The man nodded, then started clicking. "Ok, I'll need to see your ID."
"Here ya go," he said, passing over that and his credit card.
"Don't need the card," the guy told him. "Sir, you and your party have been upgraded to the Griffin suite, and the payment has already been handled."
"By who?" I asked, moving to J.D.'s side.
But the young man was already waving for someone to come over. "Danny, they're in the Griffin."
"I'd be happy to take your bags for you," the teenager said as he pushed a cart over.
"Uh..." Tanner was looking between all of us like he was confused.
"Who paid for the room?" I asked the desk attendant again.
"Um, it says here that everything is being handled by Deviant Games."
"Nice!" J.D. told me. "I think I'm liking your sponsors more and more."
"Me too," I agreed.
Which led to a small circus of getting all three of us a key card for the room, putting our bags on the trolley, and then following the teenager to the elevator so he could escort us up. And it was quite the way up. Floor after floor dinged, but the doors didn't open until floor number thirty-three.
"On top of the world," Tanner muttered as we followed the bellhop out of the elevator.
"And your room is right over here," the teenager said. "Down that way is the executive lounge, which is reserved for guests on this floor. The pool is on the roof, and there should be directions to the restaurant, gym, and everything else in your room." He gestured at a door just as he paused before it.
So J.D. stepped up and unlocked the door, then gestured for me to go in first. I did, feeling awestruck - and more so when I saw the actual room. Well, it looked more like an apartment!
"You have a bedroom on either side of the living area," the bellhop explained. "The controls for the curtains areon the television remote, and the kitchen is stocked with complimentary coffee." He gestured as he explained all of that, pointing us in the proper directions, then began unloading the cart.
"Let me get you a tip," J.D. told him, grabbing for his wallet again.
The kid quickly offloaded our stuff, accepted the crumpled bill J.D. passed him - then paused. His eyes got wide, a smile took over, and then he nodded a few more times.
"Thank you, sir! If you need anything else, I'd be happy to help!"
"We're good," Tanner assured him, following the teenager back to the door before flipping the safety lock. Then he turned back around with his mouth hanging open dramatically. "Holy. Shit."
"Yeah," J.D. breathed, making his way over to the remote so he could open the curtains.
As the fabric slid back, there was nothing but glass. An entire wall of it made up the far side of this rather large space. In all the time I'd been touring with the PBR, I'd never imagined a hotel room could look like this! It wasn't quite what I'd call comfortable, but only because it was nicer than that. This was the sort of thing people dreamed about spending money on for some fancy vacation, and my sponsor had just paid for it?
"They didn't say they were giving me a room," I told the guys as I went to check out the bedrooms.
The first had a massive bed with the bathroom off the side. It wasn't quite what I'd consider standard, being bigger, more spacious, and looking alotmore expensive. However, when I went to the other side, it was basically a carbon copy of it. The only difference I could see was that the window was smaller. Well, narrower, almost like the curve of the building cut it off.
And when I came back out, Tanner was in the kitchen, checking out the facilities. J.D. was standing at the window, looking out over the city. Yet when he heard me, he turned with a little smile.
"I grew up way over there," he said, pointing off into the distance. "Always thought this hotel was fancy as fuck, but I'd never seen these rooms before. I'd get a single because it was just me."
"Yeah, and I think we should consider doing a little home cooking while we're here," Tanner said. "I mean, no reason not to, right?"
"And you're sick of road food," I teased.
He made a little noise. "A bit. I also know we have an entire week before everyone else shows up. Work week, I mean. No reason we can't settle in and relax a little more." He glanced over at J.D. pointedly.
"I'm fine," J.D. insisted. "I also ain’t going to say no to real cooking." Then he headed to the couch and flopped down. "Tanner, call the guys. I need to call Max. Everyone should be here by now."
