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Not today, though. Sunrise was struggling to push through the charcoal clouds and only managed a few fleeting slices of gold before the storm gobbled it up again.
As I watched the rain from my favorite seat outside the lobby of the Hot Horizon Hotel, I sipped my green tea and nibbled an Iced VoVo. I could almost hear my Lolly nagging at me to put the cookie down. She was tougher on me than Master Kamoto at my Karate dojo.
The treat was the only stimulating aspect of today’s shift. Not only had the night been uneventful, but it had also been downright boring. I only saw two people in nine hours, and both of them had walked across the lobby without glancing at me behind the counter. Although it was a welcome reprieve from the craziness of my last two nightshifts, I’d much rather be run off my feet than dragged through hour after hour of nothing but boredom.
Nearly every room in the hotel was occupied by attendees of the Clarity Hearing convention, who were booked into the conference room for four days.
Conference delegates were a funny bunch. For the first two nights, they’d whoop it up until all hours of the morning. By the third night, though, I’d be lucky to see any one of them. On the last night, they’d finish with a bang, too. I could almost place a bet on it.
We were three days into the four-day conference, and based on my experience with conference delegates who had booked into this hotel so far, my next shift was likely to be exhausting.
“Morning.”
I glanced up from my position on the day bed and was greeted by a smile from an older man who walked toward me. His hair wasn’t completely gray, and he moved with an agility that belied the lines around his eyes, yet he was much older than me.
“Morning.” I nodded at him.
“May I join you?”
I slid over on the seat. “Of course.”
He wore trendy jeans and a T-shirt, the type of clothing I’d expect to see on a man in his twenties. But somehow, his youthful attire suited this graceful stranger.
“Are you here for the conference?”
He nodded. “Unfortunately.”
“Oh.” I shot him a glance. “Aren’t you enjoying it?”
He huffed. “Between you and me, it’s as boring as bat shit.”
I laughed. I hadn’t heard that saying since I left my hometown of Mildura. My dad was prone to saying it when he came home from work. I believed him, too; there weren’t too many exciting things about working in a stationery store in a country town.
“Were you made to attend the conference?” I clutched my favorite teacup, which was decorated with little black and white cows, and sipped my tea.
“Nah. I wanted to. I haven’t been to the Gold Coast in years.” He placed his sneaker up on the planter box. The Nike shoe looked well-worn and out of place with the classy jeans and designer shirt he wore.
I indicated toward the sleeting rain. “Sorry about the rain then.”
He shrugged. “You need rain to create a rainbow.”
Glancing up at him, I frowned. His skin was weathered, long past the shine of youth. His dark hair was peppered with gray, but his eyes glimmered as if he was about to get up to mischief.
“What?” He blinked at me.
I shrugged. “I’ve never heard that saying before. I like it.”
“Thanks.”
I reached for my packet of biscuits. “Would you like an Iced VoVo?”
He gave me a smile that seemed so genuine, an unexpected warmth flushed through me. It was my kind of smile. One that included the whole face, and not just the mouth.
“Thank you; I’d love one.” He reached for a cookie.
I spied the wedding ring on his finger, and for some inexplicable reason, I was disappointed to see it. “Is your wife here with you?” I silently gasped.
I can’t believe I blurted that out.
