ANNIE

6 ☼ Annie In Washington

A N N E T T E

Ms. Kenslee paused slightly at the door before moving to saunter down the steps with an almost arrogant sway. However, by the time both feet had hit the pavement her entire demeanor changed and she hurriedly began to cross the distance between herself and me, essentially ignoring the man who was trying to hand her the keys to the waiting car. 

"Could you give me a minute?" she shot out civilly, holding her hand up to stop the man from following her as she quickly made it to the edge of the grass where I stood bent over with my hands on my knees, panting. 

"Are you okay? Still feeling sick?" she asked, placing a hand on my back.

Despite the fact that I had kept my eyes shut for the rest of the flight, I hadn't managed to sleep. I was too anxious to allow myself to relax.

"Yeah, I'm okay," I eventually replied.  "I'm off the plane, finally," I said as I continued to try and pull myself together. 

"Are you okay to ride in the car or do you need a few minutes?" Ms. Kenslee asked cautiously.  "We can wait around here for a bit if we need to. There's no hurry."

I straightened myself up and took a deep breath in through my nose.  "I'm good. The car's okay."

"Alright, well, let's get going then," the woman said, giving me a half smile.

Just walking into the hotel lobby with Ms. Kenslee was an uncomfortable experience for me.  All of our luggage had been piled onto a cart by a nicely dressed man who then followed us into the lobby while another parked the car.  I followed so closely behind her without realizing it. She didn't seem to mind or even notice as she confidently carried herself to the front desk.  The brunette there waiting for her seemed completely unfazed by Ms. Kenslee's presence, which helped me to relax. 

"Ms. Kenslee," she began.  "We're glad to have you back. I see you decided to change things up a little bit this time," she said, offering her the keys to the room she had requested.  "I hope you enjoy your stay in the Regal Suite."

Ms. Kenslee thanked her and started towards the room, I was still so close behind that when the woman stopped at the elevator, I crashed right into her.  "I'm sorry, Ms," I gasped. "I didn't mean to."

Looking over her shoulder, Ms. Kenslee took half a step backward to put just a little bit more space between us.  "It's fine, Annie. Are you alright?"

Noticing that both the woman and the porter now had their eyes on me, I felt myself shrink. Unable to get anything more than a few 'um's and 'ah's out of my mouth, I nodded my head.  Ms. Kenslee didn't say anything about it, rather, she put her hand into mine and gave me a reassuring smile. 

"Relax, will you? You're alright," she whispered.

I just nodded, thankful that she didn't remove her hand from my grip as we climbed into the elevator and finally found our way into the suite. As soon as we were inside I stood there in the middle of the room as the porter unloaded the luggage before leaving Ms. Kenslee and I alone in the large space.

"Annie," Ms. Kenslee called from the table by the window.  "Are you hungry or is your stomach still settling?"

I started to walk towards her, glancing at the double french doors to my left and the singular door to my right.  "I-I'm okay, Ms. Kenslee."