Within his first two weeks, Zeke is starting to get the gist of how things work around here. On Kara’s off days, he watches over the front desk; he mostly busies himself with mobile games with all the down time. Although Lewis claims it’s the busy season, Zeke only sees one to three rooms checked out in the guest-log book in a night. The visitors that come to this place are both boring and strange: old people that blather about the mountains, and folks that clearly just need a cheap room to crash in for a night. The latter don’t ask questions, which Zeke appreciates.

Sometimes he’ll help Rosa with housekeeping if Cherry’s not scheduled. He’ll change bed sheets, wipe surfaces, vacuum the floor, and dust everything in between. Because they only have to focus on a few rooms during a shift, Lewis expects them to be spotless. Zeke’s never been a big fan of exquisite cleanliness, but he didn’t really grow up around that standard either. Rosa enforces it, but she does keep the conversation interesting by chatting celebrity gossip.

On Rosa’s off days, he’ll partner up with Cherry to tackle housekeeping. They tend to get their work done a little faster, and he finds himself having more in common with Cherry than anyone else in the Hotel. They talk about their favorite TV shows, fast food, video games, and everything else they might share.

He hasn’t worked with Becka yet, since it seems that she just watches the Hotel overnight. He has had a few interactions with her as the shifts change, and she seems pretty cool. There’s a confidence that she carries in her strides that, in part with her calm composition, makes her a little intimidating. He feels a bit safer knowing that someone fit for the job is acting as a security guard in the dark hours.

Only a few times has Lauren requested for Zeke to help him with some maintenance tasks. Sometimes it really is a two-man job, and other times, it just seems like Lauren wants to hang out. Yes, they do little odd jobs for Mr. Wright; last week, he had them remove large pieces of artwork off the walls in some of the suites. They then patched up the holes and repainted the walls, and yes, they even drove the big glass slabs down to Heartwood Hall in Lauren’s pickup truck. Did they then proceed to drive down to the gas station at the bottom of the hill for some light refreshments and snacks? Absolutely.

As Lewis said, Zeke hasn’t had a repetitive day as the assistant to the managers. Actually, he found the most mundane days to be the ones where he’s following Lewis’ lists of busy work: vacuum the lobby, wipe the rotunda’s glass, clean the break room, and the neatly organized, cursive list goes on.

Today, Zeke’s already done some chores for the man, and now, he works on procuring him a fresh cup of coffee. Lewis has made it quite clear on how he likes his cup of joe: one pod in the coffee machine on the eight ounce setting with a splash of oat milk creamer mixed in. Zeke’s been playing around with how much creamer is enough based on Lewis’ microexpression after the first sip.

While he waits for the machine to brew, Zeke plays his match-three style game. As he’s clearing a level, he hears the door to the break room open. He peers up from his phone to see Cherry sauntering in with a pleasantly surprised smile on her face, “oh! Hi, Zeke.”

“Hey, Cherry. What’s up?”

“Nothing much,” she says as she makes her way into the depths of the room, “just grabbing a drink.”

“Right on,” Zeke says as he slides his phone into his pocket.

Cherry starts to giggle as she reaches for the fridge’s woodgrain handle, “hey, I heard that you and Rosa found… Like, a pill on the ground in one of the rooms?”

“Oh, yeah,” Zeke laughs, recalling the little blue tab he nearly vacuumed up earlier this week, “I had no idea what to do with it.”

“Rosa said that you were kinda freaking out,” Cherry grins as she reaches into the fridge for a cola.

“Well, yeah, I mean. What the hell am I supposed to do with something that’s, like, probably a narcotic?”

Cherry shrugs with that cute smile that’s permanently attached to her cheeks, “I dunno. Mr. Wright usually just says that we should either flush it, or give it to him to dispose of.”

“Which, like. That just makes me wonder if he’s hopped up on substances other than alcohol,” Zeke jokes as he pulls the steaming mug off the machine, “hand me Lewis’ oat milk creamer, would you?”

“Oh, sure,” she perks up before opening up the fridge. Zeke gives her a small thanks as he accepts it. Cherry lowers her voice a bit as she adds, “hey, since we trust each other with secrets, how do you feel about Lewis when he’s low on caffeine?”

