London bookshop owner and foodie Aziraphale is heartbroken when his boyfriend leaves him before their planned romantic getaway to Amsterdam for Halloween. Crowley and his fellow chocolatiers are in the midst of a competition to create the most roman...
A very thrilling plane ride, an inability to not stop and take in every single feasible sight of the city, and a few tentative steps towards where he’d booked his room for later, Aziraphale hears someone call out,
“Goedemorgen!"
A woman walks up to him, holding out her hand, which he takes tentatively, greeting, “Oh, hello!”
“I’m Esther! Are you Ezra?”
The angel nods, “Indeed I am.”
Esther claps her hands in delight, “Oh, wonderful. Welcome to the Hotel Estherea.”, then gestures to the bag Aziraphale had insisted he had to bring. “Can I take that for you?”
Aziraphale’s already shaking his head, “Oh no, dear, thank you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely, my dear.”
Esther gestures behind her, “Then right this way!”, leading Aziraphale towards the building.
The lobby of the hotel, in short, is nothing less than perfect, from the decor to the chandeliers, and the angel can only hope this is a sign he made the right call.
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“Amazing. Simply amazing.” Aziraphale tells Esther, who laughs,
“As much as I’d love to take credit, I cannot. I inherited it from my Grandmother Maria.”
Aziraphale insists, “Not even the decor? Some of it has to be your doing. It’s almost impeccable.”
Esther concedes, “Maybe some of it.”, then looks around, a bashful smile on her face as she relents, “Okay, fine, all of it. Me and my team.”, then pretends to shush, sharing a laugh with the angel before the woman turns around to pick up a key.
“So your reservation says you booked the Halloween Couples’ package. I assure you, no one does romance like we do.”
Which makes Aziraphale’s smile fall right into a more wistful one, as he says, “Unfortunately, I will be the only one staying.”
Esther, to her credit, only looks thrown for a second, before her smile is back on her face, then says, “Even better!”, taking the angel’s bag.
“I’ll even let you in on a little secret. You picked the perfect time to come to Amsterdam.” Esther informs him, as she picks up a newspaper, handing it to him. “We’re preparing for the royal wedding.”
At that, Aziraphale feels his nonexistent heart sink, “Oh, right. The royal wedding.”
Ether nods, pointing to the picture of the couple as she explains, “That's Catharina-Amalia Beatrix Carmen Victoria, and her fiancé Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant, Belgium."
The angel can’t even pretend to not be interested, so he says, “They’re beautiful.”
Esther assures him, “You can keep that, if you wish. There’s a long list of events going on, and some are even for public access.”
