“Excuse me, could I have one of those?” I asked. The flight attendant glanced down at the stack of newspapers in her arms, a surprised expression crossing her features before her pink lips curled into a flirtatious smile.
“There’s a news channel on board, number fifty four.” She bent down lower than necessary, giving me a glimpse of the lacy black bra underneath her uniform. Her breasts brushed my bicep as she reached for the controller in my armrest. “Here, let me help you with that.”
A couple of years ago, I would have leaned into it. I would have smiled back and taken her to a hotel room as soon as the plane touched down. Not anymore.
Shifting a bit so my arm wasn’t in the way of her ample chest anymore, I smiled politely and nodded at the newspapers. “I prefer getting my news from the papers.”
The flirtatious smile faltered before she straightened up. “Of course sir. The Times?”
“One of each, please. Thank you.”
She shuffled through the stack, then handed me three different papers.
“Anything else I can get for you today, sir?” She batted her long lashes, thrusting out her hip a little. The name tag on her uniform told me her name was Carol.
Carol was pretty and clearly interested, but I wasn’t. “I’ll take a Macallan on the rocks.”
It was after lunch. Still too early to be drinking, but I needed it. Carol nodded and walked down the narrow aisle to get my drink, handing out more papers to the other passengers in first class as she went.
Settling back in my seat, I unfolded The Times. The paper rustled as I snapped it open. I paged past the gossip section, but not fast enough to miss my brother’s face smiling up at me from the page.
The headline was one that I saw at least once every couple of months. Danny loved the attention that went along with being who we were as much as I avoided it. Today’s headline speculated about my brother dating Madeline Thompson, a hotel heiress in her own right.
I shook my head. Danny, Maddy and I all grew up together. Our fathers, despite being rival property magnates, had been friends for years. Danny and Maddy both adored being in the public eye. I knew there was nothing between them, but I also knew they thrived on headlines and society gossip.
Carol delivered my drink and I gulped half of it down, relishing the smooth burn of the alcohol. My brother was going to be insufferable later. No doubt being the subject of an article in The Times had made his already enormous head swell another size or two.
“Aren’t you too young to read newspapers?” Carol asked, hovering near my seat with another welcoming smile.
Sighing inwardly, I nodded. “I’m an old soul, I guess. Thanks for the drink.”
My eyes drifted away from her brown ones back to my paper. Taking the hint that I wasn’t in the mood to be social, she frowned and took off.
I scowled at Danny’s picture for a second, then went in the search of the real news. For the next three hours, I devoured the papers before pulling out my laptop to get some work done.
Too soon for my liking, the Captain’s voice crackled over the speakers. “Good afternoon folks. We’re going to be starting our descent into Florida in the next few minutes. We hope you enjoyed the flight with us today and that you’ll choose us when you travel again.”
I was already booked on this airline for a flight out tomorrow, much to my father’s chagrin. He never understood why I preferred to fly commercial instead of taking the company jet. Neither my dad nor my brother understood why I chose to stay under the radar, out of the public eye, keeping mostly to myself.
Luckily, they’d given up on trying to talk me into changing my mind. As the Chief Financial Officer of one of the biggest hotel groups in the world, they thought I should enjoy the perks more. But being CFO was enough for me. I didn’t want or need the rest of it.
Heat and humidity hit me in the face as soon as I stepped out of the airport terminal. “Fucking Florida,” I muttered under my breath, heading toward the rental car company I always used. Why my dad chose Tampa for the company headquarters never made sense to me, but he loved it here.
Something about being able to work and still live the retirement lifestyle. It made zero sense, but it wasn’t my logic or my decision. At least he didn’t expect me to live here, or even to spend a lot of time here.
I spent my time traveling between our hotels all around the country. I worked from hotels and planes, hardly ever sleeping in my own bed. It suited me perfectly.
After spending fifteen minutes in the express line to rent a car, I made my way through the throngs of people in the airport and found the Mercedes I’d rented out in the lot.
Once I was on the road, I blasted the air conditioner in the car and turned the radio all the way up. Rock music poured out of the speakers. I let the pounding bass wash over me, relaxing the knots in my shoulders.