“What do you mean?”

“I dunno. I think he gets all quiet when he’s crashing from all that caffeine. He kinda broods, too. What do you think?”

“I guess I haven’t seen him do that yet. Usually he’s all, like,” Zeke stands up real straight as he does a sore impression of his boss, “oh goodness, it’s Friday! My handy dandy clipboard says it’s time to dust the vents for the third time this week!”

Cherry lets out a full-bodied laugh as she cracks into her soda, “okay, yeah, I definitely see your point.”

Zeke lets himself chuckle, and he feels a bit proud of his impression for being such a hit. He mindlessly stirs the quickly cooling coffee as he says, “hey, change of subject. I was talking to Kara the other day about… Oh, what’d she call them? Niche internet micro-celebrities, I think? But, yeah, she told me that you do some gaming streams on the side. That’s super dope, dude.”

“Oh,” Cherry shrinks down and around the soda that she holds with both her hands, “she told you about that?”

“Yeah. Um, I hope it’s cool, but I checked out your SimLife stream last night. It was great, honestly,” Zeke reassures her, because she’s suddenly looking very shy. He then laughs between the words as he says his next statement, “I love that you made your whole family, but you switched everyone’s gender.”

His laughter must be contagious, because Cherry joins in, albeit hers is a bit more nervous, “oh my gosh, yeah, the Gender-Bent Thompsons. Um, I guess I just got curious as to what it would be like to have three older sisters.”

“Ahhh, classic curiosity. Gets the best of me too,” Zeke hums as he puts the stirring spoon in the sink, “speaking of… I didn’t know you had three older brothers. Uh, sisters, if we’re talking about your virtual family. They don’t give you any trouble, do they?”

“No, no. They’re all very sweet. A little protective maybe, but sweet,” she responds, and then she decides to add in a smaller voice, “thanks for being concerned about me, though.”

“Yeah, naturally,” he says as he puts the creamer bottle back in the fridge, and Cherry just smiles down at the drink in her hands. Zeke gives her some time to respond, although it seems like she doesn’t have anything else to add. So, Zeke makes one last joke, “alright, I better take this to Lewis before he frowns at the temperature.”

“Yes, of course,” Cherry giggles, and as he gathers his things, she says, “um… Thanks for being cool and supportive about my stream. That means a lot.”

A soft smile rests on Zeke’s face at her honesty, “yeah, of course. That’s what friends are for,” he says. Then, he toasts the mug up to her as he heads for the exit, “catch ya later, Cherry.”

“See ya,” she hums, “good luck out there!”

❧

Fighting the shag carpet that’s getting stuck in the wheels, Rosa pushes the housekeeping cart through the rotunda. Trailing behind her, Zeke drags his feet. He’s already cleaned two rooms with the very talkative Rosa, and he’s amping himself up for the third and final room. While he enjoys the break from Lewis’ busywork, he’s finding that Rosa likes to ask a lot of questions. 

As they pass behind the lobby, Zeke makes eye contact with that portrait man, and he doesn’t like the feeling of some old, presumably dead guy watching over every person that enters this place. Instinctually, he gives the painting a dirty look.

“Ezekiel!” Rosa calls to him; despite the wonky cart, she’s moving surprisingly fast. She then adds, “muévete!”

“Sorry,” Zeke hums, glancing over to the painting one last time before catching up with her.

She looks over her shoulder and asks, “you good?”

“Yeah,” he says, and because her hazel eyes pry, he adds on with a pitiful laugh, “uh, that painting just kinda weirds me out.”

“Who? Wallace?” She clarifies as they reach their destination. Rosa knocks, announces housekeeping’s arrival, and then unlocks the door. They glove up and gather their supplies, and once they’re in the safety of the room, Rosa immediately begins to gossip, “you’re not alone in that. Wallace gives everybody the creeps.”

A confused grin forms on Zeke’s face, “wait, who’s Wallace?”

Rosa clarifies, “Wallace. Like, Wallace Heartwood..?”

Zeke starts to pick up the leftover trash, “I dunno who that is.”

