This man stood there like he owned the place. He nodded with a smile, but that smile went away just as quickly as it appeared. I swallowed hard, forcing myself to try and breathe as normal as I could.
“Lawd, that man is worth losing my job over.” I heard one of the girls say, and I’m sure he heard it too. I understood how they were feeling, but I would never express that aloud. I’d always been shy in that regard, and also afraid of rejection.
“Ms. More,” Eric called out, jolting me from my thoughts.
Get it together, For.
I was the head of housekeeping, not some groupie. After checking myself, I straightened out my posture and adjusted my blazer while looking from Eric to Mr. Porter with a smile.
“Ms. More, this is Mr. Porter, and he will be staying with us for the next week. I’m sure you received the registrationnotification of his arrival. Mr. Porter, Ms. More here is the head of housekeeping, so if there is anything that you need in that regard, she can help you with it. James, your concierge, should be down any moment to escort you up to your suite,” Eric told him.
“I appreciate that.” His eyes briefly scanned the lobby before they landed on me as he scanned my body next. My stomach did damn summersaults, but I held it together.
“Mr. Porter, welcome to The Luxe Hotel. As Eric stated, I’m head of housekeeping, and I will be assigning an elite member of our housekeeping staff to your suite during your stay. That person will be the only one entering your room from the housekeeping staff. Do you have any special requests or questions that you would like to go over?” I asked him, and his gaze held mine a second longer than expected before he nodded.
“Yes, I have my own linen. Some bath towels, washcloths, and bedding. I don’t sleep on hotel sheets. I know you clean your linen, but I just can’t see myself laying on some shit that a nigga done squirted his nut on. Excuse my language, but I’m a blunt nigga.”
OMG. His voice was so addictive.Focus, Forever. Damn.
It was hard as hell trying not to stare, so I tried my best to focus.
“I understand. You can leave those in your room, and we will come up to make the changes as you’ve requested. Your concierge will let us know when it’s a good time to come up to your suite.” I smiled.
“I appreciate that, Ms…” He looked down at my name tag, which only read: F. More.
“Mrs. More,” he said.
“Ms. More,” I corrected.
“My bad. Ms. More, that’s a unique last name you have.” Once again, he kept his gaze on me longer than I wanted him to.
“Yes, I hear that often. I don’t know any of the history behind the name though.” I shrugged.
It was something about the way he looked at me that just gave me goosebumps. A small smile appeared before he nodded.
“Well, it was a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Porter. Please, if there is anything else that you need from us, just let us know,” I let him know.
“Indeed,” is all he had to say, and just as I was about to escort him to the VIP lounge to wait on his concierge, James walked up to escort him to his suite.
He took another look at me then walked away with James. As soon as they walked away, I let out a deep breath and continued on to the restaurant to grab my lunch. I decided to bring my sandwich back to my office and ate there while I went over the rest of the week’s schedule. Later that day, I was still in my office working so hard I didn’t realize that it was already after three. My office phone started ringing and I got a call from James.
“Hello,” I answered and placed it on speaker.
“Ms. More, Mr. Porter just left his suite for a few hours, so you can send your staff up to take care of his housekeeping needs now,” he said.
“Thank you, James. I will assign someone to his suite and get them up there.” I called Kasia to see who we had on the VIP level that could handle Mr. Porter’s room.
“Hey, boo. What’s up?” Kasia greeted.
“Hey, who do we have on the VIP level that we can assign to Mr. Porter’s suite?” I asked her.
“Right now, everyone is busy. It’s been a busy day with all of the check-ins we had. We can get someone over there in an hour or so. I wish I could do it, but I have to leave early for my mom’s birthday dinner.”
“No worries. I don’t think we should wait an hour to get the things he needs done. I got it though. I haven’t done this in a long time, but I’ll do it,” I told her.
“Whatttt! Girl, that’s not your responsibility. You’re in that position to sit behind that desk. We can pull somebody from their duties and send them over there to take care of it,” Kasia said.
“Nah, girl. As a leader, you have to lead by example. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty. We’ve been behind for the last few days, and I don’t want them to get off track. I got it. Go enjoy your family and tell your mom happy birthday,” I told her and we ended the call.
