Zeke meanders inside the break room, shuffling his sneakers against the black linoleum below. Just beside the door, there’s a clipboard for keeping tabs on the employee’s clock-in, clock-out, and break times. Before he writes anything down, his dark brown eyes meander up to the round analogue clock above it to read the time. After a few moments of kicking his brain into high gear, he estimates it’s about 8:30am.

Oh goddamn it.

Sure, he knows he overslept; but he’s starting to get real tired of these early morning wake-up calls. Zeke sighs, deciding to bend the truth as he scribbles down 8:09am as his clock-in time. Instead of going straight to Lewis’ office for their morning round-up, he decides to brew the man a cup of coffee first. He’s going to end up asking for it anyways, and this’ll make the perfect excuse for showing up a little late. Zeke feels a little semblance of pride for his cleverness.

He takes his time going through the usual motions: retrieve a fresh mug, take out Lewis’ oh-so special oat milk creamer, and exchange the Keurig pod for a new one. As he’s dumping out the previously used coffee pod, he notices the number of preexisting pods sitting at the bottom of a fresh bag within the break room’s trash can. He counts four total, including the one he just discarded. Either everyone needed a cup of coffee this morning, or Lewis has been at work since the crack of dawn. He bites the side of his tongue as he lets the lid to the trash can drop closed, because he already knows the answer.

Zeke finishes dressing the coffee up to Lewis’ liking and treks out to the other side of the Hotel. As he passes through the rotunda, he considers stopping by the front desk to say hi to Kara… But he ultimately decides he better not push his luck with Lewis this morning. He enters the cramped managerial hallway and rounds into Lewis’ little closet-office. For a moment, Zeke watches the man work diligently with a plethora of papers around him; his ginger head is dipped down in concentration as he writes. Zeke clears his throat to get the man’s attention. Lewis, clearly startled, peers up at his assistant.

“Morning, Lewis.”

“Yes. Hi. Good morning, Zeke. Wow - is it eight already?” He asks, stretching his long arms out way over his head.

“Yessir,” Zeke hums back, hiding a little grimace. He might get away with being late today; well, except Lewis checks his watch once he’s done stretching. His expression falls flat as he reads the time, and then looks back up at Zeke, “you know it’s almost 8:40, right?”

“Well shit. I mean, I was in there making you a fresh, hot, steaming cup of coffee just to your liking,” he responds playfully, placing the mug on the man’s desk. Right beside it, there’s a dirty mug from earlier this morning. Lewis looks up at his assistant with tired eyes, “for forty minutes?”

The teenager slowly nods his head and purses his lips before responding, “guess I was.”

Lewis sighs a deep sigh as he leans back in his desk chair. After a few moments of consideration, he gestures towards the chair across the desk from him, “why don’t you take a seat, Mr. Valencia.”

Zeke’s eyes widen a bit. He’s about to get in trouble, isn’t he? So, instead of taking a seat, he decides to stall, “you want the door closed? Or keep it open..?”

“Open is fine.”

“Cool,” he states, before committing to sitting down, “yeah, uh, you’re welcome about the coffee. I knew you were gonna ask for it anyways. Figured I’d get it done now.” Lewis just keeps his green eyes pinned on the teen as Zeke continues to stall, “you okay, man? You look,” he pauses for a second, fully aware that he’s digging his own grave, “tired.”

The manager lets out another deep sigh as he peers off to the side of the room. He runs a freckled hand over his face, caressing the contours of his slim face. A few moments go by before he returns his gaze back towards the brunette in his guest chair, “yes, Zeke. I am rather tired. Now - "

But before he can continue, his assistant cuts him off, “what’s going on, man? When’d you get here this morning?”

He watches Lewis’ brow furrow.

“You’ve already had, like, what? Four cups of coffee now? You should go home, man. Get some rest.”

“I would, Zeke, but I have responsibilities here at the Hotel,” Lewis hums back, “I can’t just come and go as I please.”

Ouch. Yeah, he should have seen that one coming. Zeke nods his head as he responds, “sure, sure. But you probably have it all written down in a detailed to-do list somewhere, huh? I bet Mr. Wright and I can tackle most of it.”

“Most of the work assigned isn’t all of the work assigned. Someone still has to pick up the slack, you know.”

The brunette bites his lip and nods his head. Before he can get a word in edgewise, Lewis continues, “look. I need to speak with you about your work ethic as of late… And I believe you already know how this conversation is going to go.”

“What? Me? I thought this was just going to be a - a friendly morning chat,” Zeke hums, though he’s aware his confident tone is starting to fade.

“Well. I’d like to be friendly about this, if you’ll let me.”

Zeke peers up towards his boss with those big brown doe eyes of his. He nods his head gently before darting his eyes back down to the tabletop. In his lap, he begins to pick at his fingernails.

“Thank you, Zeke,” Lewis takes a deep breath as he compiles his thoughts, “you know how much I value punctuality, right?”

