Thursday, October 1
3:09am
Something was wrong with the pillow. Jeannie turned over and felt uncomfortable. Something was wrong.
She reached out with her foot, sliding her leg along the sheet under the blanket. Confused, she rolled over and stretched her arm out, too.
Sean’s in the bathroom.
Wait a minute, no he’s not.
Where am I?
And then Jeannie opened her eyes, looking at the unfamiliar darkness in the hotel room.
Panic and fear turned into sadness and pain.
She curled up in a ball and tried to go back to sleep.
3:56am
Jeannie had never felt more awake in her life. Desperately thirsty, she realized she had never put the two bottles of water in her refrigerator. After all the fuss to request the refrigerator and have it delivered, it still sat sadly empty.
She figured her cotton pajamas and fuzzy slippers were dressy enough for the hotel hallway. She picked up the key card and her wallet and peeked out of her door.
Empty hallway.
She walked past the elevators on the left and headed for the ice and vending machine area up ahead on the right. Sprite, maybe? Avoiding caffeine would probably be a good idea, Jeannie thought.
The silence was so complete the small humming noise the vending machine made seemed loud. Jeannie poked her head back out in the hallway and looked up and down. Still completely deserted.
She walked tentatively toward the lobby, curious to see if there might be one other hotel guest walking around in the middle of the night. She padded past the door to the pool and peeked slowly around the edge of the lobby, not wanting anyone to see her.
Nope. Still deserted.
She took a couple of steps into the lobby and saw that there was no one behind the front desk. Probably in the office right behind the desk, Jeannie figured, and they’d come right out if they knew anyone was in the lobby.
She turned left and padded into the bar area. Completely dark, it was obviously closed. The Simmering Pot sign was still displayed on its easel but the doors were closed.
She went over to the wall and sat on a couch, which felt strangely daring in her pajamas and slippers. She leaned back and looked around at the shadowy bar and the brightly-lit but empty front desk.
What would it be like to live in a hotel? She knew some super rich people did just that, having their multi-room Penthouse suites cleaned by the housekeeping crew, meals delivered by room service. Fancy hotels in Manhattan or Paris, luxury linens, floor to ceiling windows overlooking beautiful cities.
Well, nobody did that in Holiday Inns, she was pretty certain.
But what would it be like?
Of course, some people who were in trouble lived in motels, in cheap wanna-be apartments with kitchenettes and one tiny bathroom and one bedroom for however many adults and children in the family. Sitting on beds watching tv, no outdoor space to play in, no living room. Paying by the week.
Suddenly it struck Jeannie how lucky she was. At least if this asshole was going to bail on her he did it before the wedding, before she had children. This sucked, but oh man, it could have sucked so very much worse. She was one post-marriage and post-children breakup and one job loss away from being one of those people living in a pay by the week motel room, despite all her careful planning and her 401k.
