Settling In

It was getting late when we finally pulled up to the hotel that would be our ‘home’ for the next four nights. I decided, before we even drove into town that the first night we would just check in, go to our room where we would order room service and plan what we were going to do the rest of the time we were in the city.

“Oh Aunt Anna, he’s cute!” Cassie whispered as the front desk clerk in question disappeared into the office behind the desk to check with someone about getting extra towels for us. “Did you see the way he was looking at you? He thinks you’re hot - find out when he gets off.”

“No Cass, I’m not here to hit on anyone or to be hit on myself. This trip is about spending time with you and your sisters.” And besides, I thought. I have enough problems with the two guys in my life right now; I don’t need some cute stranger adding to it.

“We are all set,” he came back out to the desk with a smile on his face. “The towels will arrive at your door shortly and,” he reached down to grab an envelope which he proceeded to slide across the counter towards me. “Ladies, I believe you’ll love the room I assigned you, room 524 - quiet corner of the hotel with a great view of the park and lake behind the hotel - just take the elevator to your left to the fifth floor and follow the hallway on your right.”

“Thank you,” I flashed him a smile as I went to take our room keys but he didn’t let go right away.

“No, thank you,” he smiled. “Please, if you need anything - anything at all - don’t hesitate to call down here, I’ll be glad to help.” He let go of my keys, “Just ask for Scott.”

As the girls and I walked away from the front desk, I heard Scott’s co-worker ask him if he could be anymore obvious. “Be quiet Chelsea,” he replied.

The second we walked into our room, the girls dropped their bags and ran for the beds, as an argument erupted on who was sharing a bed with who and which bed they were taking - it seemed neither Cass nor Lindsay wanted to share with Natalie and they all wanted to sleep in the bed closest to the window.

“Ok,” I walked over to them. “Here’s how it’s going to go,” I turned to Natalie, who was one step away from bawling because the girls didn’t want to share with her. “You get to pick which bed you sleep in. So which be will it be?”

In true Natalie form, she took her time making her decision. She jumped up on the bed by the window, rolled around and then jumped off to do the same with the other bed. She repeated this a couple times before finally stopping to tell us that she wanted to sleep in the bed by the window. “Will you share with me Aunt Anna?”

“Of course,” I told her as the other two girls grumbled their displeasure while grabbing their bags from beside the door.

“It’s not fair,” Lindsay muttered. “She’ll be up more times to go to the bathroom than anyone else; she should have to take this stupid bed.”

I did my best to ignore them while they were grumbling. First, Nat and I unpacked our bags and put our stuff away, changed into our pjs, and then, we crawled up into our bed, turned on the TV and grabbed the hotel’s information book to see what food places were close by.

“Did you guys want room service or did you want to order pizza or something?” I asked as I scanned the hotel menu.

“Pizza!”

I laughed, “Well ok then.” We discussed what we wanted and then we called in our order. Since we had just gotten into town, we decided to order drinks from the pizza place as well but when we found out they only had Coke products, we quickly changed our minds.

“I believe I saw a pop machine just down the hall,” I jumped off the bed. “You guys relax; I’ll go get us some drinks.” Searching through my bag, I found my wallet and headed for the door. “Behave while I’m gone.”

“Aunt Anna!” Cassie called just as I was about to close the door. “Can I use your laptop? Ben said he would be home playing video games all night and that he would leave his messenger on.”

The other girls were busy watching a movie on TV so I didn’t think it would be a problem. “Yeah sure,” I told her before closing the door.

Dressed in a tiny black t-shirt that read, ‘little miss behaving’ and a pair of multi shade blue plaid pj pants, I wandered down the hallway in my socks, in search of the pop machine I caught a glimpse of earlier. I found it a few feet from the turn off to the elevators, on the opposite side of where we were but it was just my luck that I would open my wallet and not have enough change to buy one can, let alone four.

I was heading back to the room, to get some change from the girls when I remembered that they changed up all of their change with Mary before we left. “Damnit!” I knew that meant I would have to head down to the front desk.

Normally, I wouldn’t care what I looked like but the moment I stepped off the elevator in my pjs and my hair in a messy ponytail, I wished I had taken the time to go back to my room before going downstairs. But then Cassie would be after you to flirt with Scott.

It was pretty dead in the lobby, the only people milling around were the ones heading into the restaurant to the left of the entrance of the hotel. At the front desk, Chelsea and Scott were standing over in the far corner behind the desk, both checking out something on screen in front of them.

Chelsea looked up when I came up to the counter, she smiled and nudged Scott. “Huh, what?” he looked at her and she nodded in my direction. “Oh!” He grinned as he came over to where I was standing. “How is everything with your room? Are you enjoying the view?”

“Well,” I chuckled. “To be honest, we haven’t even looked out the window yet; the girls were too concerned about who was sleeping in the bed by the window.”

He laughed, “So who got to be the lucky ones?”

“My youngest niece and I, the other two weren’t too happy about that.”

“You are the boss,” he replied as he leaned against the counter. “So what can I do for you tonight?”

“Well,” I held up a $20. “I need change for the pop machine. We ordered pizza but they only carry Coke and we don’t like Coke so,” I shrugged. “You know, I went to the machine and I didn’t have any change…” The amused look on his face made me stop short. “So, yeah…”

“You know,” he lowered his voice as if he was about to tell me a secret. “We sell bottled pop in the restaurant and it’s cheaper than throwing your money into the machine upstairs.”

“Really?”

He nodded.

“Oh well, in that case” I pulled my $20 off the counter with a little laugh. “I’ll just take my money over there.”

“Hold up a minute,” he called as I went to turn away. “I’ll walk with you.”

“What?” I watched in disbelief as he made his way out from behind the counter. “Are you allowed to just leave like that?”

“I ordered some food,” he motioned me forward. “I’m heading that way,” he glanced down at me. “It’s nice to have company.”