Zeke nods his head.

“And do you know how many times you’ve been late to work since I hired you in June?”

“No,” he mumbles out.

Lewis flips through his little pink clipboard before stating, “eight times. And, let’s see, five of those have been within the last fourteen days.”

The teenager can’t help but bite his lip. He tries to catch a glimpse of the paper Lewis references, but he isn’t able to read the man’s cursive upside down. Instead, he grabs the Rubix cube off of his boss’ desk and tries to solve it absently.

The ginger pauses, but ultimately doesn’t say anything regarding the desk toy. Instead, he continues, “and punctuality, for me, isn’t just coming to work on time. It’s also finishing the tasks assigned to you for the day. Do you know where I’m going with this, Zeke?”

“I think so.”

There’s a moment of pause. Zeke feels his boss’ tired gaze rest on him, but he refuses to look up from his puzzle. Lewis folds his hands atop his desk as he leans forward. In a slightly more hushed tone, he asks, “am I giving you too much work each day? If it helps, I can also cut down your hours..?”

Zeke peers up towards his boss; he certainly wasn’t expecting possible solutions to these issues. While they are still a few feet away from one another, Zeke can really see the exhaustion on Lewis’ face now. His usual chipper expression looks worn, while his green eyes look dark and heavy. The teenager shakes his head, “I need the hours. I do. I - I dunno. I guess I just get sidetracked easily at work.”

Lewis nods his head gently, looking off to the side as he ponders this. After a moment, he says, “how about this: instead of letting you run free throughout the day, I have you check in after each task. Do you think that might help?”

“We can give it a try, I guess.”

A gentle, tired smile rests on the boss’ face, “okay. And how about showing up on time in the mornings. What’s going on there?”

“I dunno. I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately; I keep missing my alarm. It’s just… Ugh. I’ve got this new place, and it’s got all these new sounds,” Zeke pouts, “and I got new neighbors too, I think. But maybe I’m losing my marbles and just hearing things.”

Lewis’ face softens up. He peers down towards his intertwined hands, absently rubbing his fingers together, “I know what you’re going through,” he says, though the doubt must have shown on Zeke’s face, because he adds in a much smaller tone, “I struggle with insomnia sometimes too. Would you like me to compile some things for you that have helped me get some rest?”

But before Zeke can say or ask anything else, he’s cut-off by a gentle knock on the side of the office’s door frame. Lewis leans back in his seat rather fast to distance himself from his desk, and both men look up to see Angeline. She looks timid as she says, “morning, guys. Sorry… Am I interrupting something?”

Lewis plasters on a managerial smile as he picks his voice back up, “not at all. How are you this morning, Ms. Lovell?”

“Oh, I’m fine. Um,” she hums gently, peering between the two pink-shirts, “do either of you know if Andrei is here today? He wanted me to show up this morning, but he hasn’t been answering my calls.”

“Ah,” Lewis’ smile falters for a split second, “as far as I know, he’s still in his office from last night.”

She nods her head apathetically, “right. Okay. I’ll go see if he’s awake,” she smiles a forlorn smile, “thanks.”

“Any time.” he smiles back. Just like that, Angeline dips from the door frame and heads down the hallway. Lewis lets out a deep breath before he says, “right. So sorry, Zeke. You were saying?”

“Um… Yeah. I mean,” the teenager begins, but before he can continue, both men hear a high pitched scream come from down the hallway. They make eye contact for a split second before Lewis jumps out of his seat and makes a bee-line towards the hallway; Zeke scrambles to follow suit. Out in the hallway, Lewis collides with a panicking Angeline. All she can do is stammer and point towards Mr. Wright’s office, “fire! There’s a fire!”

The assistant manager places both hands on her shoulders, nudges her aside, and makes strides towards the office. Zeke hurries behind to catch up; upon entering the room, the teenager first notices Mr. Wright passed out atop his sturdy oak desk. One of his hands is splayed over a small metal trash can, the contents of which have burst into flames. Then, the strong smell of burning paper and chemicals hits him. Lewis clenches his fists, and Zeke can hear him say a light, “oh, for crying out loud.”

The manager whips past the teenager and ducks into the storage closet between the two offices. From the hallway, Angeline panics, “what should I do? Oh my god. Um, oh god, what’s the number for the fire department? Or is it just 911? ”

“Don’t bother,” Lewis grunts as he makes his way back into the big boss’ office. This time, he holds a rather dusty looking fire extinguisher. Zeke watches as the manager pulls the fire extinguisher’s pin, aims the hose, and squeezes the handle. But… Nothing comes out.

Isn’t something supposed to come out?

Now it’s Lewis’ turn to genuinely look panicked; his eyes go wide as he keeps squeezing the handle to no avail. He shakes the big red canister and tries again, “come on,” Lewis hisses through clenched teeth. Now, he’s really starting to manhandle it; actually, Zeke never noticed the man had biceps hiding under those dainty pink button-up sleeves. The teen covers a light, amused grin with his hand as he watches his boss take his anger out.

