Vacancy

Chapter 4 - Booze and Spirits

Samara decided to keep her hallucinations to herself. She returned to the front desk with her fresh training supplies, still a little shaken. She could have sworn she had felt something underneath her fingertips along the wall. Samara plunked down the stack of training binders in her arms and leaned against the counter to center herself.

Curse Sherry for starting the gossiping, Samara thought angrily. This fear was the last thing she needed on top of all the stress.

"So how'd the training go?"

Samara jumped out of her skin, whirling around knocking the binders to the floor. Daniel took a step back, startled by her reaction.

"You okay sweetheart?" Daniel asked concerned. He placed a hand on her heaving shoulders.

"Don't sneak up on me like that," Samara said with a hand on her racing heart, as if that would sooth it.

"You seem pretty stressed out, why don't you let me run this afternoons training?" Daniel offered, wanting to give his daughter a break. After all, running and owning a hotel was a lot to put on a twenty-four-year-old.

Samara narrowed her eyes. "I'm fine. I can handle it. It's just the stupid rumors the ladies were talking about earlier, kind of freaked me out.

Daniel laughed. "And here I thought you had too good of a head on your shoulders to believe that nonsense."

"One of the vases in the main corridor smashed," Samara said, choosing to ignore her father's previous statement.

"Good thing I got a bulk deal on them." Daniel shrugged. He knew the decorative pieces were bound to gather some wear and tear so he invested in buying certain ones in bulk.

"Maybe we should glue the easily breakable pieces to the tabletops," Samara suggested, only half believing that would solve the problem.

Daniel's eyebrows shot up. "Unlike the vase, I didn't buy the side tables in bulk. They were quite expensive so nothing will be getting glued to the surface."

Samara sighed, not wanting to argue with her father after everything. "Okay, fine. I'll take the night off, but I'll be here for the rest of the training."

Daniel placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Of course. I was only volunteering for tonight."

Samara swatted her dad's hand away as he chuckled at his own joke.

                                                   ***

Opening week had been a mess to say the least. They ran out of pool towels on the busy Friday night, there was a minor leak in one of the walls, and the housekeeping staff was slow and unorganized. Samara had felt like running out on more than one occasion. The front desk staff called her twenty-four-seven for even the most minor things. Sherry in particular was trying her patience. That was a bad hiring call, Samara thought. I can still let her go within her three month training, right?

Samara hadn't had a day off since they were allowed to enter the building. She would be getting a drink or two in the hotel bar tonight, that's for sure. And would be turning off her phone. She sat perched at her desk staring at the excel file she had open until Sherry came around from the front desk.

"How do we take cash payments again?"

The look Samara gave the older woman had Sherry turn beet-red and scamper away. They had been through that procedure at least three times--in the last week.

Yes, a strong drink should do the trick, Samara thought.

The rest of the day went a lot smoother. Samara's mood had actually managed to improve by the end of her shift at six in the evening. She said goodbye to the evening front desk staff—she liked them much better than the useless day staff members—then headed to the bar for a drink and perhaps some food.