“Mayor Heartwood’s father?”

Zeke just shrugs, “no clue.”

She stares at him, completely flabbergasted, “he’s the guy that founded the Hotel & Resort way back when. Seriously? You don’t know who Wallace Heartwood is?”

“Nope,” he says, and he’s a little confused as to why that’s so surprising. After all, why would he know some important figure from some random small town?

Rosa shakes her head as she wipes down the nightstands next to the standard queen bed at the center of the room, “what do the kids in this town even talk about these days?”

Zeke shrugs, because he’s not so sure, “is he dead, or what?”

Rosa chuckles, “nobody knows. One day in the late seventies, he just vanished. Completely gone without a trace.”

“Oh,” Zeke says, and he’s not sure that he likes the feeling bubbling up in his stomach. He then says, “just, like… Poof?”

“Mmhm. Just like poof.”

“What about his family? None of them knew where he went?”

Rosa shrugs, “that’s what they say, but you know how the big wigs around here like to cover up for one other.”

“What… What would his family be covering up?”

Her hazel eyes dart over to meet his umber, and her face is deadly serious. In a low tone, she says, “I’ve heard that he was using the Hotel as a hub for human trafficking.”

“What?” Zeke nearly drops the rag in his hand, “no way.”

“Mmhm. People say that they saw teens wandering around the Hotel while Wallace was running the show.”

“Well, what about guests with kids? I’m sure those brats were running down these halls like crazy.”

“No, no. They didn’t allow kids back then. Adult couples only.”

“Oooh. Oh,” Zeke pauses, “yeah, that’s a little weird.”

“Mmhm. There’s some speculation about his whereabouts to this day. Some people guess Thailand.”

“Some people… What do you think, Rosa?”

“Me? Oh, honey,” she looks up at her young coworker as she halts in her work, “I think he was murdered. Here, in this Hotel.”

Zeke freezes. The hairs on his arms raise; this shiver creeps up his spine, and it finally reaches the nape of his neck. He asks, “and why do you think that?”

She puts her hands on her hips, “think about it. It’s the seventies, Wallace Heartwood disappears, and then, suddenly… Mr. Andrei Wright swoops in to purchase the Hotel & Resort! And, mijo, if you know anything about Heart Hollow, it’s that the Wright family and the Heart families have some unspoken feud. It’s just like this big game of political and social chess these days.”

“Woah, woah, woah. You think that Mr. Wright murdered the Hotel’s founder - uh, Wallace?”

“Well, not Andrei specifically. He’s… Uh, well. He's un cobarde, so it probably wasn’t him. Oh, and you wanna know another reason why I think Wallace was murdered here?”

Zeke’s curiosity eats him up, so he says, “absolutely.”

Rosa stares at him seriously, “every once in a blue moon, a guest will file a noise complaint. They say that they’ll hear a loud, pounding knock on their room’s door in the dead of night, and when they answer the door? Nobody’s there.”

Okay. Zeke really feels chills go down his spine this time. He knows that this place is creepy… But that? Icing on the cake.

There’s a moment before Rosa’s face shifts to worry, “oh, mijo, why don’t you sit for a moment? You’re going pale,” she states, taking the back of her plastic glove off to check the temperature of the teenager’s forehead.

“Right. Yeah,” he says, sitting on the side of the half-made bed.

“You okay? Did I scare you too much?”

“No, no, it’s cool. Uh, yeah, I’m okay. That’s just gonna keep me up  tonight,” he laughs, despite it probably being true.

“Mmm,” she smiles back as she puts her hands on her hips, “not used to the paranormal? Even in a town like this?”

“Never been a fan of the things I can’t understand, ya know?”

She laughs at that, “well, you better open your mind up a bit, Zeke. There’s plenty to this town that even us old folks don’t really get.”

❧

As Zeke lazily ascends the emergency stairwell, he goes over the day’s checklist in his head. First, he needs to go to the employee break room to clock-in and get his precious hours. Second, he’s going to make his way down to the management hallway and find Lewis doing work in his office. Third, trek back to the break room to fetch his boss a cup of coffee for the morning. Lastly, he’s going to make the journey back to the man’s closet-office to deliver the mug of caffeine, where he will then receive a cursive list of busy work to keep him preoccupied for the rest of the day.

