“I’m sure they are. I’m a big meat-eater myself, though, so I can’t say I’ve been to any.”
“Of course,” she replied.
“I just need to see your ID and your credit card for the room.”
“My room should be paid for already. And do you really need my ID?”
“It is. But I need something for incidentals.”
“Like for the restaurant you don’t have?”
He laughed and said, “It’s in case there’s any damage to the room and for the shop.” He nodded to the shop. “And… for themovies.”
Samara squinted her eyes at him and replied, “I will not be purchasing anymovies.”
“For the shop or any damages, then. It’s hotel policy.”
“Production should’ve taken care of this, but fine.” She pulled her wallet out of her purse and handed him a credit card and her driver’s license. “If you’re just asking for my ID so that you can scan that photo and post it online, I wouldn’t. Someone’s already done it, so it’s not really worth your time.”
He handed the license back and said, “No, Ma’am. Just required to compare it to the credit card.”
He swiped her card.
Samara would definitely call her assistant when she got to her room to havethattaken care of. The clerk then handed the card back to her along with the paper she needed to sign that said she wouldn’t smoke in the room.
“The gym is where?” she asked.
“Normally, it’s right by the elevators,” he told her and pointed to the two elevators just off the lobby.
“Normally?” she asked, daring to pose the question she didn’t want to know the answer to just before she closed her eyes, waiting for his response.
“Yes. It’s currently closed for renovations, but it’llreopen next month. I see you’ll be with us for two, so you’ll get to see it once they’re finished. There’s gonna be a new treadmill and full weight station.”
Samara forced a smile and said, “Perfect. Everything is already so perfect.”
After he handed her the key and she put her license and card away, she looked at the luggage cart and then back to him.
“I’m the only one at the desk right now, so I can’t leave, but if you can wait about ten minutes, my manager can bring them up for you. He’s at lunch. I can lock them in the office until then.”
“Never mind,” she replied, shaking her head, before she pushed the cart with the wobbly wheel toward the elevators, pressed the up button, and waited.
More than a minute later, a squeaky sound entered the space, and the doors opened. Samara felt like she’d already had enough bad luck for one day, so there wasn’t a chance it would get stuck between the floors with her inside it, right? Deciding to take the chance, she pushed the heavy cart inside and pressed the button for her floor. The elevator jumped a bit when it started up, scaring her, but then, it moved, and off she went, up to the room that faced a parking garage instead of the river, at a hotel that had no restaurant or room service, no gym, and probably not even a damn bathtub for her to relax in.
Opening the door, she was met with a space she wouldneverrefer to as a suite, because a suite sounded beautiful and lush. This was an old kitchen off to the right with an old refrigerator and an actual ice tray just sitting on a table that was bolted both to the wallandthe floor. This was a two-burner stove and salt and pepper shakers with the little condiment-sized single-serving packets inside them. This was a small sofa with an awful floral pattern and a flat-screen TV in a living room, if it could even be called that, and this was a queen-sized bed, luggage rack, loud air-conditioning unit under the window, and a bathroom that was smaller than any other she had ever seen. But hey, at least there was a bathtub.
CHAPTER 2
“It’s been almost a year. You can’t blame people for asking you to set a damn date already. Otherwise, what’s the point of even being engaged?” Dana asked.
“Hey, there’s a point to it,” Lainey, her sister, said. “Some people just like to take steps in a relationship and live in those steps. They don’t need to immediately start preparing that next step while they’re in this one.”
“Whatshesaid,” Paige said, nodding over to her fiancée.
They’d gotten engaged on Christmas the year prior, and ever since then, Dana and Lainey’s parents have been asking whenDanawould finally settle down and meet someone. She was only thirty, so it wasn’t like she was old, but when one sibling took a significant step in their lives, it always seemed to encourage parents to ask the other one when they would be doing the same.
“Mom and Dad are waiting with their checkbooks. Literally, Laine. They’ve got their checkbook out on the counter because they still write checks to people, and they want to start writing them foryourwedding. They leave it there in case you visit and tell them you’re ready to pay for something because you’ve actually planned something.”
“Well, they’ll have to wait. It’s not like they’re not used to it. We’ve been together for, like, five years now. Paige and I want to get married, yes, but we’re not rushing toward it just because Mom and Dad want us to. Besides, Paige starts her new job in January, and we’re moving into the new house, too. We close on January third. So, I want us to focus on that stuff for now. Then, we can start planning a thing.”
