To Ashes

Working Hospitality

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Chapter Three

Working Hospitality

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Katie Stevens sighed as she loaded up her cart with fresh towels. It had been a long week.

She worked at Sunseeker Cove. It was a beautiful little apartment complex across from the beach. They rented out the cozy little apartments to holiday goers all year round. A few residents, usually retirees, bought the apartments to live in full time. One of the best apartments was owned by Katie's good friend, Eric Peterson. The trouble was, Eric hadn't been seen lately and everyone was starting to worry.

Katie, Bec and Jack had all worked at Sunseeker Cove for many years. Katie had been here the longest having started a little after she turned fifteen. There weren't many jobs in a beautiful coastal town that weren't hospitality or retail related. There were a lot of quirky little shops that sold crystals and handmade soap. There was an antique shop, post office, mechanic, bakery, butcher, a general store, bookstore and a few pubs and several interesting gift shops all owned by locals. The hairdresser and barber was run out of a house run by the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Bentley. There were a few good solid restaurants that always did alright and a karate dojo which was used as a yoga studio every other day.

The town was quiet, pretty and to the younger locals, generally a bit boring. The nearest big city was a couple of hours by car. At least it wasn't too far for those who wanted to go for the weekend and hit up the club scene. Katie had, as a young teen, was fed up with the sleepy coastal town but now in her early twenties, she'd really begun to settle in it. She loved the atmosphere, the familiar faces, the warm sun even in winter and the fun that came from visitors in summer. Every time she left Katie had always come back with the knowledge that she was truly coming home.

For a little over a year, that home had included an oddball of a young man. At the time, Katie and residents had been horrified when they had been told by Pete (the general manager of the complex) that he had sold the very best apartment to someone who was essentially a teenager. They had braced themselves, expecting a stuck-up rich city boy.

Instead, Eric had come to Sunseeker Cove as a sickly young man, nearly knocked over by illness and very thin. Apparently, his parents had bought him the apartment so he could recover in the "fresh seaside air." The idea that any parents could buy a house for their sick child and effectively abandon them there was heartbreaking.

Eric had turned out to be a soft spoken, polite young man. It had taken quite a few weeks for him to warm to the place. Katie, Bec and Jack had taken him furniture shopping. Their friendship had grown from there. Every other weekend, Eric had them over to his apartment for pizza and movies or gaming. They talked about nothing and ate and whinged about all sorts. It was incredibly good fun. Watching Eric become healthy again, put on weight and lose that starved, hunted look had warmed Katie's heart.

He went for runs along the beach most days, got a job at the local bookstore and helped out a little around Sunseeker Cove despite Pete's insistence that he didn't need to. Eric swept the floor, cleared tables, even helped keep the bright flowering planter pots watered and fertilized. The whole complex had become quite attached to him. He'd become another local another familiar comfort in daily life. If Katie woke up, came to work and saw Eric coming back from his run, the day was off to an ordinary, but good day.

On the weekend, Bec, Katie, Eric and Jack went fishing. They stayed out all morning before heading back to the local fish and chip shop to be fed by a sweaty but jovial Mr. Feng. Heck, sometimes they even went grocery shopping together, Jack always spending waytoo much on crisps and other junk food. Honestly, it wasn't fair. Jack ate so much trash and was always skinny as a rake. Katie had thought the four of them were quite close.