He pushes open the heavy door to the first floor, and he squints a little as the morning sun pushes its way up through the East; this side of the Hotel is always so bright in the morning. He treks through the never ending hallway and lets out a few lazy yawns, because he’s never really been a morning person.

He passes through the rotunda, but he stops when he hears an awful lot of ruckus coming from the lobby. He contemplates just leaving it be, to wake up a bit first… But ultimately, his curiosity tugs him to go investigate. To enter the lobby, he always uses the hallway that wears the glass map of the Resort, so as to avoid that creepy portrait of Wallace Heartwood.

As Zeke pops out into the lobby, he immediately notices all of the pink-shirts gathered up at the stained glass entryway. Zeke’s brow raises as he lazily meanders up to Lewis, who stands towards the back of the group. With his height, he must be able to see what’s happening over all those heads. Zeke clears the sleep from his throat as he asks, “what’s going on?”

“Ah,” the ginger hums, almost seeming a bit startled, “good morning, Mr. Valencia. It, ah… It seems that we have a special guest this morning.”

Zeke chuckles, and he’s too tired to stop himself from sarcastically saying, “oh thank god, it’s been years since anybody actually stayed here. Maybe they’ll save this place from going under.”

Lewis just glances at him, and then gestures for Zeke to go take a look. So, that’s what he does. Zeke nudges his way to the front of the crowd and takes a gander through the stained glass doors. Just outside, there’s a large black bear sniffing around under the porte cochère. He laughs because he’s never seen a wild bear up close like this.

“He’s kinda cute, right?” Cherry asks from beside him.

Zeke looks over at her and grins, “yeah, if he wasn’t, like, five times bigger than me.”

At Cherry’s side, Kara speaks up pretty loudly, “we should throw Zeke out there and see what happens.”

Becka laughs at that, and Zeke says, “hey, don’t tempt me. I could outsmart him so fast.”

“Actually,” Lauren scoots in with an excited smile, “this one’s a female. I would know.”

“You screw bears or something?” Kara asks, which makes everybody laugh pretty hard.

Lauren shakes his head, “I’ve just seen a lot of male bears in my time out on the Resort grounds. She’s only about half their size. It’s called sexual dimorphism, look it up sometime,” he beams.

Kara rolls her eyes in response with a light, “nerd.”

“Sorry for misgendering you, sweet bear,” Cherry says sadly, although this comment makes Zeke smirk.

Rosa speaks up, “where the hell is Cupid to protect this place when you need him?” Zeke cranes his neck over to see the woman shaking her head. The lot of them all agree in their own ways.

“Silly,” Lauren laughs, “Cupid doesn’t do that kind of stuff. Even though he’s intimidating, he’s a peaceful being.”

“You screw Cupid too?” Kara hums back, which erupts the room into laughter once more. Zeke feels stupid; who the hell is Cupid?

“I digress,” Lauren states, “we should really just let this bear be. She’ll venture on home at some point.”

“I’m just concerned for the guests’ safety,” Lewis pipes up from the back of the small gathering. Zeke lightly rolls his eyes, because that’s the only thing Lewis has to add during all of this?

Then, an old brown coupe pulls through the porte cochère, and it abruptly stops within just a foot of the bear. She looks at the headlights behind her with caution, and everyone inside the building holds their breath.

The driver begins to honk their horn aggressively, and the bear clearly starts to feel threatened because she gets up on her back legs. After several angry honks, she slashes at the hood with her claw, and everybody inside gasps as they see the giant gouges across the paint of the car. Wrong move, apparently, because the driver’s door swings open, and a sturdy man gets out with nothing but anger in his eyes.
“Oh my gosh,” Cherry gasps.

Kara jumps in with a quick, “holy shit.”

Zeke’s eyes nearly bug out of his skull, “that’s Mr. Wright!”

The boss raises his arms out at the bear and puffs out his chest. His deep voice echoes through the porte cochère as he growls out profanities at her. The bear murmurs a few unhappy grunts as she backs up from the male bear in front of her. He scares her out effectively, because the sweet bear heads back into the woods.

