The Trick to Falling in Style

Fate

"Thank you for staying at the Nook Hotel," Tommy called out, watching the person wave goodbye and leave out the door with all their bags. Tommy's customer service smile dropped the moment the doors swung back shut. He nudged the mouse to wake up the computer, taking note of what time it was. He only had a few more minutes before his shift was over. Most likely nothing would happen in those moments, but Tommy wasn't allowed to leave until Nook showed up. That wasn't much of a problem since Nook was an unusually punctual person. Tommy had never met anyone who actually got to a location at the very second they were supposed to, but he had already admitted to himself that Nook was one of the strangest people he knew and probably would ever know.

"Hola, Tomathy!" A voice sounded from the elevators that slowly opened. Tommy tried to keep a smile from reaching his face, but he failed horribly as one of his closest friends sauntered out of the elevator. MD had been working as a housekeeper in the hotel since the opening day, and he was one of the best parts of Tommy's job. Where Sam was warm and Nook was intriguing, MD could match Tommy's chaos blow for blow. They weren't allowed to hang out together during work hours for that exact reason. When they got together, the two of them shared a single brain cell that took too many vacations for either of their own goods. The first time they had met, they had flooded the laundry room with soap suds. Sam made them clean it up, and they ended up having a soap-ball fight. Luckily, neither of them got soap in their eyes, and Sam grumbled that they had used up all of their luck to accomplish that feat.

"Hey, MD! My shift isn't over, so you gotta stay over there," Tommy informed the other. MD did not do as he was told; instead, he slid over to the receptionist desk that Tommy was working at. The blonde rolled his eyes, but he didn't have the heart to actually tell MD to get away from him. They had been friends for too long for that kind of thing. "We can hang out after my shift."

"No can do, Tomathy, I have a date with a very hot senorita. I'm talking about una mujer caliente, if you know what I'm saying," MD laughed while wiggling his eyebrows. Tommy giggled. He had a passing awareness of the odd language MD frequently spoke in. He knew that 'uno' meant one, so 'una' probably meant something similar. He knew that 'caliente' means 'hot'. He didn't know what 'mujer' means, but if 'senorita' was 'miss' then it must be something like girl or babe. Tommy may not have been the smartest man in the whole world, but he could use context clues when he wanted to. It was a skill his mother had taught him... though, she had meant for him to use that skill for entirely different purposes.

"Oh, I know exactly what you are talking about. Women constantly flock to me. In fact, I have to meet Girlfriend #2 after my shift today, so I couldn't have hung out with you even if I wanted to," Tommy said, waving his hand back and forth. It didn't matter much to him, though. His friendship with MD was not a personal one, by any means. They would frequently pull pranks and make horrendous jokes, but there was rarely a time when they hung out after work. It was just a habit at this point for one of them to offer their free time to the other, only for the prospect to be kindly denied. Tommy didn't think about it for too long as he brought up the woman that he knew MD's heart beat for. "Let me take a guess, MD... Mamacita is the one that asked your ass out."

"Oh-ho-ho, my good amigo, you are entirely correct. Man, I cannot wait for esta noche. I do love a domineering woman who can step on me," MD said with a dreamy look in his eyes. Tommy's smug expression dissipated in a single second. He leaned down behind the counter to search for a trash can as disgust washed over him.

"Okay, MD, I love sex as much as the next guy, but holy fuck! I did not need to hear that shit!" Tommy said, dropping his head into his hands when he couldn't find the trash can. He didn't have to puke, but he would like the reassurance that there was something there to catch his vomit if MD decided to continue just to spite him. He wouldn't put it past MD to begin describing what he hoped his night was going to be like if he knew it would make Tommy sick to his stomach to hear.