My father’s office was in an imposing building downtown. It was one of the only properties we owned that didn’t double as a hotel. Just the sight of it had the pleasant buzz from the music flowing right out of me. I used to love it here, but I had really grown to hate this state. I didn’t know what the issue was, but being here made me really uncomfortable, like somehow my skin was on too tight.
Reaching for my collar, I pulled it away from my throat and rolled my neck from shoulder to shoulder. My suit was tailor made for me and up until I landed in Florida, it fit me like a glove. Now it also felt too tight. Like my skin, it was choking me. Making me itch.
A car horn blared at me as I slowed to a near crawl before pulling into the parking lot. Frank, my dad’s favorite security guard, waved me through the boom with a friendly flick of his hand. I returned the gesture, half wishing I could stop and chat with him. But my dad was waiting.
I glanced at the clock on the dashboard, realizing that by taking my time to get here I was officially five minutes late. I hated being late nearly as much as I hated where I was. Growing up with one of the most successful men in the country as my father, I had learned a lot about business. One of the first lessons I learned was about timeliness. Time is money and nobody liked losing money.
Gunning it through the lot, I parked in my designated space and jogged across to the elevator. Unlike most execs, dad didn’t have a corner office. He had a large rectangular space in the middle of the floor with a massive balcony overlooking the ocean. Glass stackable doors made up one entire side, in his words, to let in ‘plenty of natural light.’ On days that he felt like it, the doors were opened completely so he could feel like he was working outside.
BLAKEI arrived on his floor and dashed through the first slit in the elevator doors as soon as it appeared. My feet sank into plush carpeting as I made my way to his office.“Good morning Norma,” I greeted his secretary, an old battle ax of a woman who’d been with him since the beginning of time.She lifted a white eyebrow and peered at me over the rim of her glasses. “You’re late Blake. Best go in quickly, Danny’s already been in there a while.”I groaned, as I’d been hoping to beat my brother into the office. I actually liked my dad, so it would have been nice to have a few minutes to catch up. Guess I should have thought about that before taking so much time getting here.“Get in there,” Norma instructed sternly. “Before Danny’s fanciful ideas have a chance to seep into the old man’s head.”A soft chuckle I couldn’t hold in burst free. There were less than a handful of people in the world who would talk to or about my father that way. I loved Norma for it. “You’re right. Before we
ASTON The lobby was quiet at this time of the morning. Slowly but surely, a small trickle of people were making their way from the bank of elevators to my left across the lobby to the breakfast area. I was proud to say our breakfast area was one of the best Palo Alto had to offer.The hotel basically sat on the beach and while having bacon and eggs—or an egg white omelet for the more health conscious—clients could enjoy the magnificent view. The sparkling blue ocean lay to one side and great city views to the other.I’d even had a hand in arranging the tables on the outside deck so everyone would have something pretty to look at while getting fueled up for the day ahead. I tried to make every guest feel special and welcomed, from the Silicon Valley business guys to the Stanford students needing some grease to cure their hangovers. Making sure their breakfast came with a view was only one way I tried to achieve my goal. When I got promoted to manager of this property, the California b
ASTONOne knocked into a standing vase and I cringed and waited for the crash when it hit the floor, but the doorman managed to grab it just before it toppled over. He got knocked on the head by a few of the flowers from the arrangement, but he’d saved us from having to salvage them all from the floor.The frat guy didn’t acknowledge Fred at all. He just swept past the poor doorman and punched his buddy on the shoulder as they headed toward us. I sighed, a group of rowdy frat guys checking in always caused trouble, which was the last thing I was in the mood for, but clearly these guys wouldn’t care.Tiffany, on the other hand, straightened up and checked her lip gloss in the reflection of the computer monitor as she nudged me with her elbow. “Perfect timing. Some might even call it divine intervention. What are the odds of them appearing right at this moment? Just think—one of them could be the guy who finally pops your cherry. The time has come, girl. Take your pick first, but person