“I should call the fire department now, right?” Angeline gasps.

Lewis doesn’t respond. Honestly, Zeke isn’t sure he can respond. The look in the man’s eyes is pure white hot fury as he tries desperately to get the thing to work. The ginger’s face scrunches, his brow begins to sweat from the adrenaline, and all at once, the damn fire extinguisher finally begins to work; Lewis clenches his jaw as he diligently sweeps out the trash fire. Once it’s out, nobody says a word. Zeke watches as the man’s chest heaves with exhaustion, his shoulders slumping as he relaxes his arms. 

Lewis takes a few moments to catch his breath; he then turns towards Zeke and Angeline who had just been gawking at him. He extends a hand outwards, “neither of you wanted to help?”

Angeline, with both fists clenched by her chest, just shakes her head vigorously. Zeke shrugs nonchalantly, “not sure how I could've’ helped you, Mr. Firefighter.”

Lewis bites the inside of his cheek, trying his best to hide his agitation. He peers off to the side and takes a deep breath, “will you two make sure Andrei’s fine? I’ve got to go dispose of this,” he hums, holding up the dusty fire extinguisher. Without another word, the assistant manager slides past the two audience members and swiftly makes his way out of the managerial hallway.

Zeke and Angeline make eye contact for a moment, but their collective attention falls towards the grown man passed out atop his desk. Zeke hums out a small, “you think he’s still alive?”

“I would hope so,” he hears Angeline say as she enters the office, “he’s helping me pay for my college.”

Zeke smirks at this. He watches as Angeline makes her way over to the man; she takes hold of his meaty wrist and checks his pulse. There’s a moment as she feels for it, but ultimately sighs in relief, “his heart is still beating. That’s a good sign,” she says as she gently lays his hand back down on the table, “usually I just let him sleep it off.”

“I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t wanna be around him all day either,” Zeke hums. He peers over to Angeline to see if she’ll protest that statement, but she opts to remain silent. Instead, the woman leans over the big boss and listens for his breathing. After a few moments, she comes back up with a sigh, “I have faith that he’s just sleeping.”

“Wonder what’s got him knocked out,” Zeke says.

Angeline shakes her curly head, “I don’t even wanna know. This stuff’s tearing him up from the inside out. It’s so sad.”

“Oh, yeah. Aren’t you trying to be a doctor or something?”

“I’m going into my final year of nursing school this fall.”

“Right,” Zeke hums as he leans in the doorway.

“I guess I just wish he’d be more careful. He carelessly mixes drugs and alcohol like he has a death wish,” she states, flopping down on the velvet couch at the corner of the man’s office.

“Who knows. Maybe he doesn’t care if he overdoses.”

Angeline shakes her head as she directs her light blue gaze towards the floor-to-ceiling window at her side. Outside, the morning sun is hidden behind gentle, temperate clouds. After a moment, she states, “he’s either going to die in this office or behind bars.”

Zeke furrows his brow in curiosity at that, “wait. Angeline, why would he go to prison?”

To this, her eyes go wide and her body stiffens, but before she can explain, Lewis approaches the office. Standing out in the hallway, he peers down at Zeke and asks, “he’s alright then?”

“Uh,” Zeke looks over his shoulder, “yeah. He’s breathing.”

“Lovely,” the ginger hums, though he sounds less than pleased. He continues, “Zeke, follow me, would you? I’ve got an impromptu task for you this morning.”

“Sure thing, boss,” Zeke hums as he takes one last glimpse at Angeline and her sugar daddy; the woman just watches Mr. Wright with this haunted look in her eyes. Zeke purses his lips before turning the other cheek to follow his boss down the hallway. Lewis leads them back into his closet-office. He squeezes past his desk and begins to dig through his filing cabinet as he speaks, “I need you to go around and collect information regarding the Hotel’s remaining fire extinguishers.”

The ginger pulls out a large white binder. He opens the thing, flips through the pages, and retrieves four pieces of paper stapled to one another. He hands the mini-packet to Zeke from across the desk; the teen takes hold of it and looks at the contents with intrigue, “woah. Are these blueprints to the Hotel?”

“Sort of. It’s the evacuation map for all four levels. It shows us where all the exits, staircases, and elevators are. It also indicates where each fire extinguisher is located.”

“Gotcha,” he hums back, looking at the Hotel layout in its entirety. What a weird shaped building, with way too many little nooks and crannies. He peers up as Lewis collects a few more supplies.

“I’d like you to locate each fire extinguisher and notate each one’s expiration date, please,” the assistant manager states, handing his subordinate a plain brown clipboard with a few pieces of notebook paper attached. He then hands Zeke a pen, “and, ah… Make sure to stop by my office when you’re done, okay?”

