Simply "X"

Part 14 - Turning the Tables

    As I finished watching the events in my suite, I began to formulate a plan of attack. I thought of several ways to handle this privacy infringing situation. I admit that I was a bit put off by the violation, but another part of me actually liked being sought after. I simply wasn't sure what I was going to do. The one thought I did take solace in was that this whole scheme was not Delilah's doing. That was a great load off of my mind. However, I was still unsure about how to effectively deal with this game.

My mind is racing in circles about this whole thing. I look down at my watch and find that it's nearly 8 o'clock. I think to myself, "Okay Greyson, time to be that creature of habit that everyone knows you to be." I don't want to break my routine before I have a chance to decide how I'm going to handle this game. Then it hit me like a Mack truck. It's a game. Play the game. Of course, it's so simple. All I have to do is turn the tables, and play the game in reverse.

Walking into the hotel, I see Victoria standing there looking adorable as she always does when I arrive. She smiles brightly at me as she welcomes me back to New York. I check in as usual, and tell her that I want to purchase a whole 'day spa' package for Sunday morning, a massage, manicure, the works. She looks at me in a bewildered way, and says, "Well, that's certainly an out of the ordinary request Mr. Daniels. What's the special occasion?" I smile at her and tell her, "I'm exhausted Victoria, and I simply want to relax this weekend." She taps on her computer and asks if a 9 o'clock start time is good for me. I nod, and she prints out the elaborate certificate, puts it in a fancy envelope, and hands it to me with my room card.

I thank her kindly, and head to the restaurant for my dinner. Everything goes exactly as planned at dinner. Jeremy is perfect as usual, and Milan delivers my favorite drinks exactly on time. I finish up, leave Jeremy's gratuity, and walk towards the elevator. As I'm walking past the front desk, I pause for a moment and speak with Victoria. I ask her, "Victoria, will you send up some Tylenol, and tea in about 15 minutes please? I've had a terrible headache all day." She replies, "Of course Mr. Daniels. Are you sure you won't be needing anything else?" I nod and tell her that will be all. She finishes with, "Very good sir. I will send Christina up with it when she comes for the turn-down service. And there was my answer. Christina was her name. I couldn't remember that at all, what with all the chaos of that night. As I go to my room, the memories of that night come flooding back. I remember feeling extremely embarrassed, that's for sure, but I never caught her name. Well, now I have a name to go with the face of the gorgeous woman who has been secretly giving me gifts. Now it's time to find out why.

Reaching my room, I find the newest secret gift on my pillow. I open it and find a beautiful sapphire tie tack that matches the cuff links that I was already given. She has really gone to a lot of trouble to put this who game together. I was still dying to know what her motivation was for all of this. These gifts were not cheap, and I assumed that as a hotel maid, Christina didn't make tons of money. I sit on my bed and read the card that she left. It read, "This completes your blue suit that I enjoy so much. The only suit I love more is the one given to you on your birthday. Another smiley face was on this card, and again it was signed simply "X." I smiled and began to understand her motivation. The previous gift was the silk boxers, and she noted that they would look even better on the floor between us. I assumed that she was physically and possibly even romantically attracted to me. Her notes were getting more and more suggestive, that was for sure.

I check on the camera and prepare to change for bed. I brush my teeth, and strip down for comfort. I put the hotel robe on expecting the delivery any minute. Just as I was turning on the night stand lamp, a knock came at the door. This was it, time to play the game. I had been thinking about this moment all afternoon and evening. I told myself to remain calm, and just let this play out. I decided to keep my cards close to my chest, so to speak. I didn't want to show my hand to early. I was still looking for answers.

Opening the door to my suite, I see her standing there with my requested items, and the typical turn-down elements. She is even more gorgeous than I remembered. She's a picturesque beauty with an angelic glow about her. As our eyes meet, she smiles slightly, and says, "I'm here with your requested items, and turn-down sir. May I come in please?" I take a step back and motion her in as I tell her, "Of course, you have a master key card. You could come in anytime you wanted to." Her smile left as I could see that I might have touched a nerve. She carried on however, and performed the service as usual.

As she was placing the mints on my pillow, I offered, "What a nice touch to leave something special on my pillow." She looked back at me in a quizzical way, and said, "Yes sir, it is." And then a moment later she followed-up with, "If I was going to leave you a special gift, it would be on your pillow for sure." I smiled at her as she turned around. She continued with, "You see, where I am from in northern Ukraine, it is unacceptable for a woman to be so forward as to give a man gifts, unless she is betrothed to him by her father." My reply was simply, "I see."

She finished the service and turned to bid me good night. Looking at each other now, I glanced quickly at her name tag, and in that moment it hit me like a ton of bricks. It read, "Xristina" instead of Christina. She is Ukrainian, and it was the spelling that screamed out at me, "Simply X." Now I get it loud and clear. It was her doing and hers alone. She wasn't doing this secretly for someone else. She was doing this for herself. Her motivation was to share her intentions that she wants to give herself to me. But why, I thought. Well to find that out, I knew that the game must play on.

Saturday came and I went into the office. However, prior to departing the hotel, I stopped to speak to Martin at the front desk. I gave him the fancy envelope that Victoria gave me yesterday, and I asked him to have it placed on my pillow just after my room was turned this morning. Without asking a single question, he gladly offered, "Absolutely Mr. Daniels, happy to help in any way that I am able. Please enjoy your day, sir" I thanked him and told him that I would be back for dinner.

The work day was rather uneventful. We accomplished all that was necessary by about 4 o'clock. As I was wrapping things up, and organizing my files, my watch beeped at me. The camera in my room detected movement. I sat back down and watched closely as Xristina entered the camera's view. She went to the bed and saw the fancy envelope on my pillow. She picked it up, and saw that it had a big "X" written on it. She smiled really big, and opened it up. I left a note inside that read, "I don't know who you are, but I wanted to thank you for the sweet gifts. Perhaps someday you will let me thank you in person. But until then, I hope you will enjoy some pampering tomorrow in the salon." I signed it simply "G." She pulled the gift certificate out to discover that it was for a luxury facial, manicure, pedicure, and a 90 minute full body Swedish massage in the VIP salon. Her eyes widened, as she was almost giddy with excitement.

Xristina turned towards the window, and I could see the delight in her face. She held the card to her chest, closed her eyes, and savored the moment. Knowing that the overall cost of this gift, with the gratuities, was upwards of $700, and strictly for VIP's only, I figured this is an experience that she would not soon forget. I could tell that she was really happy. My plan was working perfectly. Now all I had to do was to grease a few palms to get additional information, and put tomorrows plan into action. If everything goes right, I'll have all of my answers by lunchtime tomorrow. This was turning into quite the covert operation, and I was actually enjoying myself.