AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“All set,” she said, as she held out the papers.
So this was who had booked a room for a month straight. He should’ve known it was not an ordinary guest. Not that he was complaining. Every room in the bed and breakfast was booked for the next two months. Thanks to his sister’s marriage, The Victorian Rose had a steady stream of guests. Rarely did a weekend go by with a single empty room, which was great for business. In fact, he’d started to consider expanding. The grand house next door remained for sale. While it needed some cosmetic work, the structure appeared sound.
Sean watched as Mia filled out the paperwork. What type of guest would she turn out to be? Over the past year, numerous celebrities and other wealthy socialites had stayed with them. So far they all fell into one of two groups. Many were pleasant and undemanding, content to go about their own business, just wanting to be left alone. Some, however, were impossible to satisfy. They walked in the door as if they owned the place and expected you to bend over backward to please them. In their minds they were the only guests, and his mother and he were there to serve only them.
He had nothing to base his opinion on, but something told him Mia would fall into the first group. Maybe it was her appearance. While there was no denying she was beautiful, he never would’ve guessed she was Mia Troy, the world famous movie actress. Her outfit reminded him of something his sister or Jessica Quinn, the manager of the hardware store in town, would wear. She looked nothing like the glamorous celebrity on the cover of magazines every month.
“If you give me the keys to your car, I’ll show you to your room and then get your bags.”
Mia readjusted her hat. “Why don’t we go outside first. I’ll help you. I left a few other things in there besides my bags that I want to grab.”
Never argue with a paying guest; that was his motto. Maybe that was why he left much of the customer service stuff to his mom while he kept things running smoothly from the background. He just didn’t have the temperament to put up with their demands.
“Fine with me.” Sean grabbed the keys to the Longfellow room from the key box in the desk drawer and held them out. “Here’s your room key and a key to the front door. Ma locks the front door at eight o’clock every night.”
She flashed him a smile as she accepted the keys, then stepped back into the hallway.
Sean followed her outside to the dark green Mercedes convertible in the parking lot, surprised by the woman. While the convertible wasn’t your run-of-the-mill average car, it also wasn’t one that would draw a lot of attention around town. The last television celebrity that had stayed with them had arrived in a brand-new, bright yellow Italian sports car that screamed “look at me” and had driven it around town with the music blaring.
“Thanks for the help. My bags are heavy, especially that one.” Mia pointed to one of the suitcases in the trunk. “I tend to over-pack.”
“Not a problem,” he answered as he pulled out the first of the matching suitcases.
Mia disappeared inside the car and then reemerged with a large leather shoulder bag. “Any suggestions on things to do while I’m here?” She slammed the door closed and started walking away from the car.
“A lot of people like to visit Salem when they come. Others go to Boston. Ma put together a binder of things to do and places to visit. There should be one in your room. If not, let me know; she keeps extras in the office.” He followed her back toward the entrance.
“I might put off Boston for now, but Salem will be a definite stop. The last time I visited I was about nine. I remember visiting the witch museum.” She started up the main staircase and his eyes traveled up her long legs with pure male appreciation.
Other than the fact she starred in movies, he knew next to nothing about her. Once he’d made a quick assessment of her legs, he locked his eyes on the back of her head. “Family vacation?” Maybe it was because he’d lived his whole life in Massachusetts, but he couldn’t imagine taking a family trip to his tiny corner of the world.
“More like a day trip during school vacation. I lived in Massachusetts until I was ten. During every school vacation my mom took us on day trips to places like Boston and Salem. Once or twice we went down to Mystic, Connecticut. Another time we went up to Portland, Maine.”
Sean opened the door to her room, then took a step back and allowed her to enter first. “Where would you like these?” He nodded down to the suitcases he still carried.
“The bed is fine, thanks.”
After placing the bags on the bed, he stepped back into the hall. “If you need anything, just let one of us know. Like Ma said, she starts serving breakfast at six thirty in the dining room. And she makes sure there are snacks in there throughout the day. If you want coffee o
r tea, feel free to stop in the kitchen.”
“Great. Thanks.”
With their newest guest settled, Sean returned to the office. With his mom gone for the next several hours, he needed to keep himself available in case one of the guests required help.
Since his mom started meeting her friends once a week, he’d gotten in the habit of working in the downstairs office. Most of the time he used the time to handle bills or place orders. On the rare occasion when no pressing office work required his attention, he’d work on his thesis. He’d submitted it for review last month. If all went well, he’d receive his master’s degree by the end of next month, although no one outside the university knew that.
He’d started work on his bachelor’s degree twelve years earlier, but with a full time job he’d only been able to take a few courses a semester. In fact, a few times he’d only squeezed in one course at a time.
It hadn’t been his original intention to go on once he obtained his bachelor’s degree. After all, it wasn’t like he’d ever use it. After a semester away from course work, however, he’d found he’d missed it, so he applied and was accepted into a master’s program at MIT.
Before he opened the file containing this month’s expenses, he logged into the bed and breakfast’s email account. Some days they received only one or two messages, while other days they received over a dozen inquiries. Today five messages popped up. Starting with the first one, he worked his way down the list, able to often cut and paste a prepared response to most of them.
When he hit the last one, the subject line grabbed his attention. Unlike the others that said something like “booking a room” or “thank you for a great stay,” this one read “hello Sean.” He never received personal emails on this account. He kept a separate email account, which he used for friends and classmates.
For a moment he considered deleting the message. More than likely it was a spam message or some other kind of phishing email. If he opened it, he would probably find a message telling him he’d won a million dollars; all he needed to do was transfer a hundred dollars to some account in Africa. Both his personal email and The Victorian Rose’s email got those messages from time to time, despite the filters he’d set up.
Prepared to hit the tiny trash can icon next to the message, he moved the cursor toward it, but at the last minute changed his mind. Just to be on the safe side, he double clicked it.
