Two Weeks With Chelsea

Chapter 18

Chelsea woke up again at eight and quietly changed into slacks and her gym t-shirt. The room was still fairly dark; the heavy curtains kept most of the sunlight at bay. She folded her clothing and returned everything to her suitcase and backpack as quietly as possible. She refilled the glass on the night table and slipped the partially empty water bottle in her pack. She was reaching for the door handle when Trevor sat up.

"Where you going?" he asked as he rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands.

"I have to look for another hotel, remember. I thought I should get started," she replied.

"What time is it?"

"It's about eight thirty, I think."

"Wait..." Trevor paused as he ran his fingers through his hair. "No place will let you check in until noon, at least. Maybe not even until three. Just a sec..."

Chelsea paused at the door and contemplated her next move. Trevor lifted the water glass from the night table and downed the contents with a refreshing sigh. His legs flailed as he kicked off the covers and moved to the edge of the bed. He was still only wearing white briefs and didn't seem to notice that Chelsea's eyes were nervously trying to avoid looking at him.

"How about this? Give me twenty, maybe thirty minutes, I have to shower... you can leave your stuff here and I'll go with you. Wouldn't want you to get lost," he said with a cocky grin.

Chelsea paused for a moment before answering, "Are you sure? I don't want to, you know, keep you from whatever you have planned. And, maybe you want to sleep it off a little more."

"No! No more sleep. It'll be better if I get out and do something. And, don't worry, I don't have anything planned. At least not 'til the bars open. Besides, you owe me breakfast."

Chelsea wheeled her suitcase back to the closet to put it out of the way while Trevor rummaged through his suitcase for a fresh pair of underwear. She sat and waited and listened. Twenty minutes flowed into thirty. She could hear him moving in the shower stall. Forty minutes in, he was shaving. Fifty minutes had passed when she heard him brushing his teeth. When he stepped out of the bathroom in the tight-fitting clean pair of briefs. Chelsea didn't notice she was staring at him until he was already at the foot of the bed. She turned her eyes towards the door.

"Sorry I took so long. The shower felt SO good," he said as he pulled on his jeans.

The bright sun and noise of the bustling street reminded Trevor of the pain that still ruled his head. He paused for a moment on the sidewalk outside the hotel and let his eyes adjust to the light but covered up his need to take some time by talking about 'the plan' for the day.

"Okay, so I think the plan should be, we start close by, hit up the hotels here and see what we find," he said in a confident tone that hid his pain.

"That's what I was thinking. There's one on the corner down there. That one first?" Chelsea said as she pointed down the street. "What about breakfast?"

"Maybe a little later, if that's okay with you."

She walked at his side down the street. His hand nearest to her was held up as a shield from the blazing sunlight that made his eyes water. A moment later they were at the doorway of the first hotel.

The dim light of the hotel lobby felt refreshing after the short walk in the bright sun. Trevor lowered his hand and pointed towards the reception desk and followed Chelsea. The male clerk at the desk was polite but still looked over Chelsea and her companion with concern as she asked about getting a room. She noticed the clerk eyeing up Trevor with a disapproving stare.

"And, it's just for me. He's just a friend helping make sure I don't get lost," Chelsea said.

The clerk now seemed a little less concerned about Chelsea's intentions for getting a room, but went right to the matter of age, "It is just you checking in? And, how old are you? I will have to see some identification."

The clerk shook his head and apologized for not being able to help her. When asked about other places nearby or anywhere in the city that might not be concerned about age, the clerk, again, shook his head and apologized. The same scene played out at the next hotel, and the next. Each hotel they visited denied her of a place to stay and offered no suggestions of where to look. Three blocks later they arrived at yet another hotel. The doorway was located on the street corner. Through the door the loud sounds of renovations emanated from the interior of the building and became louder and more painful as the door swung open.

"The sign says vacancy, I wonder why that is," Chelsea said sarcastically.

"They might be desperate for someone to take a room, so you might have a chance. I'm just going to wait out here, in the shade around the corner," Trevor said.

Chelsea winced when a loud squeal cut through the hum and buzz of grinders and jack hammers. She reluctantly made her way to the desk and saw a sympathetic look on the clerk's face.

"I am sorry about the noise. How may I help you?" he shouted through the fog of sound and dust.

Chelsea explained her situation and put a few skills she picked up in drama class to work to ply a little more sympathy out of the man behind the desk. The nodding head she saw across from her seemed like a good sign, but it was soon replaced with the familiar shake associated with the ever so familiar apology. There was a little bit of hope left as the clerk seemed to be offering a possible solution to her problem, complete with some hand gestured directions.

Chelsea bounded out of the hotel with a smile on her face.

"They let you have a room?" Trevor asked. "Does it come with ear plugs?"

"No, but he said there's a place, down that way two blocks then turn left and another block."

"Great! Let's go..." Trevor replied.

The clerk's accent mixed with the ear-piercing sound of renovations made it difficult for Chelsea to hear the description of the place he mentioned as well as the directions of how to find it. It also didn't help that his lazy hand gestures pointed her in the wrong direction.

"And, he knows for sure they will let you check in?" Trevor asked.

"Yeah! He said there is a cute hotel, two blocks that way then one block to the left."

Trevor had traveled a fair bit over the years and stayed in hotels, resorts, time share condos and the beach houses of a few friends. Despite the exposure to the world his life afforded, alternative accommodations were not something he knew much about. Renting a condo in Florida for two weeks was as close to 'alternative' as it got in his vast inventory of experience. As such, Chelsea's misinterpretation of "Youth Hostel" to "Cute Hotel" went completely unnoticed.

At the end of their walk in the wrong direction they did find a hotel. If it were looked at in a certain way with eyes squinted and a thumb in the field of view to block out some less than attractive architectural features, it might be considered cuter that some, but it was no more accommodating than the others. Chelsea felt defeated. Trevor felt hungry.

"I could use a bit of food," he said.

"I give up!"

"Relax... Let's have something to eat and figure it out."

"I should just get on a plane and go home."

"You forgetting something? For the next two weeks, you don't have a home," Trevor said solemnly.

Trevor's words alone could have been a cold reminder of her situation that would have brought her to tears had he not followed up with some action.

"Sorry, that was maybe a little harsh. Let's just get something to eat there and think this over," Trevor said as he took her hand and started across the street towards a bakery. "How 'bout this? You can stay with me again tonight. In the morning, maybe, we hit the street again and see if we can find something for you."

She nodded and smiled.

"Here's the plan; the new plan for today, we have breakfast, head back to the hotel, change and hit the beach."