SOFIA:ok
ME:Not okay. Confirmed.
SOFIA:bossy
ME:Genetic issue. Nothing to be done.
The brief, sharp connection to a world of flight times and school breaks felt like a different language, one I was only half-fluent in.
I opened the airline app before I could turn the promise into another thing I meant to do later. Three flights. Two workable connections. One ugly layover I knew she would hate. I sent the options to her mother, then forwarded them to Sofia.
A reply came back before I reached the lobby.
SOFIA: ugly layover
ME: Best option on short notice
SOFIA: suspiciously adult answer
ME: Accurate answer
SOFIA: fine
I put the phone away and rolled my shoulders once before stepping into the lobby.
Guests clustered near the long table. Luggage blocked the center of the floor. Staff threaded through the gaps with tablets, radios, water glasses, and voices stretched thin.
Juliette stood near the reception desk, arms crossed, watching Sarah. Her posture was clean. Too clean. The kind that cost effort.
She looked up as I approached. She didn't look at me like a guest looks at a ranger. She looked at me like someone already inside the problem.
“Take me off whatever departure list you’re rebuilding,” Juliette said.
Sarah paused, a stack of manifests in her hand. “Juliette, I can’t ask you to—”
“You didn’t. I’m telling you.” Juliette shifted her gaze to the Brussels couple. “Move the Brussels couple into whatever transfer clears first. They have a connection. I don’t.”
“That would help,” Sarah admitted, the fatigue finally visible in the corners of her mouth. “But we’re over-leveraged on rooms, Juliette. We’ve had three arrivals hold at the gate, and the guests who checked out are currently occupying the lounge.”
“Put me wherever you have an extra bed at the main lodge,” Juliette said. “I’m staying until the tent route is safe.”
“Not the tent suites,” I intervened. My voice carried farther than it needed to.
Juliette cut her eyes to mine. “That was implied.”
“I’m making it explicit,” I said. I looked at Sarah. “The western access is not cleared. The eastern drainage pushed animals into the road, and I haven't found the trigger yet. Until I know why they moved, no one sleeps in the bush tents. All of them.”
“I have one small interior room,” Sarah said tentatively. “Behind the library. It was a staff overflow room. It’s... utilitarian.”
“Does it have a lock, a shower, and a surface large enough for a laptop?” Juliette asked.
“Yes.”
“Perfect.”
“It’s not perfect,” I said, the words coming out as a growl.
Juliette turned fully toward me. “I’m adapting, Nick. Try to keep up.”
