even have breakfast together. Wishful thinking is what it sounds like, though. At least I’m up at only a few minutes after eight, a little closer to normal.
The kitchen is almost done; it looks better than I thought it would. Now there is a real island of one slab of black and white granite, with the stove built into the middle on the kitchen side. It’s an enormous restaurant-quality stove with six burners and a griddle down the middle. The cabinets are a deep creamy white, not stark which would have made it unappealing, with glass in the doors. Right now two men are finishing up the trim woodwork along the baseboards and below the cabinet.
After a few minutes of chatting with Cheryl, I go into the kitchen to scramble some eggs and make more coff
ee for the both of us. I finish eating, then bring in her third cup for the day. As I tell her I’m cutting her off, we’re both surprised by the sight of Rourke on television.
Oh no, there was an overdose of a teenage girl who ended up dying in his South Austin hotel. They talk about the history of the hotel then start talking about Rourke as the owner of the hotel. I blink fast when they flash footage from what appears to be last night. Jenny Masters, hottest actress of the moment, has her hand on Rourke’s arm, then moves close to him. Their body language reads clearly: they have fucked before, and her move is an invitation. I blink back tears until I see him dismiss her, not politely, before leaving her standing there. The footage goes back to the exterior of the hotel.
With a sigh of relief I sink into a leather chair. Cheryl huffs. “You didn’t really think Rourke was going to take her up on her offer? I told you, dear, he’s a one-woman man even if he weren’t enraptured with you.”
I blush. “You never know with some men. I’m glad I saw it actually happen though. So tell me, what would you like to do today?”
***
Olivia
Over the next few days I grow concerned about Rourke. I’m starting to get really worried over how hard he’s working and how little sleep he’s getting. There are nights he comes home almost drunk from the lack of sleep. I’m terrified at the idea of him driving home at night and finally understand why he stays here instead of taking the winding roads of 360. Three days in a row his alarm goes off at five; on the fourth day I’m awake with the alarm and Rourke is dead to the world. No, fuck this.
I grab his phone and look for the name he’d given me as his right-hand at work, Doreen. Creeping out of our room, I hit send. She answers as cranky as I would be at five in the morning if I didn’t have to be awake. “Hi, this is Olivia Casey. I’m kind of seeing Rourke, I don’t know if he mentioned me or not. Anyway, he’s dead tired, this whole up at five in the morning out until midnight needs to stop. What does he have this morning? Will the world stop turning if he can’t get at least two more hours of sleep?”
The woman laughs. “He has mentioned you, and you’re exactly as he mentioned. Hold on, give me a minute, let me pull up his schedule. The first thing for the day is a two-hour event. He’s not scheduled to speak, so I can send his apologies on it without ruffling too many feathers. After that is an hour-long event, where he’s only there because he sponsored it. While he is expected to speak, he only ever does for about two minutes, referring back to the people he sponsors, so I’m going to cancel it too. After that, though, he is needed until at least seven.”
“I’m grateful for the hours this morning. I’ll take what I can get.”
“You’re right, but you know he’s going to be just short of enraged by what you are doing?”
“Yes, I’m not an idiot. I’m hoping by the time he gets home tonight and feels rested and ready to make me pay for it, he’ll have come to understand I only did it because I care about him.”
“Good luck to you, my dear. I’ll go through his schedule with him to see if there are some things he thinks he can bow out of.”
I sigh. “You’ll give it a day or two though, right? So it doesn’t seem like we’re ganging up on him?”
She chuckles. “I’m grateful he found you. You might turn him into a real boy yet. I know him well enough to give it a hot minute.”
“Thanks.” I end the call and turn to find Cheryl watching me. “I regret nothing. He’s exhausted.”
She smiles. “I didn’t say anything. You know what you’re doing. Don’t worry, I’m the only one who gets to fire you.”