Mr. Wright shakes his head, slams his car door shut, and inspects the grooves on the hood of his once luxurious coupe. When he notices the staff peering at him through the stained glass, his shoulders slump, and his thick brows furrow even deeper. As he enters the Hotel, all the pink-shirts make room so that the man can pass. It’s weirdly tense as they all say their unique good mornings to him.

“Mr. Wright, sir,” Lewis starts to nag, but the boss’ stern gray glare makes him reconsider what he’s about to say, so he defaults to, “ah, g - good morning.”

Mr. Wright shoots a look back at the rest of the staff, “shows over. Get to work,” he grumbles as he exits the lobby. Nobody moves a muscle, and Zeke thinks it’s because they’re all dumbfounded. 

That just happened, right?

Lewis clears his throat before he gets back to managing, although he seems a bit startled as well, “well, ah. I suppose we should get to our stations then.”

Everybody quietly agrees, and they disperse to where they’re supposed to be this morning. Well, the morning didn’t start exactly how Zeke had imagined, but he’s not complaining about that. Actually, he’s kind of excited, because he cannot wait to gossip about this later with the rest of the staff.

❧

Zeke rubs his eyes as he rounds into the lobby for the morning. It’s only a few minutes after eight, and it looks like Becka’s still here as she and Lewis talk about one of the light bulbs behind the front desk. It’s gone out, or flickering, or something… Truthfully, Zeke doesn’t really pay attention, because he just rolled out of bed.

Kara emerges from the raspberry colored curtains behind reception as she takes her spot for the day, and Zeke doesn’t even fully process the snarky comment that she had lined up for him: all he really heard were the words crawled and slimy hairball. He just gives her a middle finger, because he’s not in the mood for her attitude today.

Before he knows it, Zeke is following Lewis out of the lobby, and he rolls his eyes as the assistant manager makes a gentle reminder about being on time. Through the rotunda they go, and as Lewis leads them to his office, he goes over the schedule for the day. Zeke’s learned that he doesn’t really have to listen, because he’ll get a cursive list later on that’ll tell him the exact same stuff. 

They reach Lewis’ office, and the manager takes a seat to find that list he swore was in his clipboard only a moment ago. Zeke just loiters in the doorway as he waits, and he eventually steps inside the room to accept the paperwork. As he exits the office, he chortles at himself, because Lewis’ life must be so boring; the guy’s life is dictated by to-do lists. He lets out a decent laugh when he wonders if Lewis schedules out his free-time too.

First on this morning’s list: he is to see where Lauren is at with the ever-growing maintenance request list. Zeke treks down the hallway to the maintenance room, and Lauren half-heartedly promises that, yes, he’s working on the leaky faucet in 103, and the whistling AC unit in honeymoon suite 006, and he’s absolutely prioritizing that broken elevator. Zeke gives the guy a thumbs-up, because maybe that’s not good enough for Lewis, but that’s good enough for Zeke.

Next, he’s supposed to grab ice for Mr. Wright. Zeke’s technically the manager’s assistant, and this is the one and only task that the general manager asks of him. So, he makes his way over to ice and vending, obtains a fresh bucket of ice, and steals himself a pack of toaster pastries. He saves them for later, because he definitely doesn’t want to show up after Angeline gets here at nine.

Zeke heads back towards the managerial hallway, and as he passes by Lewis’ office, he briefly ganders inside. He’s got his ginger head in his hand, and he looks lost in thought as he stares down at the pen in his hand that goes cl-click-cl-click-cl-click.

Zeke makes sure to knock before entering Mr. Wright’s office, and after hearing a come in, he delivers the cool bucket of ice. Mr. Wright doesn’t offer any thanks, or any other sentiment, but that’s not surprising. One more glance as Zeke passes by Lewis’ office, and this time, the ginger looks up to meet the curious brunette’s gaze.

Next up on the list, Zeke checks in with Rosa about today’s housekeeping agenda before Cherry gets here. Rosa’s got a lot to say about the stuff that she’s been finding in the rooms lately. Last week’s big find was that little blue pill. Yesterday’s mystery: a pillow torn in half. Today? Who knows.