“Yeah. Sure thing,” the teenager states, situating his clipboard before giving the manager a peace sign. As he ducks out of the makeshift office, he hears Lewis scramble a bit behind him, “oh, and one more thing, Zeke…”

The teenager rolls his eyes before peering over his shoulder towards his needy boss, “what’s up, Lewis?”

“Um,” the ginger stands awkwardly in the doorway, his long fingers intertwined with one another as he quietly says, “I just wanted to thank you for the cup of coffee this morning.”

Zeke’s shoulders relax a bit as he lets a light smile fall onto his face, “yeah, man. You need it today.”

The man bites his bottom lip anxiously and nods his head in a gentle agreement, “right. Yes, I do,” he laughs a bit tiresomely before continuing, “okay. Good luck out there, Zeke.”

With that, the brunette returns the smile before ducking out of the management hallway to start his first task of the day.

❧

Starting on the first level of the Hotel, Zeke makes his way around to each of the fire extinguishers. He marks the location and expiration date on his clipboard; he even goes so far as to organize the list as best as possible. After all, Lewis seems incredibly stressed today, and presenting a readable list to the guy is the least Zeke could do.

As he moves from one wing of the Hotel to the next, he glances at his map. Sweet, there’s a fire extinguisher in the little room behind reception. He perks up at the idea of getting to say good morning to Kara. With a little more pep in his step, Zeke treks through the rotunda and circles around to the front desk. Kara’s head is dipped as she appears to be writing something down diligently. Instead of one of the Hotel’s check-in books, she writes in a much smaller notebook. Zeke tries to get a peek of what she’s writing, but the woman’s long black hair cascades down to cover her work.

To garner her attention, Zeke decides to push the brass service bell atop the marble desk. A crisp dinggg rings through the air, and Kara jolts her attention upwards in shock. As she rests her sharp gray eyes on a smug looking Zeke, her brows immediately furrow, “you don’t even know how annoying you are, do you?”

“Nope. Fully aware. I think it’s kinda charming, honestly,” he grins his little tooth-gapped smile as he leans over the counter, “what’cha writing there, Kara?”

She immediately flips the notebook closed, revealing its plain black cover, “nothing important, you nosy bastard.”

“Ouch,” he grins.

“Boohoo. What do you want?”

“What? I can’t say good morning to my favorite receptionist?”

Kara’s eyes narrow, “with that clipboard in your hand, I can only assume you’re here on a Lewis Lockheart task.”

“Mmm. Well, yeah. That too. But - "

She abruptly interrupts him, “so get on with it then.”

Zeke furrows his brows. Goddamn, everyone seems to have an attitude today. He decides to prod, “you good, Kara?”

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

“Mmm,” he hums, “people who are actually fine don’t say that they’re fine. What’s going on?”

She stares daggers at him for a moment before darting her attention off elsewhere. It takes her a moment to say anything, “just my parents being annoying. That’s it.”

Zeke nods his head, “yeah. I get it. Look, if you need to vent…”

“I’m a big girl,” she huffs, “I’ll be fine.”

The brunette bites his cheek. Kara isn’t as much of an open book as his other coworkers. However, he’s getting familiar with what cheers her up, so he changes the subject, “hey. You wanna know something stupid that happened today?”

Despite rolling her eyes, she says, “sure.”

“There was a fire in Mr. Wright’s office this morning.”

Kara’s eyes immediately light up, “no way. Is he dead?”

Zeke can’t help but laugh, “nah. Dude’s still alive. But he was passed out over his desk,” he says, flopping himself down onto the cold marble countertop to imitate their boss, “drugged outta his mind. Slept through the whole thing.”

“Oh my god,” a little glint of a grin forms on her lips.

“Yup,” he stands back up-right, “Angeline was freaking out, and all I could do was just watch as Lewis tried desperately to get the fire extinguisher to work. He was shaking the damn thing so hard. Dude, did you know he’s like, low-key kinda jacked?”

“Pfft. Uh… Zeke?”

He grins, “what?”

“You were totally checking him out, weren’t you?”

The teen’s eyes shoot wide as he stammers to defend his case, “absolutely not. I’m not - I’m not interested in him like that,” he grins a nervous smile. He then remembers what lie he’s supposed to be keeping up with, “I’m not interested in anyone like that. You know that.”

She shrugs, “me neither. But I don’t mind a piece of eye-candy every once in a while. Some people are just pretty.”

Zeke begins to feel his face flush with embarrassment. Kara really knows how to push his buttons, huh? He stutters for a moment before saying, “okay, yes, sure. Yup, I’ll admit it. Some people are nice to look at, but - "

“Zeke and Lewis sitting in a tree,” she mocks, “k-i-s-s-i-n-g.”

“Oh my god,” he slaps his cheek in distress, “okay. Alright. Great talk, Kara,” he raises the clipboard and points to it, “I’ll be back in a while to do what I need to do.”

Before Kara can say anything else, he begins his trek back into the depths of the Hotel. As he’s leaving, he tries his best to tune out her mocking tune as it echoes throughout the empty halls, “first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage!”

