Misery Business

Connection

"Here are the keys." Sage said, the following day after her shift, handing in the keys to reception where Nadine was standing.

"Where is the other ugly step sister?" Nadine questioned as Sage rolled her eyes.

"Day off." Sage said.

"Lucky for some." Nadine said, "So what did the police ask you yesterday?" She asked curiously.

"Nothing exciting. Just... if I saw anything that would be useful to them."

"And did you?" Nadine asked.

"No." Sage said, "Not that it's any of your business." She added, "Then they asked if I saw anything when I left the room but... obviously I didn't since we were staying in our rooms until everything was cleared up." She shook her head as Nadine looked at her with confusion.

"Huh?" Nadine said.

"What?" Sage shook her head.

"No one... no one had to stay in their rooms." Nadine shook her head as Sage tilted her head, "That's what I assumed would happen but... Jacob, the manager, he said that would only frighten people, and the robbers were long gone anyway." Nadine said.

"So... no one had to stay in their rooms?" Sage asked her.

"No. I gave all of the rooms a voice note on the telephone to say it was ok to come out and that we were serving free tea and coffee downstairs, you know, for anyone a little shaken up." She shrugged, "Why? Did you lock yourself in a room all night?" Nadine laughed a little as Sage just shook her head, backing away from the desk and heading back to the elevator as Nadine just rolled her eyes.

Sage was furious. Why would he lie to her? Why would he want to have kept her in that room when he saw how vulnerable she was getting, how much she needed her pills, how much she needed out and into fresh air. She was shocked and confused.

She marched all the way back up to his floor and began banging on his door, hoping he was in, thankful to hear movement in the room.

As soon as he opened up the door, she barged right in to his own surprise, "Uh... hey." Jon shook his head, closing the door over and turning to her as she dumped her purse on the bed and folded her arms, "Everything ok?" He asked suspiciously.

"You kept me in here when you didn't have to." Sage said, "Why?"

"What?" Jon said, gulping a little.

"I just spoke to Nadine. She said that they were letting people out of their rooms immediately, that there was tea and coffee downstairs for anyone shaken up... no one had to stay in their rooms and you... you said they did." Sage said, "I was a mess in here. Did you... Did you enjoy seeing me lose my mind?" She asked him.

"Sage, hold on a minute." He tried to calm her down.

No." Sage shook her head frantically, "How dare you." She said, "Did you... Did you get some sort of a kick out of it? Or did you hope I would maybe spill some things that would be useful to you in court?" Sage said, "Why the hell did you keep me in here like a prisoner when I didn't have to be-"

"Because I wanted to talk to you." Jon said immediately as she closed her mouth over and looked across at him, "I was worried about you, and I wanted to talk to you, and I... I liked being in your company." He said, "Is that so hard to believe? You always just... run off on me, like I'm gonna hurt you-"

"Why would you want to talk to me when I was in the state I was?" Sage shook her head, "And I heard you on the phone so... was that just... fake calls you were making?" She said, "Who does that?"