As Zeke listens to Rosa’s complaints, Cherry saves the day by arriving for her shift. Finally, someone he’s relieved to see today. She gives him a big hug, which Rosa raises a brow at. After some catching up, Zeke gets back to his list, and he feels a little less heavy after seeing her today. Next up, he has some mundane cleaning tasks before his lunch hour. He hardly feels like doing anything else today, to be honest, so he hardly does what the list asks.

He dips out for his lunch hour a little early, but he doesn’t reflect that on today’s timesheet. Zeke decides that he’d like to go sit out front of the Hotel; besides, it’s a beautiful June day in the mountains, and the sun’s warmth would feel really nice right now. As he exits through the lobby, he finds it odd that Kara doesn’t say anything snarky to him. He pushes his way out into the warm mountain air, and he finds a cozy spot on the curb to sit for a while.

He digs into those toaster pastries from earlier, and he feels relief as he takes that first drag off his cigarette. After he’s devoured his lunch, he plays a few rounds on his match-three style game to pass the time. Once he gets hot, he decides to trek back inside. It’s time for Kara’s break, so she and Zeke switch spots.

About ten minutes into his reception rotation, Lewis comes up to make sure Zeke’s staying busy. The teenager just gives him a thumbs-up and reiterates that he’s tidying up, but he knows better than to mess with Kara’s stuff back here. Lewis decides that he’d like to stay and help, so Zeke just does the innocent things, like taking the trash out and wiping down the front desk. He even retrieves a new lightbulb per Lewis’ request, since Becka had brought it to their attention earlier this morning that one of them had gone out.

Once Kara comes back from her break, Lewis asks Zeke to finish off the rest of his to-do list. As he exits, he overhears Kara saying that her organizational skills don’t need notes. Zeke pops a smirk and continues on with his shift. He trudges along as he finishes the rest of his day: he wipes down the break room, he deep cleans the employee bathroom, he vacuums the rotunda, and he does countless other mind numbing tasks.

It’s about thirty minutes until the end of his shift, but he decides to wrap it up early. He rounds the corner into Lewis’ closet-office, and of course, there’s Lewis. The assistant manager goes over what they accomplished that day while Zeke slouches in the extra chair. He mindlessly plays with the Rubix cube atop Lewis’ desk as he only partially listens to his boss. The only thing that really sticks out to him is Lewis wrapping up his monologue with, “great job today, Zeke.”

“Yeah,” the brunette hums, but his dark brown eyes focus on the puzzle in his hands. He slaps the thing back down on Lewis’ desk, and he gets up from his seat, “cool, well, if you don’t need anything else, I’d like to dip out a little early tonight. If that’s cool.”

Lewis smiles a light, genuine smile, “yes, that’s fine.”

“Dope. Thanks, man,” Zeke mutters, stretching his arms out over his head before heading for the door.

Lewis, however, catches him, “ah, one last thing.”

“What’s up?”

“Hold on,” Lewis says as he begins to dig into the drawers of his desk. After some shuffling, he pulls out a small box wrapped in sparkly orange paper. Lewis just peers down at the box as he hands it to the teenager, “happy birthday, Zeke.”

“Oh,” the brunette hums, because he’s not sure what to say to the kind gesture. Taking the box in his hand, he eyes the ribbon that’s been wrapped and tied around the box with care. He cracks an amused smile, “I didn’t think you knew. You totally had me convinced.”

Lewis just smiles as he rests his head in his hand. It looks like he has more to say, but he doesn’t add anything else. So, Zeke says, “thank you. Seriously.”

“Don’t mention it. Just enjoy the rest of your birthday, okay?”

“Yeah, I will,” he grins, raising the box in his hand, “see ya.”

“See you tomorrow, Zeke.”

He exits the room with a warm smile to his face. Before returning back to wherever he’s currently calling home, he decides to stop by the ground level’s patio for a cigarette. It’s an absolutely beautiful night: warm, the stars are beginning to pop out, and the last of the sun’s light is barely gracing the gentle hills and mountains. Cicadas sing and frogs hum, and Zeke leans over the handrail with a cigarette at his lips. Behind him, the rectangular pool laps and glimmers as it reflects the underwater lights.