❧

As Zeke wanders the Hotel to finish the rest of his task, he tries his best to shake off his embarrassment. He wasn’t even trying to insinuate anything; Kara totally twisted his words.

While he documents all of the extinguishers on the second story, he passes by the housekeeping cart as it sits in front of an ajar door. From the hallway, he can see Cherry working away. She hums to herself gently, swaying as she fits the bed with new sheets. He thinks about going to say hi, but ultimately decides to try again later. After all, Lewis is expecting him to be more timely now… Not that Zeke cares too much about that, or anything.

Once he’s done with his task, he trudges back towards the management hallway. Upon entering, he notices that Lewis isn’t sitting in his closet-office. He hears deep voices emanating from Mr. Wright’s office. The big boss must have awoken from his coma.

Zeke takes a deep breath to gather up all his courage. He steps as silently as he can up to the cracked door and gently pushes the thing open. Upon peeking through the door, the two managers hush up.

“Well, if it ain’t Tweedledum,” Mr. Wright barks from the safety of his office chair. Angeline sits on the velvet couch with a few papers and a book in her lap. To the side of the door, Lewis peers down at Zeke as the teenager pokes his head through the ajar door.

“Is now a bad time? I can come back later,” Zeke asks as he peers up towards his ginger boss.

Just as Lewis is about to answer, Mr. Wright speaks up, “nonsense. Come on in, boy.”

Lewis darts his green eyes towards his boss with contempt. Maybe it’s just the overcast lighting today, but his green eyes just look so dark. Zeke steps into the room fully and decides to stall, “want the door open or closed?”

“Open’s fine,” Mr. Wright responds.

“Cool, cool,” the teenager hums, nodding his head lightly, “you okay, man? You were kinda… Passed out for a while.”

Zeke feels Lewis’ gaze on him, but the teenager elects to keep his focus on the big boss man. Mr. Wright sits back in his chair, “well, I was working hard all night. Gotta keep an eye on this place, after all.”

“Uh huh,” Zeke responds, although he does an awful job of hiding his skepticism, “you do know there was a fire in here, right? While you were sleeping. Angeline was screaming her head off.”

“Like I said. I was working hard,” the man responds, clearly getting more agitated with every word the teenager spoke.

“Right. Well, I’d say your work is done for the day, huh? You should go home, get some rest,” Zeke suggests.

Mr. Wright’s thick, graying eyebrows furrow greatly, and before he can bark something back, Lewis butts in, “ahem. Zeke, do you have that information I asked you to retrieve?”

He offers the clipboard to Lewis, “yeah, I didn’t get to the one behind reception. But, ya know, all the other fire extinguishers are expired. I can only assume that one is too,” Zeke hums, keeping his eyes on the big man behind the desk.

Lewis takes the clipboard, “okay then… Thank you, Zeke. How about you go sit in my office while Mr. Wright and I wrap this up?”

Just as Zeke is about to slither back out into the safety of the hallway, Mr. Wright barks, “stay.”

Every hair on the teenager’s body sticks up. Reluctantly, Zeke stands right back in his spot just inside the room. Not out of respect for the man, but because his livelihood relies on this crumby job.

“Good boy,” the old man hums, “now… Why don’t we take a moment to applaud Lewis for his act of bravery this morning,” he peers his tired gray eyes over towards his assistant manager, “that’s what you’re here for, right, Lewis? To be commended on truly, honestly, saving my life from a devastating fire.”

The ginger furrows his brow and shakes his head firmly.

“Oh, don’t be so modest. A real act of courage like that deserves celebration. Angeline? And, uh…” he gestures towards Zeke, “...you? Come on. Give the man a round of applause,” Mr. Wright says as he starts to clap his meaty hands together. Neither Angeline nor Zeke join him, and Lewis dips his head towards the ground uncomfortably.

As Mr. Wright wraps up, he states, “you’ve got your golden medal now, Lockheart. Your award, your stamp of approval. Your diploma, even. What more can I possibly give you?” he smirks, putting his hands out.

After an incredibly tense second of silence, Lewis looks back up towards the man, “I’d just like to speak with you regarding the Hotel’s fire safety. After this morning’s incident, it’s come to my attention that the Hotel most certainly does not pass federal fire safety regulations.”

“You’re in charge of the Hotel’s safety inspections, Lewis. That falls into your hands. What? Did you forget?” Mr. Wright laughs.

“No, sir,” Lewis starts, struggling to maintain his patience, “when you initially added fire safety to my tasks, I requested a new set of fire extinguishers. As you control the budget, sir, every service or supply that I request must be approved by you. I was never given the go-ahead to purchase up-to-date fire extinguishers.”

The boss man’s thick brows furrow, and Zeke instinctually holds his breath. After a moment of contemplation, Mr. Wright waves a hand towards his sugar baby, “Angeline. How’s the budget look? We got enough wiggle room for… Oh, I don’t know… Fifteen-hundred bucks worth of fire extinguishers?”

