“The accommodations are decent,” he told me, waving around the room.
Decent was right.
It wasn’t necessarily in the top ten hotel rooms I’d ever seen. It was small, stucco-walled and cement-floored, colored in bright reds and deep browns, with all-white linen bedding. The attached bathroom wasn’t overly fancy either. It was modern and clean, at least.
Certainly not something I could see influencers lining up to book.
Until Raff pushed open the door to a little courtyard.
Then I got it.
Three sides were encased in some sort of rusty metal fencing. Everywhere. Except for a long, narrow window overlooking the desert.
Right in front of that window?
A bathtub.
You could bathe outside in the desert.
“Oh, wow.”
“And, of course, the stargazing bed,” Raff said, gesturing toward the bed set up a few feet from the tub.
“This is… incredible.”
“Thought you might get a kick out of it. And in case you aren’t fond of bathing naked outdoors, I got you this,” he said, unzipping his duffle bag and producing a white one-piece bathing suit.
The crazy part? It was exactly the kind I would have chosen for myself.
“And, as always, I am available for my photography services. Clothed. Or naked,” he told me with a smirk.
I shook my head at him.
“So, what do we do about food? I didn’t see any staff.”
“There is no staff. I mean, I’m sure they’ll be around, and they do housekeeping. But this is more of a glorified guest house.”
That was why he’d had a code to open the front door.
“You called it a hotel.”
“An… embellishment.”
“And said we had to go to Joshua Tree to delay check-in.”
“A fib.”
“Have you told me anything true today?” I asked, smiling.
“You are the prettiest thing in this whole fucking place. Now I’m gonna go check out my room, then we’ll talk ordering food.”
“Wait,” I called, rushing out into the hall. “Are there other guests?”
“Two rooms. Just the two of us for the night.”
There was no good reason that sent a thrill through me.
While Raff was gone, I went ahead and freshened up, slipping into the bathing suit but putting my clothes back on over it.
