It was better to stay busy.
The little issue with forgetting my tablet wasn’t the only mistake I’d made that day. All through the morning and afternoon, I found myself forgetting things, misinterpreting schedules, and mistiming where I had to be. It was as if I had completely lost the ability overnight to do my job well. Some people noticed, but no one said anything. They simply adjusted to make up for my incompetence in most cases.
I avoided the men as much as I could, sending someone in my stead whenever anything came up that called for their involvement.
For now, I couldn’t handle facing them. I didn’t know how Landon and Nolan felt about everything that happened, but I hoped that eventually, things would die down, and we could work together. Nothing more than that.
I was standing by the concierge desk waiting for the next set of guests to return from a trip to Big Sur, when I noticed the notifications on my personal phone. Two missed calls from Sierra, and several messages.
She wanted to know if I was okay, if I was coping. There was no judgment in any of it, just concern.
But even though I’d wanted nothing more than to talk to her about it just a few hours ago, I couldn’t stomach going over everything again now. It felt like the only way to get through this was to pretend that nothing was going on at all.
Everything’s good now,I texted her back. She wasn’t going to believe me, but I’d simply have to double down until she eventually gave up.
“The florist is looking for you.” A porter appeared in front of me out of nowhere, and I frowned for a second, having completely forgotten what we needed a florist for.
Dahlia’s wedding.My jaw tightened. On top of everything else, I had to make sure the hotel was prepared for that. It was only two months away, and it felt as if nothing was going to be ready in time. It had been incredibly difficult to keep up with it between the rest of my work and the shambles of my personal life.
“Tell him to meet me in the conference room,” I answered, feeling like my head was going to explode.
Great. Now I had a stress migraine, too.Though I kept a professional smile on my face. No matter what was going on behind the scenes, I couldn’t let it spill over into my job, even if that seemed like complete irony.
The meeting with the florist was a disaster. I couldn’t find Dahlia’s preferences in the mess of new files I’d created on the tablet, and figured I’d organize later when I had some time. Luckily, the florist still had my original list on file to prevent the whole meeting from devolving into absolute chaos.
At the end of the day, it was time for my debrief with Landon. But, as I was on my way to his office, I received a voice message from him on my work phone.
“I noticed you had a difficult day today. Don’t worry about the debrief. Take an early night, and get some sleep. Louisa will update me and tell you anything you need to know in the morning.”
It tugged at my heartstrings to hear his voice. It was kind and warm, like it had been at the very beginning of our affair. He was clearly actually worried about me.
And it tore me up inside to turn around and go back to my room without talking to him. I couldn’t ignore the fact that my heart was still pulling me toward him, and to Nolan, and to Bryant. I wasn’t sure whether I could move past this, but I had to if I wanted to keep my career intact.
In my room, I checked the rest of Sierra’s messages. She hadn’t believed me when I’d said I was okay, and she wanted to know what I actually felt.
I couldn’t tell her. Even the thought of it had me tearing up again.
“Don’t worry, it’s over.” That was all I had the strength to reply.
The next few days were more of the same. I repeated several mistakes, and no matter how hard I tried to focus on my work, I couldn’t seem to get back into my usual rhythm. During nightly debriefs, I found myself apologizing for my errors and pretending that everything was fine. I could see that Landon wasn’t buying it, but he didn’t say anything, either.
All I could do was to hope that things would eventually get better before I did something so bad that neither Landon, nor Bryant could overlook it anymore.
About five days after the breakup, things hadn’t eased up much for me. I was trying to coordinate the music for Dahlia walking down the aisle, and figure out seating for a dinner party taking place that night. But that wasn’t all. I also had to deal with a request for a private session in the pool at the same time.
It was in the middle of this chaos that I noticed Reggie from the corner of my eye, walking up to me cautiously. That was the last thing I needed right now, and I was fighting a breakdown already.
“Adriana,” Reggie said as he reached my desk, and I pinched the bridge of my nose to avoid a sarcastic answer.
“Please tell me you’re happy today,” I finally replied. “I don’t think I can deal with anything else.”
“Actually, I’ve gotten a pass from Landon to take you for high tea in the upstairs dining room,” Reggie said with a grin. “As a thank you for the birthday dinner. He said he’d delegate your work to someone else. Unless you’d prefernotto take a sanctioned break.”
I checked my phone and saw a message from Landon confirming what Reggie was saying. I was to join him for tea so that he wouldn’t have to be alone. The excuse was that the tea we served was for two people, and making it for only one was a waste. I had a feeling there were other reasons behind it, but I really didn’t feel like arguing.
“Okay,” I said to Reggie, giving him an honest, tired smile. “Just give me a minute to get everything in order.”
“I’ll meet you there,” he replied, almost dancing when he walked away.