She opens her mouth, her bright blue eyes looking rather concerned as she peers towards her sugar daddy. After a moment, she just bites her lip and looks back down at the Hotel’s budget sheets.

“Mm. Right,” Mr. Wright hums, leaning back in his seat. With his arms crossed, he keeps going, “how about I get back to you, huh? Angeline and I will make it our top priority to find some extra cash laying around. In the meantime, you can rest assured. You see this?” He points a hairy arm up towards the tall ceiling. Both Zeke and Lewis’ eyes follow his direction; the man points to a barbed sprinkler sticking out of the ceiling. Mr. Wright continues, “if a serious fire breaks out, these things will release a cascade of water. There’s at least one in every room. Eh… This excludes closets. So be extra careful in that office of yours, Lewis.”

The ginger bites his lip as he ducks his head once more. Zeke directs his attention towards Mr. Wright in disgust. Does he even know how big of an asshole he is?

“We done here?” Mr. Wright huffs, settling back into his seat.

Zeke shoots his dark brown eyes over towards the ginger as the man takes a deep breath. In an instant, the assistant manager lifts his head, plasters on a light managerial smile, and responds, “yes, sir.”

“Great,” the boss hums as he digs into the top drawer of his desk. Zeke watches as he pulls out a big fat cigar and a metal lighter. He puts the thing in his mouth, lights the end, and takes a puff off it. He waves his hand at the two, “now get back to work like the rest of us.”

Without another word, Lewis ducks back into the hallway. Zeke just stares at Mr. Wright, because he wants nothing more than to bark something mean back at him, but the words don’t come. Mr. Wright narrows his eyes, “better go catch up to Tweedledee. And, eh… Close the door behind you, would ya?”

Zeke gives the man a dirty look In an act of rebellion, Zeke makes sure to leave the door cracked open before descending down the hallway. Approaching Lewis’ office, he hears the man rustling around inside. Zeke peeks inside to see his boss gathering a few things into his messenger bag: both clipboards, a pen, a few work books, and his keys. 

He speaks up from the door frame, “you okay?”

Lewis peers up for a split second, but he keeps his green eyes down towards his packing. He just responds with a short, “yeah.”

“Not true,” Zeke huffs, watching the man sling his messenger bag over his shoulder. Without a word, Lewis slides past Zeke and exits the office. The teenager quickly follows him out of the management hallway, and he nearly has to jog to keep pace with his boss’ long strides. As he follows Lewis, he struggles to think of something to say that’ll get him to slow down… Without adding gas to the fire, for the lack of a better term.

Down the South wing, past the rotunda, Lewis finally stops at the elevator access. He crosses his arms as he waits for the one functional car to be called. Finally catching up, Zeke is out of breath. Lewis isn’t typically this moody, and everything in the teenager’s body is saying: fix it. So, he tries a little humor while he catches his breath, “oh my god. I can’t believe that’s a walking speed for you.”

Lewis just dips his curly ginger head.

After a moment, Zeke can’t help but to speak up again, “Mr. Wright is a complete dickhead. Why do you let him treat you like that?”

“It’s the same reason you don’t speak up against him either,” Lewis says firmly, “you depend on this job.”

“Uh… Yeah, I guess,” the teenager stammers for a moment, “but it's different for me. I - god. It’s just… Different.”

“Well,” Lewis starts as the elevator doors slide open. He peers over his shoulder at Zeke for a brief moment, “it seems we both have our own reasons to stick around here, disrespect and all. Don’t we?”

Zeke’s shoulders slump as he watches the man duck his ginger head while he steps into the cramped elevator. The teenager comes over to the door to say something, anything… But before he can, Lewis speaks up, “I’ll be back in a bit, alright? Please help Cherry out with housekeeping until then.”

“Lewis, c’mon,” he pleads. But before he knows it, the elevator doors close and Zeke is left alone. His brows furrow. His dark brown eyes fall towards the floor, and his fists clench in on themselves. He briefly considers following Lewis downstairs to try and talk it out… His eyes dart up to the second elevator door, which still wears its cursive out-of-order sign. Zeke huffs in frustration.

He hates to see Lewis continue to give himself to this job, despite how awful the Hotel’s owner is. What could Lewis possibly be getting from this place? And whatever he’s getting, is it even worth it?

❧

Zeke wears a scowl as he treks back through the Hotel. With his hands in his pockets, he trudges his sneakers over the matted carpet as he passes through the rotunda. He takes the curved stairs down to the ground level, and his eyes fixate on the dark wooden steps below him. Usually he likes to gaze out the expansive windows, but he isn’t in the mood for that right now. He just can’t believe Mr. Wright can act like such an entitled prick and get away with it. Sure, he’s the owner. Sure, the guy’s been here forever, but that doesn’t give him the right to treat his employees like mutts.