In his hands, he’s got that small gift-wrapped box. He tears into his one and only birthday gift this year, and he finds a small plastic gift bag full of tiny chocolate chip cookies inside. He can’t help the grin that forms as he says to himself, “that’s what I’m talking about.”

There’s a small note attached to the ribbon that holds the plastic bag closed. He flips the card open and reads:

After much debate, I have decided to risk crossing any boundaries…  I just couldn’t miss an opportunity to celebrate my favorite assistant on his day!

So, forgive me if I’m forward:

Happy Birthday, Zeke!

The Hotel shines brighter with you in it.

• L. Lockheart

PS - Please let me know what you think of the cookies! It’s my mother’s recipe - she was very reluctant to lend it to me.

Zeke smiles a genuine smile as he opens up the crinkly plastic bag, and he immediately digs into the goodies that lie within. As he tries one, he nearly melts atop the guard rail, because it’s been a long damn time since he’s had homemade chocolate chip cookies. He grins to himself, “yeah. Not a bad day at all.”

❧

“Karaaa,” Zeke groans as he rounds the corner of the Hotel’s reception desk. On the other side of the marble, she files her nails and watches something on her phone. Her piercing gray eyes shoot daggers through Zeke, although it doesn’t make a difference to him as he continues, “you gotta distract me from this stupid chore list that Lewis has me doing.”

“God,” the young woman hums back, “that man and his lists. What’s he got you doing?”

“Just about every little thing you can think of,” he grumbles, pulling out a neatly organized cursive list of tasks, “I just got done deep cleaning the conversation pit… Which, by the way, I’ve never seen anybody actually sit there.”

This makes Kara roll her eyes, but she does give him a light chuckle. Zeke continues, his dark brown eyes down at the list that he, himself, had begun doodling all over out of boredom, “goddamn, and now I’m supposed to count every single chair in the Hotel. Who on Earth needs to know that information?”

“The Devil incarnate. AKA: Lewis Lockheart,” Kara responds, which causes Zeke to laugh, even if he thinks it’s kind of harsh. She sets her nail file down and says, “look, just forget that loser, Zeke. Come kill some time with me instead.”

She turns her phone around so that Zeke can catch a glimpse of her screen. He leans across the cool marble to get a better look. Kara comments on her show, “I’m watching Dog-Swap right now. This white trash family has to take care of this prissy ass little show dog. It’s pretty damn good.”

Zeke picks himself up off the marble slabbed countertop, “honestly, that sounds great. Although, I’m kinda trash-TV’ed out. My new place only gets the worst channels.”

“Oooh,” Kara hums, “sounds like I need to come over for a hangout sometime soon.”

“Oh my god,” Zeke rolls his eyes.

“Speaking of hanging out… You smoke, right?” Kara asks.

“Yeah,” he says, practically tasting the tobacco on his lips.

“Aight. You. Me. Smoke break. Let’s go,” she grins.

“Ohoho. Say no more,” the young man responds back.

Before Kara leaves from behind the reception desk, she puts out a plaque that reads: We’ll be right back. Thank you for your patience.

The two make their exit out into the temperate summer air. The sun is setting, so the sky lights up with brilliant shades of pinks and oranges. A few fluffy clouds that reflect the sunset float overhead. Kara leads them out towards the side of the vast building where they take a seat in the grass under a tall pine tree. She digs into her purse while Zeke digs into his jeans’ pocket for his pack of cigarettes.

“Never woulda’ guessed that you smoke too,” Zeke says gently, taking out his lighter.

“I mean. I do and I don’t,” she says as she pulls out a small, long white tube. She opens it with a pop, and the smell immediately perks up Zeke’s round nose. He darts his attention towards her as she offers him a perfectly wrapped blunt.

“Ahhh,” he grins, “okay, I got it. You smoke.”

“Duh,” Kara mocks.

She lights the thing using Zeke’s lighter, takes a few puffs, and hands it to him. He accepts it and says, “thanks. You’re cool.”

