Page 53 of Room Service

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“I made a mistake, Emily,”I muttered, sighing wistfully. “I just want to go home, but why won’t you pick up my calls so I can tell you?”

It had been hard enough to push aside my pride so I could call her. I didn’t want to admit I’d made a mistake, even though I felt that way every day. I mean, dealing with Trent might have been hell for me had I stayed, but anything would feel better than knowing that everyone was bullying me for their amusement.

Two weeks felt like a long fucking time. As beautiful as the place looked, as great as being by the beach was, I hated my time at the hotel more than anything and wanted to run back home into the comfort of my mom’s arms.

The staff particularly acted as if I’d personally offended them by getting myself transferred here. I guess transfers were pretty rare to begin with, because finding employees with such high-level standards that the hotel would agree to transfer instead of just letting them go, wasn’t exactly easy. As far as I knew, there had only ever been two other transfers at the hotel in Charlotte for the past decades it had been running.

“Bastards, all of them,” I muttered. “They are such bastards, Emily. They’re all so damn greedy, and they’re mean to me because I managed to get a transfer. I’m such an easy target for them. What am I supposed to do?”

There was no Emily there to answer me, and after a few more minutes of taking in some fresh air, I decided to go back inside so I wouldn’t get into more trouble.

Why did I ever think this was a good idea? I thought to myself.

If I wasn’t at the hotel and taking shit from the rest of the staff, I was walking around and talking to myself because I couldn’t get a hold of Emily. I spent my free time in my tiny apartment, which somehow managed to seem even smaller than the one I’d had in Charlotte.

I regretted my hasty decision to leave, and then picking this particular branch hotel to head out to. If my friend would just answer me when I called… I could tell her everything, and she would help me, and I would ask to be allowed to go back home. I knew I could have just gone to the manager to tell him I wanted to go back… but the manager here didn’t like me either. I met him on the first day, and he’d looked down on me, probably thinking I knew someone high up at the other hotel which was why I managed a transfer.

Well, it was true, but I’d run away because of that person, and he sure as fuck didn’t help me. They knew I was at least good at my work. I’d been put in the hot seat the first few days, they were probably hoping to see me fail, and instead, I got praise. They’d halved my workload and a part of me was grateful while the other was disgruntled. I was pretty sure if they’d thought I was terrible, they might have kept things as they were so that I could get into even more trouble.

If only I wasn’t so good at my job.

Could I go back and face Trent?

That was the question that made me hesitate all throughout the first week of being there. I only started calling Emily in the second week because I’d been unsure of myself. I thought it would be easy to deal with Trent. What the fuck did I even run away for? I was mature, wasn’t I? Adults were supposed to deal with their problems, not walk away from them.

Finally, the end of my shift came, and I left the hotel feeling relieved. I was walking back to my apartment when my phone rang. It was so unexpected it made me jump, but when I pulled it out and saw Emily’s name on the screen, I was relieved.

Finally!

“Emily,” I said quickly as soon as I’d answered the call. “Emily, I need to talk to you.”

There was a sigh on the other end. “I need to talk to you, too.”

Her voice sounded so subdued I lost my urgency, wondering what had happened.

“I have something I need to tell you,” she said. “It’s supposed to be a secret, but I want you to hear it. It’s about my dad.”

“Is he ill?” I asked hesitantly. “There hasn’t been any news at all…”

“My father isn’t sick,” Emily blurted out. “He was never sick. He just wanted my brothers to come back home, so he made it up and had me help him. He’s putting off seeing them because he knows they’ll notice the moment they see him that there’s nothing wrong with him, and he’s worried they’ll leave again.”

That gave me pause. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. Matthew Thompson was never quite so manipulative. This plan was something I would expect to see Trent using before his father. Was the man that desperate to have his children back? I knew for Trent to come back home, he had to have been worried about his dad. How would he react when he found out?

“That’s the kind of family that I have, Jessi,” Emily said, her voice sad. “So do you want to tell me why you were calling me over and over now?”

“No,” I murmured. “I’ll call you back, Emily.”

I cut the call because I had some more thinking to do. I’d been so ready to go back, but now I wasn’t so sure.

Was that really what I wanted to go back to? Did I want to have anything more to do with that family? Having heard what Emily wanted to tell me, I felt more like I’d dodged a bullet. The Thompsons had always seemed like the perfect family on the outside. I knew some of their secrets that made that image not entirely true. But this was even worse.

Behind all that wealth the family held, the glass smiles they gave to people in public, there were so many lies. So many hidden secrets and emotions they never let the world see. So much deceit. Trent was the perfect example of it all, and I had been in love with him for years.

Maybe… I was lucky, to be able to leave? Because in a way, I had escaped getting entangled with them. My heart felt heavy as I watched the sunset on the beach as I wondered, feeling conflicted.

Was it the right decision to leave home, in spite of everything?