His dark brown eyes fixate on the geometric stone bar; in today’s cloudy weather, it looks exceptionally lonely. He can’t help but wonder: when was the last time anybody sat at those bar stools? He trudges past the tall wooden double doors leading to the Club of Hearts and descends down the North wing. Immediately, he notices the housekeeping cart perched out front of a honeymoon suite. His mood is boosted a bit as he realizes he’ll be hanging out with Cherry for a bit. That’s cool at least. She always manages to cheer him up.

He rounds the door frame and pokes his head into the room. Inside, Cherry diligently wipes the room’s floor-to-ceiling windows. Zeke gives a gentle knock on the door frame, alerting her of his presence. She quickly turns around and immediately lights up with an excited smile, “oh my gosh! Hi, Zeke!”

“Hey, Cher,” the teenager purrs as he enters the room. Just her smile is enough to alleviate some of that stress. He continues, “Lewis requested that I come help you for a bit.”

“Ah! Yeah, that’d be awesome. Rosa’s out today,” she says solemnly, “I guess her daughter isn’t feeling too good.”

“Oh. Gotcha. Hope she’s okay,” Zeke responds, although he didn’t know Rosa has a daughter. He steps out of the room for a brief moment to grab some plastic gloves from the housekeeping cart. As he slides them onto his hands, he meanders back into the room.

He peers around the old suite. Just outside the glass that Cherry wipes down, lays this room’s private patio. To his left, there’s a mini kitchenette complete with a wood grain mini-fridge, sink, coffee maker, and microwave. Farther back is the massive round bed up on its slightly raised pink carpeted platform. Dark raspberry curtains hug and frame the bed area. To his right, there’s an entrance to the bathroom. Just to the side of the bathroom, of course, lays the pink heart-shaped tub in its kitschy glory. The nook the tub sits in is completely surrounded by mirrors.

Through those mirrors, Zeke catches a glimpse of himself. With his clean gloved hand, he tussles his auburn curtain bangs to give them some life. He pinches at the fabric of his oversized faded-pink polo and pulls up his cuffed blue jeans. Then, he stares at the scar that’s dashed through his right eyebrow. All things considered, it’s healing rather well. It’s not like he’s been doing anything super special to take care of it since he unwillingly received it, that is.

Cherry steps into the mirror’s frame, and she wears her usual cheerful smile, “is this your first time in the honeymoon suites?”

“Oh. Nah,” he smiles. Looking at himself and Cherry through the mirror, he can see how she’s taller than him by a few inches. 

“Really? These rooms are hardly ever sold anymore.”

Zeke bites his tongue for a split second. He shrugs, turning to look at the woman in-person and says, “I was probably just working with Rosa that day.”

Her smile doesn’t falter as she nods her head, “that’s cool.”

Zeke folds his arms as he changes the subject, “so, what’s gotta get done? You’re the boss today.”

“Oh,” she hums gently, taking her eyes off the mirror to meander around the room, “I guess all that’s left is to remake the bed and then vacuum.”

“Cool. I’ll go grab some extra sheets off the cart,” Zeke says, dipping out of the room to collect what they need. He grabs a fresh set of sheets and two pillow cases.

As he ducks back into the room, he notices that Cherry has already begun stripping the round mattress of its dirty layers. Zeke joins her and makes small talk, “so, hey. You’re Kara’s roommate, right?”

“Yup,” she smiles, “why, what’s up?”

He shrugs gently, “I dunno. I just noticed that she’s more in a mood today than usual. I offered to let her talk about it, but she brushed me off. Just wanna make sure she’s okay.”

“Oh. Yeah,” Cherry’s smile falters for a moment as she disrobes one of the pillows, “she’s just having some trouble with her parents.”

“That’s what she said. Didn’t go into any more detail though.”

“Mmm,” she hums, tossing the old pillowcase down to the floor with the rest of the dirty sheets, “she just… She has a super rocky relationship with them. She’s their only kid, and it doesn’t help that she’s adopted too.”

“Woah,” Zeke states. He didn’t know any of that.

“Yeah,” the woman bites her lip for a moment, “it just sucks. I love her a lot, and I see how much they constantly hurt her. They’ve got these super unrealistic expectations for her, ya know?”

Zeke nods his head as he begins to fit one of the pillows with a fresh sheet, “yeah. I get that. Seriously,” he says, looking up to meet eyes with Cherry.

The look in her sweet brown eyes shows that she is clearly hurting for her friend. However, she switches gears by saying, “is there something on your mind too, Zeke?”

They maintain eye contact before the teen gazes back down at their work. They begin to tag-team putting the fitted sheet on the round mattress. He shrugs his toned shoulders and says, “I guess, like. Lewis takes this job super seriously, even though Mr. Wright is, like, abusing him pretty much. So I wanna stand up for him and tell that old fart off… But. Ugh,” he huffs in frustration, “I can’t lose this job right now.”

Cherry’s tone is hushed as she seriously asks, “is he being… Like, physically abusive?”

