White Cloud

34- Epilogue

Two Weeks Later

The hotel is having an employee appreciation event where the ballroom is full of free food, games, and music for all of the employees of the hotel. It was a tradition before my dad became the owner and all of the employees really enjoyed it so my dad wanted to keep it going. It happens every six months and at the last one is where Lionel and Mackenzie had hooked up which ignited Vincent's distaste for the bellhop.

Anyway, the party goes on all day so that the employees that have to work today can still come on their time off which most people do because it's a lot of fun and they're really like a family here.

Living here for a while now, I've gotten to know a lot of them but with the exception of Vincent, I wouldn't say that I'm really close with any of them. When I get into the ballroom, Vincent is already in there talking to Mackenzie. I know that they're close friends which makes it kind of strange that I barely ever talk to her at all.

"Hey, babe," Vincent greets me before he kisses my cheek. "It took you long enough to get down here."

"I was sleeping," I justify, looking around the ballroom to see what all is in here. There's a long table of catered food and then on the other side, there's games set up as if this were a festival or something and in between the food and the games, there are tables to sit at and an open area to dance to what the DJ is playing.

"Well, we have plenty of time," He assures me. "It really gets busy at night because that's when the lights go off and things get crazy."

"Not for me this time," Mackenzie adds with a bitter laugh. "I've got the evening shift and then I'm just going to head home."

"You're not staying?" He asks her with raised eyebrows. "That's a major bummer."

She shrugs at him. "I'm sorry to bum you out. I'm just really not feeling it this year."

"Okay. Well, I'm going to go with Bea to get food but I'm coming back to kick your ass at air hockey later," He warns Mackenzie as he wraps his arm around my waist and starts pulling me toward the buffet style food.

"You're on," She laughs back at him and I just awkwardly wave at her as we leave her by the drink table that they were standing by. Maybe she doesn't like me, that'd explain why whenever we're in the same room, she tends to ignore my existence. Then again, I rarely ever say hi to her either so maybe she thinks that I don't like her.

"You've been sleeping all day?" Vincent asks me curiously. We stop at the buffet and I grab a plate to fill. I'm assuming that Vincent already ate because he doesn't get a plate of his own.

"I was finalizing design plans for the dining room last night," I explain to him with a small shrug. "That's the last of the designing though. The renovation crew has been working endlessly to get the house ready so next week, we'll get to go in and see the final product."

"I can't wait, it has to look amazing," He says with a small smile. I've been stopping by the house every once in a while with my mom just to make sure that the plan is coming along how I imagined it but Vincent never comes with us because I want to surprise him with the final look. "Have you decided on a school yet? Now that you know what you want to do."

"No," I say automatically because lying to him about Rhode Island has become second nature by now which is really sad, I know, but I'm too terrified to say anything to him. At first, I was waiting for the right time to tell him but as time went on, I became paralyzed with the fear of him panicking and breaking up with me because of this and so I just never told him about it. I justify it by saying that I haven't actually been accepted yet but everybody knows that's bullshit.