“Coolest one at this Hotel,” she smiles.

Zeke lets out a plume of smoke and feels his body relax. He hands the smokable back to Kara, “dude, by the way? You totally set me up that Lewis is some awful, heinous guy.”

She shoots him a skeptical look as she takes a hit. On her exhale, she says, “what? You like him?”

“Well, I dunno about like,” he says as he takes the blunt from her, “he’s kind of anal at times, but as long as he has something to keep himself busy with, he’s pretty chill.”

Kara just stares at him, “he doesn’t freak you out?”

“No,” he laughs, “why would he?”

Her thin brows are furrowed seriously as she stares at him. She opts to stay silent, hitting the blunt instead of answering his question. Zeke decides to ask, “wait, Kara, do you have some personal beef with him or something?”

“No more than anybody else in this town,” she retorts.

A confused smirk forms on Zeke’s face, because he’s not quite sure what she means by that. But, he feels his mind slowing down, and the follow-up question doesn’t come, so he hands the blunt back to her and says, “alright, I’m done. Thanks.”

“Sure thing, shrimp boy,” she plays. She takes one more puff, puts the flame out using the tree’s bark, and puts the remainder back into its little white tube. She sighs and leans back. Meanwhile, Zeke’s body is starting to feel heavy, so he decides to lay down in the grass and stare at the technicolor sky above.

Between small conversations, they listen to cicadas chirping, frogs humming, and wind rustling. The sunset is nearly over, and the night sky begins to blanket the world below in darkness. Stars begin to pop up amidst the dark, dotting the night sky like perfectly placed freckles. Zeke gives a contented sigh, because he’s never seen stars shine so bright. A quiet life in the mountains isn’t so bad, he thinks.

Eventually, Zeke’s attention is brought to the entrance of the Hotel as he sees movement. There, he sees Becka striding over the cracked sidewalk with her pink shirt on, and a heavy looking bag strung over her shoulder. He decides to say, “yo, check it out. Becka’s here.”

“It’s Beckaaa,” Kara hollers, waving towards the woman. Becka gives them a little wave back, with the hint of a smile on her calm face.

“She’s so cool,” Zeke hums gently, “and kinda scary.”

They watch as the woman enters through the heavy glass doors to the lobby. There’s a moment of silence before Zeke’s eyebrows furrow. He looks towards Kara, “wait a damn minute. Becka works overnight shifts. Right? Or am I tripping.”

“Eheh,” the woman to his side giggles, “it must be eight.”

“Oh shit,” Zeke sits up, despite his heavy body fighting against him, “Lewis is gonna be pissed.”

The two decide to wrap up their smoke break there. They gather their belongings and follow the pavement back towards the inside of the Hotel. As soon as they enter the big double doors, they’re greeted by Lewis, who sits behind reception.

“There you two are,” Lewis says, his tone indicating nothing but managerial agitation, “for almost an hour, you both were unaccounted for. Ms. Kara Min, I’m especially disappointed in you. You know that this,” he holds up the gold plaque that she had placed out before their departure, “is only to be used in cases of dire emergency.”

“Mmm,” Kara just kind of hums, “my bad.”

“Hmph. And Mr. Valencia. I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that you didn’t finish the list I had given you?”

“Nah, man,” Zeke retorts, “I didn’t get around to it.”

“Wh - well, why not? You had ample time.”

The brunette just shrugs, “Kara distracted me.”

“Rat!” She grins, pushing him playfully.

“Uh huh,” Lewis says aloud, clearly unimpressed, “and what on Earth were the two of you doing for nearly an hour?”

“Ehhh,” Zeke hums, his dark brown, glazy eyes looking towards his new friend. She gives him the same glance back, and now she’s suppressing a grin. Then, the two start to giggle in their own ways, clearly stifling much bigger laughs.

In time, Kara says, “um. Lewis? You couldn’t handle the truth.”

Zeke and Kara both burst out laughing at this, and the two decide to make their exit from the lobby. Speechless, Lewis just watches them leave while his face grows pink with…

Frustration? Embarrassment? Envy, maybe?