“Oh, no. I mean… Not that I know,” Zeke meets her eyes, “just verbally. Emotionally, psychologically. All of the above, I guess.”

“Ouch,” she says, her tone beyond grief, “gosh. I just can’t help it… My heart aches for poor Lewis. He’s just a big ol puppy dog. Loyal to a fault. He doesn’t deserve any of the crap he’s been handed.”

Zeke nods his head in agreement, “and Mr. Wright totally takes advantage of his loyalty. It’s just corrupt,” he says, furrowing his brow, “and meanwhile, he just sits in his office and - and bangs Angeline all day. And when she’s not here, he’s taking a handful of pills with an entire bottle of whiskey. It’s disgusting.”

After a few seconds of consideration, Cherry speaks up, “have you told Lewis that it’s bothering you?”

“Not really. I mean, I don’t think it’s my place, to be honest.”

The woman nods her head, her thick coily hair bobbing with her movements, “I think you should. Lewis cares a lot about the health of his employees.”

“I just don’t think it’d do anything.”

“Maybe not. But you might feel better having told him what’s on your mind,” she smiles gently, “and he might feel better knowing that you’ve got his back.”

 He nods his head, “I’ll think about it.”

They finish fitting the bed with fresh sheets; now, the round mattress looks as dressed up as possible despite its age. Cherry hums, “I’mma go get the vacuum, kay?”

“Cool,” Zeke responds, watching as the woman peels the plastic gloves off her hands while she leaves the honeymoon suite. As he stands there, he thinks about the whole day. It’s been frustrating, to say the least. Everyone’s hurting and there’s nothing he can do about it. He crosses his arms and huffs.

Somehow, Zeke’s eyes meander up to the ceiling of the room, and he fixates on the barbed sprinklers overhead. Do those things even really work like Mr. Wright claims?

He can’t reach the tall ceilings within the room itself… But he could reach the lowered ceiling within the bathroom if he wanted to. An awful idea sparks him, and before he talks himself out of it, he makes a beeline towards the bathroom. He pushes the wooden door inwards, and his eyes immediately glue onto the sprinkler overhead. If he were to stand on the toilet, he might be able to reach it. His sneakers pad against the white marble flooring before he climbs up atop the toilet seat. As he reaches into his jeans’ pocket, Cherry pokes her head in, “hey, Zeke. Whatcha doing?”

“Oh,” he says, trying to hide his alarm, “well… Uh. This big thing happened between Mr. Wright and Lewis this morning over a fire breaking out in his office… Which then led to us realizing that our fire extinguishers from the nineties aren’t the most reliable. Mr. Wright was like, don’t worry about it, we have a fire sprinkler system. But… I got a feeling that these things don’t work either.”

Cherry’s eyes just go wide, and she’s unable to say anything for a moment. After a second, she asks, “are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Mmm,” Zeke thinks on this for a moment, “probably not.”

“And… You’re going to do it anyway?”

“Duh,” he grins, reaching into his pocket. He pulls out his cheap plastic lighter and reaches his arm up to the sprinkler. While he isn’t right on target, it’s gotta be close enough. He peers down towards Cherry, who hugs the door in anticipation. Clearly, she wants to be here to witness Schrodenger’s water sprinkler too.

Zeke flicks the lighter and holds it as close as he can to the barbed metal. He bites his lip and anticipates a torrential downpour. He waits and he waits, and he watches the tiny butane fire burn steadily. After several moments, he begins to lose his patience. Cherry starts to say, “I don’t think anything is gonna happen.”

Then, the sprinkler gives a satisfying pop as the heat sensitive element gives out. Instead of water raining down… There’s nothing. Not even a semblance of water drips down. Zeke’s eyes go wide as he and Cherry make eye contact.

“No way,” she says.

“Ohohoh, I knew it,” Zeke grins, hopping off the toilet.

“So, what?” Cherry begins to lightly panic, “we don’t have working fire extinguishers, and we don’t have a sprinkler system. If a fire breaks out, we’re just… Toast?”

Zeke throws his arms out, “maybe that’s what Mr. Wright wants. A bunch of money from his insurance.”

“That’s so scary,” she says, her hands clenched together over her chest, “we gotta tell Lewis.”

“Right,” he hums, his dark brown eyes meandering back up to the faulty sprinkler overhead, “what could he even do about it though?”

Cherry shakes her head, “I dunno. But I don’t really like the idea of burning alive in this Hotel,” she shudders.

Zeke watches as the woman grabs ahold of the old, dingy vacuum and plugs it into the wall. She gives her coworker a worried look before getting back to work. As Zeke watches her, he contemplates on how he’s gonna bring this up to Lewis. It’ll only give the guy more things to stress over… But this just feels like an accident waiting to happen. After a few moments, Zeke decides it’ll just be better to talk to Lewis about it on another day. In the meantime, the Hotel will have to suffice with its half-functional fire extinguishers.