BLAKEJust my luck, I missed the last flight to California yesterday while I was going over some numbers with Dad, so I was stuck spending the night in Florida after all. At least our property here made a mean pancake.Tomorrow I would go back to healthy choices, but today I wanted my pancakes. I stretched out on the king-sized bed and reached for the phone to call room service before I’d even opened my eyes. A definite advantage to practically living in hotels was never having to worry about fixing your own breakfast.Once my food was ordered, I rolled out of bed and rubbed my eyes as I headed to the bathroom. I was useless before a shower in the mornings.This hotel property, one of the three we had in Florida, was the first hotel dad had owned. It was an older building than most of the rest, but it had been redone to fit in with the comfortable modernist feel of the chain as a whole. Dad’s vision was to create beautiful hotels with every luxury he could afford to put in them, while
BLAKE“Wouldn’t you like to stay in one place for a while?” He paused, pushing his glasses up onto his forehead to pinch the bridge of his nose. “I’m worried about you, son. Always on the road, always traveling, never taking the time to stop. I wish you would consider just taking a break every once in a while.”The corners of my mouth pressed in. I’d always hated seeing my dad worried. It was an occupational hazard, given that he was now the CEO of a multinational company, but it had only been us and him for years.Danny was always more focused on what people thought about the public image of our dad than the man himself. It left me to be the one to take care of the man behind the business.Traveling didn’t bother me. It never had. I checked in with my dad often, and spoke to him at least once a week. I didn’t realize the traveling was a problem for him. “I love doing what I do, Dad. You don’t have to worry about me. I don’t need to stop or take a break at all.”A grim smile crossed h
ASTON“Please tell me you aren’t planning on working late again?” Tiffany came bounding into my office exactly one minute and thirty seconds after her shift ended. She had a ratty backpack over her shoulder and had already changed out of her uniform—a navy pencil skirt and white blouse—into a pair of cut-off jeans and a green tank that matched her eyes.I eyed the pile of papers lying next to my laptop. The hotel was looking for a new supplier for cleaning supplies and a couple of the couches in the lobby needed to be replaced. I had a ton of other stuff left to do, but none of it was urgent.My high profile client was checked in, we hadn’t heard another peep from the frat guys since I sent up the complimentary champagne, and there didn’t seem to be any other problems with the guests that needed my attention.“No, I don’t think I will. I’m beat.” Staying late was a way of life for me, but my feet were aching in my new stilettos, my eyes were burning from staring at my computer screen
ASTONHalf an hour later, we’d made a quick stop so I could buy what I needed, and just like that, we were pulling up at one of the quieter beaches on the outskirts of the city.“I’m so glad you decided to come with me. I really didn’t feel like working on my tan alone and it’s been forever since we spent some girl time together.” Tiffany gathered a small beach umbrella and towel from the back of her car, grabbed a water bottle and pulled a cap on. We walked to a public restroom so I could change into my newly acquired beach wear, buying some sodas from a stand nearby once I was done.Tiffany chattered nonstop and kept my arm linked with hers like she was afraid I was going to take off on her. I followed her onto the beach and as soon as I felt the sand between my toes, I knew I’d made the right decision.We weren’t even sitting down yet, and I already felt myself relaxing in the company of my best friend. It felt good. I could practically feel my batteries recharging. “I’m glad I cam
BLAKECalifornia, sweet California. Although I didn’t get out to this property as often as I liked, it had always been one of my favorites. It was a small hotel, but it was popular and really did feel like a home—to me, anyway. Having thought about my talk with Dad on the plane, I still didn’t want to settle down in one place for good, but I wouldn’t mind spending a couple of weeks in California.The people, the vibe, the weather, the food. Everything was better here than it was in Florida. It helped that my family was far enough away, but not so far that I couldn’t get there if I needed to.Compared to some of our bigger hotels, the lobby here was downright cozy. It had the big windows and panes of glass for walls like most of our hotels did, but it seemed warmer because it was smaller.I made mental notes of things I noticed while walking in. Part of my job when I visited the properties was to report back on general impressions and things I thought we could improve in order to attra