Midnight Survivor

Chapter 2: Be Our Guest

I was hesitant at first to go with Oliver, he had a bit of mystery and dominance to him that made me feel uncomfortable around him, but not enough to not wonder what he was all about. I knew he was the owner of the hotel, which was a bit intimidating. A rich city man compared to small minimum wage country girl. But there was something about him, something that made my mind tick and something that made me want to keep my footsteps close behind him.

As we walked down another long hallway I could see that as he walked, it was if he glided, with such elegance that it was almost ghost like. 

He peered over his shoulder as the corner of his mouth twitched upwards, "You're getting an eye full back there aren't you?" 

I looked up from watching his feet, which probably looked like me staring at his ass, and my cheeks flushed red, "No no...just keeping an eye on the ground..."

Oliver laughed and pointed towards a door at the end of the hallway, "That's where our Maintenance lady stays, her name is Sylvie, she can be a bit paranoid at times and is always trying to be right on time. So don't be offended if she ever rushes you through your evaluation."

I nodded and tilted my head slightly, "Other than yourself, is it only women that work here?"

Oliver shook his head and grinned, "You clearly haven't met Xavier yet."

I was about to open my mouth to ask who he was when Oliver opened the door to Maintenance and strolled in. I slid my way in behind him and looked around, the room was nicely kept. Not much like a hotel room as mine had been but more of an office area. A young woman, probably in her late 20's was seated at her desk, brown eyes fixed on the computer screen in front of her as she typed vigorously. Her white hair was streaked with a single black strand that dangled in front of her glasses.

"Sylvie, I'd like you to meet out newest guest, Alannah."

Sylvie's fingers stopped right away and twitched slightly as she raised her head, looking me up and down before she stood slowly, "This isn't my free time Oliver."

Oliver's facial expression dropped as he motioned his hand towards me, "We don't always work on your time Sylvie."

Sylvie placed her hand gently in her pocket and pulled out a small pocket watch, "Time? You don't work on my time? Do you know how many things I do in a day? I have to check every room in this hotel, evaluate everyone with 11.2 minutes in order to keep things in an orderly fashion, I then have to go down to the kitchen to get the food from Madeline, taking everything to each room takes 5.8 minutes per round. I need to stay on time. You interrupting me is going to cause chaos in my maintenance schedule. Now if you would excuse me."

She nudged her was gently past me and out into the hallway, grabbing two clipboards off the door as she scurried off. Oliver sighed and wiped the sweat off of his brow, "I'm sorry, she's very persistent on when she gets things done."

I nodded gently and smiled, "It's understandable."

Oliver smiled and swiftly walked out of the room again, "I'll take you to the kitchen to meet Madeline. After that I can introduce you to Xavier, he's always in his room, and I doubt you'll see Chira. She only arrives on her own time."

Oliver placed a hand on my shoulder and motioned me down the large stair case I had came up on my way to my room with Elisa. I could see her perched on her stool at the reception desk, flipping through a magazine while chatting on the phone. Crap. I forgot to call mom. Maybe after the tour.

I glanced over to the seating area where I could still see the couple from before perched quietly in their seats, still as close and as still. It was slightly weird that they didn't move from there much, or at least hadn't moved whenever I was around. Maybe they just weren't friendly.