[18+] Mark just wants a quiet life. With plenty of action at work, he has no interest in bringing the drama home with him. But he does need a flatmate, and when blonde bombshell Zoe crashes onto the scene, she's more than he bargained for.
Zoe is a...
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July 2015
ZOE
My shift starts off with a bang, and not just because I'm nursing a thumping headache from the amount of wine I drank last night. Will has called in sick, and his cover is useless.
That might be the hangover talking—Morris is fine on a day-to-day level—but Will knows how to get shit done when it hits the fan, and Morris feels that every decision needs to be run by me. Normally, that wouldn't bother me, but today I don't have the mental energy to perform his job on top of mine.
When my phone rings for the fifth time that afternoon, I consider ignoring it. Maybe if he's forced to make his own decision, it will instil a little confidence in him. But then I think about the Hotel Manager position and how every judgement call I make will help strengthen my application.
"Hi, Morris."
"Zoe, hi. We have a small problem. You know those clients you told us we have to absolutely please every step of the way?"
"Uhuh..." I press the phone between my ear and shoulder as I continue with the email I was typing. "If they want to extend for another few days, it's fine. Just tell Jackie to—"
"It's not that. It's that, well, when you say we absolutely have to please them, what should we do if that's in direct conflict with pleasing our other guests? Because we have a couple of people who are a tad annoyed that the gym is closed."
God, this hangover is killing me. Who the hell closes the gym on a weekday? Did they tell me about that and I forgot?
"Why's the gym closed?"
Morris lowers his voice to a whisper. "Because Teddy Stone is using it, and his security team are stopping other people going inside."
Email abandoned, I sit up straighter and lift a hand back up to the phone to hold it properly. "I'm sorry, what?"
"He's got two security men outside the entrance and they're not letting anyone past. It's starting to annoy other guests who want to use the gym and pool."
Plastic creaks as my fingers tighten around the handset. They might be protecting Teddy Stone, but I'd bet my future career here that it's not him who's made this decision. Is a whole floor not enough for Mark anymore? He needs to commandeer other parts of my hotel too?
"I'll be right there."
Anger builds with every stride I take through the corridors. How dare he? Yes, he's paying more than every guest here combined, but that doesn't give him autonomy over the facilities.
Morris is hovering by the water machine when I get into the basement that houses the gym.
"I'll handle this," I say to him. "Go to Front Desk and tell them to give any inconvenienced guests a ten percent discount and one free course at the restaurant tonight."
